Properly Placing New Homeschool Students

Help for Properly Placing New Homeschool Students

Are you new to homeschooling? Well, if you are new to homeschooling and are not sure where to start, Heart of Dakota (HOD) can help! Proper placement is important to homeschool students having a successful year, especially in the areas of reading, writing, grammar, and math. Likewise, proper placement is important to homeschool parents having a successful year, as properly placed students make better progress.

Printable Placement Charts

The first step to properly placing your students is simply to use our printable placement charts. This is easy to do! We have charts for preschool through high school. Just print a placement chart for each student based on age. Then, for each student with just that student’s skills in mind, circle where he/she falls within each subject’s column.

The first part of each placement chart is most important, as it concerns a student’s placement according to age and to reading, writing, grammar, and math skills. The second part of each placement chart is less important in proper placement, as it concerns subjects with a broader range of skills (i.e. Bible, history, poetry, science, storytime, etc.).  Just click on the links below to print each of your student’s placement charts:

Preschool to 5th Grade Placement Chart: Part 1 and Part 2

Middle School Placement Chart: Part 1 and Part 2

High School Placement Chart: Part 1 and Part 2

The column with the most circles shows the best placement for each student!

Once you have printed a placement chart and circled where each student falls in each column, the column with the most circles shows the best placement for each student. If you have circles in several columns and are between two guides for a student, remember Part 1 of each placement chart is more important and should be weighed more heavily than Part 2. In you have equal amounts of circles in two columns, it is better to choose the easier guide placement. If you have multiple students and would like to combine some of them, it is best to go with the easier guide placement and add extensions for the older student. You may also want to read this post to see if combining is a good placement option for your students or not.

Placement in Math

Proper placement is especially important in math. Preschool and kindergarten math skills are considered to be at an introductory level. Our guides include hands-on math lessons, which make math applicable for all students this age, so placement tests are not needed. However, for the most accurate placement for students in first grade through 8th grade, they should take placement tests. These tests are free and printable to use in your own home. Just click on the links below for directions and links on how to complete math placement tests:

1st Grade to 6th Grade Placement Tests

7th to 8th Grade Placement Tests

Once students reach high school, students may choose from multiple math curricula to earn required math credits. Pre-Algebra is usually completed in 7th grade for advanced math students and 8th grade for on grade-level math students. Students who are in 9th grade who struggle with math may complete Pre-Algebra for 9th grade, but they will not be able to count it for a high school credit. For high school math choices, click on the grade level at this link.

Placement in Rod and Staff English

Proper placement in English is also important. Rod and Staff English is considered at least a year advanced. So, third graders with little to no formal introduction to basic parts of speech would place in Rod and Staff English 2. Advanced third graders who have had a formal introduction to basic parts of speech and are ready for beginning diagramming would place in Rod and Staff 3.

Writing lessons are added to Rod and Staff English 4, and they continue through English 8. English 5 is considered an integral level. If students have not had multiple years of formal grammar instruction, a fair share of diagramming, and step-by-step writing lessons, English 5 is a not-to-be-missed level. Rod and Staff English 7 and 8 are high school level and as such are spread out over the four years of high school as part of the English credits.

So, for proper placement in English, consider how much exposure students have previously had to basic parts of speech, diagramming, and writing. Students on grade-level would typically place in the level below their grade (i.e. 4th graders in Rod and Staff 3; 5th graders in Rod and Staff 4, etc.). For further help on proper placement, you can also reference the Table of Contents for each of the Rod and Staff English levels by clicking here. For further explanation on why the Rod and Staff is considered a year advanced, click here.

Placement in Reading

Students vary greatly in reading abilities, so each HOD guide offers multiple levels of reading. Students should be placed according to their current reading abilities at the onset of the homeschool year. In general, students begin with letter/sound recognition in preschool and then move through levels of phonics, emerging readers, and independent readers. For phonics placement, click here. For emerging readers’ placement, click here. Finally, for independent readers’ placement, click here. In high school, literature is part of the English credit. For more information about high school level literature, click here.

For further help with placement, we find it most effective to help one of the following ways:

1:  Placement specialist by phone (call 605-428-4068 any afternoon Monday through Friday)

2:  HOD Message Board (free to join, please post on the Main Board)

3:  Catalog (free to order, full of lots of helpful placement information)

We also love to help in these ways!

If help is needed that is not placement-related, we love to help in these ways!

1:  Heart of Dakota newsletter (includes the most important and latest news, updates, and announcements directly from Mike and Carrie)

2:  Heart of Dakota Facebook (includes encouraging teaching tips, simple helps, and practical advice for homeschooling with Heart of Dakota)

3:  Heart of Dakota Instagram (includes encouraging teaching tips, simple helps, and practical advice for homeschooling with Heart of Dakota)

4:  Heart of Dakota YouTube (includes videos about Heart of Dakota)

In Christ,

Julie