Gary North

Feb. 15, 2011

Here is the article on the biblical worldview.

Let's say that you want to develop a curriculum module on a book by Thornton W. Burgess. You like the story of the animals. Why do you like it? Did your children like it? Why?

If the child hates the stories, your work is cut out for you. Better to work with stories that children have liked for a century. The goal is to teach a love of reading, but also an ability to understand what is read.

The stories are not Christian, but they can be used to present basic truths. Issues of personal responsibility are probably present. So are issues of consequences.

1. The text of the story: PDF/printout
2. Five yes/no, true/false questions about the story after the child has read it.
3. A grammar lesson -- one rule -- with five examples extracted from today's story
4. A review from the previous story/grammar lesson: five new examples
5. A brief writing assignment (2nd grade up): one question about the story
6. The child reads his essay to the teacher.

The essay can be two sentences. The child is probably not yet able to write effortlessly. Here is where the writing process begins.

If the child physically cannot write, then he sould give an answer verbally in sentence form.

I do not believe in teaching grammar apart from specific literature. The grammar should reinforce what the child has read. It should be driven by familiarity, even love, of the characters. In the 12th grade, I will teach rhetoric. I will teach the student how to write to persuade. The lessons must come from a specific text. I will show them how the writer used language to persuade. Get them started early: text-based grammar.

Accompanying these written assignments should be a talking head video: yours. You should talk through a moral issue raised by the story. Teach that, in God's world, we are responsible to parents. Parents are responsible to God. Tell the children this when you do the summaries.

I think five minutes would be about right. Don't be condescending to the child. Talk straight. This is "don't put your hand on the stove" talk. Explain why. Post it on YouTube. Then embed it on your WordPress site. You can do WordPress.com (ready to go) or download the software from WordPress.org, to create your own site with your own domain name.

Don't get paralyzed by the learning curve. Start small with www.WordPress.com. You will learn WordPress the way a child learns phonics.

On building a stand-alone WordPress site, see this book: WordPress 24-Hour Trainer.

You can buy a decent lapel microphone and a high definition webcam for $100, total. You want the masters to look good in 20 years. You want the sound good now. Spend the money. The real cost is the time in creating the lessons.

I may have missed something. If so, let's discuss it on the forum.