| Author |
Message |
    
Jo Dee (Jodee)
| | Posted on Saturday, September 14, 2002 - 01:03 pm: |     |
I received permission from The Moore Foundation to put the blank Theme Planner and the blank Daily Journal forms on the web site. Well, finally I've done it! If you don't have the Moore Formual Manual and need a look at them, find them here:
http://www.entrustedtous.com/units/mooreforms.html
Just remember I had to scan them in, so the quality isn't that good.
Jo Dee |
Jo Dee (Jodee)
| | Posted on Monday, September 02, 2002 - 01:13 pm: | |
I would consider the reinactment as history. That simple.
Jo Dee |
Susan (Susan)
| | Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 12:46 pm: | |
YEP! Great Idea! Ever since we got our digital camera a couple years ago, we take pictures of all sorts of activities.
Susan |
Alisha (Alisha)
| | Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 12:27 pm: | |
Ohhh! Sorry. It was a good idea anyway, right?
:-) Alisha> |
Susan (Susan)
| | Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 11:50 am: | |
Sorry, Alisha, I wasn't very clear...I meant which little box on the theme planner form would I write the activity in?
Susan |
Alisha (Alisha)
| | Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 11:04 am: | |
How about taking a picture of the toy soldiers all set up. And have Andrew write an explanation
about what he was doing with them?
Alisha> |
Susan (Susan)
| | Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 10:00 am: | |
I have a question....
Andrew is studying the Civil War right now, and one of the activities I was thinking of was: having him study one of the battles, and then reinact it with his toy civil war soldiers. I am not sure where that would go in the theme planner, though. I mean the research about how it went is one thing, but where do you put the actual reinactment with the toys? |
Jo Dee (Jodee)
| | Posted on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 07:28 pm: | |
Confession: It's rare I find anyone else's forms to fit the way I like to plan and organize. No exception here. I just list one a page the things that we will do or have done (yes, the children sometimes ask for more, and we do add.) I don't worry about what goes in what subject. Since requirements here in Texas only include reading, spelling, writing, math, and good citizenship, I don't have to worry about every little thing to determine what subject I have to put it under. I just have certain things I want my children to learn. If we cover some math topic in a unit study, so what? It's not a big deal to me if I list it under math.
I guess you can see that by the way my unit studies on our unit study page appears. My children would probably tell you more about what we covered than I.
Now, when my children start high school, I may have to adjust my thinking to match what the colleges want.
Jo Dee |
Susan (Susan)
| | Posted on Thursday, August 29, 2002 - 08:17 am: | |
Good Day, Dear Friends!
I am going to do my very best to explain the unit study development charts to you, but bear with me, ok? This will not be easy to visualize without the Manual, but I will try to include good descriptions so that you can draw one yourself. (this is an extreme test of my narration skills!). There are two types of planners described in the manual, with an example of each.
UNIT STUDIES STEP-BY-STEP
Combining Content Subjects for Multiple Grades
Why Unit Studies? Because following the child's interest with units of study bring out the best results and the most learning.
Identify the Content Subjects: content subjects are those subjects that do not build from one concept to another. (In other words, Math would not be a content subject, but science, history, and bible study are).
Type of unit study- combining topics for several grades: Teaching does not need to rely totally on textbooks or totally on unit studies. All the children focus on one subject, but the depth covered by older students will be much greater than that covered by younger ones.
Expanding Content Unit Studies to Include Skills Development
It is more rewarding to build language skills within the unit study, writing and talking about the subject material. Ideas: write a letter to Grandma, discuss what is read aloud, write in a daily journal, pretend to be a newspaper reporter and write an article about the subject.
The Unit Development Chart:
Okay, here's my description of the first chart, which measures 11x17 total and is spread across the next two pages of the Manual. It probably won't do it justice, but I will try:
In the center of the pages is listed the following headings:
1 TOPIC:
2 INTRODUCTION:
3 PRESENTATION:
4 ASSIGNMENT:
5 CULMINATION:
You fill in with the "skeleton" unit of study, for example:
TOPIC: Missionaries
INTRO: Write a letter to a missionary, ask your pastor for names of missionaries if you don't know any
PRESENTATION: Find a list of missionaries, choose three, and read about them. Find locations on world map. Calculate how far they traveled.
ASSIGNMENT: Prepare mock interview with one of the missionaries. From the information you get from your mock interview, write a newspaper article.
CULMINATION: Design and make some dried flower cards to send to missionaries.
Surrounding these headings, are open boxes, rectangles if you will, for filling in with various activities/assignments of the unit study. They form a border around the headings, four across the top, four across the bottom, and one each on the sides between the top and bottom corner boxes. (The boxes measure about 2 x 2.5 inches each.) Each box has it's own heading, and these are the content and skill subjects. The headings for the boxes are: language concepts, creative expression, bible topics, math concepts, cottage industries and service, history highlights, field trips, scientific moments and topics, oral presentations, projects and activities.
Now, picture each box having the numbers 1 through about 10, each number with a different activity for that category/learning skill. Now I'll list a few of the activities for a couple subjects so you get the idea:
Box 1 - Language Concepts
1. use correct punctuation for statements and questions.
2. use commas after the greeting and closing in letters.
3. recognize naming words/nouns
4. recognize action words/verbs
Box 3 - Bible Topics
1. divisions of the Bible
2. translating the Bible
3. Gutenburg press
4. The Dead Sea Scrolls
5. prayer in the Bible
Box 4 - math concepts
1. count and write by 3s, 4s, and 6s
2. addition and subtraction facts 1 through 20.
3. multiplication facts up to 6 x table
4. understanding simple fraction addition for 1/2, 1/4, and
1/3.
Box 6 - History Highlights
1. cities, towns, and countries
2. your state
3. your country
4. pilgrims
5. immigrants
6. missionaries
7. indians
8. presidents
Box 10 - Projects and Activities
1. prepare a scrapbook
2. construct a model
3. create a map
4. design a poster
5. prepare a timeline
So, there are a few ideas. Is this clear as mud now? Those of you with the Manual have the advantage of a visual aid to our discussion.
Those of you without the Manual might try to draw what I have described, spread out over two 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper side by side (or one 11 x 17).
The “Theme Planner” Explained:
Okay, another planner to draw: Only one piece of 8.5 x 11 paper! In the center, draw an oval. This oval is where you write your General Topic. (The example in the book is Whales and Ocean Life). Now, the rectangles, of different sizes, surround the oval, with a line drawn from each rectangle to the oval, or, if it is a skill subject taught within the context of another skill/content subject, the line is drawn to that box instead (for instance, handwriting would go in a smaller box which is connected to English/Language Skills box, which is connected to the oval. The p.e. box, music box, and art box are connected together, then to the oval.
Here are the headings for the rectangles
Larger rectangles: Bible, English/Language, Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art
Smaller/Middle-sized rectangles: Spelling, Handwriting, Music, PE, Work/Service
Then you simply fill in the activities or topics to be covered under each subject, as it relates to the General Topic. For instance, under spelling for the sample it reads, "ocean words, names of whales, own name". Under Reading, it says, "books and poems about ocean life, Jonah and the Whale, various books from the library". Under English/Language it says, "Make whale-shaped book (sonja's favorite, right!?), write a haiku poem about whales".
There are other activities under those headings, I only chose a few as examples.
Discussion/Confession Time:
When I tried the first type of chart, I found it very cumbersome. I had a hard time using this system to plan a sample unit study. I found myself contriving to create activities that will fit the mold just to check off that it was done, rather than because it was really interesting and helped us learn about the topic. I felt like if I didn’t have something in every box, the unit study wasn’t “complete” enough.
I prefer having specific tasks listed under the heading, and only those which I am using for this particular unit of study, for instance, when studying Gutenberg's press, instead of Projects and Activities saying "design a model", I would prefer it read "build a model of Gutenberg's press with legos".
That said, I think it would be helpful to use this type of chart to get an overall view of the skills and content subjects I would like the children to cover over a set period of time, say a semester or quarter of a school year, and use it as a reference when using the second type of unit study planner, the "theme-based" planner.
Okay, I admit it, I am biased towards the theme planner. I have used them in the past, so familiarity has a lot to do with it.
I have really enjoyed the second example given in the Manual of the theme-based planner. It seemed much more workable for me, simple, looks similar to the computer flow charts we made in high school computer class, and only contains those skills/subjects for which we are working on at the moment. It also incorporates all of the content subjects into one unit of study.
I think I would use the first planner as an overview of skills, then the second planner for the specific units of study.
Now, don't let my personal preferences influence you. How do you feel about these tools? Have you found something else that works better for your family? What do you think will help you in planning your units? |
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