Many of us have heard of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. They have a reputation for being a top-notch resource for writing skills. But what about your younger learners – those that are just learning about letters, how to write them and read them? Primary Arts of Language (PAL) is a perfect fit for the youngest learners. Coming from IEW, you know it will be effective and produce results, but how easy is it to use?
These past few weeks, we have had the opportunity to get things set up and started on our adventures with PAL. There are many components to the full program. When I first heard of PAL, I thought it was for teaching reading. Once I viewed the introductory webinar (strongly recommend this!), I learned it is a complete language arts program – reading, writing and spelling.
With all of the different parts, it is easy to feel overwhelmed — at first. One of the first things I found in our package full of books and DVDs was a card with the initial steps spelled out. With the teacher’s manual for reading in hand, you are directed to watch the first parts of the accompanying DVD. This quickly helped me to see the information not as overwhelming, but a thorough step-by-step guide to teaching my young learners. The manual tells how to set things up and recommends how to proceed through both components, reading and writing.
The method used in PAL is a blended sound-sight program. Developed by award winner Anna Ingham. Integrating both sight words and phonics all of the pieces to language, reading and writing, are simultaneously taught. I absolutely love this over programs that treat each as a separate subject. I think this has been part of the difficulty for my eldest daughter. When she was about 3rd grade and we started really looking at spelling rules and word families, her reading improved. How much better – and less frustrating for the child – to bring this all together in the beginning.
The reading portion of PAL can be purchased and used separately ($69). Beginning in the first lesson, two sight words are learned alongside three letters. This Stage is called Foundations and younger learners may spend considerably longer in this stage than older learners. If you are starting this program with an older student (either much older like my upper elementary struggling reader or a “slow to emerge but not totally beginning” reader like my 6 year old son) don’t skip this part. You may spend only a short time going through it, but you may realize a gap or two that has caused the later stumbling. Take as long as your learner needs. We are a little over the halfway point with this stage with my main student.
One of our family’s favorite parts of PAL is the games. These games are easy to assemble file-folder games. As we learn new letters and words, these are added to the games. No part of the game is too hard or something we have not covered. We are continually reviewing what we have covered. Wonderful from a mom/teacher point of view and plain fun from my son’s (and his sisters’ who often play with him) opinions as well. We keep these in a dish pan for easy access. This is one of the components that takes some time to set-up initially, but is very worth the effort. The book of Phonetic Games is available for purchase separately ($35).
The writing part of PAL ($89) begins with the first building blocks of writing, forming the letters. There are little stories for each letter. These stories emphasize the main sound of the letter as well as how it is formed. These stories are helping my eldest daughter to finally distinguish between “b” and “d”. My four year old daughter has been asking “which letter is this” as she attempts to make letters like her older siblings. Though she has no interest in reading — yet, she has enjoyed our little lessons from the writing portion. I am also conducting our “letter school” for all the children. My older girls have atrocious handwriting and most form the letters bottom up instead of top down. This has helped them as well. All About Spelling level one is included as part of the writing component. We have used this in the past and I am looking forward to beginning again when my son is to this point.
The overall favorite part of our lessons with PAL is adding a sticker to the Phonetic Farm ($19). (stickers and children are always a good combination) This colorful poster/folder is a great way to organize the phonetic/spelling rules. The object used helps to emphasize the sound it represents ie Silo for long-o sounds or haystacks for the different spellings of the long-a sound. The Silent Letter Library and other “village” places collect other spelling rules. We have added some words to their pages in the binder we put together. I really appreciate the hands-on methods for learning and reviewing.
Throughout PAL there are opportunities to add words as they are encountered and recognized as examples of particular rules from the Phonetic Farm or homophones for the clothesline. I was so proud when my son started hearing these for himself. His eagerness rubs off on his older sisters and is helping them to be on the lookout as well. That is an unexpected bonus – the review (and gap filler?) for my older girls. They are enjoying the games and all the visual aids with the posters, etc.
The teacher’s manuals come to you with a DVD to guide you through the program. The student books are also on these DVDs ready to print as you need them. I love how you are guided through combining both parts – reading and writing. I love the poetry incorporated throughout. I always enjoyed poetry during my early school years (still have a few poems memorized) but have not been successful at including it consistently. The Phonetic Farm and All About Spelling Level 1 add both visual and kinesthetic components to this complete language arts package. The complete package is the full reading component (teachers manual, DVD with student books, Phonetic Farm and Phonetic Games) $69 + the full writing component (teachers manual, DVD with student books, All About Spelling Level 1 – complete) $89 = $158.
Ultimately, advance preparation is key. With our loose schedule of 6 weeks on and one week off, I am able to get things ready a bit at a time and stay ahead. If my son has a leap ahead covering a few lessons at a quicker pace, it should be pretty simple to catch up with those few parts. The semi-scripted lessons are easy to follow as is or just use as a guide. Depending upon the day and week, I have done both. Believe me, there have been days that were it not for how easy it is to open the book and go, we would have skipped PAL for that day – much to my son’s disappointment.
There is so much covered and inter-related with PAL. I hope you can tell from my summary just how full this program is. I could write so much more. By the time you have completed the lessons in PAL, you have a firm foundation in reading, writing and spelling. Now these skills can be used to enrich the lessons of your other subjects – both the skills of your children and yours as their teacher. I am learning many things that will be used in teaching my children, not just teaching them to read or write. If only there was something like PAL for math……
To read more about PAL, reviews from fellow Schoolhouse Review Crew members, start at the Crew blog.
