Movie-Ed Guides provide numerous learning opportunities for students homeschooled by their parents. The following guidelines and lesson plan will help you with curriculum development when teaching with a Movie-Ed Guide. If you need additional assistance, please contact us.
Overall Guidelines for Homeschoolers
- Keep it fun!
- Align your student's response to an appropriate level, considering age and experience.
- Build writing, speaking, and presentation skills whenever possible.
- Be aware of the movie's content.
- Movie rating — We make every effort to avoid inappropriate language in Movie-Ed Guides. However, we cannot say the same for the movies. As a parent, you can best evaluate a movie's suitability for your student.
- Subject matter — Each child develops at a different pace. Even if the movie is otherwise suitable for your student, it may be beyond his or her current level of understanding.
- Use the Internet wisely, and include books and magazines whenever you can. Book references are included as well as links to Internet resources.
Recommended 10-day Homeschooler's Lesson Plan
Set aside 2-hour lesson blocks, depending on your student's attention span. Look ahead at the Extras & Activities topic — do advance planning as needed.
Day 1: Watch the movie.
- Keep a list of words and expressions that are new to your student.
Day 2: Work the Language Arts topic in your Movie-Ed Guide.
- Encourage independent exploration in a dictionary, encyclopedia, or on the Web. In the "Increase Vocabulary" subtopic, be sure to have your student read, write, and use the words many times to be sure that the word is now part of your student's vocabulary.
- Explore any words or expressions that were listed as new.
- Discuss the "Expressions" subtopic. Include as much as possible about each expression (you can get additional information from the Web).
- Visit any other subtopics in this section.
- Set expectations for the "Think, Talk, Try" subtopic at the level that your student can fulfill. These options often work better in groups — encourage your student to invite friends to participate or use family time to share the exercise.
Day 3: Work the Geography topic in your Movie-Ed Guide.
- Include a map, atlas, or globe as often as possible.
- Incorporate student experience if you can.
- Geography may include both natural and artificial environments of the Earth.
Day 4: Work the History topic in your Movie-Ed Guide.
- Focus on the subtopics of interest.
- Go into as much depth with each subtopic as your student's attention will allow. Take full advantage of opportunities to explore tangential topics.
- Bring your student's personal or family history into play as often as you can.
- Utilize the "Think, Talk, Try" subtopic to make history more fun.
Day 5: Work the Science & Math topic in your Movie-Ed Guide.
- Pull science and math into all topics, whenever possible.
- When calculations are needed, be sure that your student makes each step of the thought process clear. When using a calculator, be sure that your student has written down each step that will be followed. For example, when asked to calculate 30% of 120, you'd want to see something like 120x0.30 on paper first.
- When doing experiments, safety comes first. Avoid caustic or toxic substances and provide close supervision.
- Encourage written or spoken presentations and group activities.
Day 6: Work the Art & Music topic in your Movie-Ed Guide.
This topic lends itself to the creative and expressive talents of your student.
- Many subtopics require dedicated time to think and may lend themselves to written essay-like responses.
- Feelings are just as important as thoughts here. Encourage your student to express feelings with verbal or artistic skills.
- Building self-esteem is a natural side-effect of working this topic.
Day 7: Work the Culture topic in your Movie-Ed Guide.
- Enjoy an exploration of your own culture along with other cultures.
- Some traditions and behaviors may be expanded or reinforced while working this topic.
- Look for commonalities and differences between people. Help your student identify with others, even when the differences outweigh the similarities.
Day 8: Work the Values topic in your Movie-Ed Guide.
Your student will be asking and answering tough questions during work on this topic. The focus is about what your student believes and why.
- Watch for opportunities to clarify both your values and your student's values in an open dialog.
- Follow up vague decisions with probing questions to help your student crystalize his/her thinking.
- Allow your student to express and support any belief, as long as he/she can provide a carefully thought-out understanding of that belief.
- This is a good time to challenge values and beliefs, in a safe setting, to prepare your student for more difficult challenges later in life.
Day 9: Reward your student's hard work with Extras & Activities.
- Plan a field trip or excursion to further explore an earlier topic.
- Dig deeper into a subtopic that was a particular favorite.
- Use this time for a group activity.
- A "Read Aloud" subtopic is always included. This is a chance to develop reading skills, test progress, share knowledge, and bond with your student. Each member of the group needs to take a turn reading aloud.
Day 10: Watch the movie.
Your student's appreciation and enjoyment of the movie will be increased. You'll notice things in the movie that you didn't see before.
- Talk about the best and worst of the last 10 days. (Please share any feedback you feel we should have.)