x-post: checklists - setting up study patterns, like in WTM?

[Colleen in NS]

I've got Sue in St. Pete's questions about checklists, and replies to her spinning around in my head, as I plan for 5th and 2nd grades. And am trying to figure out the best way for me to set up checklists for at least the 5th grader.

 

Does anyone not just set up checklists, but also set up study patterns for their dc to follow?

 

Here is what I mean. You can make a chart with days of the week across the top and subjects down the side (I'd love to see examples of these, if you have any!). And you can plug in things like: math - pages 277-278, English, pages 41-42, or vocab page 21, exercises in part B. But what about things like history or science? Esp. if you use the study patterns (or a form of them) from WTM?

 

I'm thinking about making a chart as mentioned above, and in the history row for Monday and Wednesday, writing "follow study pattern" - the same with science on Tues. and Thurs.. Then print up a smaller sheet to put at the front of the history notebook that says, in general, what to do on Mondays, and what to do on Wednesdays.

 

Example:

 

History Monday: read KF spread(s), read corresponding SOTW chapter (I have these two books coordinated), outline two pages from SOTW, put dates on timeline, pick 2 topics from KF for further reading, do mapwork

 

History Wednesday: do extra reading on two topics, write summaries on the topics

 

or something like that.

 

I would teach him first how to do outlining, what types of dates to put on the timeline and why they should be on there and where to find them, how to find topics of interest to him, and what I expect of mapwork. Then I'd tell him to come to me if he has ANY trouble with any of this. And I'll continue to closely supervise his summary writing and outlining (and all of it, really).

 

The reasons I am thinking this are:

 

- It will probably make ds happier to do this stuff more independently, and will hopefully get him more interested in content again (not that he's uninterested, it's just that it's so Mom-driven right now)

 

- I want him to see that studying a topic (of his interest, within my chosen scope of study - like ancient history) is much more satisfying if you have a study pattern to use - if you study efficiently, you get more out of it and will probably want to explore more of it (at least that is my experience).

 

I'm thinking it's easy to follow a math text or English grammar book and do the next thing. But even though it's harder to pull together a history or science study from scratch, I'm thinking the pattern is the thing that helps you get more out of it ultimately.

 

What do you think? Has anyone done this?

[katilac]

Sure, I think most people include that type of thing on their weekly checklists.

 

I don't use a separate sheet, though. Instead of writing 'study patterns' and referring them to another sheet, we just use keywords on the checklist itself: outline, mapwork, etc.

[Colleen in NS]

Sure, I think most people include that type of thing on their weekly checklists.

 

I don't use a separate sheet, though. Instead of writing 'study patterns' and referring them to another sheet, we just use keywords on the checklist itself: outline, mapwork, etc.

 

I think once again that I am overthinking something that is obvious to many people already....oops!

 

I think your idea is exactly what I need. Time to go play around with the spreadsheet....Thanks! By any chance, do you have a copy of one of your checklists that I could see?

[katilac]

Sure, I can email it to you as a Word document, does that work?

[Colleen in NS]

Sure, I can email it to you as a Word document, does that work?

 

Can you pm it?

[Another Lynn]

Or you could approach your weekly sheet with resources down the side instead of subjects. So you might have a row for KF assignments but it might only be filled in 1 or 2 days/week. You might have a row for SOTW assignments and it might only be filled in 1 or 2 days/week. Then maybe a row for "history - other" or "history - writing" or "history - project" - whatever description makes sense for you. If this makes your weekly sheet too long and or cumbersome then I think your original idea (of a separate sheet for history) might work very well.

[Colleen in NS]

Or you could approach your weekly sheet with resources down the side instead of subjects. So you might have a row for KF assignments but it might only be filled in 1 or 2 days/week. You might have a row for SOTW assignments and it might only be filled in 1 or 2 days/week. Then maybe a row for "history - other" or "history - writing" or "history - project" - whatever description makes sense for you. If this makes your weekly sheet too long and or cumbersome then I think your original idea (of a separate sheet for history) might work very well.

 

Another good idea to consider! Thanks!