High School: Charlotte Mason Style
Aug 19th, 2010 by lapazfarm
Because descriptions of Charlotte Mason style education at the high school level are few and far between, I wanted to take a moment to describe what our Charlotte Mason-inspired high school experience is like.
Keep in mind this is a reflection of MY interpretation of CM methods and in no way should be interpreted as the “right” way to do CM in high school. Like most folks, I am figuring it out as I go.
But mainly I wanted to share because despite the fact that at first glance a true CM education seems complicated to the point of impossibility, I feel strongly that is worth wading through the confusion to get to the core of what is actually a profoundly *simple* way of teaching and learning, based on excellent living books, and the magic of narration. And that is pretty much all there is to it! Really! CM does NOT have to be complicated.
Lets take a look at what Superboy’s CM-inspired 10th grade entails:
First I’ll share an overview of his week, then I’ll give you a look at the materials he is currently using.
His week is pretty straightforward. He has 7 subjects, 5 of which he does daily. These are: religion, history, chemistry, math, and literature.
Two days a week (M, T) he does grammar/composition, and three days (W,Th, F) he does natural history.
So, a total of six subjects per day. Simple!
Most of his core subjects involve reading a chapter or so daily from an excellent living book, and narrating orally. The exceptions being mainly math and chemistry (somewhat). Writing is addressed within his literature and history studies, as is art appreciation. Again, simple!
Lets look at what he is currently working on, this being week 1:
- Math: Math U See–finishing up Algebra II and moving into geometry in a few weeks. He does one lesson per week.
- Religion: He has a couple of different books he is reading from Mon-thursdays. He reads a chapter, then narrates. Fridays he listens to a podcast which discusses next Sunday’s Mass readings. ( I will soon write another post listing all his religion selections for the year.)
- History: (read this post for a detailed explanation) this week’s independent research topic is the Minoan civilization. He researches for about 30 minutes daily, then narrates. On thursday he fills out his notebook page, on friday he writes his essay. He is also reading chapter 1 of The Greek Way, narrating as he goes.
- Literature: Current read is Hittite Warrior. He is speeding through that easily– about 50 pages per day.
- Chemistry: Caveman Chemistry, one chapter per week. Monday and tuesday are reading and narration, weds he notes in his lab book any formulas or equations he needs to learn, thursday does his lab, friday he writes his lab report.
- Grammar/composition: This is monday-tuesday. Currently he is finishing up Excavating English, which is a neat little unit on the origins of the English language that he began last year and wanted to finish up this year. When he does, it will be replaced with additional grammar materials, to be determined. I am strongly considering Spelling Wisdom, a book of dictation passages from Simply Charlotte Mason.
- Natural History/Nature Study: This is weds-thurs-fridays. Currently reading Fruitless Fall, a chapter a day, more or less, and narrating.(read more details on his nature study here).
- Art: not really a separate subject, art is addressed within his history studies. As part of his study of each culture, he also looks at their representative art. This week: Minoan bull-leaping murals. Very cool.
So, LOTS of reading (from living books), and narration, a little writing and grammar, a science lab, and some math. I think it is the very *picture* of simplicity.
(To further illustrate the simplicity of this method, notice the things that are NOT included: spelling tests, vocabulary lists, math tests, comprehension questions, lectures, note-taking, end-of-chapter review, quizzes, workbooks, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, true-false, or any other kind of busy-work.)
It’s simple.
- He reads.
- He tells me what he read.
- He reads some more.
And… he learns.
What do I do? I listen. And I let the books do the talking for me.
Ahhh…this sounds lovely. I want to peel ourselves away from the workbooks, and we will get there, I hope. Thanks for inspiring.
Thanks so much for sharing! I know he’ll have a great year!
Very nice, well written post.
EXACTLY!!!
I love how you’ve explained what you do, Theresa! It illustrates the simplicity and the beauty in this approach! Really great post!
Wonderful post! I was inspired to write a similar one this morning after reading your post. I totally agree with you that there is little written about the practical nitty-gritty CM high school plans.
Thank you for writing and sharing your sons high school plans. You really need to make sure this gets in the CM Blog Carnival.
I’m saving these plans for future use. Thanks for posting! Oh, and I purchased spelling Wisdom based on Jen’s recommendation – it’s wonderful! We borrowed Caveman Chemistry from the Library when you discussed it before. Really enjoyed it!
I forgot to type my question :0
What podcast are you using for the weekly Sunday Mass readings? My kids are gone every other weekend, and I’d really like them to know what they are missing. Thanks!
Paula, I am using the Sunday, Sunday, Sunday podcast from LifeTeen. I know LifeTeen is a bit controversial amongst ultra-conservatives, but I really like this podcast for clear, interesting discussions of the mass readings.
Theresa
Yah!! I agree CM is simple, I love it, love the freedom to guide to great books, listen and get out of the way. Let the books speak for themselves.
And wanted you aren’t doing- I can never understand the vocab list approach?? When they are submerged in great literature they just soak it up.
Great post, re-inspiring me I’m on the right path and not alone:)
Sounds lovely. I’m always inspired by your posts.
2 questions —
What do you plan to do about foreign language study? Most colleges require at least 2 years. Myself, I think it’s a good thing even if colleges didn’t expect it.
What about note taking? I’m having my son practice taking notes from Learning Company lectures. It seems like a needed skill and one that takes a while to develop.
Thanks for all your great ideas!
Hi Lindsay.
For foreign language we will most likely have him take Spanish classes at the local university. He cannot do that until he is 16, so starting next year. That will give him 2 years.
As far as note-taking, he has done a little of that, but not much. I figure he can pick it up easily enough when the time comes, maybe in those foreign language classes. If he shows signs of struggling we will address it. That’s a good idea about practicing with video lectures.
I loved this post~ and would completely agree with others on how there is so little out there for CM’ers who study through highschool. Even though we are more eclectic in style, we lean, especially for my teen toward CM style for home learning.
I plan to check out your Caveman Chemistry book also is this the book by Kevin Dunn?
Thanks again for this simple, yet helpful post ~ you’ve inspired me to blog about our own way of doing things as well~
I, too, love CM method and we were doing that even before we knew what it really was!
How do you evaluate for transcript sake? I have a half-baked method, but would love to hear others.
Half-baked is better than what I’ve got right now!LOL! I am winging it. I know I have to get it together eventually, but for now I am procrastinating, big time. Oh, how I hate paperwork.
I love this post! Thank you for helping those of us who aren’t quite to high school yet, but wondering how we’ll ever do it! (We are 7th grade this year.)
I had one question though about your Week 1: Grammar/Composition. You say that for now he is working on Excavating English and that you may use Spelling Wisdom for dictation after that. Would Spelling Wisdom cover any “grammar-type” instruction through the use of dictation, or would you use something more for specific grammar instruction? Have you used other programs in the past (middle school, 9th grade?)
Do you also have him working on any specific writing program/curriculum separately, or is all of his writing in the the realms of his literature and history narrations and research papers? How do you decide what to have him do for literature-based writing? (Thanks for outlining how you came up with history for this year!) Have you *ever* used a writing program for him, either in middle school, high school, or both, and if so, what was it?
Thanks!
Grammar—I will be using the dicatation passages to address grammar, though I will probably do a short, intensive grammar course at some point as well. We have done grammar casually in the past and he catches on pretty well, so I am not too concerned.
Writing—we have mainly been using methods described in Julie Bogart’s Writers Jungle for writing. He has also done a course called “One Year Adventure Novel” which he enjoyed for the most part. He loves to write fiction, so that was probably overkill on that. This year we are focusing on writing essays within his history course. In addition to the History Scholar essay prompts, which are pretty short, I’ll have him write a more extensive essay maybe once a month and they will probably be based on his literature selections, though I’ll be flexible if he finds something he really wants to research instead.
I think that at some point before he takes the SAT I will probably have him take one of the Bravewriter online essay writing courses. Likely next year. That should round him out pretty well I think.
I have The Writer’s Jungle but never got all of the way through reading it before returning to work full time last year. We tried doing some freewriting, but the boys just couldn’t do it. I don’t think I ever got the chance to try the Keen Observation with them, but we did do some Tuesday Teatimes of poetry and Shakespeare. Did the Bravewriter program help get him to write essay-length material? Does it just come better with age? Any particular parts of the program that you found the most useful?
I requested the demo for the One Year Adventure Novel a couple of years ago and still have it sitting on my shelf. I have been waiting until I think they are ready for doing it since they both have, at times, been interested in writing fiction. I wanted them to be old enough, though, to really want to get through the program. How old was Superboy when he did this program?
We are currently using Trail Guide to Learning: Paths of Settlement which is Beechick-inspired and follows a lot of CM techniques. So I am having them do that writing for now, which is a gentle and casual approach to writing. But I am still waiting to see them write regular parapgraphs. We are working on that. I am also supplementing with Michael Clay Thompson’s Language Arts program, using Level 1 (Island). This is our first time covering any grammar in a formal way, and then we will be working on sentences and paragraphs with the program. I am still not sure how well the approach will work for them, but I should be able to tell over the next couple of months if we like it enough to continue. So far, the grammar is really basic so I think it will be a good foundation for them. Then we may not pursue grammar again until high school and just do a semester study, if necessary.
Thanks again for your help!
Cindy, Superboy was 13-14 when he did One Year Adventure Novel.
I believe that the Writer’s Jungle has been the biggest asset to us as far as writing goes. It really helps you to understand the writing process, to meet your child where he is, and to lead him gently through the stages of writing ability. We did friday freewrites and used them as fodder for going through the writing process, choosing 1 piece per month to take all the way through to a final, polished piece. I think that is a reasonable goal.