Research Skills: Research is an important characteristic of the History Portfolio curriculum. As the students work toward completing a Portfolio, they will incrementally pick up research skills, and begin to work more independently. Initially though, you will need to facilitate and model the process of research. But, with some graceful steps, you can pull back […]
This post is the second installment in a series about writing, especially supporting the study of history in your homeschool, co-op, or small school. This installment will focus on what I call “Practice and Play”. The previous post,“Observation and Analysis,” laid out the proposition that the first step in “knowing” something involves careful observation of, […]
With the 4th of July just around the corner, it seems like a great time to offer up my Declaration of Independence Freebie again. This freebie is a special project compiled from the Modern History Portfolio “classic” and the Modern History Portfolio Junior. Notebooking activities promote observation and analysis, and include notetaking, outlining, vocabulary, Latin […]
Teaching writing to a multi-level group, at home or in co-op, does not have to be a challenge. Make it focus on organization, and give skills which will serve them in all areas of their lives. It may come as no surprise, but I use history as a spine on which to hang many […]
This school year, we are studying the background to the Civil War through the 1990’s. We do 1 hr. of writing and 1 hr. 15 mins. of history every other week with a group of about 12 students who are between 5th and 8th grade. Between co-op times, we work on our own. The students are […]
This post addresses how to sort keywords into topics, as an initial step in the process of outlining, using the web style graphic organizer such as the Cluster, Wheel, or Spider Web. Suppose, you’ve got a drawer to sort, and this drawer is full of various objects and papers: so many that you can’t even open […]
This post will be part of a series about writing, especially supporting the study of history in your homeschool, co-op, or small school. I’ll be contributing to this series bit by bit. The first installment will focus on “Observation and Analysis.” Upcoming posts will follow-up, and will focus on the steps which I call “Practice […]
Grasshoppers: A handy, ready-to-go, multi-level, mini unit. Project Overview: This grasshopper mini unit and downloadable file in pdf, will produce a single fold, three-sided booklet, for each of three levels; K – 1st grade, 2nd – 3rd grade, and 4th – 5th grade. Preparation: To complete the unit, learn about grasshoppers by observing them in their natural habitat, […]
