English On A Roll~ A Hands-On Grammar Program! {Curriculum Review}

When it comes to curriculum, our family greatly prefers the hands on kind. Especially my youngest. He has always loved to "put" at we call it. He would sit forever doing repetitive puzzles or manipulatives that had him putting things in cups. Or on pegs. Or in holes. He LOVES learning with his hands. Sometimes it is very hard to find curriculum that works for this style of learning. Especially when it comes to Language Arts. Needless to say when a new (to me) company English on a Roll was available to review, I jumped on the chance to try the English Grammar Teaching Method! Hands-on Grammar? Yes please!

About English on a Roll

English On a Roll was designed by an ESL teacher who was looking for a better and simpler way to teach the most basic English to illiterate students. She looked high and low and couldn't find anything--so she designed the first cubes in her basement using wooden blocks and paint--and it was a phenomenal success! Although originally designed for ESL learners the concept has now branched out to readers and writers age 5 to adult in programs public and private throughout the United States and abroad!

The English on a Roll kit features:
●40 durable, solid plastic cubes, 38 engraved with groups of related words and 2 blank cubes for customizing. Color-coded to facilitate learning by association.Easy to customize with additional vocabulary
●150-page instructor manual with teaching tips, lessons, games and reproducible materials

The program is geared for ages 5 to adult and uses cubes to learn how to properly build simple to complex sentences. It is multi-sensory English grammar teaching program that enables students of any level and age to master English grammar and syntax, including all verb forms. Through manipulation and rolling of a set of forty color-coded cubes, can build unlimited sentences and phrases--not to mention its game-like quality makes grammar fun and encourages practice. One set of cubes can be used for up to six students at a time; for classrooms, use multiple sets of cubes.

Sample pages can be viewed for free to get a feel for how it works.

Our Thoughts on English on a Roll

This one was pretty exciting to get. My youngest son got a peak at it and was just dying to get his hands on it. He ASKED me over and over if it was time to do it. Because this concept is so different, I took a long time reading the first pages of the Instructors Manual to make sure I understood how it was to be done. There are several pages of instruction and explanation on how to use the product, whether for one child, a family of children, or a classroom.

Each lesson is very simply laid out. The beginning of the lesson is information for you as a teacher. It will tell you what cubes will be used, what pages will be used, what concept will be taught, etc. Then it walks you step by step through the lesson itself. Gives you ideas for teaching the lesson. Tells you what to hand the child and what to have them do. Then it gives you more ideas for taking it further to test their skills.

The book is definitely written towards a classroom, but super easy to adapt. This also means the lessons will be shorter because you are only working on them with one child.

In general the lessons follow like this:

Hand required cubes and pages to child. Work through the new lessons using the pages and cubes you gave them. Work through the entire page. Once this is done, move to the next portion which is to use the cubes to build sentences or phrases to match the lesson being learned. Once adequate practice has been done, give student the coordinating worksheet and the proper cubes and have them demonstrate their understanding by completing the worksheet. Review their answers.

There are 36 lessons with a final review in this book. It is easy to do a lesson a day, but you could spread it out over a week, or do 2-3 lessons a week.

Most of what we covered over the review period was just that--review. But it was reviewing things that we haven't done lately. Baby Britches picked up on the routine very quickly and had no trouble at all completing each lesson. As I said, we are still in the review for us stage of the information, but I am confident he will continue to have no problems with this program in the future.

Reviewing pronouns

matching pronouns with proper "to be" verb

Answering questions using proper pronouns and verbs

practicing matching plurals with regular, irregular, and non count nouns

We are currently about 15-16 lessons in to the program. I am going to be putting it on hold until we start back up with our new year, and then tying it into our English program. A program like this is super easy to coordinate with existing programs for additional practice. And it provides the hands-on elements no other program has (to my knowledge). The English Grammar Teaching Method kit is $75, but it works for multiple students and could be used again and again. I think it is a very valuable addition to any grammar program, or to replace any beginning grammar program you may be using! This book is labelled as "book 1" so I am hoping that means there will be more books available in the future!

Want to Know More about English on a Roll?

Over the last several weeks I have been reviewing the English Grammar Teaching Method from English on a Roll with my 7 year old. You have seen how much it has worked for us, but what about how it works for multiple students? Make sure you visit our review crew to see more examples of how this product works!

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We have really been enjoying using English on a Roll for our grammar studies. I definitely see us continuing to use this in conjunction with the lessons we are working on in our existing Language Arts program this coming year!