Using Notgrass Curriculum in a Homeschool Co-op

How you use our course will depend on your goals and how long you are with the students each week. Here are a few general ideas about using our curriculum in a group, some of which apply only to Exploring America and Exploring World History.

Survey. You might present a quick survey of the key points from each unit. This could help students who haven’t known quite how to fit it all together. You could ask a thought question or two from each lesson in the unit to prompt group discussion. Look at the quizzes to get ideas about the major points.

Student Discussion. You can give the students time each week to ask questions or share new insights they have gained from the previous week’s lessons and reading. It would be a shame to have a student struggling with a question that you could answer or bursting with excitement over a new idea, only to miss the opportunity for a teachable moment because of your pre-planned agenda. This will help to keep students from getting frustrated or falling behind, and it will allow them to see the relevance to their lives of what they are studying. Let them know how excited you are to be studying the material. Your excitement may be contagious!

Literature. Try to help the students connect emotionally with the literature. History is not just facts; it is the story of the lives of real people. How did a particular book, poem, or story make them feel? How does the literature help them to be sympathetic to the lives of other people in the world today?

Bible Study. Be sure to leave time to discuss the Bible study lesson. In many ways this is the most important part of the entire curriculum since it relates the academic subjects to our spiritual lives. How we understand the past affects how we live in the present. You are helping to shape the worldview of your students. How are the students becoming better people, better citizens, and better Christians by studying this material?

Public Speaking. You might have a student read one of the assigned speeches aloud and then discuss its impact on the listeners, or you might schedule a debate on some topic. Your students could also read their essays to the group.

Research. You might assign students to do additional research on people mentioned in a unit, as a way to make the history narrative more personal.

Field Trips. By all means, if you are in a position to do so, schedule a field trip to a museum or other relevant site (ideally, with the parents coming also). This will help history come alive more than just about anything else you could do.

Return to the Questions & Answers Page

Notgrass Company
370 S. Lowe Ave., Ste A
PMB 211
Cookeville, TN 38501
1-800-211-8793
books@notgrass.com

Security & Privacy
Maintained by John Notgrass