Standardized Testing - Yikes!

This will be our first year attending standardized testing and I am a little nervous, to say the least.  Joshua is in third grade this year so he will be taking his first standardized test.  I get to go with him and be there in case he needs me, but I am still nervous about it.  I've found several ways to help us prepare for the test and ease my mind about it too.

First of all, Alaska has a website that allows teachers to download sample tests for each age group.  I will be able to do a sample test with Josh in the weeks leading up to the test.  Also, I've looked over the test and it is much simpler than I expected for his grade-level.  Still, this style of testing is unlike our tests that we use in the classroom, so I've found a couple of good ways to help us all prepare for this new type of test.

Lakeshore Learning has test-taking strategy computer programs for Language and for Math for different grade-levels.  These programs cover the wide-range of material covered in the standardized tests and the mulitple types of questions used as well.  These programs help students to understand different strategies for answering the questions in the standardized tests.  These programs are a little expensive at 14.95 for each subject and grade-level.  The bonus is that you can purchase them directly from the website and download them directly to your computer.

To help us better familiarize ourselves with different question/answer styles used in standardized tests, we will be having game-show day at school once a week for the next couple of months.  Lakeshore Learning sells nylon pocket charts with game boards similar to Jeopardy to cover Math, Science, and Vocabulary.  The charts include 100s of question cards covering multiple subject areas, category headers, 20 point value cards to choose from, and a game-show title card.  I am excited about using our Vocabulary and Science quiz-show games in class.  I really wish I would have purchased the Math game as well.  Lakeshore offers 3 games with chart for 1-3 grade and 3 more for 4-6.  These games are very expensive at 49.95 each (yikes!), but are also available frequently on ebay for less or you can download the computer version for 19.95 each.  The computer version is available for instant download and is a great option for everyday computer practice of basic skills for individual students. 

Lakeshore Learning is one of my favorite vendors for school materials (if you haven't noticed).  They have 3 ipad apps available from itunes.  Also, you can sign up for their email list and receive occasional discount offers which might make the price more feasible.

Show & Tell - Public Speaking 101

Most of you who know me would probably be shocked to hear that I've ever been shy in my life, but it is true.  Public speaking terrified me for a long time.  Freshman speech in college was a horrifying experience.  Everyone said that Speech 101 would be scary at first but would end up being my favorite class by the end of the semester.  Well, guess what, I took Speech 101 and Speech 102 and I hated every moment of it.  It was terrifying.  However, my dislike for public speaking goes back much further.  I remember the first time I had to give an oral report in school.  I was in 3rd or 4th grade and had to give a topic report in front of the whole school.  Granted, the whole school was only about 40 students at the most, but I thought I was going to be sick.  Now, I am a lot more comfortable with public speaking these days.  Peer teaching, recording practice teaching on video, and student teaching prepared me well.  I've had experience teaching preschoolers through adults and I enjoy every opportunity the Lord gives me to teach. 

Show and Tell is a great way to help students practice public speaking without it being a scary experience.  Of course, there are only six of us in our classroom (five students and myself), but we enjoy show and tell time.  In general, we do show and tell after Bible time each Monday.  It is a fun way to start the school week.  Sometimes, we tell about a toy, a movie, a memory, etc . . . One of our favorite show and tells was when each child had a chance to read their favorite book.  I used our peek-around monsters to display a color copy of each child's favorite book. 

Each child had a chance to read their book for the class.  It was a fun day for all of us.

Joshua reading a science book - of course!

And Joy reads her princess book.

Guided Reading

I love guided reading for all grade levels.  If you are unfamiliar with the term guided reading it is simply a child (or children) reading along with a teacher or parent.  Guided reading can be done with just a parent and child reading together with the parent helping the child with new or difficult words and the child reading as much as they are able to do on their own.  In a classroom setting guided reading is incorporated into several curriculum areas.  Kindergarten students will often have small reading groups based on their reading ability.  They will have guided reading time to read through their reading curriculum texts while other students work independently.  Older students will use guided reading for literature and other curriculum areas such as science or history textbooks. 

Guided reading is sometimes overlooked by classroom teachers and homeschoolers alike.  In the same way that it is faster and easier to do the household chores yourself rather than instructing a child to do it, it is simpler and easier for a teacher or homeschooler to read to students or have the students read silently themselves.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with reading portions of the text to a student or having the student be personally responsible for a specific portion of reading; however, reading aloud and in groups has multiple benefits for students. 

For the youngest students, preschoolers and kindergarteners, guided reading is an excellent way to develop reading skills.  Although they may not be ready or able to read along, preschoolers can learn the flow of language.  Following along from page to page, turning pages along with you and following the flow of the story, helps to develop an understanding of how the words flow from left to right, line to line, and page to page.  It also helps develop student skills of sitting still, following directions, following along.  Guided reading also helps pre-readers to feel they are a part of reading even if they can't read words yet. 

For beginning readers, guided reading allows them the ability to read books beyond their reading ability and gain confidence in reading.  Beginning readers can read books more advanced for them while receiving help through difficult words or passages.  They gain a sense of accomplishment from reading progressively more difficult books encouraging them along the way. 

For all reading levels, guided reading offers some excellent benefits.  Oral reading skill is one of the best benefits to guided reading.  Reading aloud and hearing others read aloud improves student confidence, oral expression, and language skill.  Before a child is ready to learn the rules of punctuation and grammar, they can hear it in the natural flow of oral reading.  Stops and pauses for commas and end punctuation, expression for questions and exclamatory sentences are all incorporated into oral reading well before a student is ready to learn the rules of punctuation.  Oral reading helps students develop expression in their reading and also helps students learn to follow along whether they are reading or not.

It has amazed me in recent years how many people, children and adults, are uncomfortable reading out loud in front of others.  Teaching Junior-age students in Sunday School, I am amazed at how many of the students struggle to read verses aloud in class.  Adults, too, are often leary of reading aloud.  Guided reading from early on throughout a student's education is an excellent way to improve confidence in oral reading, expression in reading, and overall student skills too.

So how do I use guided reading in our classroom?  I'm so glad you asked :)  I try to sprinkle it into our school day whenever possible.  I enjoy Abeka's Primary Bible Readers for grades 1-3.  Josh and Joy and I each have one.  I select passages from the Bible Readers for Josh and Joy to read out loud for Bible class that go along with the Bible lesson.  I have lots of fun literature books with 5 or 6 of each book so that each of my five little ones and I can each have a book.  The older students read, while everyone follows along.  For Josh and Joy, we read everything aloud, from silly fiction books to science and history and language books.  To be sure they are following along, I'll read for a while and then ask one of them to pick up where I left off.  This is a great way to be sure they are reading along.  (keeps them on their toes)  Of course, it is not necessary for every homeschooler to purchase multiples of each book in order to use guided reading instruction.  You can read with your child from a single copy of a book.  Guided reading allows the student and the teacher to both read and to practice oral reading skills along the

Eric Carle

November is Eric Carle month (at least in our classroom).  I enjoy Eric Carle books and they lend themselves so easily to classroom instruction and activities.  Of course, The Very Hungry Caterpillar teaches the life cycle of a butterfly very well, but it also is a fun way to teach counting and the days of the week.  On Monday, he eats 1 apple.  On Tuesday, he eats 2 pears. Well, you get the general idea.   Eric Carle books are available just about anywhere.  Over the years, I've collected them in multiple formats.  I have board books for the preschoolers, hardcover books for the older children, and a few classroom size big books for us to read together.  I purchased three Eric Carle bulletin board sets from Carson Dellosa this year (really wish I would have gotten the other one they have too).    I just love the bright, imaginative visuals of these bulletin board sets.  We have the Very Hungry Caterpillar set (although you can only see part of it in the photo).  We also have the Brown Bear, Brown Bear set and the Very Busy Spider set.  Our whole classroom is covered in Eric Carle artwork - yes, I love it!

The Brown Bear, Brown Bear set is a fun way to talk about colors.  We also talk about which animals have the correct colors and which do not.  I personally like the blue horse and the purple cat, but it is not their real colors.  We talk about what color they are supposed to be and what color they would make other animals if they could make them a different color.   We also talk about which animals go together: farm animals, forest animals, pets, etc . . . This book is also cute with to read with The Mixed-Up Chameleon because he changes colors and wants to be like other animals he sees. 

The Very Busy Spider lends itself very easily to lessons about time (telling time, elapsed time, morning and evening, etc . . . ).  The other set available from Carson Dellosa is Polar Bear, Polar Bear.  We have read this book along with the others this past week.  It is a fun introduction to sounds animals make.  Head to Toe is another good Eric Carle book that talks about animal movement which is a fun activity for little ones.  We all get up and do the different types of animal movement together.  With the older students, we work on adjectives that describe the animals and their movements, sounds, colors, etc . . . as we talk about each thing along with the books.

Kohl's frequently sells Eric Carle books and the coordinated plush toys too for $5.00 each.  The kids love the toys and I love the books and everyone is excited about reading.  Here is Bethany snuggling her Mixed-Up Chameleon.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar is my favorite plush toy, but we also have a ladybug and a polar bear. 

On  a side note . . . I just love fabric charts.  I know, they are too big for most homeschool spaces, but I just love the student interaction of these charts.  The chart hangs up like a regular pocket chart, but the front is a fabric that any velcro will stick to.  This chart, used to teach time, has the clocks pre-printed on it and comes with all the little manipulatives you need to teach time.  The kids love putting the parts of the clock on the chart where they go and moving the hands to show the correct time.  We also have fabric charts for fractions, the human body, a map of the world, etc . . . They are super-fun activities.

Science

This week, for my favorite things, I have a very long list.  I've decided rather than share them all individually, I'll tell you about some of my favorite science things and how we put them together to make up our science curriculum.  Our homeschool funding does not allow for 'faith-based' curriculum which means anything published by most christian curriculum publishers is not funded.  In order to receive our full funding for each student, we are required to have the majority of our core curriculum using approved curriculum.  Because of this criteria, I have chosen to develop unit studies for our science, history, and geography study.  Unit studies have proven extremely functional for us because I can develop each unit for all of the children instead of just having a third grade book for one, a second grade book for another and trying to juggle different themes and studies all going on at the same time.  Unit studies are a fun way to teach preschoolers along with elementary students across the curriculum.

I have searched and searched for science textbooks that are grade-level and reading-level appropriate and was very discouraged with the textbooks I found.  Most textbooks that were on reading-level were lacking in interest or in-depth material.  Most textbooks that were interesting and covered the material I wanted to teach were above reading-level.  I came across some science readers somewhat by accident and my little scientist, Joshua, loved them.  He's not a fan of the cutesie little stories found in the reading curriculum, but he loved the little science readers. 

The readers we have been using for science are Scholastic Science Vocabulary Readers and they primarily come in sets of six titles.  Scholastic sells them in sets of 36.  The sets include 6 each of 6 different titles all part of the same science topic.  You can find them individually, but having 6 of each book makes it fun for us to read and study as a group.  Each reader has four chapters, science vocabulary words in bold type with a glossary of definitions in the back, and a few review questions at the end.  The sets of 36 books also includes a teacher's guide with reproducible worksheets and activities.  These have been excellent for our science classroom.  We currently have the five boxed sets available from Scholastic and as many of the other readers that are not sold in a set.  These are available on Amazon, B&N, and ebay (just search for Scholstic Science Vocabulary Readers).

In addition to the readers, we have been working on science vocabulary with fun sets of pocket chart cards from Lakeshore Learning.  They sell ten different sets of pocket chart vocabulary sets.  Each set includes a subject header, 20 vocabulary word cards, and 20 definition strips with pictures.  These have been so helpful with our study of each science unit and are fun for review too.  The cards are full-color and are printed on heavy-duty paper and are pre-laminated.

Lakeshore Learning also sells wonderful science activity tubs by unit for grades 1-3 and 4-6.  I love these tubs because I am terrible at planning science activities and experiments.  The tubs include hands-on activities, writing prompts for non-fiction and creative writing exercises, charts, visuals, and a set of vocabulary cards too. 

Of course, I love my file-folder games for a fun and easy review activity.  These also come with reproducible activity pages and review games.  I love having reproducible worksheets on the kids' grade-level since Kindergarteners and First graders aren't tested on science material.  The worksheets and file-folder games helps to reinforce what we've studied and show how much they remember from the unit.

There are lots more fun things we've added to our science units over time, but these are the basic core materials we use for each unit.  All five of the children enjoy science time and doing all the activities together.

Language Arts

Curriculum choices are available in abundance for all subjects; however, Language Arts curriculum is the foundation for learning and is, in my opinion, the most important curriculum choice a homeschooler will make.  Language Arts will be the curriculum used to teach early learners to read, write, spell, and properly use language.  Also, very important to consider when selecting a language arts program, this portion of a child's educational experience will determine much of a child's attitude toward education and his opinion of himself as a learner.  Let me explain.  the language arts curriculum used to teach a child to read will set a precedent for the rest of his educational experience.  Not to say that a poor experience in early education can not be changed, but that the original 'school' experience is either postive or negative based primarily on language arts.  (At least this has been my experience.)  Preschoolers and Kindergarteners, in general, enjoy and most excel at recess, crafts, art, counting, music, etc . . . It is their first experience with reading and to some extent writing that will shape their education for years to come.

If a child goes into 'school' (or homeschool) excited about learning and then struggles consistently in this one area, it is easy to become frustrated with school and with himself.  Reading is not as complicated as the scholars and educators would lead us to believe.  Learning to read should be fun and exciting.  A child who grasps the basics of word formation and phonics will enjoy learning to read and will thrive in their education as a result.  As parents and teachers, we tend to think that each student will grasp the concepts of reading quickly and easily and using the same basic curriculum.  This is not always the case.  Language Arts curriculum varies greatly and should be adapted for the students needs.  Yes, I use one basic core curriculum for Language Arts for all of my children; however, I also vary the curriculum to best suit the needs of each child.  That is not always possible in a traditional classroom with many students, but with homeschooling it wonderful to be able to adapt the curriculum to best suit each child.

We use ABeka's language arts program for all of our children.  I love their phonics program.  I have seen it in use in large classroom with 30+ students and have used it individually with my children and have had excellent results in both settings.  What really sold me on ABeka is what I heard from a secular educator.  We are part of a 'distance learning charter school' program in Alaska.  This is part of the reason we have such wonderful materials for our classroom.  We are technically enrolled in a charter school here in Alaska and are required to submit individual learning plans for each student as well as work samples and progress reports each semester.  This process allows the state of Alaska to maintain records for us and benefits us in that we have access to a multitude of resources at our local school office and we are given an allotment per student each year to spend on educational materials.  While working in the school office several years ago (laminating my multitude of visuals) I overheard one of the contact teachers tell a prospective homeschool parent that ABeka was an option (although not covered by state funding since it is 'faith based').  She told the parent that ABeka tends to be at least one grade and sometimes two grades ahead of its secular counterparts in reading level.  I knew this to be true from my classroom experience, but it was nice to hear it from a public school teacher as well.

We use ABeka's K4 program with our little ones, Advanced K5 for kindergarten, and phonics and language for the rest of the elementary grades.  I love ABeka's complete programs for K4 and K5 and the children have done extremely well with their reading level.  Because the state will not pay for ABeka materials, we have always purchased these materials ourselves and used different materials for other subjects such as math, history, science, etc . . .

Now to the changes we've made to the basic curriculum.  I love ABeka's language arts in that it is all-inclusive.  Their language arts program includes everything, i.e. phonics, reading, handwriting, creative writing, spelling, poetry, and grammar.  It is all cross-curriculum so that the reading program stays right on track with the phonics, the spelling and handwriting stays right on track with the reading, etc . . . However, my children did not like the readers ABeka uses, especially starting in first grade.  My oldest is somewhat serious and prefers non-fiction books.  The cute little stories in the ABeka readers were silly and boring to him.  He much preferred science books.  So, that is what we got him and he excelled in his reading immediately.  On the other hand, Joy is a little princess and prefers to read fiction books about butterflies, unicorns, glitter, and tiaras (ha, ha, ha).  We use the basic teaching methods and workbooks from ABeka's language arts program, but substitute readers geared to each individual child.  The best readers I've found are primarily from Scholastic.  We use a lot of Scholastic readers across the curriculum.  Science Vocabulary Readers are Josh's favorite and Scholastic has a host of different science subjects that are covered in this series.  For Joy I've found several different series of books, but my favorite for this year is a set of books called Read & Understand.  The books are fiction readers that include comprehension questions and a teacher's guide with reproducible comprehension activities for each book.  She loves them and I can see tremendous improvement in her oral reading skill.

Also, I found it frustrating to teach two different lists of spelling words each week to my two oldest students so we have modified ABeka's curriculum to teach one set of spelling words to both Josh and Joy at the same time.  We've done something similar with handwriting and creative writing to allow them to work together on these areas since they are so close in age and grade-level.  This allows me to do more classroom-style teaching in creative writing and language areas while allowing them to work together on literature, handwriting, creative writing, and language.

Yikes, how do these curriculum posts always end up being so long?  So sorry.

E-Books as Curriculum

I said that I would post later about what curriculum we use and why we use it. 
I should probably start with the core materials and work up to some of the other curriculum items, but a friend asked about handwriting instruction today so I am going to start there.

I did my student teaching in a K-5 classroom at PCA (that's Pensacola Christian Academy) and they taught traditional cursive in their kindergarten classes.  The students did very well with cursive handwriting and I think it is a great idea for a homeschooler who is looking into the possibility of teaching cursive to their kindergarteners.  Since we use ABeka materials for our language (phonics, reading, writing, grammar) curriculum, I started Joshua in their cursive handwriting K-5 program.  I thought he was doing terrible so I switched to traditional manuscript,  He didn't do too much better in that.  The problem I was having was one I hadn't seen during my student teaching or in my limited time as a classroom teacher.  Josh was (and still is somewhat) ambidextrous so his handwriting was dreadful, but it was equally dreadful with his left hand.  I encourage myself in the fact that his handwriting being what it is, he will surely become a doctor one day.  I have since tried multiple types of handwriting instruction with Josh and have settled on the least expensive, most fun, and most convenient of all the choices.  I know, right?  How often is the least expensive option the one that works?
I purchased an e-book from Carson Dellosa and I can print single copies of the worksheets I want as needed throughout the year. 
http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/searchcatalog.aspx?k=productTypeGroup_facet%3a%22Books%22+topic_facet%3a%22Handwriting%22+ebookFlag%3a%22true%22&CM_VC=Books
The Key Education Resource books for pre-handwriting practice is a great book for preschoolers too.  They are fun books to use with all age groups.  Key Education Resources (sold by Carson Dellosa) also makes several fun sets of writing practice cards that can be used with dry-erase markers or wipe-off crayons. 
http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/SearchCatalog.aspx?k=Key+Education+Wipe-off+startEndGrade%3a%22startEndGrade%3aPK%22&CM_VC=10001
Of course, these books are only for preschool through grade 5 and need to be supplemented by creative writing as well.  Still, they've worked very well for us and I'm thrilled that I can use the same item for each student.  Instead of purchasing a new consumable workbook for each child, I simply print a new set of practice pages as each child needs them.  Overall, e-books are a tremendous value for our family.
Hopefully, I'll be updating the curriculum category to let you know about our core subjects and some of our fun supplementary items in the near future.  If you have a specific question or idea for the blog, please, leave me a comment.  Thanks.