Rod and Staff Teacher's Guides

[MarinaDatthyn]

Hi! My son will be in 5th grade next year and using Rod and Staff book 4 for grammar (he has gone through 2 and 3 and done well). Do I need the teacher's guide next year? I'm an English lit major, so I will definitely know if he has the right answer, but is there other stuff in the guide that is helpful? Such as HOW to teach or what to say to help them "get it?" I have no actual teaching background so sometimes I struggle with that side of things! Thank you!

[StephanieU]

There are instructions at the bottom of each page, which do help. Also, even though I am very good at grammar, I find the answer key helpful to reassure myself of things. Level 4 gets into things I learned in 7th grade in an advanced, honors English class, with diagramming prepositional phrases, etc. I don't think I was ever wrong on things like that, but I loved the reassurance.

[StephanieU]

Sights like Milestone Books have samples you can see, if you want to look at those.

[momtofive]

I too, can always usually tell whether my children got the right answers when looking over their assignments, but I LOVE having the teacher's guide to use. I read the lesson (at that level, anyway) to my child, while they follow along in their copy. R&S teacher's guides also have a wonderful section at the bottom of the pages that include oral review questions. We usually begin our English lessons with oral review, and having those questions and answers handy make it so quick and easy to make sure they are retaining the concepts taught previously. They also include tips and further instruction for presenting the lessons, which is nice to have as well. I know it's nice to economize where you can, but with R&S being a reusable text, and especially with how handy and helpful it is, we find it to be well worth the cost. Blessings!

[MelInKansas]

I did not use the teacher's guide for level 2, as per HOD's recommendations. I have for level 3 and level 4 and have found it very helpful. There's oral review each day, which helps my kids remember concepts and words from previous lessons. The answers make for quick and easy grading and honestly there are some diagrams I have not been 100% clear on (okay you are obviously more of an expert than I am) or even some questions that felt ambiguous to me - and we discussed that I had thought this other answer could be correct too, but here's what they said and why I think they said it. There are lessons they have which add to what's in the book, things you can do to bring the point home a little more. I don't always use those but sometimes I do, especially when introducing a new concept. At the end are the answers to the worksheets and tests if you use those. Again, I think there's a lot of value in those teacher's guides.