Teaching – Library of Learning Resources

Time and time again, I hear parents saying…

“My child isn’t retaining the information she is reading/learning.”

“HELP! I don’t know how to help my child. He does his work but can’t remember what he is learning!“

Have you ever said or felt in a similar way? Perhaps you have a child who might remember something for a week or a month but then it’s simply…poof...gone?!

If so, you aren’t alone! There is a solution and it’s actually quite simple…

It’s called LAYERED LEARNING and here is a quick visual…

Regardless of the curriculum you are using, everything begins in the 1st layer: basic knowledge.

I’m going to be honest here and my beliefs come from 30+ years of experience in education. I’ve seen it as a public-school teacher and then as a homeschooling momma that used multiple ‘made for the masses’ curriculum…Most curriculum stops at the 1st level – basic knowledge!

My heart hurts for so many parents who don’t realize that the curriculum they have spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on basically spews information, has the students answer a few questions and moves on to the next section.

I’ve also seen a huge draw to online learning in the last decade simply because parents do not feel equipped to be ‘the teacher.’

First, let me put that to rest…YOU are equipped to be your child’s teacher!!

I will never say there isn’t a place for online classes. My son took some wonderful online courses. However, what I found 9 times out of 10 was a lack of anything beyond level 1: basic knowledge. If I wanted my son to go beyond, I needed to get into the trenches and help him advance to the next two layers!

What are those next two layers:

2nd layer: application
3rd layer: critical thinking

So, what do these next two layers really look like? Have you ever heard of Blooms taxonomy? Whether you have or haven’t, isn’t really important, but the taxonomy is!

Here is another visual for you…

Regardless of what curriculum you are using, whether it is from My Teaching Library, another provider or a mix of both, to help your child get the very most out of their learning, make sure to include the layers of learning to your lesson plans!

You can do more research on Bloom’s taxonomy and how to help your child get the very most from their curriculum through doing a Google search of: Bloom’s taxonomy.

However, if you don’t have the time or simply want something now, here are two resources that truly is all you need…

Layered Learning Poster

Layered learning is vital for student retention of information and full comprehension of knowledge. This poster has been designed to help you create the very best learning experience for your students.

Download, print and keep handy when preparing all of your lesson plans.

Layered Learning ACTIVITIES Poster

Layered learning is vital for student retention of information and full comprehension of knowledge. This activities poster has been designed to help you create the very best learning experience for your students by giving you activity ideas for the varies layers of learning!!

Download, print and keep handy when preparing all of your lesson plans.

Both of these posters, Layered Learning Poster and Layered Learning Activities Poster have been created so that you may download, print and keep them with you as you are planning your lessons.

If and when you do, you will see a huge difference
in your child’s retention of material as well as
witness their ability to think critically!

Thank you for visiting and reading this post from My Teaching Library!

My Teaching Library is a family-owned business started by a mom (and now grandma) with over 30 years of experience in the field of education. Having worked as a public-school teacher prior to becoming a full-time homeshcooling mom, Lynda has experience from both perspectives and is dedicated to creating and sharing with YOU the very best resources to help you teach your children. In an effort to help you SAVE TIME and MONEY as a teacher and homeschooling parent.

To save you time, she has created and gathered thousands of resources now available to you for instant download all on one site, MyTeachingLibrary.com. It is also important to her that children are taught as the unique learners that they are. Learn the My Teaching Library difference.

To save you money, she offers two ALL-ACCESS membership plans. Members do not pay listed prices, instead they only pay for membership!

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Does the picture above remind you of something you’ve ever experienced?

When I was teaching and then after I became a homeschool mom, this was (all too often) ME!

I was always looking for ideas to make learning more fun and develop and nurture a student’s love for learning. I quickly realized that taking a short departure from the curriculum was all it took!

Advantages in taking short departures from scheduled curriculum

What do I mean by a short departure? It’s simply adding a quick, short unit study or bunny trail spurred by something not in the curriculum.

By doing this you can:

– Provide a productive break from the curriculum routine
– Open a child’s mind to new interests
– Continue to provide structure within which students can develop valuable skills in writing, research, observation, reading comprehension, and critical thinking all while widening content area learning in areas like science, geography, history or even math.

Where can you get some ideas?

It can be as simple as a quick trip to My Teaching Library’s Calendar page! On My Teaching Library, I have place hundreds of historical events, observations, holidays, and more on the calendar. I’ve done so to give you some ideas to take little detours in learning!

One thing I learned while teaching is this…Sometimes the most valuable lessons or biggest improvements in a student’s skill set came from what I call a ‘bunny trail’ lesson or a departure from the curriculum.

Finding My Teaching Library’s Calendar page

To check out the MTL calendar, simply go to the home page, scroll down past the “Skills & Concepts to Teach” and keep scrolling until you see Educational Planning Calendar

Then click on the words, View Calendar!

Here are a few examples of what you can find…

Example #1

On May 1st, you’ll see that the first U.S. Postal Card was issued. So, where could you go with this?

Perhaps you could do a quick study on the U.S. postal service. The end product could be asking students to do a timeline of what they found, do an oral report or for older students, create a PowerPoint.

Another idea would be to take the year, 1873, and investigate what other events occurred in the U.S. or even world history during that same year!

Example #2

On June 2, 1924, the U.S. granted citizenship to all Native Americans. WOW, this could lead to so many ‘bunny trail’ possibilities such as…

– A study of citizenship and the benefits that come with being a U.S. citizen
– A study on the process immigrants must go through to become U.S. citizens
– The effects (intended or otherwise) of this act in 1924 on Native Americans
– A study of a specific group of Native Americans, perhaps from your region of the country
-Native American reservations in the U.S. today

I could go on and on!

Finding Resources

I wish I could tell you that My Teaching Library has every resource you’ll ever need for all your ‘detours’. I can’t. However, I’m working on it! LOL

You can always do a key word search to see if MTL does…and remember that if your first key word doesn’t bring up something, try multiple different key words.

What I can do right this moment is to direct you to products that can be used again and again in multiple ‘detour’ studies.

The first is MTL’s Graphic Organizers. This is a set of 80 organizers from Venn diagrams to timelines that can be used for almost any study!

Another product is Generic Vocabulary Terms – Definitions Worksheet. This worksheet can be used for any study where students may be learning new words.

MTL also has Mini-Book Templates! Younger students can use these again and again to make mini-books about things they study.

If you want students to write on a topic, why not have them use MTL’s Newspaper Templates for Expository Writing! These templates can be used across the curriculum, for any study and students love to be a reporter!

I do hope I’ve given you some ideas on how you can expand learning while taking short departures from curriculum!

Lynda

Category: Teaching