Assigning Independent Work to multiple kids

[wehoagies]

Hi!

I am new to HOD. I started in the middle of Bigger this semester and next year we plan to do Preparing. I have 3 kids who will be doing some of the independent work. How do you all "assign" this to your kids? I am accustomed to making assignment sheets for each kid for each week. Do you type in all of the independent work so each child can see what is expected? or, do you pass the book around to them? Let me know what you all have come up with.

Thanks!
andi

[tnahid]

I haven't done this yet, so I can't really say from experience. But you could make them a 3 ring binder and make copies of the guide for them for each unit and put it in there for them with independent areas highlighted. That way they could have their own copies of the guide to follow. It might be too overwhelming to give it all at once, but one unit at a time would probably be good I would think. Just an idea! That is probably what I will do when I get to that point. Oh, and on the front of the binder, you could copy the front of the guide in color and slide it down inside the clear plastic front on the binder.

Hope that might help!

[MomtoJGJE]

I haven't really had this issue yet because the independent work my kids do are things I tell them are independent.

But what I'd likely do is make each child a checklist of their independent work daily and tell them if someone else is using what they need to go on to something else. I'd also try to stagger them. Like have one start independent work at 8, then another start at 8:30, then start the third when the first finishes (if it's less than an hour) and at 9 start anything that is teacher directed. After teacher directed, the second and third one would finish up their independent work and the one who started first would help me with lunch, assuming they were done. I'd rotate so that it's not the same one starting first or finishing up later.

[pjdobro]

We will be doing this next year. I know many people just allow their students to look at the guide. I'm still really stingy with my guide. Copying the guide and perhaps cutting out the independent boxes and pasting them onto another paper for each child might be a good solution as well. I talked it over with my dc and they like the idea of having all of their independent work listed out in one place for them to check off. My plan right now is to type out their independent work for each unit, including science and history. I will have a copy for each of them so that they can check it off when they are done. This is a bit of work for me, but I'm already on Unit 9 and I still have almost 6 months to finish so I think, I can do it.

[Mom4Him]

I'm thinking that when we get to Preparing on up, we will just buy 2 guides! I know it will cost extra money, but I love the idea of having our children be able to work right out of the guide- without me having to spend lots of time copying and/or typing everything out (plus, I don't want to infringe on any copyright laws). I love how the guides already have everything so nicely laid out for me and my children, and truly are written for them to follow better than I could come up with in a separate daily check-off sheet... so if we are able to, I definitely think it is worth the money. But that's just me- I'd rather spend the money on an extra guide than on extra paper and ink- (plus, we will use both of them again as my other children get older)!! I think I will probably allow them to make little check-marks in the guide to show when they are finished with something, so I don't have to make my own checklist. Or maybe I will make more of a "standardized" checklist that I can laminate and will last the year (listing things more vaguely... such as... independent history study, science exploration, finish math, read for DITHOR, finish English, etc.)- or maybe one for each "Day"... Day 1, Day2, Day 3, Day 4 (as I know similar activities are often assigned on the same day of the unit). If we had 3 doing the same guide, I'd do something similar (but probably wouldn't buy 3 guides, unless we really had extra money and/or knew we would use them all again, or could give them to a family in need), but I also really like the idea of staggering the independent time. And maybe they would end up working on some of the independent things together. But, we will see as everyone gets older how it will all work out!
I look forward to hearing what works for you!

[pjdobro]

I'm thinking that when we get to Preparing on up, we will just buy 2 guides! I know it will cost extra money, but I love the idea of having our children be able to work right out of the guide- without me having to spend lots of time copying and/or typing everything out (plus, I don't want to infringe on any copyright laws). I love how the guides already have everything so nicely laid out for me and my children, and truly are written for them to follow better than I could come up with in a separate daily check-off sheet... so if we are able to, I definitely think it is worth the money. But that's just me- I'd rather spend the money on an extra guide than on extra paper and ink- (plus, we will use both of them again as my other children get older)!! I think I will probably allow them to make little check-marks in the guide to show when they are finished with something, so I don't have to make my own checklist. Or maybe I will make more of a "standardized" checklist that I can laminate and will last the year (listing things more vaguely... such as... independent history study, science exploration, finish math, read for DITHOR, finish English, etc.)- or maybe one for each "Day"... Day 1, Day2, Day 3, Day 4 (as I know similar activities are often assigned on the same day of the unit). If we had 3 doing the same guide, I'd do something similar (but probably wouldn't buy 3 guides, unless we really had extra money and/or knew we would use them all again, or could give them to a family in need), but I also really like the idea of staggering the independent time. And maybe they would end up working on some of the independent things together. But, we will see as everyone gets older how it will all work out!
I look forward to hearing what works for you!

I was thinking down the road that we would probably go to two guides as well. My dc and I were looking at the older guides the other day and looking at all the independent boxes. We love working together, but we're all looking forward to that growing independence as well. It does seem that when more than 1/2 of the boxes are independent, they would need their own guide to make it more time manageable for everyone involved. It didn't seem quite worth it to go to more than one guide with just the 2 independent boxes this year. I didn't even think about there being any problem with copyright by typing out a schedule for my dc with the independent work. They can use the one guide together. I have begun to let them start doing a few things independently in Bigger by checking the guide and doing the activity without me and they are doing fine that way. They can share if needed.

[Mumkins]

I'm still deciding this myself. I did a program once where they kids had their own student pages starting in grade two that told what to do. I'd love to see Carrie come out with a student guide as well that listed the Semi independent and Independent stuff.

[blessedmomof4]

I'm buying two guides for my girls who will be doing CTC. I figure I will borrow one of theirs for the "teacher boxes" since there are so few of them

[water2wine]

I do this with three and have done it with four kids at once using the same guide and all the same books only one copy of everything. It works. I do not have a real formal organization but we let the guidebook organize us and do some things like allow some group participation in projects BUT everyone still does their own project and we only do this sometimes. I make sure they all learned what they were supposed to by having them narrate the history project or science experiment. This is a good practice any way to make sure they have gained understanding. Then for reading the books only having one copy we rotate the reading. Some do first thing in the am which means sometimes they might be doing independent reading or extension reading before I have done the general read alouds. That works just fine. They sift the information just fine that way. We have one doing two doing math while one reads and those kinds of things. I helped them figure out the alternation a but at first and they took off with it. Pretty much the idea is if you can't do one box because you need a book or the manual either share or move to another box until that item is free, We almost never have fighting over who goes first or needing a book. It flows very well and in general is very peaceful. It has taught them excellent skills in time management and organization. What we have learned in corporation and skills far out weight the benefit of having extras of everything. Believe me if I can do it with three programs running and one child having many learning disabilities and have it be peaceful, it has to be pretty simple to pull off or else I would not mess with it. I personally would not buy a second guide or more than one of anything. It can easily be run with multiple kids. It truly helps them to learn to be productive, self-starters and independent. They police themselves too so there is no dawdling. Truly there are many benefits.

[8arrows]

I just but one guide and leave it out open on the kitchen counter so everyone can go over to look. I have three plus myself sharing the guide. Then I also lay out the shared books on the counter with sticky notes for the pages to be read on the front. They can check the guide to see what the assignment is. They just rotate using the books. If everyone grabs one of the books to start with, it is easy to just keep trading as you finish.

[8arrows]

I just but one guide and leave it out open on the kitchen counter so everyone can go over to look. I have three plus myself sharing the guide. Then I also lay out the shared books on the counter with sticky notes for the pages to be read on the front. They can check the guide to see what the assignment is. They just rotate using the books. If everyone grabs one of the books to start with, it is easy to just keep trading as you finish.