Description

Marie MacPherson has put together an elective for high school students interested in teaching. (What a great idea!) This product includes two PDFs: Education Foundations and Supplemental Documents. Read the introduction below and here is a 40-page preview.

Overview

Education Foundations is an independent or group homeschool high-school curriculum, spanning the history of education in America and of the Church, including books, articles, biographies, concepts, and projects. This curriculum places special emphasis on Christian education of youth, but that is not to say that all selections chosen are written from a Christian perspective. In fact, many of the people and
philosophies grappled with are not Christian. However, with this curriculum packet as guide, students will be better equipped to think critically and Biblically about teaching. Rights are given for one family unit (not extended family) to use this PDF without limitation, or one classroom teacher to use ideas from this unit. Please inquire at Into Your Hands, LLC (www.intoyourhandsllc.com/contact) for multi-use licenses for co-ops or schools.

Objectives

This curriculum features many objectives, including those that follow. The student will…

•  …appreciate the educational ideas flowing from the Lutheran Reformation.
•  …analyze books and articles about teaching, as well as various educational theories, from Christian worldview.
•  …become familiar with the biographies of prominent educators of the past and present.
•  …discover a wide-variety of historical approaches to education.
•  …practice basic teaching skills, such as organizing a lesson plan and formulating comprehension questions.
•  …be prepared to serve as a teacher in the home, church, and schools.
•  …reflect upon and formulate a Christian educational philosophy.

Organization

This curriculum is organized into seven different units, each about four weeks long. Instructors know their students best and can adapt the curriculum for simplicity in the family, or tailor it for a specific student. Aim to complete approximately one unit a month for this course. Some units may take the student an additional week or two; therefore this curriculum would work well spread out over a 30- to
34-week school year. It is expected that a student receiving one credit for this course would spend about one hour a day, five days a week on this course, or approximately 100-120 total hours for this course. A student receiving a ½ credit for the course would spend a total of 50-60 hours over the course of the year.

Each unit features a required book, recommended books, as well as an article or shorter work about some aspect of education. In addition, famous educator biographies and concepts will be featured. During the course of each unit, the student will also compete an activity related to teaching, and optionally, take a short unit examination. While not all units are featured in exact chronological order, the curriculum as a whole tends from earlier in history to more modern times.

Please note that not all book recommendations have been previewed by the author; some have been recommended by others whom the author trusts. It is recommended that instructors preview all titles before assignment. If limited time does not allow for a full preview by reading the book in advance, plot summaries are available for most books online.

Please note that this curriculum is not a comprehensive curriculum for a high school course. Rather, it is an elective course, written with advanced high school students in mind.

Time Commitment and Pacing

The student is expected to read through this study guide and complete the readings and essays as assigned over the course of the unit, about one month each. The instructor should discuss the readings as desired, but be sure that at the end of each unit, the readings have been completed, the activity completed, and the optional exam taken and graded (with the answer keys provided), if desired.

For pacing, the student should plan to spend about one week the primary book, one week on an optional book, one week on the additional readings, review, and exam, and one week crafting, writing, and editing the activity. Occasionally, two longer books are assigned in a single unit (for instance, the Russian Literature unit), making it difficult to complete in four weeks. The student should feel free to take an extra week or two, as allowed by the instructor and the school calendar. However, in general, if the student cannot complete the tasks above during the one hour of daily class time, the student should plan to have “homework” which can be completed in the evenings.

Will This Curriculum Be A Good Fit?

Likely, this curriculum will be a wonderful fit for your student, especially if you like what you have read so far. However, this curriculum might not work well for you, if any of the following is true:

• You do not care for a Christian worldview, particularly from a conservative Lutheran perspective.
• The student is not a strong reader.
• The instructor does not want to be involved in discussion or assessment for the student.
• You want a curriculum which features only Christian books. (This curriculum uses whole books, many of which feature non-Christian authors; however, these books are discussed and analyzed from a Christian worldview.)

Note

Extensive use of public websites are featured in this curriculum for educational purposes, often adapted. Every effort has been made to cite and link to these websites. Featured quotations, readings, persons, concepts, and books in this guide have been selected for a variety of reasons. The reader should not assume that I am promoting the worldview that the aforementioned advocates. Sometimes these are included for the need to be critiqued from a Christian perspective.