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Planning and portfolio
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My head is spinning! This new year will be the first year that we need to officially document my dd7. This past year I included both doc on my planning sheets as the majority of our subjects are family work. I know I don’t want to submit anything to the district about my ds who isn’t registered yet. I feel like I need 3 planners: teacher planner for the weekly details and notes, dd for portfolio, ds to keep separate. I’d be re-writing the subjects 3 times to a degree. How do others handle it? Or does it not matter if his info is on there?
Let me know.
Not sure what state you’re in or what your laws are, but I’m in PA (the 2nd hardest state to homeschool in) and I don’t hand in my plans. I only give what I have to. A few samples of work from the beginning, middle and end of the year to show progress. Then I put in an attendance sheet that shows 180 days checked off. Not sure if that helps or not.
I’d check what is required by your state. Where I am, the plans I need to submit can be done with 1-2 sentences per subject.
Ie – Social Studies – History, we will be doing the renaissance period. Geograpghy – following the travels of Marco Polo.
Sorry I forgot my state. I am in PA. Aimee, I’m happy to hear that you just send in the 180 day for attendance. The law is gray in that area but HSLDA takes the stand that we are required to submit the attendance including the books/materials used that school day.
Here is the law:
“The portfolio shall consist of a log, made contemporaneously with the instruction, which designates by title the reading materials used,
samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials used or developed by the student
and in grades three, five and eight results of nationally normed standardized achievement tests in reading/language arts and mathematics or the results of Statewide tests administered in these grade levels.”
So that is why I was trying to send along the details on my calendar counting attendance. I think I need to sleep on it.
I’m also in PA and I just submit an attendance sheet with the 180 days checked off. Sometimes I’ll list the materials used somewhere in the portfolio, but very briefly, such as, “child #5 completed 130 lessons of Saxon math” Do you have a homeschool group in your area that you are part of? We have a yahoo group and someone has posted files there of sample portfolio cover letters and other forms that are helpful in determining how to fulfill the requirements.
Jeaninpa is right. Finding a group in your area is valuable. The ones who have experience with your district can tell you what they do. The old pros in my area were involved when the homeschool law was made and don’t agree with hslda. We do show what we use for instruction but it’s on the book list not on the calender. I also include the testing scores in grades 3,5 and 8 I just didn’t mention that before. If it’s any consolation, I’ve been doing it like this for 11 years.
If you want to show what you did each day. You could journal it on a blank calender or planner as you go. Plan ahead on something with the whole family together, then not down notes of what you did each day with the oldest just for the portfolio. Still sounds like lots of work, I know. Hope this helps.
I’m in PA, too. And I do like jeaninpa for attendance – a simple calendar (two pages of small, little months) where I simply mark a 1 if we did a whole day of school and 1/2 if we did a half day of school. When it all adds up to 180, we’re done!
I took a lot of ideas from nancextoo.livejournal.com (her blog is called Home’s Cool) and I use her objectives, I like her summary idea (even though it’s not required). I write a summary for each subject area (phys ed, fire prevention, math, science, history, etc.). I really like the summar because I can write a small paragraph about each subject and say some of the things we did that are not represented by samples.
I’m of the persuasion to not give any more than I absolutely have to — so I list my “Resources Used” (all the “textbooks”) and simply put whether we used each book 1 day per week or 3 times per week, etc. I list in a separate listing all the books that my duaghter read through the year (school and fun reading all mixed together) and at the end of that list, I put the books I read aloud to her.
As for samples, last year I handed in two samples from each subject area. Like I said, I did the summary too — and my school district accepted it. I know around here there’s one evaluator who insists on 5 samples from each subject area. My evaluator says 3 samples and I only put in 2. So, it reallly varies by area and by school district and by the mood of the superintendent or principal that day! (there’s another good reason for the portfolio to stop with the evaluator — have you called your State Rep yet???
)If you poke around on nancextoo.livejournal.com, you’ll find some great stuff!
Jeaninpa — what’s the name of the yahoo group? can anyone join?
Here is a link to a page that is all about homeschool portfolios in Pennsylvania. She has links to sample logs, what samples of work to hand in, evaluator information, etc. I do not know what it is like since I homeschool in Ohio, but it looks like she has a lot of step-by-step information on the website.
http://home.comcast.net/~askpauline/hs/homeschoolportfolios.html
HTH,
Sue
Thanks for everyone’s feedback. On the askpauline.com site if you click on her “log” link she explains the different types….calendar incl books used per day or book list with separate attendance sheet. I guess I just need to pick my path!
Karen, that link was great and very helpful! On a completely separate note, did you read her toilet paper roll experiment?
I am so encouraged by this discussion. Thank you ladies! I am in PA and have friends that homeschool but none that use the Charlotte Mason method. T hey all use textbooks. Some said it is difficult to show what your child has learned with this method because of all the narration. So thank you for sharing!
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