SCM Discussion Forum

1. 

   amandajhilburn
   Member

   Yes, that helps. I am going to read your book and try to compare and contrast to see what makes the most sense to me and my husband, taking our children into consideration. I just have not had a strong feeling that any of the explanations of these methods are "IT" for us. We have just been halfway doing things here and there with copywork, narration and dictation. I even went to the extreme of traditional workbooks for part of this year and am just not satisfied with anything at the moment.

   Listening to Susan Wise Bauer's lectures on writing has been helpful to me. There are so many things that are similar to the CM method within the Classical method. The 3 stages of learning make sense to me also, but I'm just not so sure that my children will move into those stages at the times they are "supposed to".  I can now see the importance of these methods, but I have to decide how I want to do this without loosing my mind ;) Self confidence would be a good beginning, I guess :) 

   Posted 2 years ago # Report Post
2. 

   hsmom22
   Member

   Michelle (Bookworm), these are great suggestions for fiction books.  Thanks so much for posting them!  What would you do for non-fiction reading?  Thanks.

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3. 

   Bookworm
   Member

   You're going to have to excuse my middle-aged mind here--I'm not sure I know what book list you are posting about here?

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4. 

   hsmom22
   Member

   Oh, I'm sorry, not a book list, I was referring to your list of suggestions for narration missions, back on Page 1 of this thread.  Sooo helpful, and with the potential for such thought-provoking responses!  I was just wondering how you would handle a narration from a non-fiction book.  Do you feel any of these suggestions would lend itself to non-fiction reading or would you handle that differently?

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5. 

   Bookworm
   Member

   Not a lot differently; I think history can be treated much the same--just use historical figures for characters and historical events for plot developments.  You can still use judgment-based questions.  Science reading might very well be different; I'm usually pretty happy there if I just get a good explanation of the passage.  There might be times you'd be reading about a scientist (character) or listing the sequences in a chemical reaction (events in order) or something like that.  There's not a lot of judgment to be made in describing sequences in a chemical reaction :-)  for example.  I do tend to assign most of these essay-skill-developing ideas to fiction and history/biography.  The physics textbook just isn't as amenable, lol.

    

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6. 

   hsmom22
   Member

   Yes, I see what you mean.  I'll probably just use them for fiction, as they seem so perfect for that type of reading.  So, how many missions do you feel would be reasonable to answer at each sitting? One?  More than one?  (...and I imagine you would give them their choice of which missions to answer, correct?) Also, how often would this writing take place...after each reading (which, personally, I don't have a problem with, as they are such wonderfully-varied ideas) or after every completed book?  Sorry for so many questions, but I am really excited about using these writing aids, as I think they'll be a great way to connect reading to writing in a much more thoughtful way!

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7. 

   Bookworm
   Member

   Well, once my kids got fairly good at written narrations, I had them do one a day, and so then I'd stick in a narration mission maybe once or twice a week?  I kept them on colored index cards, and when I looked over the day's lessons, I'd paperclip an index card to the book so they'd know to do it for that reading.  Does that make sense?  Now that the older ones are pretty competent at essays, I just assign regular essays, maybe two a week.  I have to confess I usually didn't give them a choice.  :-)  If my kids thought they had a choice in writing, they'd start thinking they could choose not to write--it's not their favorite thing.  So I'd look at the reading and think it would lend itself well to one of the types, and just put that one with that reading.  I did try to vary them so they didn't get the same ones all the time.

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8. 

   hsmom22
   Member

   Yes, Michelle, that makes perfect sense. Thank you!  And, I agree with completely about the choice thing.  Since I have been more consistent this year with my expectations, in a rather run-of-the-mill, this-is-how-it-is type manner, my kids have really risen to the occasion and are turning in some absolutely wonderful work.  I am so pleased...and so are they!  Thanks again for all of your help. 

    

   Posted 2 years ago # Report Post

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