swimmermom3 Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 It is the first day of school for my junior and his first experience with virtual schooling. The poor guy isn't even up yet and I am already headed down the warpath in full paint as I survey today's assignments and get a look at the online texts and materials: Parallel text for British Literature? How does reading someone else's modern paraphrase sharpen the student's ability to work with difficult language? How does that prepare him for college literature courses? The text is also entirely online. Is there a valid reason for using a parallel text other than trying to reach the lower levels of a class's ability? Am I overreacting? My kids do not like to read literature on line anyway. I have many of the works being studied this year and can purchase the others or I could purchase the actual text and just have him cover the paraphrase part. Any thoughts? Note taking guide for Algebra 2? The student fills in a worksheet page for his notes. I can see using a few of these pages as a model, but I want the boy to be able to pick out what is notable on his own. Should I just have him take his own notes from the text? My dh informed me that he never took notes in math. I think I at least wrote down definitions and formulas. Any thoughts on this other than I should go make that pot of coffee quick?:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Make the pot of coffee ASAP! :tongue_smilie: FWIW I never heard of taking notes for algebra either. That might be helpful with geometry and the different postulates, theorems, and definitions, but can't think of any reason it's needed for other high school math courses. Regarding the literature, don't forget that even with online classes you're still the teacher - so do what you think is best. :) Have a wonderful first day of school!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Well, I think a parallel text is good for an intro, and then good for a reference. There are bound to be dozens of things the kid will *never* catch if they just read British English. But I do not like the temptation to *just* read that side of the page. I had an algebra teacher way back in the day who had us create a math notebook. I then went on to quit math, to graduate early, and not do math for several years. When I finally decided to go to college and faced those entrance tests without having studied in so long, I just got out my math notebook from that class and my brain went back into the logical thinking process of math. Not sure it's worth it to you for that one possible situation, but thought I'd share :) I think it also could be of value as far as stopping to realize the new things you are doing with numbers. But mostly I'm thinking of Algebra I. Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBCaroline Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I was a ho-hum math student in high school (mostly B's, some A's) until I got to calculus in my senior year. Our teacher made us copy down everything she wrote on the board into our math notebooks. She collected them and graded them on a regular basis. Not only did I get an A in calculus, but Penn State gave me full credit for Calculus I based on my entry test and placed me directly into Calc II. Can't help but think that taking good notes in math class for the first time helped some.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Dd17 is doing Lial's Intermediate Algebra. Even with all of the great instruction in the text, dd chose to make notes. But, she is more liberal arts/language based. And she is going to vision therapy, so catching up on processing that hasn't happened because of the focusing issues. I bet a math/science person would take much shorter notes and be fine. I'm guessing a student who understands the concepts wouldn't want to take notes. Other students don't want to take the time for notes even if they need it. So I guess you get to guess which category your dc fall into! Have a great year! I vote for adding chocolate to the "must have this morning" list!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candid Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Parallel text for British Literature? How does reading someone else's modern paraphrase sharpen the student's ability to work with difficult language? How does that prepare him for college literature courses? The text is also entirely online. Is there a valid reason for using a parallel text other than trying to reach the lower levels of a class's ability? Am I overreacting? My kids do not like to read literature on line anyway. I have many of the works being studied this year and can purchase the others or I could purchase the actual text and just have him cover the paraphrase part. Any thoughts? I'm with you on this one! I've studied translation enough to tell you that when folks move to paraphrase instead of pretty close translation that they are always subtracting meaning from the passage that the writer probably worked hard to put there. Sigh. Footnotes are a much better way to go and some things just won't be gotten, and its okay!! That's why some people study Shakespeare for their whole lives. There's always more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjbucks1 Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 (edited) I generally agree with you in regards to parallel translations. SWB has an interesting post on her blog re: a recent new translation of the Canterbury Tales by Shiela Fisher. SWB states: "However, as Sheila Fisher notes in her introduction, not everyone has the time or inclination to plow through the Middle English–and if you intend to assign the Tales (or the cleaner portions therein) to a high school student, I’d recommend not torturing them with the Middle English unless they happen to be fascinated by the idea." I thought this was very interesting (read the full blog for the enitre picture. This translation seems to stay very close to the original meaning, so it may be different than a parallel text that is just trying to give you a paraphrase of the text). I am not necessarily disagreeing with you, but perhaps sometimes a more modern translation may be helpful (although I would HATE the text being online.....whatever happened to annotating a text??) Edited August 31, 2011 by mjbucks1 misspelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 (edited) Parallel text for British Literature? How does reading someone else's modern paraphrase sharpen the student's ability to work with difficult language? Are we talking Beowulf, Chaucer or are we talking Shakespeare here? The first two would be fine, the final, unacceptable. Edited August 31, 2011 by GGardner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memphispeg Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I think the biggest issue with the translations is that they be good (amazon has lots of reviews of the "translations" of various classics) and that they be accessible as a story and "great literature". My dd likes things that stay "old fashioned" in their translation (no hip "modern" language for her). We are doing Beowulf soon and I found a beautiful translation by Seamus Heaney.....it reads beautifully out loud. (We find that listening to some of the poetry and plays v. worthwhile). Math notebook.....my alg. 2 and pre-calc. teacher made us keep one with v. specific notes in it. I found myself referring to it almost daily to do homework. I took it to college and did v. well in calc. as a result. I think I still hold some of those pages in the deep dark vestiges of high school memories somewhere. I don't know how she decided what we were to put in there though....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 :grouphug::grouphug: Yep.....coffee...good choice:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candid Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Are we talking Beowulf, Chaucer or are we talking Shakespeare here? The first two would be fine, the final, unacceptable. :iagree: I may have misread the OP on this and I certainly assumed she meant works written in Modern English neither Chaucer or Beowulf are but Shakespeare onward is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Dear Lisa, How is it going? I guess everything is a trade-off. You can't get rid of the worry and work and kid-management involved with a home-designed class without also getting rid of the teaching and the choice of materials. Very frustrating, I'm sure. Parrallel texts - I think they can serve another purpose than just making things readable for those whose reading level is too low for the original. The modern English version can make a work seem more real, more pertinant to the child's life. I tried, when we first started great books, to have mine translate an occasional exchange in Shakespeare or whatever into modern language. After a bit, they began to think along those lines automatically so I stopped, but I think it was important. We still almost always talk about parallel modern situations. I might not have thought to do that except that one of the only literary things my school system did right was Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade. They had us read the play and work with it, making a big big deal out of the fact that Romeo and Juliet were just our age. Then they had us watch the movie. At the beginning of the movie, there was an introduction. It showed a bit of one of the duels, and then reshowed that bit with the same actors in modern dress, using modern English, yelling at each other. One shoved the other one into the pool in anger. The whole thing was about 10 seconds long. They did a few other parallel clips, too. It was very, very brief, but it made Romeo and Juliet seem much more real. Somehow, doing R+J alongside West Side Story in 5th grade (in a different school system) hadn't done that. It was supposed to, but it didn't, I think probably because West Side Story was also set in the past and in a world very unlike my own suburban one. I grew up with Shakespeare and had absolutely no trouble reading the original, so it had nothing to do with the reading level. I got the same effect reading the very modern-sounding graffitti and political jokes in my classical Greek textbook in college. Perhaps that is what the online course is trying to achieve? Hopefully? About the math notes - my children had to be shown how to take notes. I think I would be more worried if the course did not make an effort to teach how to do this. Your son certainly needs to make the switch to picking the stuff out himself at some point, but I don't think it will hurt him to have plenty (and I mean lots and lots) of examples of what he should be picking out. If their system doesn't seem to be working, perhaps you can show him other things he can do as well, like making a crib sheet of formulas and a packet of example and tricky problems. I think both those things would have sent me through the roof until I'd had a chance to think about it a bit GRIN. Perhaps going for a walk would help next time : ) Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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