IEW US History Volume 1 Users...Will you look at my schedule?

[mom31257]

I want to use the US History volume 1 theme book in my co-op class next year, but we meet biweekly. The class will be 4th through early high school, and almost all the kids went through SWI-A this year with me or at home. Two of the high schoolers will get a 4 day intensive this summer. I will have several moms in the classroom, so I'll be able to break the kids up into different age groups for activities during class, but I will be leading the whole thing.

 

The kids I had this year all did well with it and are ready to move on. Only the two youngest were very dependent on their moms at home, so I'm going to help those moms tweak the checklists to help them become more independent and rely on mom for input and grading.

 

Here's a link to my schedule.

[G5052]

I've taught through the various history-based books multiple times with 3rd-8th graders in weekly classes, and that schedule would be too ambitious for the students I had. For example, doing lessons 14-16 in a week just wouldn't fly. In my experience, fused outlines go very slowly the first few times through. Even my experienced kids needed a week to outline and do part of the draft, then a second week to finish the draft and take it to final copy. Most would need at least three weeks to finish, with a week on the fused outline, a week on the draft, and a week taking it to final copy.

 

Most people using the history-based in co-op or in paid classes don't end up doing all of the lessons. You pick some in each unit and go from there. My classes are always 24-32 weeks, and I include a research paper on a famous person of the period with a presentation that takes 4 weeks from beginning to end. So I always have to pick-and-choose lessons.

 

Your mileage may vary...

[mom31257]

I've taught through the various history-based books multiple times with 3rd-8th graders in weekly classes, and that schedule would be too ambitious for the students I had. For example, doing lessons 14-16 in a week just wouldn't fly. In my experience, fused outlines go very slowly the first few times through. Even my experienced kids needed a week to outline and do part of the draft, then a second week to finish the draft and take it to final copy. Most would need at least three weeks to finish, with a week on the fused outline, a week on the draft, and a week taking it to final copy.

 

Most people using the history-based in co-op or in paid classes don't end up doing all of the lessons. You pick some in each unit and go from there. My classes are always 24-32 weeks, and I include a research paper on a famous person of the period with a presentation that takes 4 weeks from beginning to end. So I always have to pick-and-choose lessons.

 

Your mileage may vary...

 

Thank you for your thoughts on it all. I was afraid it might be too much. The kids will have 2 weeks at home to work on the assignments. The moms have been very involved all along, so they understand the process and are able to help them at home. I'm not involved in the revision process at all, unless the moms contact me during the week. I organize the lessons, teach them the material, plan classroom activities to reinforce the lessons, and give them their assignments/checklists. The moms do everything else at home. I do want to touch on the new units and many of the new writing techniques, so I hope to incorporate as much as possible.

 

We start August 16th, and most of the families start back school in July. I might could give them a couple of assignments to do that would help with review so that I could skip a couple of things near the beginning. This book seemed like a great choice to follow SWI-A because it immediately began giving them new decorations/sentence openers. SWI-A did have the kids making outlines from 3 sources, so I was thinking that those lessons (14-16) might not be that difficult. Maybe it will be different, though, once we are actually in class.

 

Thanks again!