Your ABCs and Oral Exams

If you know Z, you know he likes to talk. Okay, it some instances he likes to talk. When it he gets going, whoa! He's a much better talker than he is a writer, and one aspect of schooling I've wanted to add is oral exams. How do you grade an oral exam? And what makes it an exam and not simply a conversation?

In Philosophy this year we are reading The Theory of Knowledge. Awesome book. He is doing a project with some of the chapters and this week's was language. So fitting, so perfect. Z and I have also being toying with our own alphabet and language. This has been going on for a few years and we've let it lie for a while. So Z decides he wants to write an alphabet, not a language, for his project. He had started part of one, but wasn't finished. He turned the completed alphabet yesterday. That was the written portion of his assignment.

For the oral part we had a question and answer session about his alphabet. I'm his mom, he's my only child, we have sort of a code language already. He finishes my sentences, I can read his thoughts, stuff like that. To eliminate that familiarity I reminded him to consider me as someone who knew nothing about his project. I had googled for a oral exam rubric and found one that met my needs  - rubrics can be great, yet you have to find the right one for your needs. Some are too vague, some not enough categories. The one I found was college level, so there was more definition between levels than simply poor, average, good, or excellent.

In addition to the previous question and answer session, I asked some questions taken from a Theory of Knowledge study guide on the IB website. Theory of Knowledge is an IB course, which obviously we can't do IB at the homeschool level, but I find the course companion (linked above) to be a great introduction to the ways and whys of thinking. As he answered the questions, I wrote notes and used my rubric to grade his remarks.

Z has a passion for language, even the absurdity of English. This was an easy topic for him to discuss. However, I found the manner in which he answered and his overall communication skills to be great. It's almost as if I had stepped outside of my own familiarity with him and saw how he would respond if I hadn't been the one examining him.

After his exam I created a template for my grading notes. Grades are not a huge motivator for Z, yet I want detailed records to support my grading, especially in subjects that have a less defined way of evalution.

My template included these categories:

Subject: Philosophy
Date: 28 September 2012
Material Covered: Theory of Knowledge, chapter 3 Language
Material Graded: Oral examination and written work
Grading system: this is where I noted where I got my questions and what I used to grade the written work
Grading Scale: The rubric I used had 120 points possible (more nuanced than a 1-4 scale). I chose 30 points for the written work, 20 for the work itself, 5 for being on time, 5 for neatness (meeting deadlines and being neat are two skills we are building this year)
Summation of Oral Exam: this is where I typed up my evaluation of his remarks. I pulled a few phrases from the rubric to document I actually used it as part of the criteria.
Summation of Written Work: This is where I wrote my evaluation of his written work, noting the time he spent on it in and outside of class, I also noted which skills he used to finish this assignment, as in creativity and critical thinking skills.

In the end, I have detailed documentation of his grade and how he earned it. Next week we're studying perception. I can't wait to see what kind of project he comes up for that one.

Udacity Physics

I am keeping a close eye of many of the great new offerings in free online education. We've used Khan Academy, Academic Earth, looked at Coursera for down the road, and now I'm trying Udacity, particularly the Physics course. I'm only through unit one (working on the homework now) and it is awesome. I'm a child of the 80s, I use the term awesome in it's 80s form. I watched as this very enthusiastic physicist explained how to use math and science together in some really cool ways. I got it, in the sense of a light bulb went on for me. This is how I teach Z about the importance of math, throw him ahead a few years and show him how physics makes trig sound like fun.

The set up of Udacity is simple, enroll in the class and watch videos. Take some notes along the way and there are simple questions to answer with the click of a mouse, okay the answers may not be simple, but you won't spend twenty minutes trying to figure out the formatting. This course has made the technology part easy.

The enthusiasm of the instructor is perfect. Again, I'm only in unit one and there are seven, but this will appeal to Z when we start in a few weeks. The instructor is young and in the first video I couldn't help but thinking he needed to iron his shirt. Granted he was in Europe explaining physics and ironing probably wasn't a priority. Okay it may the first time I've actually thought someone needed to iron their shirt, I'm not a big fan of irons in general. Then he starts talking and he's engaging, I believe teens will relate to this guy. Then he started writing, guess what!, his handwriting isn't neat and perfect. I wanted to hug this guy seriously. I've spent hours over the last nine years reminding Z to have good handwriting and his Japanese is neater than his English. I've also reminded him about wrinkled shirts a few times. But here is an intelligent guy with less than precise handwriting and a wrinkled shirt, he is the perfect man to help teach Z physics, and to keep him enthused about the subject.

It didn't hurt the other class developer, computer guy, I don't know what his title is. Well it didn't hurt that he is holding a stuffed giraffe in his photo. Opulence, you know, and apparently a fan of giraffes. Who isn't, really?

Now I have homework. I have to find a sunny day, still waiting, and I need to do a little more study on vectors for myself. Otherwise, I'll be on to unit two hopefully next week.

What do Homeschoolers Do on a Break?

In our case we had a party. Z and my mom had a birthday. Same day. I still haven't topped that gift to her, never will.

We took pictures, the boys smiled. Notice how tall Z is now. As tall as Tigger, about as tall as my dad (who was the only one wearing shoes).

This is Z getting some grandma love. They are buddies. Never mind that we see them at least twice a month, they always hug each other like that.

Well after the party, what are we doing? See the above. Z received some games for his birthday. Z also received some money which he spent on games. He also ordered some books, manga, but they are still books. He also put together a bookcase, which was part of his birthday gift. Oh, he is my child! Bookcases for gifts!

Beside that what are we doing? He's sleeping in every day. I'm getting up to see Tigger off to work and then going back to bed. Then taking a little afternoon nap. Did I mention I sometimes have insomnia. I have nearly caught up on my sleep this week. 

I've also been planning more of our school year. I ordered some new books, which I will outline in another post. I planned our physics for the year, and evaluated the progress in other subjects. Mostly we're just hanging out. I like this schedule. We'll be back at work on Monday, ready for another six weeks. 

Did I Mention It's Almost Break Time?

After eight years of homeschooling, we've developed a yearly schedule that works well for us. We do about six weeks of school then take one week off. Thanksgiving and Christmas kind of mess with that system, but it averages out by the end of May.

I was inspired by the British system of school terms, which is what we have at our school, fall, winter, and spring terms of 12 weeks each. This is why we start back the first week of August, it's generally too hot to do much outside anyway. We're done by the end of May, mostly.

So, we've completed five weeks so far, start the sixth tomorrow, then get a week off. It's not really a week off. It's more of a time to sleep in, catch up some projects, and do some administrative work. In common vernacular, this is when I tweak stuff.

I also bought water balloons on clearance this week. Which means it will now cool off too much to use them. A friend suggested using hot water, that sounds good to me. We have a deck, so our Battle of Waterballoon should be very interesting.

The academic highlights so far have been reading Gilgamesh, getting solid grades on Japanese and Russian tests, and an increased ability in writing. I've had to tweak our math program, why is it always math? Every year I have one subject that messes us up. Math is it this year. The instruction in Singapore's Discovering Mathematics isn't adequate for Z. We're working on a variety of skills with math, and DM, while a good program, doesn't work well for him. We in the processing of moving to another publisher, which I think will help. We'll know more after this week.

Our weekly schedule instead of a block schedule is doing well. We still have the timing issue of writing and math taking larger portions of the day. During my tweaking time, I'm going to be looking at our schedule further to see what we can do. The main plan is to remain flexible and prioritize where we need to stay on task and where we can slow down a little. Having a productive day is better than rushing through subjects.

I can't believe we've completed five weeks already. The time is flying by, I'm working to enjoy the good moments and not think about how quickly the rest of the next four years will go.