Please share your strategies for Teaching Company lectures

[JennifersLost]

We're doing the middle ages in history. We're using a textbook (not spielvogel) and a Teaching Company lecture series on the early middle ages. We listened to the first lecture today and ds (in 10th grade), didn't seem to retain much.

 

What are your strategies?

 

I had him read the lecture outline afterward and we discussed it a bit. What else do you do? Do you have your teens take notes?

[Alphabetika]

My 14yo dd and are watching The History of the English Language on video as one component of her grammar/word roots/English course. We watch two lectures a week.

 

Before we watch each lecture, I read her the objectives listed before the outline of the specific lecture, as well as the two or three "Questions to Consider" at the end. She types these on a laptop. Then we watch the lecture, while she takes notes on the laptop and I take notes by hand, because I'm just as interested in it as she is! We often stop the tape to clarify something the instructor has said, or to hear him say it again (especially when he recites in Old English or something like that, because we get a kick out of it. We've already adopted sevreal words and phrases that are especially quirky.).

 

When the lecture is over, we talk about the objectives and questions, just as a review and for me to check her understanding. I will admit that I don't have high expectations for her to retain a bunch of specific information. I think of this as an intro into a subject she's interested in, and she can choose if she wants to go any deeper when it's done. I'm considering stopping at certain points in the course and going over the whole thing so far, but only orally. So far this is working very well for us and we're enjoying it greatly!

[Jane in NC]

Oh dear, maybe I should have had my son take notes but he seemed to absorb the contents of the three Philip Daileader lecture series on the middle ages like a sponge! He would elaborate regularly on the Spielvogel text or other reading selections using his Teaching Company lectures as a basis for context.

 

I did have him take notes on some of the lectures that he watched in 9th, Great Battles of the Ancient World. It was clear to me that he was engaged, so since then I have just let him listen and then we talk about the points raised. (Sometimes I listen, sometimes not.)

 

These lecture do present an excellent opportunity to work on note taking skills. The Cornell Note Taking System (PDF here) is a good method to introduce at this point if you feel your son needs some assistance in this area.

 

Best regards,

Jane

[JennifersLost]

Thanks. We might just need to move our venue. Ds was washing dishes while he was listening and I wonder if he just couldn't hear it well enough. I think he expected "history" and the first lecture was about Gibbons and Pirenne - two writers about the middle ages. It threw him off.

 

I'm also wondering if we should go back to Spielvogel. He hated it last year, so I got something different, but it might not be comprehensive enough and it doesn't come with a workbook. :)

[readwithem]

You know, that first lecture was kind of hard to follow. It does get better and he clearly knows and enjoys his subject. We're having a hard time understanding him sometimes - my dd thinks he has allergies or a cold, I think it's probably just his normal voice. Does he have a lisp?

 

Oh and we watch during lunch so no note taking here ;)