Lesson 6: Create Your Own Unit Study
In this lesson, you will build a unit study especially designed to meet your child's special needs and interests.
Getting Started
Unit studies are an exciting way to teach children. They require more preparation than do traditional methods of teaching, but they tie a school day together in a way that makes the material easier to master. If you are preparing your own materials, a unit study may actually simplify the process and make it easier to adapt curriculum. When you study the same subject all month, you need less vocabulary, making the material easier for children who struggle with reading or language. When you teach children of varying ages, you can easily adapt the material so that all your children can learn the topic with variations based on age and ability. Parents of a learning disabled child will find this especially important when an older child’s abilities are equal to that of a younger child. It is less embarrassing when you are all studying the same material.
Unit studies are based on a theme and all subjects are taught from that perspective. Parents often select a book, the history unit or a science unit as the basis for the thematic study or unit study. I generally used history, but for this lesson, we will be following a lesson plan on endangered animals.
You should prepare a unit study of your own as you study this lesson. I will walk you through the steps I follow to create my unit study, but you can easily create your own on any topic. For your first unit, select an easy topic. Later, when you have more experience, you can choose obscure topics that interest you but are harder to research. For practicality, we will use as many internet resources as possible. If you would like to share your unit study, post it on the board. Be sure to list any sources you use.
I will prepare this lesson for an imaginary family:
Katelin is six and very bright. She has no disabilities. She reads at a fourth grade level. Aaron is eight and has cerebral palsy. He has difficulty speaking and using his hands. Josh is ten and reads at a first grade level. He has dyslexia.
When you choose your subject, select something that will take at least one month to teach. Select subjects of interest to your children and to yourself. Don’t narrow the topic too far. Make sure there are materials available on the topic.
My unit study will be about endangered animals. I plan to teach it for one month. (Normally, I studied a unit for three months, with a unique focus each month. To simplify matters here, though, I am choosing a shorter time period. After doing some initial looking around, I decide that each week can have a focus. The first week, we will study the cause and effect of animal endangerment. The second and third weeks, we will focus on specific animals. The fourth week, we will talk about prevention.
