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Monday, July 30, 2007

SOTW and Tapestry of Grace

Goal: Finish the first four year history cycle ready to tackle TOG Redesign Year 1 in 5th grade.
We are making a transition from using SOTW to Tapestry of Grace Redesign curriculum in 3rd grade (SOTW 3).

2006-2007
SOTW 1 = TOG Year 1: Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4

2007-2008*

SOTW 2 = TOG Year 2 : Unit 1, Unit 2

2008-2009

SOTW 3 = TOG Year 2: Unit 3, Unit 4 and TOG Year 3: Unit 1, Unit 2

2009-2010

SOTW 4 = TOG Year 3: Unit 3, Unit 4 and TOG Year 4: Units 1-4


Solutions:
1. Keep this year, and our tailored lessons the same. Find areas to shorten/combine within Year 2. And deal with the overflow of lessons later.
Areas to try:
- Colonial America, Unit 3 (Weeks 22-25)
- The American Revolutionary War, Unit 4 (Wks 32-34) shorten to two
weeks?


2. Shorten our lessons for SOTW 2, in order to cover TOG Year 2, Units 3 & 4 and possibly keep studying through summer 2008 to start TOG Year 3 in our third year (and on schedule).
!Problem!- TOG Year 3 Redesign may not be ready when we’re ready for it which is complicated by our mid-July start date. If we wait until mid-August that “may” help but it will shift our time off in the summer as well. Something to think about.


3. Cut/combine from Year 4, possibly even allow SOTW 4 to “lead” the studies/topics.
I will have one year experience of using TOG under my belt so I should be able to utilize TOG in a manner that will make this possible.

Any advice? What would you do?

UPDATE: This is a non-issue now, we are in 3rd grade and on track with TOG Year 3. We have dropped SOTW completely which has worked out beautifully as we are enjoying TOG's books much more than SOTW. This is not to say that SOTW is not a fabulous program on its own, it just wasn't what fit for us.

 

1 comment:

Barb said...

Jessica,

After doing just what you are doing, transitioning from SOTW to TOG, here are my thoughts. We transitioned in year 3, because there is sooooo much info in TOG year 2. I found that TOG covers so much more than SOTW so it was hard to keep it as my "spine". I am going to email you my charts and how we used them both together in both year 3 and year 4. I am really glad we waited to move to TOG until year 3 because now we are at the point of starting year 2 and I feel confident that I can tackle it in the dialectic/rhetoric stage with the boys.

My other advice for a grammar stage student would be to use SOTW along with TOG in year 4. The history in this time period is pretty intense and I think a gentle way to work through this time period is to use the TOG literature selections and use SOTW as a history "spine".

Another thought, if the release date for TOG 3 doesn't exactly line up with your start date, start with SOTW chapters that TOG doesn't cover while you wait...just another option.

If you have any questions, email me.

Barb