Design an invention that makes some tedious task easier in your life (it can be realistic or utterly absurd… you choose).
Author Archive
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Sometimes we all need a little frame of reference to help us know that what we’re doing works or makes sense. Sometimes we wonder how to “break through” to the next level, to get past frustration or to put the pieces all together.
I had Bloom’s Taxonomy taped to the inside of my homeschool calendar back when I used to have a homeschool calendar (like years one and two). What I liked about it was the simplicity of the categories.
For those who have not read it before, I offer it here. Educationalists in grad school spend copious hours studying and writing about the various levels. For those of us at home, we have the joy and privilege of observing these stages at work naturally in most cases. Remember, too, that all of us move between these stages, both up and down the scale.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Knowledge – General intelligence – recall data or information.
Comprehension – Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation
and interpretation of instructions and problems (state a problem in
one’s own words).
Application – Use of a concept in a new situation or unprompted use
of an abstraction. Applies what was learned into novel situations
Analysis – Separates material or concepts into component parts so
that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes
between facts and inferences.
Synthesis – Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements.
Puts parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new
meaning or structure.
Evaluation – Makes judgments about the value of ideas or materials
You can apply these steps to the writing process easily. Note that no writing can occur until the first four steps have taken place. There must be knowledge, comprehension, application of the ideas and meaningful analysis before you can expect a child to then synthesize what she’s learned and then evaluate it in writing.
This all sounds a bit more formal than I mean it to. Let’s boil it down.
- Spend time with the material
- Talk about it until you are comfortable with it
- Use it (share it with someone else, test out the theory, do the activity, relate the idea to something else)
- Criticize it (if appropriate). Figure out how it works or could be better expressed or what it has that is worth remembering, honoring or celebrating.
- Pick out the parts you want to emphasize. Freewrite about them.
- Evaluate your freewriting and determine what you might like to write about – what focus, what scope, what aspect. Then do it!
Tuesday Teatime: a wonderful atmosphere
We’re in our 4th week implementing The Writer’s Jungle…it’s been a fabulous experience! My kids LOVE copywork and our Tuesday Teatime. I’ve attached a picture of today’s Tuesday Teatime — that’s grape juice and apple juice in the glasses 🙂
One of the best things about our Tuesday Teatime is the opportunity for me to make something yummy to eat, and have the atmosphere feel special for the kids. Those are two areas that I haven’t really thought much about until we started doing the teatimes – they love the attention! Thanks again for your wonderful insight – and for sharing!
Blessings,
Lisa
From Homeschool to Cyber-Cell-Phone School
Personal Notes
Noah, our oldest, college freshman at University of Cincinnati, has been working like a fiend (26 hours to pay for food and rent and the more important Road Runner connection for his computer) and suddenly had his Very First Essay due.
Jon teaches at the same university where Noah attends and knows what the department wants in these essays. But brave young freshman that he is, Noah didn’t want help… until, like, the eleventh hour. At that point, Jon couldn’t give it—he was teaching and sleeping!
So the task fell to me. After Noah’s late shift at work, he drove from school back to our house and we sat until the wee hours piecing together the opening paragraphs of his draft. Bleary-eyed from work and writing, I sent him to bed upstairs (after feeding him real food) where he slept the full seven hours. We rose early and did a bit more work until Noah headed out the door to make it in time to his first class.
After class, he called me from the library. We worked some more via phone. Alas, he had to leave for work again (another eight hour shift into the night). That night he called me at midnight. We chatted on the phone while he emailed the drafts. I read and made comments while he typed them in. He added material and read it to me. We both had copies of the book open in front of us. Exhausted but happy with where the essay was going, we collapsed into our respective beds.
Morning dawned and the phone blared. I rousted myself out of bed and read his draft impatiently waiting in my in-box. The paper was looking good, but alas, not finished.
So we got to work. Unfortunately, Noah had to finish the paper, get dressed and hoof it to class while grabbing food on the way. Panic set in. How would he get it all done? He still had to get to the library to print it, too. Disaster seemed inevitable. And then….
That’s when I remembered we are in the 21st century! No more electric typewriters! No more phones glued to a wall (how inconvenient). Time for mobile essay writing! I can see the TV ads now. So I said:
Noah, put on your clothes and start walking. You dictate, I type and then I’ll send the finished draft to your email.
So he walked out the door, cars and deisel buses whizzing by. First he couldn’t hear me, then I couldn’t hear him, but all the while, the final paragraphs of the paper poured out of him as he waited at the “Don’t walk” sign, as he thrust his freezing hands into his deep pockets, as he waved to girls who know him (he has fans!). He arrived at the on-campus Starbucks as I typed the last line.
We laughed. Could we really have just written an essay over the phone on the way to class? I clicked the send button and the now completed essay zinged to his yahoo account in milliseconds. Noah picked up his java and headed to the library where all he had to do was hit the print button.
Made it to class with two seconds to spare.
Wow! Do I love cell phones and the Internet?
Now some people might think this is an absurd amount of help to give a college student. But not me. This is a kid who is working 26 hours a week to pay for his life while going to school fulltime… someone who didn’t go to traditional school for the last two and a half years. Yet he’s doing it… he’s hanging in there, wants to succeed, wants to make it work, is making it work.
I felt glad that I could help at all. It’s a pleasure to watch his mind grow and unfold—a continuation of all those years together.
I heard from Noah yesterday. His professor loves his writing style! He’s got some improvements to make structurally (issues I could see as I typed), but what tickled him the most is that someone other than me enjoyed his writing, saw the person that Noah is, the style of him, the insight of his thoughts—all in his writing.
And to think I get to see it happen… Have I mentioned lately that I love homeschooling?
To Kill a Mockingbird: Slingshot Companion
Starting next week, the Slingshot Companion will be discussing To Kill a Mockingbird. I’d like to recommend that if this is a book that you plan to read with your teens, that you sign up for this month’s discussion. Jon (hubby) is wonderful at leading discussions of literature with teens and this happens to be one of his favorite books to teach.
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of those novels that all teens ought to have on their reading lists before college.
If you are interested in joining the Slingshot Companion, you can sign up for a monthly deduction from your paypal account using this link:
http://www.bravewriter.com/orderSC.htm
If you want to try out the Companion for a month, you can either send a check for $10.00 or send Paypal (go to paypal.com directly and select the send money option. Use my email address—julie AT bravewriter DOT com— as the recipient and send $10. Include a note in the text box that you are interested in November’s SC).
Julie
