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Using the Charlotte Mason Method in Public Schools
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I am in college studying to be a teacher. Currently, I am doing a practicum at a school that uses dry textbooks and worksheets, worksheets, worksheets! I was homeschooled using the Charlotte Mason method from 8th grade and up, and I am a FIRM believer in it!
My teacher has allowed me to teach reading and spelling, and I’m stumped as to how in the world I can incorporate Charlotte Mason’s methods while still following the textbook. She wants me to follow the themes of the textbook, but how can I bring some life to their reading? I’d appreciate any advice!!
Let us know what age group you’re working with and also what themes you have coming up. How large of a class do you have? Do you think the teacher would go for narration?
Interesting questions. I hope we can offer some great suggestions.
They are fourth graders, and there are three in the classroom. Ha, it’s almost like homeschooling in a way! The theme for this unit is “Our Voices” (learning about how talents are used to communicate ideas), and they’re supposed to focus on judgments and decisions. The problem with the stories is, they jump around so much! One week they learn about Benjamin Franklin, and the next they are talking about Japanese traditions. It doesn’t make any sense to me!
My teacher is extremely flexible, but she wants me to use the textbook as a guide. I’ve started doing copywork and dictation for spelling, but am at a loss about the reading.
Wow – I feel for you! My mom was an English teacher for years and they actually taught her (in college) a lot about using whole, living books rather than textbooks. So she has always adapted the material and used the texts as a ‘jumping off point’. I will ask her for suggestions, but this is what comes to my mind:
Could you find alternative, living books (I am thinking of the D’Aulaire books or other, living biographies)? If you have to use the textbook, you could read living books in addition to the text.
Also, with only 4 students I would assume that they could take turns narrating what is read for the day? I would think that narrating would be incredible for developing mental ‘writing’ skills, especially for kids at that age.
Could you find artwork and poetry that relates to the character, country, or theme? Then you could do picture study and a poetry reading with them.
Since the theme is about how talents communicate ideas, how about music appreciation? I would think that studying a piece of music and discussing how the composer’s choices effect the mood of the piece would be interesting – at least for the kids who like music :).
I wouldn’t worry too much about the fact that it is not chronological historically. That much isn’t really in your control – but the methods you employ to teach the material can be tweaked to make it effective in the classroom. And I am guessing the kids will learn so much more and love the class as well!
Blessings to you.
And could you introduce a Book of Centuries to help with the chronology maybe? If they could take two minutes to flip open their BOC and enter the person they just read about/listened to/looked at, they would be able to see how far apart or close together the entries are and get a feel for history.
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