United States History 1 High School:
This week we were able to start Wyatt's new United States History 1 guide - hooray!
We planned to ease into it, taking several days to do one day's worth of plans, because other than reading the introduction and getting the needed resources from HOD, I as the teacher didn't do much to get ready to start this guide. I decided the two of us would partner together during our teaching blocks of times to assemble, copy, gather, 3-hole punch, print, etc. whatever we needed to as things came up in the plans. Well, as it turned out, Day 1 was a snap! Carrie had already planned for us to have a slower start and time to gather things, so we actually were able to do Day 1 in a day. We did spread out the rest of the unit as needed, and whenever the day was scheduled to be done, we quit, picking up where we left off the day before. It worked out great! Wyatt was able to do so much of this prepping on his own, and there really wasn't much prepping to be done anyway.
We did decide to move his Living Library reading to the evening before bed, as he loves to read before bed anyway, and these books are the kind you can't put down. They just happen to be awesome reads that match his history too - what a blessing! He began reading "Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky," and it was riveting. He liked the double entry journal assignment as a follow-up. It gave him a chance to share important quotes and what he found meaningful about them. I like how this assignment doesn't get between him and the book, as CM would say. He still is enjoying the readings, though there are some difficult things to read sometimes - but then again, that is history. Not all is pretty and happy. But then it is in reading about the struggles that we realize how thankful we can be for what we have today, for God's provision.
I think Wyatt is really going to enjoy his US History book "America: The Last Best Hope" by William Bennett. He really seems to like his writing style, and the "Highlighted Narration" assignment is definitely a skill I am glad to see a part of this year. It reminds me of how I studied for college classes, and it is an excellent way to organize and share your thoughts within an oral narration as well. He misunderstood the assignment at first, and he only highlighted 3 main ideas. He also forgot to flag or highlight the supporting details, but that's alright. I love that dc grow in these skills all year long. This wasn't his one shot at getting this right! He will do a highlighted narration again, and when he does, he will do it better.
Well, those are a few of the highlights of the few days we did the US1 guide this week. It was a sanguine start to the year, like the excitement of meeting a new friend you somehow felt you already knew for sure you were going to love. I hope you had a good week too!
In Christ,
Julie
Robert Fulton earned a small income drawing picturesque scenes for gunmakers to put on their guns as a young boy. He also was so disappointed that there wouldn't be fireworks on the Fourth of July that he experimented and invented with a Roman candle that could shoot sparks into the air. Emmett loved reading about this as much as he loved making his Roman candle art project...
