How to Know If Unit Study Is For You . . .

 

 

            Curriculum decisions are much simpler when a teaching parent understands that in the world of K-12 education, all the available options may be categorized under the broad headings of only two approaches, each with its own distinctive philosophy and methodology. One is very familiar because it reflects the way you and I probably received our own education—that is, a graded sequence of textbooks and workbooks that follows the pattern of conventional classrooms in both public and private schools. This sequence offers the student a schedule of 6-9 subjects that are taught in specific time modules within a daily or weekly schedule. Chapter tests and semester mid-term and final examinations are used to assess progress, particularly for older students. Christian publishers of these conventionally organized materials include Bob Jones University Press, A Beka Book Publications, Rod and Staff Publishers, etc. The self-checking packets of Alpha-Omega Publications and Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) are also sequenced along the lines of conventional school classrooms. Most correspondence schools follow this outline as well.

 

            Advantages of this system include prescribed goals, achievable limitations on assignments (you know when you are finished), ability to know what grade your child is in, a sense of security that you are including everything that school attendees are getting (and more!), and fewer decisions for you to make. Disadvantages include the possibility of becoming overwhelmed with the need to juggle eight or more subjects per student when the family includes several children of varying ages, the possibility of needless repetition resulting from the spiral organization of school materials and "busy" work designed for classrooms with 15+ learners, and instructions in teacher's editions that often assume a group learning situation or focus almost exclusively on the visual learner (reading and writing assignments and memorization of facts to the exclusion of other learning methods).

 

            The other trend in curriculum organization is called by various names: unit study, multi-level, or interdisciplinary. These terms have specific definitions that involve some degree of overlap, but they are not completely synonymous. "Unit study," the most common designation, refers to selecting an overall theme for your curriculum and studying those topics in history, science, literature, music, art, etc., that relate to it. Typically, the search for information about these topics is expanded to the library, encyclopedic resources, computer software and/or the internet.

 

            "Multi-level" highlights the fact that it is possible for a teaching parent to present material about the same general topic to several or even all the children in the family. Projects, however, are tailored to the maturity level and mastery needs of each specific child.

 

            "Interdisciplinary" is a much broader term that describes a type of curriculum that is organized by units; however, information studied is not limited to the unit's theme. The content of each "discipline" (e.g., literature, history, science, music, art, etc.) interacts with the others to provide a basis for analogy and enriched interpretation because materials are not unnaturally dichotomized by the demands of conventional school logistics.

 

            There are at least 15 different published "unit study" curricula in the home school marketplace, and most of them have multi-level capabilities. Some appeal primarily to early childhood through age 8, some to elementary and/or middle grades, some specifically for jr/sr high students, and fewer still encompassing all levels K-12. Unit studies have to have some core theme that functions as a giant magnet to hold all the topics that are included together. The most common organizational schemes include correlating all subjects with a character quality, a passage of Scripture, or a chronological study of history.

 

            Advantages of unit study teaching include the tremendous flexibility teaching parents have to capture "teachable moments," the possibility of studying many topics that are not included in conventional school curricula, ease of interjecting Biblical values into all content, greater flexibility in meeting the needs of auditory and hands-on learners, and a smaller range of preparation focus since the parent can present the same content to all children in several subjects. Disadvantages include the challenge of maintaining a sense of structure when exploration of content can be very open-ended, the possibility of becoming overwhelmed with the need to produce traditional records when learning doesn't fit the modules education officials and/or college admissions officers understand (e.g., particularly with transcripts at the high school level), and the possibility of giving insufficient attention to skill development as a necessary component of the child's education.

 

            No matter what "unit study" material a family uses (even if you design your own), it is vital that teaching parents remember to orchestrate their time into three distinct segments:

[1] learning activities that are completed as a family with everyone participating in discussion, research, and application; [2] projects that complement the group work, but are designated to each individual student; and [3] skill development assignments also designed for each individual.

 

            The first two segments will involve subject matter that can be arranged thematically (e.g., literature, history, government, geography, government, many aspects of science, music, art, etc.). The skill segment requires sequential presentation that involves significant practice of those subjects needed at this time in a student's life (e.g., how to read, penmanship, math, some aspects of science, grammar, keyboarding or typing, foreign language, driver's ed, cooking, sewing, shop courses, etc.). Parents will have to purchase separate curricula for these skill studies.

 

            When children are very small, the skill segment will consume the bulk of their educational time. As students get older, you'll find the three segments balanced into more even time slots. The family teaching schedule does not necessarily have to have all three segments every day—again depending on the needs of the children. Once a student has achieved some understanding of a skill, aspects of it may be applied to research and reporting in a unit study.

 

© 1999, Education PLUS, Inc. All rights reserved