ma23peas Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I have been teaching English Composition/Literature at our local co-op for 4 years. I started out using all IEW sources, but realized the students wanted/needed somewhere to 'go' after completing those. One year, I used the How to read Literature Like a Professor and followed different lesson plans I found online and tweaked some to my own liking. This year, I created 36 lessons focusing on words with purpose, finding authors/novels that dealt with character/moral lessons etc. for the first semester and poetry/Shakespeare studies for the second semester. It is broken down into lessons with weekly assignments for literature/composition/journaling/vocabulary assignments...it works best in a co-op setting for grades 9-12. Roughly around 365 pages which includes all lesson plans/writing resource folders/Socratic discussion handouts etc. I would say half is my creation (rubrics, lessons, lists etc.) and half are files that were found online (where I have credited the source) and usually tweaked them to fit our co-op setting. The internet is chock full of wonderful lesson plans but they do not translate well to the homeschool setting without a bit of tweaking. I know co-ops are often concerned about what to teach, my lessons definitely are more on the religious side..I am not promoting one religion over the other but it is definitely Christian in flavor. I chose Dosteovsky(The Brothers Karamazov & The Idiot) because of how he shows the evolving characters' faiths and books like The Hiding Place/Elie Wiesel's Night etc. to explore faith in literature. In a secular co-op, it may not go over so well. I have put hundreds of hours into this project, and am wondering if there would be an interest in sharing it. I contemplated just uploading it to Amazon publishing and making it available that way, but it really is better used as double sided/hole punched for the student...each student would need their own copy and with removable rubrics etc. it should not be in book form. Just not sure where to go with it? I have attached the first page of the course, still needs some tweaking, I did not want to offer the course until after I had completed teaching all 36 lessons so I could make adjustments to what worked well with the classes. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 You could also look into the website TeachersPayTeachers.com You probably need to be careful about the web content that you "tweaked" -- you may need permission of the original author to use anything more than a link, unless you have tweaked it beyond all recognition or if the original is very generic (e.g. a list of the main characters in Hamlet isn't copyrightable). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I have been teaching English Composition/Literature at our local co-op for 4 years. I started out using all IEW sources... One year, I used the How to read Literature Like a Professor and followed different lesson plans I found online and tweaked some to my own liking. This year, I created 36 lessons focusing on words with purpose, finding authors/novels that dealt with character/moral lessons etc. for the first semester and poetry/Shakespeare studies for the second semester... I would say half is my creation (rubrics, lessons, lists etc.) and half are files that were found online (where I have credited the source) and usually tweaked them to fit our co-op setting... I have put hundreds of hours into this project, and am wondering if there would be an interest in sharing it. I contemplated just uploading it to Amazon publishing and making it available that way... What an awesome gift of your time and energy to your co-op classes! And what a very generous idea to want to continue giving through sharing your work. :) I do not wish to discourage you, but I need to point out some hard realities: Publishing to either sell or even give away is not going to be an option because much of your study is based on the writing, ideas and work of others. In order to publish (whether you intend to earn money or give it out for free), you would need to seek permission of use from every source used, even though you have tweaked their original works. In cases where permission is granted, the author would want their work to either be directly linked, or quoted and used as originally written -- not as part of a tweaked form. And most would also want some sort of monetary compensation; after all, you would be earning money partially from their labors. And if you were giving it away, they would be unlikely to grant permission, as that would be giving away their work, too, when they are trying to earn money on it. Also, authors would be unlikely to grant permission of use if you have tweaked their work, as authors want their work read and used by others as the authors intended it to be read and used. Authors are funny that way. ;) What would be publishable is all your original rubrics, lessons and word lists, and your original suggestions of how to schedule/use the other authors' resources (as they are written, not tweaked). Any questions, information, activity ideas or other material that you used for the co-op and included in your guide that was NOT your original idea MUST be either quoted or acknowledged as "used with permission." You would also want to include a sort of "works cited" type of page at the end of the work, listing/acknowledging all of the resources from which you drew your ideas to create your lesson plan/study, while making it clear that you are not using/reproducing any of their actual writing/work/intellectual property. Offering your work in this type of format would not only help you to not be sued for plagiarism or unauthorized use of the work of another, it might help you greatly reduce your file size/page length, to make it possible to offer it on a website, or as a downloadable/printable pdf file or e-book, or as a print-on-demand book. You can check out Easy-Peasy, Guest Hollow, Ambleside Online, and to see how offering free lesson plans online can work without copyright infringement. Again, in NO way trying to be discouraging, BUT... while you have created a fabulous resource and been an amazing teacher for your co-op students, it is also important to be realistic about how much of a market there would be for this specific product: - How many people would purchase it? (Realistically, probably a very small market of those who would want/use such a product; and even a smaller percent of that group who would really purchase such a product. :() - How many would you need to sell to make it worth the time and $$ you will need to put into it to make the produce copyright-compliant? - If you plan to give it away, do you have the time and energy to make it copyright-compliant, and do the research on best type of format, and to layout the material in a format to match the delivery system (pdf, eBook, website, etc.)? And just to encourage you: I feel your pain. I am in a very similar boat as yourself, having last year spent hundreds of hours creating a Lit & Comp co-op course for grades 7-12 around the Lord of the Rings and some IEW resources (among many others), which would be great to share, BUT, the time, effort and money required to do so, coupled with the reality of a small target audience, that may make that unlikely... BEST of luck in wrestling through these questions and concerns to arrive at the best decision! Warmest regards, Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Agreeing with Lori. And Iprstn has a great idea about the blog. I have seen some sites with a "donate" button on it-not sure how that would work with copyrights, etc., but I would assume if you had a "donate" button, it could just be a general donation thing and not necessarily to do with the curriculum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Thanks! Yes! I think it would be a great place to start a blog and offer it online...I plan on creating a new one each year (plan on teaching two more years) so now that I have this first one under my belt I can branch out a bit and explore more offerings for students. I have loved the opportunity to have a platform where these students can share/explore their interpretations of literature and have the advantage of peer review. You all are such a wonderful help! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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