Is there a place to buy co-op curriculum?

[prim*rose]

I'm thinking of offering a class in our small co-op, but have no idea where to start. I have no background or expertise (other than in my degree, marketing), and I feel a little overwhelmed at trying to put something together on my own. We have a small co-op with about 10 kids ranging in age from 6 to 13, so I'd like something that could appeal to all ages. We already have a science class and an art/art-history.

 

Is there a place that would sell some sort of curriculum to get me started?

 

Thanks!

[Tohru]

I'm not sure where you might buy one, but I've taught some co-op classes in the past. I pretty much took a subject and then figure out how many sessions and filled it in.

 

For example, with a 9-12yo Creative Writing class, we worked on Characters the first week by making paperdoll chains that had their physical characteristics on the outside and then on the inside had personality, likes/dislikes, how others saw them.

 

The next week we worked on Setting. I got cheap dollar calendars and took the pictures and had them describe the setting, ie: what they smelled, heard, etc in the picture.

 

Then we worked on Plot by using the plot pyramid.

 

I can't remember what else. I think we did word collages, poems, biography interviews of the person next to them, made word-searches.

 

It was a lot of fun to come up with stuff.

Maybe you can have them develop an item or idea and teach how to market it :) That would be fun.

 

Week one: come up with product

Week two: make newspapers for all the products

Week three: distribution

Week four: showcase of student's advertisements

Edited January 3, 2010 by jadedone80

[prim*rose]

Thanks for the ideas! I guess I'm just not very confident in my skills to teach, and would like some hand-holding for my first go 'round :001_smile:

[Osaubi]

I usually get an idea of what I want to teach, and then see what the best curriculum is out there for that class. I have found that having a formula for teaching the co-op is best. For example read info, do experiment, discuss. Once I have that done I just plug in the info that I want them to learn.

 

I also searched the internet for other people's co-op to get an idea of how others were doing it.

[Emilylou]

Our co-op kids enjoy Health Class and World Cultures class...

 

different health topics each week or so... in december they learned how to use a juicer

 

World Cultures- a map, story - learned about the people of different places and sometimes a snack from that country.

 

Good Luck! It sounds like fun!