"Language teacher Ruth Beechick writes, 'Our society is so obsessed with creativity that people want children to be creative before they have any knowledge or skill to be creative with.' Your job, during the elementary years, is to supply the knowledge and skills that will allow your child to overflow with creativity as the mind matures."
Susan Wise Bauer, The Well Trained Mind, p. 22.
The Essentials Program is CC's language arts program for 3rd - 6th graders. Essentials is open to 3rd graders with a knack for writing, but kids generally start in 4th grade. It meets in the afternoon from 1 - 3pm.
Most students in the Essentials Program attend the Foundations program in the morning from 9am - 12pm. You may enroll your child in just the Essentials Program, if you desire, but only if there is room in the class. Class size is limited to 16 students. Priority is given to the Foundations students who wish to also take Essentials.
Essentials is divided into 3 time segments:
- English Grammar: 45 min
- English Writing Structure & Style: 45 min
- Math Facts Practice via Games: 30 min
Visit the Essentials Program page on the Classical Conversations website
Here you'll find a description of the Essentials of the English Language Program.
Leigh Bortins explains the Essentials Program.
Click on the link above to download an mp3 and listen to CC founder, Leigh, explain the Essentials Program.
View the Essentials Flier
Click on the above link to view the Essentials Flier.
How does the Essentials class work?
Students may enroll in the Essentials class for 3 straight years. The same material gets taught every year (though the source material for writing assignments will vary, depending upon the cycle).
Each year that the student goes through Essentials, his knowledge and understanding of grammar and writing will deepen and become more solidly fixed in his mind. Each year, he'll be expected to complete a greater portion of the weekly assignments. After going through Essentials three times, the student should know English grammar and how to write a paper in her sleep! But, even going through Essentials one time will be a huge benefit for any child.
Parents attend the Essentials class along with their children. The role of the tutor is to show parents how to teach their children English grammar and writing at home by teaching the students in class. The tutor also gives guidance on what lessons to do at home, where to find answers, and what portion of the lessons should be completed at home for students going through Essentials the first time versus the 2nd or 3rd time.
The parent is still the child's primary teacher and helps her student with assignments at home. With the help of the tutor, the parent determines the level of work appropriate for her child and grades most of the papers according to her judgment.
The parent is still the child's primary teacher and helps her student with assignments at home. With the help of the tutor, the parent determines the level of work appropriate for her child and grades most of the papers according to her judgment.
The tutor also creates a dialectic classroom environment for the students. Students and tutor interact as they discuss parts of speech and diagramming sentences. Students get to read their compositions to their classmates. Everyone gets to chant or sing songs to memorize parts of speech, sentence types, lists of prepositions, and more.
An Essentials Tutor created this video
to show how she helps her students memorize the 8 parts of speech.
Here is a video a tutor created to help parents organize their child's notebook.
