Language Arts: Grades 6 - 8
Analytical Grammar
Author: R. Robin Finley
For more information or to order: www.analyticalgrammar.com

As the name implies, Analytical Grammar is a systematic approach to language mastery.  The author, Robin Finley, developed this course as she taught in middle school classrooms for the past three decades. Through an eleven-step process learned over the course of the program, students develop analytical thinking skills that will last a lifetime as they master the fundamentals of sentence diagraming.  In addition to learning the parts of speech and sentence patterns, students also master capitalization, punctuation, and word usage.  Written for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, Analytical Grammar can also be used with high school students.

Analytical Grammar consists of 34 units, with each unit lasting approximately one week.  The course can be covered in one year, but this would only be recommended if you are starting with a junior or senior in high school with little grammar background.  Ideally, the course would be completed over a period of three years, with exercises from the author's book Reinforcement and Review used to help keep skills sharp.  The author provides a suggested timetable for completing the course, which basically involves about 10 weeks of instruction for each of the first two years, and 14 weeks of instruction in year three.  Analytical Grammar is easy to implement and concepts are presented in a step-by-step fashion.  Teaching notes are provided for the parent and each unit follows the same pattern.  Each week new material is introduced on day one, then there are 3 pages of exercises to be completed and graded over the next few days. Finally, on day four, students are assigned a passage to paraphrase.  The ability to paraphrase is an important skill that the student will use throughout life and, though some students may groan when they are first developing this skill, they will appreciate having this tool as they move on to high school and college courses.  Each weeklong unit ends in with a test.  Instructional time with the student is 20-30 minutes per day, with the independent student work taking another 20 - 30 minutes to complete.  Part of each day's instructional time is spent with the teacher and student checking the previous day's work together and reviewing concepts as needed. 

Analytical Grammar places a strong emphasis on parsing and diagraming sentences.  A very thorough course, Analytical Grammar will appeal to the parent who wants a more formal, intensive study of grammar for their children.  The student and teacher books are thick, comb-bound volumes that lay flat for ease of writing.  The print size is rather small, particularly on the note (instructional) pages, which may make it a bit challenging for some students to follow.  Although there are some helpful diagrams scattered throughout the course, there are no other illustrations and this, coupled with the fact that one can only make diagraming sentences so exciting, makes the book a bit dry.  The author did make an effort to make all of the sentences on each page of exercises relate to a common topic such as a period of history.  As students work through their book they can remove the exercise pages.  When they are finished with the course they will be left with a handy reference book to take with them as they continue their studies in high school, college and beyond.  The teacher book contains all unit notes, teaching tips, and an answer key. 

In response to requests from homeschool moms, the author created Junior Analytical Grammar for students in 4th and 5th grades.  This course consists of 11 units with three pages of exercises in each.  The emphasis in Junior Analytical Grammar is on grammar basics; it does not cover the more complex grammar concepts such as phrases and clauses.  Another area that is not really addressed is punctuation.  Instead the course covers all the parts of speech and parts of a sentence.  There is more teacher/student interaction through the use of notes or "talking points" for teachers. In addition to the three pages of exercieses, a fourth page called "Playing with Words" is included for each unit.  On this day students complete a short exercise and then they are instructed to complete a writing assignment, which usually consists of using a provided list of words to construct a paragraph.  After completing the assignment, students use a form on the back of the page called "How did I do?" to grade themselves on a point system based upon how well they followed directions and how many of the words from the "word bank" they used in their paragraph.  When they add up their points, they can refer to a chart at the bottom of the page to see how they did.  For example, "If you got 10 points, you're ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!"  As in Analytical Grammar, each weeklong unit ends with a test.

By creating the Analytical Grammar course, Robin Finley has taken a subject that can often be very confusing and broken it down into bite-sized pieces so every student can have a thorough understanding of grammar that will benefit them throughout their lives. 

Making the grade: A
Cost: $99.95 - Analytical Grammar Teacher and Student books, $19.95 - Review and Reinforcement, $39.95 - Junior AG, Teacher and Student books
Value for your homeschool dollar: 8