Lesson 2: How We Learn, Teach, and Tailor a Unit Study to Fit
Here you'll get a brief overview of the various methods of teaching and learning to see where unit studies may fit into your educational planning. You'll also be given tools to help you decide your children's learning styles and how to incorporate these into your teaching plans.
2-1 Introduction
2-2 Styles of Learning: Determining Your Children's Favorites
* Online Models and Free Assessments
* Applying the Learning
2-3 Basic Styles of Teaching
* Online Models and Free Assessments
* Choosing a Teaching Strategy
2-4 Tailoring a Unit Study to Their Learning Styles
* Download: Learning Method Preferences Checklist
2-5 Resources
2-1 Introduction
You may be wondering, "Why study learning and teaching styles in a course on unit studies?" Glad you asked. One of the prime motivations for creating our own unit studies is to motivate our pupils, to engender an enthusiasm and passion for a subject. My daughter Jenny was not fond of history in her early years as a student -- A dead subject to her way of thinking. It was through re-enactments, historical fiction books, historically based movies, deep-thinking unit studies on Old Rome, Medieval Europe, the Victorian era at Christmas (with tie-ins to Lady and the Tramp, of course), as well as numerous studies built around Colonial, Revolutionary, Civil War and Twentieth Century American eras that sparked an enduring interest . . . so much so that she is now a history & computer science major in college with hopes of teaching college history.
All it took was understanding what sparked her style of learning and adapting my teaching methods accordingly.
In lesson 2 we'll briefly look at some of the more common teaching methods and styles of learning first. Links to some excellent websites will help you determine your children's styles. We'll then look at some ways to combine what you learned into creating a unit study which will help them experience the joy of learning. Again, a discussion area and bibliography follow in the Resources Section.
Objectives of this Lesson
The purpose of this lesson is to give you simple tools to help understand the learning styles that work best for you and your children and show you how to apply what you learned to your own unit studies through proven teaching methods.
Recommended Resources
***Note: all books and reading assignments are optional and are provided as additional information for the student.
This lesson relies mostly on:
Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual: Junior/Senior High by Cathy Duffy. (The discussion on learning styles.)
and also on the following main links:
http://ccc.commnet.edu/faculty/~simonds/...
http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users...
http://www.ericsp.org/pages/digests/home...
Full citations and additional books and links are given in the Resources Section.
Preparation
No prior preparation is necessary, however I'd recommend reviewing the resources listed above or Section 2-5 in conjunction with this lesson for maximum effect.
