My oldest does most of his thinking in his head (probably because of being quite right brained and a serious case of dysgraphia). Nonetheless, I think one of the skills that will help him further on in life (college, meetings, etc.) is being able to annotate text that is more difficult to read.
Here are some resources to look at this fall that I might want to look at a bit closer:
NC Course of Studies happens to have an outline about annotating text:
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/languagearts/secondary/rightdirection2/11annotating
Colorado University outline of what to annotate and what each section means:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/reading/critread/pop5b.cfm
A 6-page outline for annotating which included a test with grading scale for annotation -- not sure the link will work but it's a good outline:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CFgQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.birnbaumslearners.com%2Fuploads%2F1%2F4%2F8%2F6%2F1486903%2Fhow_to_annotate_a_text.pdf&ei=TUf-TezVOcTZgQfGgc3wCg&usg=AFQjCNHjESeKR11bnSSZxfrUml4TLE-U_Q&sig2=mN98GJ-Fn9pNQUBS5VkbTA
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
ACT/SAT Prep classes
Something to consider when it gets closer to SAT/ACT time...
Math Review for SAT/ACT
http://www.chalkdust.com/satrevout.html
BraveWriter:
http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/sat-act/
SAT/ACT Essay Class
Want to beat the odds on the SAT/ACT essay portion of the test? Prepare your kids. The skills they learn here will also translate into the timed writing tests they’ll take over and over in college. Truly, this is a course no high school student should be without.
The SAT/ACT Essay Class is designed for college-bound high school students (10th-12th graders) as preparation for the writing portion of both the SAT and ACT tests. Students write 1-3 essays per week plus special exercises designed to help them succeed in crafting this type of essay. This course trains students to work with their knowledge base (what they already know) while addressing sight-unseen questions.
(NOTE: Students recommended to take the Research Paper class first:
IEW also has a SAT/ACT essay writing program: High School Essay Intensive
http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/hse
This seminar presents tools and tips for tackling the timed opinion-based essay as currently included in the SAT exam, and introduces strategies for writing a well-crafted personal essay for a college application. The accompanying CD-ROM contains the .pdf files for both seminar handouts, as well as several bonus files dealing with other aspects of SAT preparation.
Statement from The College Board, Creator of the SAT Test: "Our own research involving the test scores of more than 150,000 students admitted to more than 100 colleges and universities shows that, of all the sections of the SAT, the writing section is the most predictive of college success..
Math Review for SAT/ACT
http://www.chalkdust.com/satrevout.html
BraveWriter:
http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/sat-act/
SAT/ACT Essay Class
Want to beat the odds on the SAT/ACT essay portion of the test? Prepare your kids. The skills they learn here will also translate into the timed writing tests they’ll take over and over in college. Truly, this is a course no high school student should be without.
The SAT/ACT Essay Class is designed for college-bound high school students (10th-12th graders) as preparation for the writing portion of both the SAT and ACT tests. Students write 1-3 essays per week plus special exercises designed to help them succeed in crafting this type of essay. This course trains students to work with their knowledge base (what they already know) while addressing sight-unseen questions.
(NOTE: Students recommended to take the Research Paper class first:
IEW also has a SAT/ACT essay writing program: High School Essay Intensive
http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/hse
This seminar presents tools and tips for tackling the timed opinion-based essay as currently included in the SAT exam, and introduces strategies for writing a well-crafted personal essay for a college application. The accompanying CD-ROM contains the .pdf files for both seminar handouts, as well as several bonus files dealing with other aspects of SAT preparation.
Statement from The College Board, Creator of the SAT Test: "Our own research involving the test scores of more than 150,000 students admitted to more than 100 colleges and universities shows that, of all the sections of the SAT, the writing section is the most predictive of college success..
Highschool Writing Outlines
MLA Research Essay
This course walks high school students (grades 10-12) through the steps of writing a persuasive essay using the Modern Language Association (MLA) format, the most common format used in high school and university research papers. Students will write a 5-7 page persuasive essay with a minimum of five sources used in the paper.
http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/mla-research-essay/
Also from Bravewriter:
Highschool Helps (ebook download)
Personal Finance for K-2
As I was looking at materials for a high school Personal Finance class I'm teaching this fall, I glanced throught he Financial Fitness for Life books
targeted for K-2. It might be a great option to work through with
Jm. It sounds fun -- and covers a lot of topics that he's very interested
in.
http://fffl.councilforeconed.org/table-of-contents.php?gradeLevel=K-2
Table Of Contents : K-2 Book
Theme 1: Lesson 1 - A Good Day for Money
http://fffl.councilforeconed.org/table-of-contents.php?gradeLevel=K-2
Table Of Contents : K-2 Book
The
students listen to a short story introducing them to Penny and
Nicholas, the "Money Kids." They discuss ways in which people
receive money - through earning income or receiving gifts. They
are introduced to the concept of human capital (work skills) and
the relationship between people's ability to earn income and the
education and training they have. The students also produce a
paper chain representing ways in which they have received money.
Theme 1: Lesson 2 - Working for Income
The
students discuss goods and services that satisfy people's wants,
and they construct a spyglass to help them identify goods and
services at school. They also construct Busy Town, a model
business community. Using a puzzle, they are introduced to the
concept of entrepreneurship and its relationship to the resources
used to produce goods and services.
etc...
etc...
Personal Finance class
This fall I'm going to teach a high school Personal Finance Class. The idea is to learn about decisions they'll be met with in the next few years. This will be 8 units, 3 weeks on, one week off, with discussion/field trip/discussion for each topic. I think it will be a lot of fun. (Figuring a half credit but the class lasts through the whole year -- not much homework)
Careers/Salaries/Resumes/Applications
Health Insurance and other benefits
and other things...
Two resources for this are:
Careers/Salaries/Resumes/Applications
- discuss with career coach
- types of accounts, services
- field trip to bank or credit union
- credit
- including field trip with realtor
- car dealership, loan
- all types
- 1040 EZ/1040
- where taxes go
- other deductions from a paycheck
Health Insurance and other benefits
and other things...
Two resources for this are:
- Financial Fitness for Life (highschool)
- Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers: A Parent-Friendly Curriculum for Teaching Teens to Handle Money, Live Moral Lives and Get Ready for Adulthood, 2nd Edition by Barbara Frank
Video: Teaching Reading
An interesting 10 min video about teaching reading and reading comprehension vs. teaching about the world and hooks in life to be able to interpret what is read.
http://youtu.be/RiP-ijdxqEc
Wonder if that's why homeschoolers (who are around adults and many other family interests day in and day out) often score higher on standardized tests...
http://youtu.be/RiP-ijdxqEc
Wonder if that's why homeschoolers (who are around adults and many other family interests day in and day out) often score higher on standardized tests...
Monday, July 4, 2011
Educational Philosophy Discussion
We just finished up a 3-month/3-session workshop on Educational Philosophy. Lots of great ideas. The co-facilitator and I both have high schoolers and younger -- but all of the participants of the workshop were homeschoolers (with experience) and their oldest was 5 to 8 yo.
Month 1: What is an Educational Philosophy
-- including what people are comfortable with as far as education and homeschooling
-- and what areas do people feel the most unsure about
-- how do you walk through an educational philosophy, what is the definition of education, what is a successful person
Month 2: Educational Paradigms
We all have lots of educational paradigms that we may or may not recognize. Nature/nurture, providing children with lots of free time versus helping them work within a structure, etc. The ones we recognize we feel strongly about are the ones that provide direction for the type of curriculum we choose, the type of framework we feel most comfortable with. The ones that are not as well defined in our minds are the ones that make us more vulnerable to others' opinions about what works most with them.
You can take a survey about your educational paradigms here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/educational_paradigms
Month 3: Based on your definition of education, what your long term goals are, and your educational paradigms, how do you actually plan out the year? Methods of planning objectives using math as the example were discussed, along with a few sources of organizational forms.
To see handouts and discussions from this workshop, check out the wiki:
http://homeschooltopics.wikispaces.com/
Month 1: What is an Educational Philosophy
-- including what people are comfortable with as far as education and homeschooling
-- and what areas do people feel the most unsure about
-- how do you walk through an educational philosophy, what is the definition of education, what is a successful person
Month 2: Educational Paradigms
We all have lots of educational paradigms that we may or may not recognize. Nature/nurture, providing children with lots of free time versus helping them work within a structure, etc. The ones we recognize we feel strongly about are the ones that provide direction for the type of curriculum we choose, the type of framework we feel most comfortable with. The ones that are not as well defined in our minds are the ones that make us more vulnerable to others' opinions about what works most with them.
You can take a survey about your educational paradigms here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/educational_paradigms
Month 3: Based on your definition of education, what your long term goals are, and your educational paradigms, how do you actually plan out the year? Methods of planning objectives using math as the example were discussed, along with a few sources of organizational forms.
To see handouts and discussions from this workshop, check out the wiki:
http://homeschooltopics.wikispaces.com/
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Decimal Street
Decimal Street:
My sons and I played this a lot while they were 3 to 6 yo — making up stories, moving people around, writing out the numbers (5 0 6).. By the time they approached carrying, they knew the how/why and concept of place value, carrying, etc. They also had Decimal Street pictured in their head for mental math problems.
The Story:
The Units Townhouse holds 9 of everything — 9 toothbrushes, 9 plates, 9 forks, 9 beds… (and the story goes on…). Units come to visit. If too many visitors comes, the Tens Moving Truck (a 10 block) comes down and moves them all over to the Tens Apartment with there are also 9 of everything. If too many 10’s come, the Hundreds Moving Truck takes them to the Hundreds Castle. If no one’s home, Mr. Zero looks after the place — he does not move in! If Units need to go to Disney World, a Ten may need to be moved back to the Units Apartment so enough units are there to go.
Materials:
Revised from Math-U-See and sized for Math-U-See manipulatives (which are great for building with and showing negative as well as positive numbers)
Directions:
Print the "decimal_street.pdf" file on cardstock, cut out pieces and glue them to a large poster board. Decorate Decimal Street as the child desires.
Enjoy!
My sons and I played this a lot while they were 3 to 6 yo — making up stories, moving people around, writing out the numbers (5 0 6).. By the time they approached carrying, they knew the how/why and concept of place value, carrying, etc. They also had Decimal Street pictured in their head for mental math problems.
The Story:
The Units Townhouse holds 9 of everything — 9 toothbrushes, 9 plates, 9 forks, 9 beds… (and the story goes on…). Units come to visit. If too many visitors comes, the Tens Moving Truck (a 10 block) comes down and moves them all over to the Tens Apartment with there are also 9 of everything. If too many 10’s come, the Hundreds Moving Truck takes them to the Hundreds Castle. If no one’s home, Mr. Zero looks after the place — he does not move in! If Units need to go to Disney World, a Ten may need to be moved back to the Units Apartment so enough units are there to go.
Materials:
Revised from Math-U-See and sized for Math-U-See manipulatives (which are great for building with and showing negative as well as positive numbers)
Directions:
Print the "decimal_street.pdf" file on cardstock, cut out pieces and glue them to a large poster board. Decorate Decimal Street as the child desires.
Enjoy!
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