alternate titles) that is on the schedule for the grade level I am teaching, in
my case upper grammar and rhetoric. If there are books that I could not find, I
will see what books we have on our shelf that could pertain to that certain
topic. Once I get all my books in, I will go through them and see which ones I
would like my kids to read and write the assignments onto their planner page
(this is also where I will fill in their other subjects such as math, geography
study, and anything else). If there are several books that I like then I will
place them aside and give the choice to my kids on planning day.
Our planning days are usually on Sundays so we will gather together for either tea or hot chocolate, which has been the trend lately. I will give them each their planner and go over the books they are to read and assignments that need to get done. If there were several books that I have found, I will have them look through them and pick which ones they want to read. Then we will talk about what projects they can work on for the week. I will give them some ideas based off of what is assigned in TOG in their
activities section in the grid and sometimes they will pick something out of
there or sometimes I will have another book on hand with different projects or
they have even bounced off an idea and took it a little deeper. I like these
planning meetings for this reason, my kids are taking a responsibility and
choosing what they would like to pursue in addition to whatever readings I
require. I think it tends to make the school days go a little easier because it
was something that they chose.
So far this is how I have been planning and I know as time goes on I may find an easier system. I think once we start the next unit, I will probably do more planning in advance so that way if there is a book that I would really like to get that is not available at the library, I have time to order it.