Sixth Grade Language Arts - Getting Sidetracked
Learning vocabulary words is different than learning spelling words. It is important that your child understand the meaning of words as well as how to spell them. And it is not just for language arts anymore. I was reminded of that today in a social studies lesson. The question my daughter was to answer was, “How can a ruler be virtuous and loyal to his people?” The question was intended to illicit an example or two based on the reading she had just completed. The answers she gave me had almost nothing to do with the question asked. Finally, after struggling with the answer for a few minutes she said, “I understand what the words mean, but I guess I just don’t know what they mean in this question.” That was her way of admitting that she didn’t know what virtuous meant. She went off in search of a dictionary and looked it up. Part of the definition had the word moral, and she decided she needed to look that up, too. This lead to a whole discussion about morals, and virtue, and loyalty and how those words had importance in her life. It wasn’t what I had planned for the day, but it was a discussion worth having. Sometimes it is more important that your sixth grader understand a concept than it is to complete a planned lesson. And sometimes your child doesn’t know they need to talk about something until there is an opportunity to get sidetracked. Don’t forget to allow time for getting sidetracked!
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