Logic of English (TOS Review)

This review will consist of the Essentials 2nd Edition program from Logic of English.  This product is a combination reading curriculum and spelling curriculum that can be taught to multiple levels at once, and is geared towards students ages 7 to adult.  As you can see, there was a lot of product in this review.

For this review I received the following items (the Essentials):

                  -Essentials 2 Teacher's Guide
                  -Essentials 2 Workbook
                  -Spelling Journal
                  -Phonogram Quick Reference Guide
                  -Basic Phonogram Cards
                  -Advanced Phonogram Cards
                  -Spelling Rule Cards
                  -Grammar Rule Cards
                  -Morpheme Cards Set 1
                  -Phonogram Game Cards: Blue
                  -Spelling Analysis Card 3
                  -Phonogram Game Tiles

The teacher's guide contains 621 pages of instruction, not including the index of spelling words and general index in the back of the book.   There are 15 lessons included in Volume 1, with each lesson being broken down into a  five day a week schedule.   Volume 2 (Lessons 16-30) is scheduled for release in January 2017.  Even though the lessons are scripted, I'll be honest here, and say that it took me several times of reading the first 47 pages to figure out how to use this program.  However, you do also have the option to purchase teacher training if you feel it's necessary.

The instruction manual is in full color with sidebar notes that give you teacher tips, optional practice ideas and spelling and grammar rules at your finger tips.   The first page of each lesson lists what  information will be included in that lesson, along with a materials list (flash cards, spelling rule cards, etc.).

The corresponding, consumable student workbook has worksheets, spelling practice lists, games and other helpful classwork to reinforce the daily lessons.   For example area 1.4 in lesson 1 has a corresponding 1.4 in the workbook so that you can easily see which page/pages to do as you go.   Likewise, the consumable spelling journal provides a system for students to collect, categorize and analyze troublesome words as they work towards mastery.  You can see sample lesson pages here.

While Essentials is a multi level reading, spelling, grammar and vocabulary curriculum, I used this product specifically with Lindsey for remedial spelling work.   She is a strong reader, but her spelling needs work.    After using the student placement test, I determined that we needed to focus our efforts on level B and C spelling and vocabulary.   We accomplished this by reading through and reviewing the items covered in each lesson while focusing on the "Spelling Analysis" aspect of the program.  We also spent extra time reviewing the phonogram, spelling and grammar rule cards.

Lindsey does better with hands on activities, so we incorporated her white board for the majority of our lessons.   This allowed her to write, and make corrections easily (and doodle on occasion, ahem).  The workbook and spelling journal go really well with the lessons and make it easy to keep track of where your student is and the new words they are mastering.  Truthfully though, for Lindsey's learning style this was not a really good fit.   While the lessons were very thorough, she was easily distracted, and a bit over whelmed by all the various cards.  

The complete Essentials 2nd Edition Volume 1 set can be purchased for $198.90.  If you have more than one student you can purchase individual Student Workbooks for $12.00, and Spelling Journal for $6.00.

Be sure to check out other reviews by the TOS Crew.

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