During School Day

Oral review from Quizlet printouts
Discuss key concepts from readings (I need to list these)
Read Aloud (to both Paddy and Kieron)

Minimum Days

Conference -- Goal Setting
Nature Walk/Field Trip
Lab Project
Writing Project


Update Notebook
Plan

What to Do

So we have:

• Online Lesson (~1 hour for now)
• Assigned wide reading (~1 hour)
• Free Reading (~2 hours)
• Extra-curricular (football 8 hours a week during the fall)

That adds up to 5 hours which seems not too bad really.

The other things I want to add:

• Morning Time (prayer, reading aloud, quiz/discussion time)
• Discussion/Review/Narration period (basically, verbal communication with an academic focus)
  
• Free writing (~20 minutes per day)
• Nature Study
• Chores/Work Skills
• Labs/ Music/ Art or other projects
• Some sort of blogging/writing/recordkeeping device for him.
  

When all that comes in we may be up to close to 8 hours a day which is probably too much. But anyway, it won't be necessary for him to spend too much more time online than he does now.

Over the course of high school build up to longer times studying and reading.

Now, some changes I want to make now that are fairly easy:

• Printing out Quizlets and other tests -- so he can do the final one offline. That will provide a record, plus allow for more accountability.
• Keep a notebook providing a rough record.
  
• Start a minimal Morning Time (the idea is "wisdom" -- sort of like a prequel for composition according to the progym).
• Possible: start a blog for him and me, rather than the Google docs? Easier and more visual?
  

Basic Lesson Format

But that is a bit of a divergence.

Kieron seems to move through his online material quite quickly. This bothers me subliminally. However I have to remember that (1) he is just starting 9th grade (2) we are just starting the school year (3) I don't necessarily want him to spend hours and hours on the online material.

For now, 1 hour a day seems like enough.

This means that there should be some outside learning too. Originally I planned for a lot of reading -- just wide reading, not necessarily focused reading. Accordingly I'm going to adjust his reading somewhat -- instead of assigning four pages at a time of, say, Founding of Christendom, I'll try having him read the whole chapter. It won't be a thorough reading but it would provide an overview.

Ideally, I'd have a sort of pre-test or introductory reading, then the chapter, then delving into the content and ideas in more detail. Finally, then, a sort of wrap-up at the end.

Entry
Essential
Expand
Extend

Context
Core
Create
Connections

Background
Basic
Beyond

The format, no matter how it is labelled, is something like that of a lecture or paper:

• Tell them what you intend to say
• Say it
• Tell what you have said
• (Show how it fits in)

Ignatian Lesson Plans have:

• Context
• Experience
• Reflection
• Action
• Evalution

LEctio Divina method:

• Lectio
• Meditatio
• Oratio
• Contemplatio
• Operatio

Similar to Reading Strategies

Prereading Strategies

Go on to next section

Notes -- Thoughts on Learning and Teaching

Kieron is just finishing Day 18. I wrote some notes in my notebook and thought I would transfer them here. I thought I would try to keep track of what is going on and what issues I'm thinking about.

The main issue from a teacher's point of view is "accountability". How do I know he is really trying to read and understand. How do I know he is succeeding. What is the best way to promote real understanding and motivation to learn. This is where teachers put in objectives and then demonstrations of mastery. It is artificial in some ways as far as the student is concerned because the student could be learning whether anyone is testing or planning, or not. But given a taught curriculum, it's important for the teacher in order to know how to proceed. .... what to assume, what to go over again. And this has some value for the student.

It does not seem essential for the student to understand everything, or understand exactly the way the teacher wants him to. The nature of knowledge is that it is independent of the teacher -- it is something objective. When the student assimilates it, he is said to know. But of course knowledge is not just ability to recite facts. Those are "doctrine" in a way -- opinion or belief.

I think a lot of what we build, say in history or science as taught nowadays, is something like "experience". If you read enough times in different places that Egypt is the home of the pyramids, you get a sort of "experience" based on repeated memories from different sources. You may not have touched those pyramids yourself, or seen them built; still, you could say you "know".

Hirsch's theory is that this kind of knowledge is a building block for deeper literacy. Knowing the terminology, even on a mere familiarity level, allows you to focus on what is being said.

Go on to next section

Course Variety

• Geography -- every 2-3 weeks instead of history -- 12-15 assignments
  
• Art -- 2 days per unit of history -- mini-unit -- 2 days every month
  
• Latin -- translation excursion every 2 weeks
• Logic -- do a quiz or problem online -- every 2 weeks -- or do a reading from Aristotle or other book explaining the big picture in Logic.
  
• Composition -- Writing Workshop every 3 weeks-- total of 12 assignments for the year
• Science -- breaks for faith/science relationship
• Science -- field project, at least 1 per term

Other Notes:

Free Writing 4x a week
Nature Walk 2x a week