Lesson 4: Lesson Planning
Evaluating Your Child's Learning
For the most part, it is very easy for homeschooling parents to figure out what their children have learned. If you are working with him, you have observed how he tackled the problem, what challenges he faced and what he did to overcome them. You know if he can do this subject or not. However, it is helpful to develop some methods for deciding whether or not the child has mastered the material.
When I teach math, I have the children review daily. If we learned to add three digit numbers on Monday, I will begin Tuesday’s math lesson by giving them a three digit math problem to work on the wipe-off board before they have looked at their books to remember how they were done. If they can do it instantly without a review, I know they learned the material. I expect them to do this for three days in a row before I consider the material learned. After the third successful day, I test them once a week for a month. If they pass all tests, the problem goes into my occasional file. Periodically, I give the children review problems from the occasional file. This is the same method I use for reviewing spelling words.
To decide if a child has mastered history or science, ask him to tell you about the topic you have been studying. This is called narration. He should be able to explain the material in detail. Before asking him to narrate, you might want to create an outline in question form of important points. Mark off each question he answers in his own narration. When he is finished, ask him the questions he did not answer. If there are important sections he is unclear on, send him back to study those sections, or go over them with him. If a child cannot speak, ask him to draw pictures or act out the material. Practical material can be demonstrated, preferably with child-led explanations. Ask him to teach you how to do something.
Reading can be evaluated in a variety of ways. Talk to the child about the fiction he reads. Ask him to tell you what sort of person each character is. Can he describe the location of the story? Can he summarize the plot in a single sentence, or a brief paragraph? What is the problem the hero is trying to solve? Ask him to draw accurate pictures of the story. Act out the story with your children. Make models of the setting. There are many creative ways to figure out if the child understands the material. You should listen to him read aloud to be sure he can eventually read smoothly and with expression.
Periodically, you will want to evaluate your child in traditional ways. Someday he will have to take a test, and he should understand how to do this, even if tests do measure using artificial learning standards. You can buy tests for many subjects, or find them online. You can also create your own. Give your child experience with the most common types of tests, including true/false, fill in the blank, multiple choice and composition. In addition, consider purchasing practice books for standardized tests. These are the most artificial of all, and require special training.
In the following section, we will learn to write a test and discover ways to adapt it for special needs children.
