Lesson 1: Getting Your Feet Wet in a Sea of Studies
1-2 The Unit Study Concept: What It Is, What It Isn't
Just what is a unit study? In the broadest sense a unit study is a method of studying one or more subjects all related to a unifying theme. In the unit study approach you look at any or all subjects in the light of a particular topic, theme, or historical/cultural period, perhaps. It can be as simple as a short term study -- several subjects based on a unifying theme -- or it can be an entire year's curriculum revolving about a single unifying theme like character traits.
A single subject unit study may focus on birds, for example. The biology of birds, their flight skills, perhaps combined with a story about birds, painting a picture of birds, and maybe a trip to a zoo, aviary, farm, or wildlife center. If you plan to get a pet bird for your child, such a unit study would be a great prelude to the arrival, including a section on the care and feeding of your new addition. I could see a grand finale to the study being the arrival of the pet itself!
We once created a board game together which had squares detailing the joys and work of raising birds. We designed MOVE cards based on Algebra equations making lemonade from a lemon of a subject to Jen's mind.
In this course we will be dealing with this kind of short-term, multiple-subject unit study. Simply put, we'll combine several subjects into a fun-filled event lasting anywhere from a few hours to a week for your family of students and you! In fact, you'll be creating your own as we go, uniquely tailored to fit your children.
Advantages
There are many ways to go about this type of teaching which we'll discuss shortly. It might be best to first look at some of the reasons why we want to leap into unit studies:
- Build a world around your educational learning – a world designed especially to pique the interests of your children.
- Plunge yourselves into a total learning environment built around a theme that lights the flame of learning.
- The unit study approach not only helps foster a better atmosphere in which to learn, but it will also give you and your children a lifelong memory of high points in their childhood.
- Creating unit studies gives you and those you teach an entertaining and enjoyable structure on which you can hang your educational activities. Fire up the imagination as you design a framework for learning for all ages.
- Unit studies tend to be activity based. This makes them great for kinesthetic learners.
- They present a unified, orderly approach to learning all subjects.
- Children become more involved, less passive, and more passionate about learning when lessons are not merely shoved down their throats in neatly ordered assignments meeting neat, orderly curriculum requirements.
- For older students as well as younger certain types of unit studies bridge the connection between academic learning and professional skills. Simulations and our business-in-a-box studies try to do exactly that. In our Publishing House box, we try to simulate the many jobs needed to create and publish and market a book while each child actually creates an impressive hardcover illustrated book. We even threw a grand author's party to celebrate the completion of the book. We'll even find out how to submit the book to a real publisher's annual contest for the chance to have it actually published!
- By focusing first on the areas your children are most apt to enjoy, the learning experience becomes more fruitful. You can then branch out more successfully into other areas.
- Your children see subjects weave together, find relationships among them.
- If you teach more than one age, you'll find the unit study method provides an umbrella to relate subject matter for all learning levels under a thematic umbrella.
- It's an approach that can strengthen the family or group through shared activities, field trips, projects, simulations and games revolving about the theme.
- The unit study, well designed, can be a less intimidating learning atmosphere for the reluctant learner.
- Designing your own unit study can save considerably over the cost of pre-planned studies. As you often use "regular" materials instead of textbooks for research, they can also save you the cost of many textbooks over the years.
- Unit studies make use of "real" books from a variety of resources. Text books only contain a condensed version of information gleaned from other sources. Unit studies encourage the building of analytical thinking skills. A student must do more than simply fill in the blanks and remember the information until the test. They get many more opportunities to "chew" on the information and digest it to make it their own.
Disadvantages
These are some of the advantages of using unit studies. As with any approach there are certain disadvantages. Here are a few . . . along with ideas to combat the potential problem:
- It does take time to put together a unit study. However, you'll find the more you do, the less the time it requires beyond lesson preparation. You may also want to engage the help of older students in putting together unit studies for younger children. They will get valuable experience research, organizing, writing, and communicating as well as any other areas they want to explore . . . like doing their own illustrating, perhaps, or creating a game to reinforce concepts. Giving your children the opportunity to share in the creation of an appealing unit study can be exciting and doubly rewarding for them - even the young child can help create props or come up with activities to practice concepts learned.
- It can take some imagination to link together all the subjects and ages you would like to include in your study. Here again it may help to call on your children. Their imaginations and enthusiasm for fun projects can help you over these hurdles and help bond the family or class together. But also remember: don't make it a major, polished project or the learning and enthusiasm may get lost in the planning and scripting. Jenny and I most enjoyed the impromptu or fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants studies. When I spent a lot of time polishing and fine tuning, often the joy and spontaneity of my student was lost. Not worth the price, no matter how pretty a study I had developed. It was a lesson I had to learn time and time again, I'm sorry top say.
- If you are following a rigid curriculum, it may be difficult to fit a unit study into the overall scheme of things. Don't fret over the fit; just have fun with it! A unit study doesn't have to meet a curriculum goal. In the beginning especially, it's often more rewarding to do a unit study on an extra topic which your children find fascinating. Our first unit study - using a book called Little House in the Classroom – was based on Jenny's favorite book: Little House in the Big Woods. We decided to do it because it seemed like a fun idea, a bit of fresh air compared to the usual textbook fare. We were hooked on unit studies as regular fare from that time on through high school.
- Flying solo in a study you create from scratch may seem intimidating. You may be wondering if you have what it takes. Rest easy. If you have what it takes to teach your children then you have what it takes to create learning resources which you know they will love. Besides . . .that's what I'm here for – to convince you that you can succeed in creating truly dynamic unit studies!
