<p>What would you say are the most essential ways to improve English for High School for both getting a good grade as well as legitimately improving English skills? My nephew is going to be a freshman and his English isn't the best, so I want to help him improve that so he won't struggle. Say I have once a week to help him with his schoolwork.</p>
<p>For example, I do not find putting a lot of time into studying grammar worthwhile because grammar is just a set of rules that can be memorized or naturally picked up along the way, which does not require as much work as other aspects of English.</p>
<p>Regardless, what do you think are the most important methods to improve English?</p>
<p>I have a freshman daughter and English was her weakest subject. I know that it’s been said a million times before, but reading more is what changed everything for her. Until recently, she was never a big reader. She would read what she needed to read for school, and occasionally would ask for a specific book (if everyone else was talking about it).</p>
<p>Her writing skills were quite immature (for her age) as well as her comprehension skills. Now I’m not saying that she was failing, just that out of all of her classes, English and comprehension were the areas where she could use some improvement.</p>
<p>We bought her a Nook color (after telling her that we wouldn’t because she didn’t like to read anyway!).Well lo and behold, all of a sudden she was reading like crazy (the novelty of it and all). She’s purchase several books, and always had more lined up to get after she finished the others.</p>
<p>As a direct results (I believe), her writing skills improved tremendously. She started using better words in her essays and even her conversational vocabulary matured. Of all of her classes, English is her highest grade (and has been since school started).</p>
<p>If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I never would have believed it. Read, read, read.</p>
<p>I agree with sydsim, get him to read. There are lots and lots of great YA books out there. Before we became a Kindle household I would go to the library and bring home 5-6 new books every week. I would pick up a wide variety of books so they had choices. If you google books for teenage boys you will get some good lists. These will give you some ideas. </p>
<p>One thing that worked for a friends son who hated to read was audio books. Most libraries carry them. Some you can download onto MP3 players. My friends son got hooked on the audio books and subsequently started picking up hard copies to read also. </p>
<p>thanks to both of you! Can anyone explain what it is exactly that reading does that helps with English?</p>
<p>When I read in High School, it was mainly to get it done. Occasionally I’d be interested and read it for plot, but never did I focus on the language or literary techniques unless told to. Not sure if that kind of reading will help (HS students most likely will read like this).</p>
<p>PS
It’s funny how the nook got her to read. Just because it was fancy? :)</p>
<p>How much reading before you saw results in your child?</p>
<p>I think it is no different than talking to very young children. The more exposure a child has to words and reading the larger their vocabulary and sense of the written word. My kids have always been huge readers. They read junk and they read good literature. I never liked reading literature for English class, although I always liked reading. My 17yo S loves the literature they read in school in addition to all the stuff he reads for pleasure. </p>
<p>I think the big thing with ereaders, like the nook or kindle is the fact that kids like electronic gadgets, but also because there is always a book available. Although we have two Kindles in our house, my 11yo lusts after a Nook. She says it is cooler than a Kindle. </p>
<p>I am no expert but I would think it might take 6 to 12 months to see improvements.</p>
<p>Reading exposes a person to the rythms of the language and to written grammar. People who don’t read have no chance of picking those rules up “along the way.” Depending on the selection, reading can improve vocabulary. It also develops critical thinking skills once someone gets beyond “plot”.</p>
<p>Reading will help enormously. You absorb grammar without realizing it. You learn vocabulary even from seemingly junk reading. You really do develop critical thinking skills without trying. And you are likely to read faster - which will give you time to actually read all the selections on the SAT. Neither of my kids liked their English classes - they were B+ students in honors English, but they both read a lot and got stellar scores on the CR section of the SAT. (The older one at least 100 books a year. The younger one read at least 40 the summer before senior year.) They didn’t read great literature - they were reading mostly sci fi and fantasy. My younger son had a project to read every single Star Wars novel (except for the kids books) ever published. Figure out what your nephew likes to read and have a reading club with him. Don’t worry if it’s Sports Illustrated or mysteries. It’s all good.</p>
<p>Reading a lots helps the reader understand how words are actually used in context, as opposed to memorizing definitions from a vocabulary list. And reading a lot makes you a better writer.</p>
<p>As you say, being good at English isn’t about memorizing rules. It’s about being able to understand and use the language–and you do that by reading and writing, not drilling. If you want to help your nephew, sit down and ask him to tell you about what he’s been reading.</p>
<p>-exposes you to new vocabulary and new contexts for and nuances of words you already know
-gives you a better understanding of grammar
-increases your facility with expressing your own thoughts in clear and nuanced manner
-increases your comprehension SIGNIFICANTLY
-allows you to expand yourself intellectually and emotionally by taking in the knowledge, thoughts, and feelings of people who are gifted at expressing themselves</p>
<p>There’s absolutely no shortcut. Reading more is it.</p>
<p>Truly, what your nephew reads is much less important than how much he reads. Manga, Harry Potter, Auto Mechanics manuals, all of them can lead to more complex kinds of literature. If he has never been much of a reader, there always is the possibility that he has an un-diagnosed dyslexia or processing disorder. If you think that is likely, the sooner he can have that checked out the better.</p>
<p>Reading helps for sure. But I think what helps even more is reading non-fiction. This is what most kids will read most of the time in college and afterwards, not fiction. The trick is finding an area of interest for the kid and the nonfiction --books or magazines – to go along with it. Sports kids might start out with magazines like ESPN or Sports Illustrated or sports biographies, for instance. Do the same thing with kids interested in current events: find a good book or long magazine article on tsunamis or earthquakes or Arab culture.</p>
<p>I love fiction, but I think most kids are helped more in school by learning how to seriously read non-fiction, especially long-form nonfiction. Thats the stuff that can inform, strengthen comprehension, and build “endurance” for reading (which is why you might start with shorter things like magazine articles.)</p>
<p>What one reads matters a lot. Reading dreck doesn’t develop the ability to follow complex sentence structure or logical arguments. Books aren’t the only way to get there. Some teens prefer shorter articles.</p>
<p>Magazines with news and commentary on complex issues done to a high standard–think The Weekly Standard or The Atlantic rather than Time or Newsweek–tend to have shorter articles that have good vocabulary and sparkling writing. So do some newspapers.</p>
<p>As for writing, the first thing to do is stop calling it “writing skills.” A student has to have basic grammar down. The ability to write a simple declarative sentence is next. Finally, and most important, teens need to understand that being able to explain an idea and the reason one is writing it up in a few coherent sentences is an essential step in producing coherent writing. What idea do you want the reader to walk away with. Every piece of good writing is essentially telling a story so a good first step in developing the facility for self-criticism is to read what one has written aloud and listen to how it sounds.</p>
<p>Schools have taught this generation of kids about “writing skills,” a set of magical things that, if the spell is performed properly, somehow can create good writing without thinking. In fact, writing reflects thinking. If one has a skull full of mush on the topic under consideration, one’s writing will reflect that.</p>
<p>As far as what to read, it seems to me that quality and quantity both matter. If you push quality too much to a kid who isn’t an eager reader, then quantity may be too low to get much benefit. I would rather a kid read all the works of Isaac Asimov than just “Heart of Darkness” and “Portrait of a Lady.” I would also say that if he’ll read Time every week, that might be better than reading a little of the Atlantic every month.</p>
<p>Ugh! The Atlantic is sooooooo much better than Time! (How about The Economist? And of course reading even a little bit of The New Yorker magically gives you that E.B. White juju.)</p>
<p>I agree, though, that just reading isn’t enough, you have to practice writing, too. I think it helps to write with a purpose, and for an audience. Have a kid, regularly, write things he NEEDS to communicate, and make certain he gets feedback about what was clear and unclear. That will help a lot.</p>
<p>This kid is a 9th-grader whose English isn’t great. It may not be realistic to hand him the Atlantic, the New Yorker, the Economist, or even Time or Newsweek. He may need to start reading Boys Life or Reader’s Digest, especially if he hasn’t been reading much at all. It may be tempting to give him classics to read, but a lot of classics seem very dense to today’s kids. (Example: The Last of the Mohicans.) You may have to look for more popular YA fiction, or non-fiction on subjects that really interest him.
And although it’s not great literature, the Harry Potter series is effective at jump-starting an interest in reading.</p>
<p>Thank you for everyone who helped in this thread. I greatly appreciate it!</p>
<p>Have any of you tried going or sending your child to an after school program to work on English or the SAT? Or a private tutor even? What are your thoughts on that–pros/cons–for finding such external help to aid in schoolwork/tests?</p>
<p>My impression is that it actually limits the child rather than help.</p>
<p>My kids got 800s and 790s reading what most people think is dreck. (But you can listen to my younger son lecture on why the Star Wars books are better than the Star Treck books if you like!) I really think for a ninth grader - reading a lot is far more important than what you are reading. There are lots of good books - some are even pretty well written - that are fast paced and fun to read. It really is a matter of finding what he likes. My younger son would never read news, but now that he’s involved in International Relations he suddenly started reading things like the New York Times more seriously. He wasn’t ready in high school. He is now as a freshman.</p>
<p>I do think writing is worth working on by the way, especially given how little of it is assigned in some schools. You might start with ACT or SAT essays. (I think the ACT ones are generally more straightforward.)</p>
<p>My daughter took AP or Honors English courses throughout her High School years, and while she was a fine analytical reader, her writing skills were mediocre. It does not seem that some high schools teach enough writing. The breakthrough for her came when she took an English 101 Comp class at the local community college. What a change in her writing over a short couple of months! I would recommend that to any high school kid.</p>
<p>The more ways you expose the mind to what you want to learn, the better. So reading, listening, writing, even watching well-done movies from old classics, can help. The more pathways, the more learning. Maybe you can encourage him by reminding him that he didn’t start out throwing a ball well; it took practice and determination too. </p>
<p>One of the things we learn from reading is how to imagine different scenarios from the same data. The most important question to ask is ‘what do you think happens next?’ Encourage a reader to go wild…‘While the Bennet Girls are walking to town, an alien spacecraft…’ type of thing. This not only makes them want to know what the author thought should happen, but can spur them to want to create their own plots which encourages logical thinking as well as clarity of language. </p>