Friday, August 8, 2008

The Truth About (my) Curriculum Choices (9th Grade)

While I was joking about the "everything" books in this post, I am easily choosing books from my bookshelves this year. And because Cay has always wondered (hi Cay!), I'll fess up to our plan publicly.

First, I will use the 9th grade literature course I designed a few years ago for Libby. It was fun and educational then, and I am looking forward to revisiting it.

For math, we will use several algebra books, including Jacobs' , Algebra Unplugged, and a few other interesting math books that are kicking around the house (most are on my math page).

Biology is always fun here. I have so many resources that I could not possibly list them all, but a few worth mentioning are What is Life?, Darwin's Black Box, The Amateur Biologist, and assorted books on individual life histories, like The Earth Moved, which is the natural history of earthworms, and Red-Tails in Love, concerning a certain pair of hawks in NYC. Of course, I'll add other books as needed, or as interests turn to certain specific areas of biology. And field work...did I mention field work?

Social Studies is always a problem...not that there are not enough books here, it's just that it's my husband's area of expertise. We'll probably use a combination of biographies, documentaries, dad's brain, and field trips to bring history alive. Also, we will all be working on a congressional campaign, and that's more than enough to satisfy the requirements of "government" during an election year. I'll post a separate social studies plan once it's ready.

German-American School will take care of German language and culture, and The Suzuki Program, plus lots and lots of concerts, will take care of music. In the spring there will be a Shakespeare production, and there may be other plays in the fall. We will continue our study of ecclesiastical Latin. My highschoolers volunteer with my CCD class, and our religion reading includes the New Testament and the early church fathers, plus we will be reading through B16's Jesus of Nazareth.

I guess that wraps things up. All selections are subject to change, and change again.

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