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information and samples of Rod and Staff curriculum

Rod and Staff Reading

Bible Nurture and Reader Series—Purpose and Plan

The Bible Nurture and Reader Series has been written to teach children to read. The parents of children who learn from this series are delighted to find their first graders reading quite well already after only 4 or 5 months, and sounding out new words with surprising ease.

We have found, as other researchers have also concluded, that a strictly phonetic approach to reading hinders comprehension, whereas a strictly sight-reading approach impedes both reading and comprehension. The Bible Nurture and Reader Series uses a combination of phonics and sight-reading approach: the students learn to read a few words by sight immediately, thereby getting off to a prompt start in comprehension; phonics is taught from the very beginning, enabling the child to sound out words for himself.

This approach to teaching reading is employed in this series for the following reasons:

1. Learning the sounds enables a child to identify most of the vocabulary words for himself. It takes no longer to learn sounds that compose words than it does to memorize whole words, and the phonetic sounds are the tools that enable the child to sound out every new word that he sees. Phonics gives the child an orderly way of learning to read. He sees that words are composed of small parts, sounded consecutively.
2. Since the child is able to sound words for himself and to become an independent reader early, the phonetic method gives him a meaningful, challenging, and satisfying approach to the learning of words.
3. In a classroom setting, the phonetic method makes it easier for the teacher to keep the learning progress of all the pupils in a class together. In the sight-reading approach, the children who have difficulty recognizing and remembering sight words become confused and frustrated and drop behind others in the class and are left with no means or tools with which to recover themselves.
4. Phonetic sounds are more easily remembered than sight words because the child continues to use them with regularity. He is far more ready to begin the second grade after the vacation months, during which time a child usually forgets many of the sight words he has memorized, because the basic phonetic sounds are retained more easily and are more readily recalled.
5. An effective study of phonetics requires disciplines necessary for the development of good habits such as good listening, concentration, diligence, perseverance, and acceptance of personal responsibility.

Developing comprehension is another objective of the series. To comprehend, children must learn to think. Many subjective-type questions have been used in the Bible Nurture and Reader Series that require the pupils to think. Few pictures are included in the readers, since comprehension is improved when pupils are allowed to form their own mental images.

Bible stories are used in these readers because they are the admonition of the Lord. Parents and teachers must share with children what God has revealed in His Word, and children must share with parents and teachers their questions and understandings. The Word is for all to know--grownups and children. As babies love milk, so children will be more apt to love the milk of the Word if they are in a healthy, spiritual home and/or school setting and are fed the pure Word of Truth.

Teacher's manuals are designed to include all the necessary help for teachers or parents who take their work seriously and who have some aptitude for teaching.

Pupil's material includes readers, reading workbooks, phonics workbooks, worksheets, printing practice, and flash cards.

Grade 1 of the Bible Nurture and Reader Series is planned to provide texts and workbooks for the pupil's basic needs in the first grade, with the exception of arithmetic and music. It correlates reading, phonics, language, spelling, and penmanship.

The readers and workbooks are arranged in 5 units with 30 lessons in each unit, making a total of 150 lessons. Each lesson has five divisions: Reader, Reading Workbook, Phonics Workbook, Worksheets, and the optional Printing Practice. All of these divisions relate to one another in a given lesson thus thoroughly acquainting the child with the lesson for each day.

The Readers, Reading Workbooks, and Phonics Workbooks compose Grade 2 of the Bible Nurture and Reader Series. Each of these divisions is arranged in 5 units with 30 lessons in each unit, making a total of 150 lessons. All the lessons are based on Bible stories.

Grade 2 reviews and expands what was taught in first grade, placing a strong emphasis on phonics.

The Readers, Reading Workbooks, and Teacher's Manual compose Grade 3 of the Bible Nurture and Reader Series. There are 5 units with 30 lessons in each unit, making a total of 150 lessons. All the lessons are based on Bible stories.

One hardcover reader contains all three units of Grade 4 with a total of 75 lessons. The first unit has stories from the Gospel of John. The second unit contains stories from the Book of Acts, with an emphasis on map work and following the travels of Paul. The third unit is about Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. The lessons from Psalms are in poetry form. The lessons from Proverbs each have a present-day or a historical story to illustrate the proverb of that lesson.

The 60 lessons in A Time to Plant contain forty prose works, fifteen poems, and five composition themes..

The 60 lessons in A Time to Build contain forty narratives, six selections of Bible prose, four selections of Bible poetry, six English poems, and four composition themes (of which two are Scripture passages).

These selections have been chosen for their integrity and worthwhile contribution to building character. The stories include lessons from history and the present day, from foreign countries and North America, from grownups and schoolchildren, from nature and human experiences.

The 60 lessons in A Time to Gather contain forty narratives, six selections of Bible prose, four selections of Bible poetry, six English poems, and four composition themes (of which two are Scripture passages).

These selections have been chosen for their integrity and worthwhile contribution to building character. The stories include lessons from history and the present day, from foreign countries and North America, from grownups and schoolchildren, from nature and human experiences.

The 60 lessons in A Time of Peace contain thirty narratives, four selections of Bible prose, four selections of Bible poetry, twelve English poems, and ten essays. Study exercises follow each selection.

A Time to Heal contains 60 selections of essays, narratives, and poems; 5 are Bible selections, and 11 contain Anabaptist themes. The study exercises are more extensive than in Grade 8. The paragraphs in the text are numbered, and literary terminology is marked to help the student with the exercises.

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