vlshort Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 We used TOG 1 last year, and I felt like we rushed through the reading. I'm glad we covered as much as we did, but we didn't do much mapwork, or all of the great questions in the student pages. We just don't seem to be able to accomplish that amount of work! I've always wanted to do our history the WTM way - with a notebook, and the suggestions for narration pages, outlining, reports, etc. My ds will be 6th grade, and we'll be doing TOG 2. I already have TOG 2, and I really like the reading choices. But I don't want to read EVERYTHING that they suggest, and miss out on developing the skills of studying history, that WTM describes. Can you offer some suggestions for how I could carve out the best parts of TOG, and yet do our work the WTM way? Thanks for your input! -vanessa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 We used TOG 1 last year, and I felt like we rushed through the reading. I'm glad we covered as much as we did, but we didn't do much mapwork, or all of the great questions in the student pages. We just don't seem to be able to accomplish that amount of work! I've always wanted to do our history the WTM way - with a notebook, and the suggestions for narration pages, outlining, reports, etc. My ds will be 6th grade, and we'll be doing TOG 2. I already have TOG 2, and I really like the reading choices. But I don't want to read EVERYTHING that they suggest, and miss out on developing the skills of studying history, that WTM describes. Can you offer some suggestions for how I could carve out the best parts of TOG, and yet do our work the WTM way? Thanks for your input! -vanessa I was just thinking of this yesterday! I was thinking of picking and choosing from the suggested books and having the kids write a summary/narration at the end of the week rather than answer all the student questions. They could look up famous people or events and write about those. Do the maps. I guess it would be more like an expensive books list LOL! I'd love to hear from others who have tried this or are thinking of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy in ME Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 I am not an expert on this but I can only tell you about how my 6th grader did TOG 2 last year. He did only the core history reading most weeks and outlined a section of it of his choice to then write a narration from to add to his notebook. He did all of the maps and kept a time line. I kept him in the upper grammar level last year and we are moving to dialectic this year for 7th grade but he did do the timeline from the D level. I read the in-depth history to both of the boys as well as the world view. We discussed as we read. He did all of the literature reading on his own. He ended up with a beautiful notebook with illustrations and wonderful narrations that were usually about a page long for each week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 I am not an expert on this but I can only tell you about how my 6th grader did TOG 2 last year. He did only the core history reading most weeks and outlined a section of it of his choice to then write a narration from to add to his notebook. He did all of the maps and kept a time line. I kept him in the upper grammar level last year and we are moving to dialectic this year for 7th grade but he did do the timeline from the D level. I read the in-depth history to both of the boys as well as the world view. We discussed as we read. He did all of the literature reading on his own. He ended up with a beautiful notebook with illustrations and wonderful narrations that were usually about a page long for each week. Thanks for sharing. This sounds geat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS in MD Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty in Pink Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Bumping this old thread for ideas...:lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 (edited) We somewhat did this for a period of time during some adolescent meltdowns last year. We used the TOG rhetoric lit choice, but used TWEM to discuss. MANY of the lit books for the 2 programs are the same, if not the same version, at least the same story. I think it would work great. While it would SEEM like TOG would just be a booklist, it would be worth it to me to purchase still. It's got much more literature analysis and help in that dept. than WTM (not to bash my well worn WTM book, or SWB our spectacular hostess). It's just got more background info and the composition assignment ideas are very helpful. My dull brain needs those notes. Half the time I'm not familiar with the storyline behind many of these classic works so reading the info myself, even if ds doesn't do most of the work helps me discuss. All that to say, it would work, use TOG as teacher's cheat sheets and have your child do the actual notebook pages and work WTM rec's. You could pick week to week which book you wanted to do next. That would be nice. WTM lets you take a breath and read, TOG shoves 'em one after the other, kwim? Edited October 13, 2009 by momee typed with a student over my shoulder eating cheetos I can't be blamed for any lack of coherency, or relevance for that matte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 We somewhat did this for a period of time during some adolescent meltdowns last year. We used the TOG rhetoric lit choice, but used TWEM to discuss. MANY of the lit books for the 2 programs are the same, if not the same version, at least the same story. I think it would work great. While it would SEEM like TOG would just be a booklist, it would be worth it to me to purchase still. It's got much more literature analysis and help in that dept. than WTM (not to bash my well worn WTM book, or SWB our spectacular hostess). It's just got more background info and the composition assignment ideas are very helpful. My dull brain needs those notes. Half the time I'm not familiar with the storyline behind many of these classic works so reading the info myself, even if ds doesn't do most of the work helps me discuss. All that to say, it would work, use TOG as teacher's cheat sheets and have your child do the actual notebook pages and work WTM rec's. You could pick week to week which book you wanted to do next. That would be nice. WTM lets you take a breath and read, TOG shoves 'em one after the other, kwim? Thank you for sharing how you make it work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 hijack for a sec... You and I should get together Jean. I know we've both considered leaving TOG due to the pace and the work but come back again for the meat. HOpe all's well this year for you and yours. We're on a lull again in the TOG dept, with my oldest's schedule in other classes being so demanding. I try to assign him all the TOG work (see my tongue in cheek post on the high school boards) but he just can't get it all done. We're about to jump into Dante's Inferno and doing some WTM stuff sounds great but I just can't seem to make WTM happen here very long and feel like we've done much. I'm no WTM pro. Our time using the two together was short, it didn't last too long because of me, not because of my son not liking it. I should have mentioned that it was much harder on me in the above reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy in ME Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 I love the idea of using the teacher's notes as cheat sheets. We have been working through the second half of TOG year 2 and planned to start year 3 U 1+3 this year but it just became too much so I have turned back to straight forward WTM and HO (which is really WTM all spelled out) for my oldest. I love TOG and am sad to let it go but this seems like the perfect compromise. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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