Help me come up with a summer lesson plan!
June 15, 2010 7:24 AM Subscribe
I'm tutoring a high school (about to be) sophomore over the summer. Without classes, I'm responsible for coming up with some kind of a lesson plan. What awesome things can we do together?
My student is going into her sophomore year, where she will be taking English, French 2, History, Chemistry, and Geometry. The things her mom and I really want to focus on are reading and general study skills. We meet once a week for two hours. My student and I did some brainstorming last night. Here are our ideas:
English: She dug Romeo and Juliet, so we are going to read Midsummer Night's Dream and pluck out vocab words she doesn't understand, which will be her homework to look up and learn how to use. She's not a big reader, but likes things with lots of dialogue. Any other book recommendations for her level?
French: Read a simple French children's book and along the way, explain the grammar and learn the vocabulary. Watch a French movie (with subtitles on) and discuss it. (Forgot to mention, I majored in French in college, so I feel equipped to be explaining this stuff.)
History: I'd love to get my hands on a general overview of Western Civ and read it together. Engaging writing is really a priority here. History is delightful, but my real intent here is to get her reading textbooks and studying effectively. Book suggestions?
Chemistry and Geometry: I'm not planning on working on these too intensively over the summer, since she has a full year for them afterwards. But if you have some fantastic ideas, I'd be glad to hear them.
We were also thinking about doing a couple field trips to some of the many local museums. We'd take a look at the subject matter of the museum before we went and then probably do the audio tours. The last thing I've asked her to do is a little mini report on any news item she finds interesting over the week. Nothing long, I just want to get her reading and aware of what's going on in the world.
So what do you guys think? What would you or your kids loved to have learned over the summers? I want to make this a fun, but educational time for her instead of being the mean tutor who just makes her do too much work over the summer.
Thanks!
My student is going into her sophomore year, where she will be taking English, French 2, History, Chemistry, and Geometry. The things her mom and I really want to focus on are reading and general study skills. We meet once a week for two hours. My student and I did some brainstorming last night. Here are our ideas:
English: She dug Romeo and Juliet, so we are going to read Midsummer Night's Dream and pluck out vocab words she doesn't understand, which will be her homework to look up and learn how to use. She's not a big reader, but likes things with lots of dialogue. Any other book recommendations for her level?
French: Read a simple French children's book and along the way, explain the grammar and learn the vocabulary. Watch a French movie (with subtitles on) and discuss it. (Forgot to mention, I majored in French in college, so I feel equipped to be explaining this stuff.)
History: I'd love to get my hands on a general overview of Western Civ and read it together. Engaging writing is really a priority here. History is delightful, but my real intent here is to get her reading textbooks and studying effectively. Book suggestions?
Chemistry and Geometry: I'm not planning on working on these too intensively over the summer, since she has a full year for them afterwards. But if you have some fantastic ideas, I'd be glad to hear them.
We were also thinking about doing a couple field trips to some of the many local museums. We'd take a look at the subject matter of the museum before we went and then probably do the audio tours. The last thing I've asked her to do is a little mini report on any news item she finds interesting over the week. Nothing long, I just want to get her reading and aware of what's going on in the world.
So what do you guys think? What would you or your kids loved to have learned over the summers? I want to make this a fun, but educational time for her instead of being the mean tutor who just makes her do too much work over the summer.
Thanks!
My qualifications: I did this for quite a few years. Here goes:
First, for any student but those with amazing powers of concentration, two hours is too long. You can get about an hour of someone's attention before they burn out. You can fiddle with this by switching subjects up, but aside from marathon "Uh yeah so I have this paper and I didn't know it and I need help organizing it by ... tomorrow" sessions, ninety minutes is about as far as I would go.
Definitely work on the chemistry and the geometry, as those two subjects can lend themselves to checking. Aside from errors of grammar, fact, and focus, the acceptability of your history essay will depend on the history teacher you get. In geometry, you either get the right answer or you do not. Even better, you can often work the geometry problem from a different angle (yeah, I went there) and check your work. You can do this with chemistry, as well.
Geometry lends itself to drawing and chemistry lends itself to casual experiments, making the subjects more concrete. Get your hands on some mineral samples — that element comes from this rock. Talk about the who and the why of each. Three-hundred sixty degrees, why that number? Who made the periodic table, and why? Were there any versions before that? How did it help? Math can seem very arbitrary to some people, as if all of the rules and procedures were simply selected at whim. If your student has this problem, go back to physical examples.
For reading skills, I found throwing away the approved list to be the most freeing thing I could do. Concentrating on books which are mostly age-appropriate, short, and above all, relevant to the student's interests, will give you a big payoff as opposed to slogging through The Scarlet Letter. Read the book yourself at the same time. Maybe she'll like science fiction, fantasy, or something else. If you aren't sure if the book is "young adult," my rule of thumb is to look at the age of the protagonist, then subtract three years. Does that match the age of your student? Match gender as well, if you can get it.
Asking questions like, "What didn't you get? Was there anyone whose motivations you didn't understand? what parts didn't make sense to you?" in addition to the usual fact-based "I'm making sure you read this" questions helps. "What part sounded best to you?" is often illuminating. "What did you like? What didn't you like? Why?" Apply that to characters and scenes. "What didn't fit in with everything else?" Finding the parts you disliked about favorite books and the worthwhile bits from hated novels is a great way to teach children how to think critically.
Summer tutoring is hard without something to touch against. Make your own syllabus, then keep it to yourself.
posted by adipocere at 7:57 AM on June 15, 2010
First, for any student but those with amazing powers of concentration, two hours is too long. You can get about an hour of someone's attention before they burn out. You can fiddle with this by switching subjects up, but aside from marathon "Uh yeah so I have this paper and I didn't know it and I need help organizing it by ... tomorrow" sessions, ninety minutes is about as far as I would go.
Definitely work on the chemistry and the geometry, as those two subjects can lend themselves to checking. Aside from errors of grammar, fact, and focus, the acceptability of your history essay will depend on the history teacher you get. In geometry, you either get the right answer or you do not. Even better, you can often work the geometry problem from a different angle (yeah, I went there) and check your work. You can do this with chemistry, as well.
Geometry lends itself to drawing and chemistry lends itself to casual experiments, making the subjects more concrete. Get your hands on some mineral samples — that element comes from this rock. Talk about the who and the why of each. Three-hundred sixty degrees, why that number? Who made the periodic table, and why? Were there any versions before that? How did it help? Math can seem very arbitrary to some people, as if all of the rules and procedures were simply selected at whim. If your student has this problem, go back to physical examples.
For reading skills, I found throwing away the approved list to be the most freeing thing I could do. Concentrating on books which are mostly age-appropriate, short, and above all, relevant to the student's interests, will give you a big payoff as opposed to slogging through The Scarlet Letter. Read the book yourself at the same time. Maybe she'll like science fiction, fantasy, or something else. If you aren't sure if the book is "young adult," my rule of thumb is to look at the age of the protagonist, then subtract three years. Does that match the age of your student? Match gender as well, if you can get it.
Asking questions like, "What didn't you get? Was there anyone whose motivations you didn't understand? what parts didn't make sense to you?" in addition to the usual fact-based "I'm making sure you read this" questions helps. "What part sounded best to you?" is often illuminating. "What did you like? What didn't you like? Why?" Apply that to characters and scenes. "What didn't fit in with everything else?" Finding the parts you disliked about favorite books and the worthwhile bits from hated novels is a great way to teach children how to think critically.
Summer tutoring is hard without something to touch against. Make your own syllabus, then keep it to yourself.
posted by adipocere at 7:57 AM on June 15, 2010
My son read Taming of the Shrew in 10th grade. He is not a reader and so we watched 10 Things I Hate About You, then read the play using No Fear Shakespeare, which has a modern translation side-by-side with the original. It really made it accessible to him.
For French she could read the Little Prince in both English & French (or translate the French to English, and illustrate it herself, if you wanted to make a project of it and she's artsy). There was also a movie of the Little Prince that she could watch.
posted by headnsouth at 8:30 AM on June 15, 2010
For French she could read the Little Prince in both English & French (or translate the French to English, and illustrate it herself, if you wanted to make a project of it and she's artsy). There was also a movie of the Little Prince that she could watch.
posted by headnsouth at 8:30 AM on June 15, 2010
Please find a production of MND to attend, in addition to reading the play. Maybe a movie version too, if she's really into it. Compare and contrast, casually, verbally. Don't beat it to death.
posted by jvilter at 9:26 AM on June 15, 2010
posted by jvilter at 9:26 AM on June 15, 2010
I really, really think the best thing you could do would be to open up her reading list to fun stuff. No matter how much she liked Romeo and Juliet, there are very few teenagers who will be motivated at reading Shakespeare and looking up vocabulary words for two hours a week in the summer.
On the other hand, fostering in her a love of casual and fun reading will actually do a lot more to enhance her reading skills. There is a lot of great reading material for teenagers out there right now. If she liked the romance of Romeo and Juliet, you might consider something like Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver (like Twilight, but with werewolves and much better written) or Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth. If she likes more adventurey stuff, there's The Hunger Games and Graceling. If she likes realistic stuff, try some John Green on for size. Or just go to your local book store and walk around their YA section.
Then have her write book reviews of the books she reads. Have her look at professional book reviews of the books in question, and make her really explain her opinions. This will be fun because the works in question are shorter, more contemporary, and potentially more relevant than what she's reading in school, but it will really help her to sharpen her analytic and critical thinking skills. To add another level of fun, help her shine up those reviews to put on a review site like goodreads or amazon. This will give her a level of connectedness with other readers, many of whom will be in her age group.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:36 AM on June 15, 2010
On the other hand, fostering in her a love of casual and fun reading will actually do a lot more to enhance her reading skills. There is a lot of great reading material for teenagers out there right now. If she liked the romance of Romeo and Juliet, you might consider something like Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver (like Twilight, but with werewolves and much better written) or Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth. If she likes more adventurey stuff, there's The Hunger Games and Graceling. If she likes realistic stuff, try some John Green on for size. Or just go to your local book store and walk around their YA section.
Then have her write book reviews of the books she reads. Have her look at professional book reviews of the books in question, and make her really explain her opinions. This will be fun because the works in question are shorter, more contemporary, and potentially more relevant than what she's reading in school, but it will really help her to sharpen her analytic and critical thinking skills. To add another level of fun, help her shine up those reviews to put on a review site like goodreads or amazon. This will give her a level of connectedness with other readers, many of whom will be in her age group.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:36 AM on June 15, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Just some follow up: I don't make this poor girl do Shakespeare for two hours at a time! We usually spend about half an hour on each subject, interspersed with lots of casual discussion about it. I work as a textbook editor, so I'm really interested in active learning methods to encourage critical thinking. I definitely aim for a more discursive than didactic lesson plan. Adipocere, I love the questions you ask and the ones I don't already use will soon be included.
I do plan on bringing her armloads of fun books that I read at that age for her to enjoy and discuss. I just want to get her nose in a book, any book and have her enjoy it. I didn't intend to imply that we were going to be doing Shakespeare and nothing but Shakespeare.
headnsouth, I can't believe I forgot Le Petit Prince! Thank you for reminding me, I think that will be perfect.
Thanks again, everyone.
posted by chatongriffes at 10:18 AM on June 15, 2010
I do plan on bringing her armloads of fun books that I read at that age for her to enjoy and discuss. I just want to get her nose in a book, any book and have her enjoy it. I didn't intend to imply that we were going to be doing Shakespeare and nothing but Shakespeare.
headnsouth, I can't believe I forgot Le Petit Prince! Thank you for reminding me, I think that will be perfect.
Thanks again, everyone.
posted by chatongriffes at 10:18 AM on June 15, 2010
Take her to see plays! Then talk about them as literature. Shakespeare is great, but there are tons of wonderful writers and artists creating great theater, and it's easy to fall in love with language in a great play. I recommend David Mamet, Tom Stoppard, and Wendy Wasserstein for particularly good storytelling and use of language.
posted by decathecting at 11:26 AM on June 15, 2010
posted by decathecting at 11:26 AM on June 15, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
I thinking reading Midsummer Night's Dream together is a great idea, but she should also be doing some independent reading because honestly, there's not a lot of relevant vocab development in Shakespeare--much of the language and phrasing is arcane these days. Reading MSD *will* help her navigated multi-plotted books and deal with Shakespeare in the future. I'd recommend having her keep track of what's going on in the three story lines (Athenians, fairies, rude mechanicals) and think about what Shakespeare uses their unique modes of speech (Athenians = blank verse, faries = rhyme, mechanicals = prose) to communicate to the audience. Extend by having her assign speech patterns to groups in her life today.
The thing about improving reading level means she should be finding books where there are 1-2 unfamiliar words per page she doesn't know. Any more than that, and she'll spend too much time trying to work out what's going on that she'll lose her reading flow. Any less than that, and she won't be expanding her word base. She should track the new vocab words in a taxonomy and work them into real-life sentences.
Good luck!
posted by smirkette at 7:51 AM on June 15, 2010