Rachel Tolman Terry - Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool: A Homeschool Literature Unit Study

Moon Over ManifestbyClare Vanderpool

A Tolman Hall Homeschool Literature UnitStudy

By Rachel Tolman Terry

Published by Bluehill Peak Media atSmashwords

Copyright 2013 Rachel Tolman Terry

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this book with anotherperson, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Ifyoure reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was notpurchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.comand purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard workof this author.

Table of Contents

As a homeschooling parent, you know what yourchildren like to read, what you want them to learn, and what youwant them exposed to at different ages. Tolman Hall HomeschoolLiterature Unit Studies allow you, as the parent and teacher, tocustomize your children's literature studies without having to doall the background work yourself. When you use Tolman Hall, you getall the resources you need to teach an in-depth literature unit,but you still have flexibility. If you want, you can focus yourunit study on geography, or you can center your unit around a fieldtrip. Even as you focus on one aspect of the literary work, yourstudents will still learn about literary devices, vocabulary, andwriting.

Tolman Hall Homeschool Literature UnitStudies are also ideal to use if you're teaching more than onestudent at home. Since each unit study offers a variety of essayquestions, projects, and vocabulary words, you can assign moredifficult assignments to your older students than to your youngerstudents, but everyone can still read and discuss the same literarywork at the same time. This method of teaching the same literarywork to the whole family enriches everyone's understanding of thestory. You can spend your meal times discussing literature familiarto everyone. Such discussions create common ground and cohesivenessand reduce the feelings of isolation students feel when they don'thave anyone to talk to about what they're learning.

Enjoy learning with your children as youteach them with Tolman Hall Homeschool Literature Unit Studies.You'll prepare them for their future academic studies and get achance to talk about ideas that add meaning to life.

Introduction to Tolman Hall

Tolman Hall Literature Unit Studies aredesigned to give you the flexibility to customize your owncurriculum based on your childrens interests while still providinga solid foundation in literature. If used as designed, yourchildren will learn and understand the literary concepts essentialfor doing well on standardized tests such as the SAT LiteratureSubject Test and the ACT Reading Test. Even more important, TolmanHall Literature Studies will open your students eyes to ideas,concepts, and deeper meanings that they may previously have skimmedover in cursory literature studies and in their reading forpleasure.

Each Unit Study provides backgroundinformation about the author, several possible unit studyschedules, a plot overview, and individual lessons. The lessonseach contain a reading assignment, a summary and analysis of theassignment, a vocabulary lesson, a reading quiz, and short essayquestions. Depending on your needs and schedule, you can customizethe lessons to fit your students needs. As the teacher, you canread along with your students, or if youre short on time, you cankeep up by simply reading the summaries and analyses of eachlesson, which give enough information for you to discuss theassignment with your student.

Many homeschooling parents teach more thanone student at a time, and with Tolman Hall Unit Studies, you canteach the same work of literature at several grade levels. Forinstance, you could assign the same reading to students in grades 7and 9 but assign the 9th grader more difficult writing assignmentsand more mature end-of-unit projects. In this way, your wholefamily can discuss the same books and authors while still meetinggrade-appropriate requirements.

To help you use this unit study to thefullest, lets look at how to use each part of the curriculum.

Introduction to the Literary Work

Although its sometimes fun to pick up arandom library book and just begin reading, your student will gaina deeper understanding of the material with a formal introduction.The introduction generally includes information about the text:when it was written, how it came to be, and whether or not theliterary work has been influential since it was published. You canread this introduction to your students, or give the information toyour students and have them do further research on the Internetbefore presenting an introduction to you.

Schedule

Homeschooling schedules differ from public orprivate school schedules, and thats one of the great benefits ofhomeschooling. Even though you can be more flexible in yourscheduling, its wise to set up a schedule for your literature unitstudy so your students get into a rhythm and know whats expectedof them.

Each Tolman Hall Homeschool Literature UnitStudy suggests at least two different schedules for the unit studyin an effort to meet different needs. Some unit studies will beshorter, and some will be longer, depending on the difficulty andlength of the book. Feel free to adapt these schedules or composeyour own using the different components in the unit study.

The Author

Learning about a works author lendsadditional insight into the work itself, so each unit studyincludes biographical information about the author. If the authoris still alive, you may also be able to find additional information(or even social media feeds!) that give you more personal, updatedinformation. Discuss the authors biographical information withyour students before you assign any reading. Your students may takea liking to particular authors; encourage this relationship byplanning future literature unit studies with other books by thesame author.

Plot Overview

Use your discretion with the plot overview,included in each unit study guide. In most cases, its notnecessary to share this information with your students beforebeginning the unit, but its very helpful for the teacher to have alarger picture, especially if you wont be reading along with yourstudents.

Characters

The Characters section of the unit study willbe most helpful to you, the teacher. As you discuss the book withyour students, you may need to refer to the list of characters fromtime to time. Your students may find it helpful, too, however,especially if they create projects around the storyscharacters.

Lessons

Each lesson contains a reading assignment, asummary and analysis of the assignment, vocabulary words, a readingcomprehension quiz, and short essay questions.

Reading assignments for shorter books may becombined, but if you combine reading assignments, reduce the amountof vocabulary and short essay work expected in one day. When youassign vocabulary words, read them aloud to your students, and havethem write the words down as they think they are spelled. If theyspell the words incorrectly, your vocabulary lesson has just becomea spelling lesson as well. Dictation is a very effective way ofdiscovering words your students dont know how to spell. Once thewords are correctly written down, have your students look up thewords and write definitions. If you want to further reinforce yourvocabulary portion of the lesson, ask your students to writesentences containing the new vocabulary words.

The reading quizzes at the end of the lessonaccomplish several objectives. First, they help your students toread more carefully, knowing they will be quizzed on their reading.Second, your students answers help you to identifymisunderstandings that need to be cleared up. Third, your studentswill get more writing practice, especially if you instruct them towrite their answers in complete sentences. The answers to thereading quizzes are found at the end of the book.