What’s Included?

The language arts block is a rich and diverse learning time. Students participate in a variety of language-rich activities for the development of well-rounded literacy. These activities include:

• Phonics and reading instruction
• Grammar, usage, and punctuation
• Poetry
• Oral narration
• Spelling
• Literature
• Writing
• Listening comprehension
• Art appreciation
• Geography (Starting at level 2)
• Art production (Starting at level 4)
• Art history (Starting at level 4)
• Handwriting
• Typing (Starting at level 2)

How do the levels work?

The summer before each student starts with A One-Room Schoolhouse they take a language arts placement test. The Good and the Beautiful language arts levels are not titled by grade nor do the levels correspond to public school grade levels. Levels range from Pre-K to Level 7, book studies, and high school course work.

Since The Good and the Beautiful levels are advanced, many students’ placement will not coincide with their age-determined grade level. For example, most students will start their Kindergarten year in the Pre-K or Primer level. The following chart is a helpful guide to understanding the language arts levels and grade level equivalencies.

Upon completion of level 7, a student will be ready for high school level course work, usually at the honors level. If level 7 is completed before high school age, they will complete book study units from The Good and the Beautiful.

Some students will initially place at a lower level than might be expected for their age. This is because other curriculums have many gaps in the instruction and sequence of materials. They will likely catch up as they can move quickly and fill in those gaps. Also, when a student has reached high school age, they can jump to the high school courses as soon as they have completed level 5.

Furthermore, students can move through the levels at their own pace. Many students, especially at the lower levels, may complete more than one level per school year. If a student needs to move at a slower pace, that is fine too. The goal is mastery of language arts content through consistent, high-quality practice.

How does the language arts block work?

During the language arts block, students move through their lessons guided by their level checklist. A One-Room Schoolhouse has developed student checklists to help guide each learner through the morning block. These checklists are slightly modified from the basic suggestion from The Good and the Beautiful. The modifications are to help the flow of the day at A One-Room Schoolhouse by using our three-center model: one teacher, one parent, and one independent practice and exploration station.

Download Checklists Here

At the end of our morning meeting (the opening period right before the language arts block) each student reviews their checklist and is instructed on where on the checklist they will start the day. The teacher, aware of each child’s needs and progress, will make this decision to help optimize learning.  

The daily flow

To manage the flow of students and to ensure each student gets high-quality individualized instruction, students rotate through their checklists starting in different places than their peers. Some students start with the teacher, others with the parent volunteer and others with their independent work. Regardless of where on the checklist each student starts, every student will complete their entire checklist during the language arts block.

Each checklist has items to be completed with the teacher, with the parent volunteer and independently. Items in red are done with the teacher, items in blue are done with the volunteer, and items in green are done independently. The lower levels have bonus items in purple for fast finishers.

The Level 8 book studies and high school levels do not have checklists as these curriculums are completely self-inclusive and student-directed. The students are prompted when to seek teacher support in the course of the lessons. Of course, these students will be monitored closely to ensure timely progress and accurate learning.

How do the levels develop?

At the lower levels, more emphasis is given to play-based activities with frequent teacher support. Play-based activities include open-ended projects from the spelling box and reading box. (Look for a future post that will give more details about these learning centers!) In short, these are hands-on, play-based learning experiences that will enhance the student’s basic course book instruction. 

As the levels move upward, students are slowly given more responsibility for their own learning. At level four and above, students no longer complete the lesson with the teacher but are guided through the coursebook with very clear instructions. Students in these upper levels check-in daily for activities like shared reading, dictation, and spelling. At the end of each lesson, coursebook materials are checked by the teacher.

Each level has both individual elements and continuing elements to ensure both interest and consistency. Here are some examples of the variation:

• Level 4 and above include art production instruction.
• The phonics cards and sight word ladders are mastered in levels K through 2.
• Challenging words are practiced in levels 3 and 4.
• Grammar and geography cards are memorized in level 4 and above.
• Levels 5 and 7 include poetry memorization in contrast to level 6 which has one long memorization.
• The games and flipbooks in the Pre-k level engage new learners with fun, interactive learning.

The diversity brings so much fun to the learning process. I can’t wait to see what element each student likes the best!

Final Note

If you downloaded the checklist we use at each level, you might have a question about the lower levels. At the lower levels, the student will not be able to read the checklist given. The checklist we use at school at levels Pre-K, Primer, and Kindergarten has picture supports that correspond to the words. I would suggest that you add in your own pictures to help support the young learners in your home.

One last idea you might consider is that an older student could be used as your “parent volunteer” to help complete the blue items on the checklist if you are using it in your home. What do you think of our system? Would it work in your home or co-op?

The post The Language Arts Block appeared first on A One Room Schoolhouse.

I was recently browsing my Facebook newsfeed when I stumbled upon a read-aloud math problem. “What if you read aloud just every other day in 2020? What if you read aloud only about 10 minutes every other day in 2020? That would be a lot. It all adds up.”

It does add up, just 10 minutes of reading aloud every other day adds up to 30 hours of reading aloud. At A One-Room Schoolhouse, we have 90 HOURS of read-aloud time scheduled into our school year.

You read that right… 90 hours! On top of that, our homework policy is comprised of two elements: reading and playing. So, why so much reading?

Benefits of Reading Aloud

Improved Language Skills

Kids who are read to have improved language skills. When children experience an engaging, language-rich interaction it helps them develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and literacy. They build better phonemic awareness, improve their vocabulary, refine listening skills, and strengthen their reading comprehension.

Jim Trelease, author of The New York Times Bestseller The Read-Aloud Handbook stated: “The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (22,000 students) found that beginning in kindergarten, children who had been read to at least three times a week had a significantly greater phonemic awareness (phonics) than did children who were read to less often and were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent in reading readiness.”

Brain Development

When children are read to, especially when they are young they feel nurtured and well attended. Since 80% of a child’s brain is formed during their first three years of life, reading to a young child has positive effects throughout their lifetime.

Research has shown this by performing brain scans. What did they find?

“In preschool children listening to stories, greater home reading exposure is positively associated with activation of brain areas supporting mental imagery and narrative comprehension, controlling for household income. These neural biomarkers may help inform eco-bio-developmental models of emergent literacy.”

Improved Bonding

When we snuggle up with our children and a good book happy memories are created. That feeling of closeness and security is forever embedded in your child’s memory. These experiences will last a lifetime as a child feels nurtured by their parents and literature.

In a recent Time Magazine article, it was reported that even reports that reading to newborns in the NICU increased bonding. As parents read to their infant babies they felt more attached to their little ones and felt more like normal parents.

Reading Aloud Closes The Gap

No other intervention has been found to be more effective at closing the gap for at-risk students than being read to. Really.

Hart and Risley’s landmark study Meaningful Differences showed wealthy children heard 45 million words by age four, working-class heard 26 million, and the child in poverty heard just 13 million.

Reading to a child helps close that gap. Jim Trelease stated that reading aloud “gives the at-risk child a ‘head’ start, especially important since most instruction in school for the first four years is oral—the teacher talks the lesson to the class. The larger the vocabulary, the better the child understands the teacher and the lesson.”

Furthermore, in the landmark report “Becoming a Nation of Readers” from 1985 it states, “the single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”

Expands Interest

When we read aloud to a child we expose them to new authors, writing styles, and literary genres. In Melissa Taylor’s article The Importance of Reading Aloud to Big Kids she states “Reading aloud can get kids hooked on a new author or series of books. Once a child falls in love with the story or author, it’s hard to hold them back from reading it on their own.”

The world is full of amazing stories, poems, and facts. When we read them to our children we open their minds to the world.

Quantity and Quality

Both quantity and quality matter. Yes, it is important to read to your child and the quantity of time spent reading really does matter, but don’t forget about quality.

If anything has become apparent about reading to your children it is this: what you read to your children sticks. It becomes part of their hearts and minds. So, choose wisely.

Jenny Phillips at The Good And The Beautiful is passionate about this. She wrote: “Do you really know what is in the books children are reading and how it is affecting them? Books are powerful, but they have been changing in the past century and in turn, changing the character of our children, the strength of our families, and our communities.” 

Check out Jenny’s powerful message about choosing the best books in her vlog “Be Brave About Books.” This is a powerful message about the importance of both quantity and quality.

Final Thoughts

As parents and educators, we are faced with so much information. We are constantly bombarded with what we should do as parents and educators. Books become trendy, websites blare new information at us, and social media gives us thousands of options.

We know little for sure about raising and teaching kids. We do know two things for sure about raising and teaching kids: read to them and go outside and play. Those two things work. Always. Period.

What will you read to your kids this year?

The post The Importance of Reading Aloud appeared first on A One Room Schoolhouse.

The other day my nephew posted a question on Facebook about the power of praise: “I want everyone’s opinion! When and how is the best way to praise children?” He is a college student and was doing a class project on praise. It got me thinking about the power of praise and the effect it has on our children, homes, and classrooms.

The Power of Praise Rate

When I was getting my special education teaching credential, my professors were serious about the power of praise in the classroom. Every time we were observed teaching, our evaluator would take a praise rate. In order to score in the “A” range, we had to average 6 praise statements per minute during the observation!

Yep, you read that right. A praise statement every 10 seconds.

You had no idea when they were going to take your rate, so you had to be constantly positive. For a statement to count it had to be unique and specific. You could not just rattle off a million “good jobs”. You had to say things like “Sally, nice handwriting.” or “John, thanks for raising your hand.”

It sounds ridiculous at first, but the more I praised students at this rate, the more I felt the change as a teacher and in my classroom.

Pouring on the praise was like a shower of sunshine on my students. They felt more confident, worked harder, and tried new things.

My professors said that students with a healthy self-concept needed 2 to 3 praise statements for every 1 corrective statement to maintain their positive view. For students that struggled with their self-esteem or that were frequently corrected, this rate could rise to 10 praise statements for every 1 corrective statement to change the tide of negative emotion.

That was the reasoning behind the almost ridiculously high rate of praise required in our observations. We were teaching students with special needs that often carried the burden of very frequent correction and even ridicule.

To change the tide of negativity in these little student’s lives, the teacher needed to literally drench them in praise.

And, you know what? It worked.

The Power of Praise In The Home

At about the same time that my nephew posted his question on Facebook, I was listening to Ralphie over at Simply On Purpose on Instagram. She stated that we spend 85% of our communication in our homes correcting behavior!

Ouch! If you go back to what my professors said about praise rate, positive self-concept, and combine that with Ralphie’s correction percentage, you have some very sad praise math going on!

This all hit me pretty hard as I knew the paise math in my home was not at a great ratio. Just based on my kid’s behavior, I knew our ratio was off.

After a season of stress and change, correction had become frequent, voices had become raised, and praise was just not happening.

In an effort to change the tide of negativity in my home, I reflected back on my professional training and these timely social media reminders. I spent some time brainstorming the best praise tips I had gathered over the years from other great parents, teachers, and mentors.

Praise Tip List

• When you need to correct a behavior, find someone doing the behavior and praise first.
• When things are getting tense, stop, and mentally give yourself a little praise. “You can do this; you are a great parent.” Then turn and find someone doing something praiseworthy.
• Set yourself a praise goal each day. Put rubber bands on your arm and move them to the other arm every time you praise a child. (Changing coins from one pocket to the other works well too!)
• Correct privately and praise openly.
• Be specific.
• Praise effort.
• Look for close approximations of the correct behavior and praise the progress.
• Let your kids overhear you praising them to another adult.
• Privately tell another adult what a great job a child did and then ask that adult to praise them.
• Post praise statements around your home or classroom for frequent and diverse reminders to praise regularly and uniquely.

Two Magic Questions

The power of praise is amazing and can change the entire mood of a home or classroom. But, to really supercharge the power of praise, combine it with the two most powerful questions I have found to change behavior.

First: Can you tell me more about that/it?

This question is SOOOOOOO powerful. The word “that/it” can be a feeling, a word, a behavior, an assignment or anything that is going on with a child. This question invites MORE. More talking, more listening and more chances to praise.

Some examples:

• (Child is frustrated with an assignment) Can you tell me more about your frustration with this assignment?
• (Children are fighting) “I will listen to both of you. Can you tell me more about why you need this toy?
• (Unidentified, big emotions) Can you tell me more about your feelings?
• (Child is ignoring a direction) I want to listen, can you tell me why you will not….?”
• (Child is giving one-word answers) Can you tell me more about that/it?

Then… listen and praise!

Second: But if not, what?

This second question is something to ask yourself, not your child. Sometimes you are just not going to get the behavior or skill you desire right now. Development might not be ready to meet the expectation. Emotions might be too big. Stress levels might be too high.

The list could go on forever. So, when things are getting tough, emotions are high, and behavior is crazy, ask yourself: “But if not, what?” But if not this behavior, what will I be okay with? What is a close approximation that may lead up to the desired result?

But if not…

• the whole assignment, maybe part of the assignment.
• eating all the dinner, maybe half of the dinner.
• reading the book, maybe you can listen to it and follow along.
• joining us at the table, you can take a break in your room.

Then, be okay with the alternative. You can work with the child when they are not in crisis to get the original, desired result. Praise the close approximation and move on.

Finally…

Have you seen the power of praise in your home or classroom? Drop me a note and let me know how you have seen praise help your children. Review A One-Room Schoolhouse’s mission statement to see how praise is at the core of our beliefs.

The post The Power of Praise appeared first on A One Room Schoolhouse.

Background

To start, Susan Wise Bauer is one of the go-to gurus of the homeschool world. Many refer to her book The Well-Trained Mind as the “Bible” of homeschooling. Many homeschool groups refer to this book as “required reading”.

Furthermore, www.welltrainedmind.com offers a comprehensive classical curriculum, classes, training, and a host of other academic resources. The blog is insightful, informative, and extremely useful.  Additionally, Bauer is a professor of American literature at The College of William and Mary.

(Side note, I did my graduate work at William and Mary. At the time, I had no idea that a professor worked on campus that would become such a huge influence on my life! Crazy!)

First inspiration

I was on my weekly Friday trip to library storytime with my kids when inspiration grabbed me. In the new release display, something caught my eye: Rethinking School: How to Take Charge of Your Child’s Education by Susan Wise Bauer.

I checked out this book and devoured it. It spoke to every one of my concerns about public education! (I talked about my concerns in this post.)  It was a validating, inspirational read that gave me the idea for the structure of A One-Room Schoolhouse. Additionally, it gave me the courage to take action.

Overview

I can’t count how many times I have recommended reading Rethinking School. I found it to be a balanced and honest assessment of our public-school system. In addition, you will be presented with up-to-date and accurate information about the many educational choices available to every family.

Rethinking School will help you understand the modern education system and how you can help your children get the best education possible. I especially like how this book presents ideas for every family to help “flex” the school system regardless of your ability or opinions on homeschooling, public schooling, or private schooling.

Questions

Some of the most important content in Rethinking School are the questions that this book answers. Even as an experienced educator, I found much of the content new and informative.

I knew little of my educational choices outside of public, private, and charter schools. The answers to many, if not all, or your school choice questions will be answered in this well-researched book.

Here are frequently asked questions to which Rethinking School provides current, well-reached answers:

• Should my student attend an accredited school?
• What courses are necessary for my student’s education?
• Does my high school-aged student need a diploma?
• When should I start my student in Kindergarten?
• Should I allow my student to be held back a grade?
• Should I allow my child to skip a grade?
• How do I get my student special education services?
• What are an IEP and a 504?
• How much homework is really necessary?
• How can to get my child help without making an enemy out of the teacher or principal?
• What are my other educational options outside of the public-school system?
• What is the “common core” and why is everyone so mad about it?
• Does my student really have to take all those tests at the end of the year?
• How do I homeschool my child?
• If not college, then what?

Takeaway

My takeaway after reading Rethinking Education was simply: one size does not fit all.

Students are unique as the snowflakes that fall in the mountains or the waves the crash on the beach.  Every student comes to school with their own strengths, weakness, and learning styles. Many even come with disadvantages, disorders, and disabilities.

Seldom are these individual traits a perfect match for any given classroom.  But, in modern education, students are asked to conform and learn.  They are the square peg and the modern classroom in the round hole.

The way we do school is not natural.

Children are not prone to sit for six to seven hours a day at a desk with a group of same-aged peers, learning a prescribed set of objectives, in a uniform amount of time.  In many classrooms, each child must conform to this routine to become a successful student.

This is the system we have come to believe is the only option for children. But it is not. I challenge you to think beyond this system; to believe that there are students that might fit in the round hole, but that the round hole is not the only or necessarily the best choice. In Rethinking School Bauer states:

“That’s because artificial systems, like our K-12 educational system, are powerful. They acquire a life of their own and become the framework that organizes our existence. In other words, the way we currently do education has become a paradigm, or a matrix: an invisible pair of glasses through which we view everything else.”

Think Outside the Box

If you are looking for educational answers outside of the box, this is the book for you. After reading Rethinking School, I felt empowered as an expert in my children’s education. It has helped me create A One-Room Schoolhouse for my children and others that are joining us.

Have you read Rethinking School? I would love to know what you thought. Drop a comment below or send me an email.

The post Book Review: Rethinking School appeared first on A One Room Schoolhouse.

Why one-room? What is a Hybrid? Homeschool, is that legal? In this post, I will break down who we are and what we do. I will go word by word: One-Room, Schoolhouse, Hybrid, Homeschool, and Academy. Each word has a meaning and purpose. Each was carefully selected to describe us.

One-Room

A One-Room Schoolhouse is truly one classroom. Therefore, all students, regardless of age, are educated in the same classroom at the same time. Then, once a classroom enrollment reaches 20 students, we start a new classroom, not a new grade level. For every classroom of 20 students, there is one highly qualified teacher and one parent volunteer.

This is a fundamental element of our program. Students are not pigeonholed into a grade level for academic subjects.  We meet each student where they are so they can learn and progress through the curriculum based on individual competency in each subject. This avoids the problem of an age and grade mismatch.

In short, you can’t make your child older than they currently are! You can’t make them develop faster than they are programmed to develop. 

Much of student learning, especially in the early years, is developmental. Many students struggle simply because there is a mismatch between what they are ready to learn (based on maturity and developmental level) and what they are required to learn.

An example…

For example, a student who is ready for long division and multiplication can work the math curriculum at that level. The same student might be learning to blend words with long and short vowels. This student might be 6 years old or 9 years old. Either is just fine.

At One-Room Schoolhouse age has nothing to do with the curriculum and teaching provided to that student. Therefore, once competency is reached, the student continues to the next skill.

Subsequently, there is no need to wait for a birthday. Or to go to the 5th-grade classroom for math acceleration. Hence, no one needs to go to the reading room for special remedial reading instruction. Thus, no one suffers from social stigma or isolation. Everyone works together to learn.

Just 20 students of many ages learning together until competency have been reached in all subject areas.

A final note: What is competency in all subject areas? That depends on the student and the parent. Really: Not everyone will leave high school with a solid grasp on Calculus. That is just fine. Parents and students work together to determine their desired educational outcomes.

A One-Room Schoolhouse will provide a rigorous, college preparatory curriculum and instruction. The parents and the student will determine how deeply and in what way that education is consumed.

This is individualization and flexibility. One-room learning fits the curriculum to the student instead of the student to the curriculum. 

Schoolhouse

Schoolhouse: (n) a building in which school is conducted. This might be the dictionary definition of a schoolhouse, but the connotation elicits more warmth, community, and simplicity.

A schoolhouse is a place of warmth: a place where young minds are nurtured and allowed to grow.  This is a place of safety, care, and organic learning.

A schoolhouse is a place of community. It is a place where people gather together for education, fellowship, performance, and celebration.

A schoolhouse is a place of simplicity. A place where nature is honored and discovered. It is a place where technology does not distract but adds to education. It is a place of down-time and exploration.

We are a schoolhouse. Not a school. We are warmth, community, and simplicity.

Hybrid

This is a very new and up-and-coming school choice that melds the best of a private/public school and homeschool together. Many models exist, but according to the state, your child is a homeschool student. Students then attend the hybrid for some of their academic instruction.

Some hybrids do mornings at school and afternoons at home. Others do a partial week at school and the rest at home. Even others do the whole school week at the hybrid with heavy parent involvement.

At A One-Room Schoolhouse, a student can attend for any mixture of 1 to 5 days a week. A student can attend the Friday elective cluster, the Monday/Tuesday academic science cluster, or the Wednesday/Thursday academic history cluster. Additionally, students can group these clusters together in any combination to build a three-day, four-day, or five-day week of participation.

Language Arts and Math are taught Monday through Thursday. If a student attends only one academic cluster, these subjects are taken home to study the days the student is not with A One-Room Schoolhouse. Furthermore, if a student attends only the science cluster, in addition to studying Language Arts and Math at home, the parent would also be in charge of teaching any desired history curriculum.

I know this can be a little confusing, please drop your questions in the comments below! (Take a look at our weekly schedule here.)

Homeschool

A One-Room Schoolhouse is set up as a nonprofit homeschool support group. Students are registered as homeschoolers and parents are the primary responsible party of the education.  Tuition is much lower than in a private school due to more limited classroom hours and heavy parent involvement.

We believe that the family is the center of a student’s education. A child’s learning and accountability for their education are between that child, their parent, and God. Period. A One-Room Schoolhouse is a support for that education, not an enforcer of artificial standards of learning and behavior.

This is why every student that studies with us is a homeschooler. Learning starts and ends in the home. Parents and students are responsible for learning. A One-Room Schoolhouse is a support, a place of gathering, and a group of mentors and learners.

(I have summarized how to become a homeschool student on our website here. For more detailed information, check out hslda for all the details!)

Academy

This last word was the hardest to determine. When defining academy, one encounters phrases like “educational institution”, “training establishment” and “center for learning”. Out of these, a center for learning is getting pretty close to the true essence of A One-Room Schoolhouse.

But, the second definition of “academy”, really hits the nail on the head:

“…a society or institution of distinguished scholars and artists or scientists that aims to promote and maintain standards in its particular field.”

Yes! That is us! We are and are striving to become distinguished scholars, artists, and scientists. We aim to promote and maintain the highest standards of education.

Our goal at A One-Room Schoolhouse is to create a flexible, rigorous, individualized, and comprehensive educational environment that reflects the counsel of Paul to learn and teach those things that are pure, lovely, virtuous, and praiseworthy. (Philippians 4:8) We aspire to be an edifying classroom environment with the expertise of experienced teachers to support all families seeking after these educational values in their homeschool endeavors.

We are an academy that values…

• A flexible educational environment, without the confines of grade levels, where students can progress in each subject as they reach concept mastery and are developmentally ready for further study.
• A rigorous academic curriculum preparing all students for post-secondary education, meaningful employment, civic involvement, and a lifetime of service.
• An individualized curriculum allowing students to pursue interests, goals, and in-depth understanding of knowledge and culture.
• A comprehensive education that honors the students’ needs for unstructured play, time in nature, socialization, leadership, creativity, and personal accountability.
• A learning environment with high moral values as taught and exemplified by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as each classroom learns and teaches those things that are pure, lovely, virtuous, and praiseworthy.
• A family’s right to be an integral and motivating force in their child’s education; that children are ultimately accountable to their parents and to God for their learning and behavior.

What is A One-Room Schoolhouse: A Hybrid Homeschool Academy?

A group of families working together to provide an exceptional education of faith, knowledge, and character.

Watch us grow! Create a schoolhouse in your area! Join our group!

Join our email list to keep up to date and learn about our ongoing development.

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