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As a parent, choosing the right English curriculum for your middle schooler can feel overwhelming. There are so many options out there – from traditional textbooks to online programs to literature-based studies. How do you decide what’s best for your child? First, take a deep breath. There is no one-size-fits-all curriculum that works for every student. The “best” choice depends on your child’s learning style, interests, academic strengths and weaknesses, and your family’s educational philosophy. That said, here are some middle school English curriculum paths to consider:

FundaFunda Academy

FundaFunda Academy offers a number of English courses for middle schoolers, including Writing Fun for Middle Schoolers and Writing Mechanics. FundaFunda classes are asynchronous (no live component) but have weekly deadlines and the students interact with each other and the teachers.

Writing Fun for Middle Schoolers

Writing Fun for Middle Schoolers is perfect for students who hate to write. The assignments are unusual and sometimes a bit zany. The purpose is to make writing so enjoyable students forget they are writing! Instead of grades, students will receive feedback which will include plenty of praise for what they have done right, as well as suggestions for improvement. Plus, they will be able to earn prizes!

Writing Mechanics

In Writing Mechanics, on the other hand, students will learn the mechanics they need in order to write well. They will do exercises to improve their grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary and then they will put what they have learned into practice. Students will also learn to proofread their own work and peer review their classmates’ essays. This claims aims to prepare students for the rigors of high school English classes.

Seven Sisters Homeschool

Seven Sisters Homeschool offers a wide variety of English courses for middle schoolers. Some of their longer form options include Middle School Short Story Writing Guide: Fairy Tales and Middle School Guide to Essay Writing. The also offer various literature study guides. 

Middle School Short Story Writing Guide: Fairy Tales

In Middle School Short Story Writing Guide: Fairy Tales, students will learn to understand the elements of a fairy tale, create characters, establish settings, develop backstory, form plots, write dialogue, edit, and proofread. This course is designed to be used 4 days a week for 5 weeks. The lessons are short and designed to help students achieve success.

Middle School Guide to Essay Writing

Middle School Guide to Essay Writing is a 10-week course designed to be used 4 days per week. It teaches students basic essay format, persuasion, literary analysis, how to write compare/contrast essays, how to write editorials/letters to the editor, and it also includes tips for taking short-answer essay tests to give your student skills they will need for the future.

Literature Study Guides

Seven Sisters Homeschool’s literature guides are meant to be used in conjunction with the book they relate to. These guides teach students about background information, genre, vocabulary words from the book, and summarization and plot development. They include comprehension questions for each chapter and suggested supplemental activities as well. There are literature study guides for a wide variety of classics including Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Snow Treasure, and Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Literary Adventures

Literary Adventures offers a plethora of online bookclubs for students of all ages, including middle schoolers! Each one is designed to take about a month to complete they include background information and hands-on activities. They are designed to instruct your student in spelling, grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, literature, and writing. There are many options to choose from, including A Wrinkle in Time, Holes, Bud, Not Buddy, and Wonder.

The array of choices may seem bewildering at first. But look at your child and family’s needs, and don’t be afraid to mix and match components from different programs. Taking the time upfront to carefully select the right fit can immensely enrich your student’s middle school English experience.

Looking for More Resources?

If you are curious about other options, take a look at this blog post on online English games!

The post Homeschool Middle School English appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

Wondering what your child’s high school English curriculum will look like? Confused by the abundance of options? Wanting to see a four-year schedule? FundaFunda Academy offers no shortage of high school English courses for you and your child to explore. So, which English courses should your child take during their four years of high school? Read on to find out!

Three Tracks

In large part, the courses your child takes will depend on their skill level. That’s why we offer three different tracks: struggling, average, and advanced.

Struggling

If English is not your child’s strongest suit, or if they don’t like English very much, we recommend the struggling track. It is slower-paced, and the basics are emphasized in freshman year before moving on to longer essays in subsequent years.

Average

The average track is designed for the students who have some experience with the basics of paper-writing and literary analysis, but who are not quite ready for more intense courses. This is our most commonly used track. Students begin with a firm grounding in MLA format before moving on to various literature courses of their choice.

Advanced

Finally, the advanced track is for students who have extensive prior experience with English and who love it. This track cuts to the chase, putting students through their paces with more challenging literature courses from the start.

The Courses

Choosing curriculum is no easy task for any parent. Here at FundaFunda, we hope that, with the right information, you will be able to make the decision that is best for you and your child. Below is a brief description of each of our English courses. That way, you can know exactly what your child will be studying in any given year, and you can use these descriptions to build a schedule that works for your family.

Writing Mechanics

This class is intended for students who need practice with the mechanics of writing. These are the tools they need in order to do well on the ACT and SAT, and also to write papers at college. The class will cover punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, and proofreading using a variety of online, self-grading resources. Students will write several essays, as well as learn to peer review one another’s essays before they are graded by a teacher.

High School English Literature and Composition

This class is designed for 9th grade students and prioritizes learning the basics of writing essays for future high school and college success. It includes an introduction to MLA format, ongoing vocabulary and grammar work, and a comprehensive array of literary elements, genres, and subjects. It is an overall introduction to high school English so students are better prepared for higher level classes.

Exploring Jane Austen

In this 1/2 credit class students will explore the world Jane Austen lived in, read 3 of her novels and compare them to film versions as well as discuss how relevant they are to our lives today. Assignments will consist of asynchronous discussions, video responses, fun projects like creating social media profiles of the characters, and one or two written essays. There will be an optional live discussion at a time that works for most of the class.

Visual Literacy

This 1/2 credit course intends to give students the tools to notice more of the images in their daily life and learn how to critically engage with them. Over the 16 weeks, students will watch movies, television shows, YouTube channels, music videos and look at photos, advertisements, artwork, graphic novels, and websites.

British Literature

Starting in Anglo-Saxon England, this course will reach back in time to some of our earliest literature and study how the written word has been used to convey cultural shifts and political and religious ideas. Students will read novels, plays, short stories, and poetry by the prominent writers of British literature. 

American Literature

Starting with the Foundational Literary Period and ending in the Postmodern Era, this class covers all the major writers and poets in American literature. Students will read novels, plays, short stories, and poetry that reflect the ideas, struggles, and achievements of the last 400 years. 

Independent Honors English

This class is ideal for the self-motivated, capable Junior or Senior who needs an English credit and cannot attend a class in person. Students will read a variety of works focused around storytelling, which is the foundation of every culture in the world. From reading myths and fables to contemporary novels and memoirs, students will be exposed to a variety of voices and genres, as well as lessons learned from centuries of lived experiences. They will look at how new stories are built from old ones and consider why there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to exploring the human condition.

Need More Options?

Here are some other English options we like:

• Music in Our Homeschool’s Ten Weeks of Shakespeare Introductory Course. This is self-paced and parent graded
• Literary Adventures has many self-paced options for high schoolers
• Seven Sisters Homeschool has a variety of English courses for all four years of high school, as well as study guides for literature books and this course on how to write a research paper

In Conclusion…

This is a lot of information to take in. If you have any questions about any of these courses, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We would be more than happy to assist you in any way that we can. You can email info@fundafunda.com or the teacher listed for a specific class. Good luck on your high school English journey; we hope to hear from you soon!

Other Blog Posts You May Enjoy:

• Online English Games to Use in Your Homeschool

The post Suggested Sequence of FundaFunda’s High School English Classes appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

As our world becomes more and more connected through the internet and the ability to travel easily, it is more and more important for students to understand the world they are part of. Fundafunda’s online high school Geography Class aims to help homeschoolers do just that.

Many jobs have people all over the world working together on projects, many involve travel, and many require interaction with other cultures.

All this means Geography is a very exciting and relevant subject to study – but all the excitement can so easily be destroyed by a dull textbook and worksheets.

But you won’t find any of those in our online class! This course is intended for high school homeschoolers and after the completion of both semesters, they will have earned one full credit. Younger students may take it – but bear in mind the course load is high school level. And of course, non-homeschoolers can enroll too. Any students are welcome – but there will be about 4-5 hours of work each week.

What teaching methods are used?

The content will be delivered through video, interactive websites, and games and through student research.

1. Video

Video allows students to actually “see” the place they are studying. They can hear the sounds and watch the people.

2. Research

Students will be assigned various topics to research – and their research will then be shared with their classmates in creative ways. They definitely won’t be completing worksheets! It is important that students are “active” learners. Benjamin Franklin said

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

3. Websites

The websites won’t be ones that are just “textbook clones”. They might be games, or scavenger hunts, or Google earth! There are so many really engaging websites that take “experiencing” Geography to a whole new level. Webcams and 3D technology can help students feel like they are really there!

How will the students’ understanding of the work be assessed?

Our aim is to achieve a broad knowledge of world geography, and that students will retain much of this knowledge well after the class has ended. We are not huge fans of tests as a means of assessment but will rather use fun quizzes, online games, and projects.

* Quizzes – these will be short and taken during or straight after instruction to check students are paying attention They will be able to re-take them if they realized they had been daydreaming.

* Online games are a great way for students to learn where countries are, their capitals, etc. Some of these have dashboards for teachers, but in other cases, we will require a screenshot as proof of mastery

* Game creation – students will need to research and create games. And then, of course, they will play each other’s games.

* Presentation of their research – this will take different forms but will include short paragraphs, videos, posters, websites, and itinerary planning.

The work takes students about 4 – 5 hours each week. They will be able to work anytime they want to – but there are deadlines and they have to keep up. On occasion, they will work with classmates collaboratively and they do peer assessments and interact with each other in the virtual classroom. So it is like a regular classroom – just online!

WARNING: Your children may enjoy this so much that they will be begging you to travel. Or maybe FundaFunda should just plan a round-the-world field trip for us all at the end of the course!

In fact, one of our students did manage to convince her parents to take her on a trip she planned as part of a class assignment. You can read about it here.

Ready to sign up? Visit us at FundaFunda Academy.

FundaFunda’s Online High School Geography Class for homeschoolers (FAQ)

Feel free to leave questions in the comments.

The post FundaFunda’s Online High School Geography Class for homeschoolers appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

If you have been homeschooling for any period of time, you are probably familiar with the concept of “unit studies”. In a unit study, children will study a specific topic in some depth. Unit studies usually explore topics in a creative way and incorporate reading and research as well as projects.

But while you may be familiar with the concept of unit studies, you may not realize how web-based unit studies differ from traditional ones, and why you should try them out

How web-based unit studies are different from traditional unit studies

Simply taking a unit study and turning it into a pdf or an e-book does make it more accessible – but it isn’t harnessing all the potential of the internet.

Unit studies that are actually delivered online allow students to move seamlessly between online articles, videos, interactive websites, quizzes, and more.

What are some of the benefits of web-based unit studies?

1. A rich variety of content

Learning resources aren’t limited to just reading text, but can incorporate so many different types of content. Students might watch a video, then play an online game, followed perhaps by learning from an interactive website. Infographics, live webcams, online quizzes can all make learning fun and exciting

2. Web-based projects

While our unit studies might still incorporate hands-on projects like baking or something craft-related, they also include techie projects like making animated videos or creating online posters. These will help your children to learn skills they need in the 21st century.

3. Up-to-date links

Even when pdfs and e-books contain links to online resources, these links can stop working. Of course, the same can happen in our unit studies BUT as soon as someone reports a broken link, we can change it, and immediately it is corrected for everyone as the links all reside in an online classroom.

4. Children get familiar with learning online

Your children are likely to take some online classes at high school, and will definitely need to know how to get around online classrooms if they go to college. Even live college classes post work online and assignments are submitted online. Web-based unit studies are a gentle way for your children to learn to navigate the online learning experience.

Take a look inside one of FundaFunda’s:

More about our web-based unit studies

• They are affordable! FundaFunda’s are $20 each. And – you can use them for all your children!
• They are usually aimed at 4th – 8th graders but a number are for older students too.
• They are self-paced. Do them whenever you want and take as long as you want
• We have spent hours and hours curating excellent resources. This means no prep for busy homeschool parents!

Take a look at all the web-based unit studies from FundaFunda. You are sure to find ones that your children will love!

The post Why you should consider web-based unit studies in 2024 appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

** Some links may be affiliate links. You don’t pay anything extra but we get a small percentage of the sale **

Homeschooling gives parents the opportunity to offer a limitless number of electives for your high schoolers. This is a big bonus, as students at public and private schools can usually only select from what their school offers.

States may require a certain number of electives and may require certain types of electives, but I would encourage parents to include as many as they can during their children’s high school years.

Why are electives important for high schoolers?

Electives help keep school fun

In elementary and middle school most homeschoolers include unit studies and plenty of field trips. These just aren’t possible in high school BUT electives can provide some “light relief”. Electives allow students to explore topics that interest them. When a student needs a break from math and history and science and English – spending an hour working on an elective can be as good as a break

Electives allow students to explore possible career paths

If a child thinks they want to study film at college, let them take a History of Film elective. If they think business is in their future, Accounting and Marketing would be good choices. For teens interested in science, suggest an elective in an area they are interested in – Paleontology, Astronomy, Environmental Science, Thermodynamics etc.

Between my 4 kids, they took Logic, Game Theory, Programming, Meteorology, Psychology, Marketing, Linguistics, Forensic Science, Acting and Graphic Design. This helped them gauge the direction they would take at college.

Electives can help improve a GPA

I have heard that some colleges don’t include elective credits when calculating the GPA for prospective students, but this wasn’t the case for any of the 20 + colleges my kids applied to. Electives are generally not as much work as core classes and if they are subjects your child is interested in, they should provide an easy A.

How do you choose electives for your child?

Most of the ones my children did, were ones they requested. They also were part of a Science Olympiad team and some of the electives grew out of events they competed in over a few years.

In addition, they could select electives our local co-op offered.

But you may have to help your child with suggestions. Think about what they enjoy doing and where their academic strengths lie. Brainstorm with your husband or a friend or family member who knows your child well. Come up with a list of possibilities and then show them to your child and ask them to select a few each year. Remember, electives can be 1/2 credits, so students don’t have to be locked into something for a full year.

Electives that let them try out a field they may want to work in, are also a good idea. So if they want to go into business, an Entrepreneurship, or Marketing or Accounting elective would be a good idea. Or if they have an interest in a type of engineering, or a medical profession – look for electives that reflect that interest.

Where do you find electives?

FundaFunda Academy currently offers the following online electives for homeschoolers:

• Graphic Design with Canva
• Intro to Theatre
• Photography
• Adobe Photoshop
• Visual Literacy
• Programming with Scratch or Python
• Science electives: Earth Science and Ecology and Forensic Science

Coursera and EdX offer college-level online classes (some free and some paid) that could be great for a junior or senior who is ready for a challenge.

7 Sisters Homeschool has a number of interesting electives in pdf format for students to work through – for example, Human Development, Early Childhood Development and Psychology

Great Courses were who I turned to for Meteorology, Game Theory, and Linguistics. I watched the videos with whichever child was taking the elective and we discussed each lecture. I added books/textbooks for them to work through.

In addition, I required my children to write a research paper on a topic related to what they had learned. You could also get students to make a video, create a website, etc so that you have something to grade them on.

You can definitely do an online search with the topic you are interested in + “online class”, or + “online homeschool” added to it and you should find plenty of options.

Most states expect a 1/2 credit to be about 65 hours of work, so use that as a rule of thumb when putting together an elective. Sometimes we just used a textbook if there was nothing online that would work.

But with a bit of effort and some creativity, you should be able to either find the electives your child will enjoy or be able to put together your own curriculum for one.

Have your children taken any electives they enjoyed? Share what you have done in the comments.

The post How to Select Electives for Your High Schooler appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

One thing I loved about majoring in English at university was that after I got a few core classes out of the way, I was able to pick and choose classes that suited my interests.

There is no reason why you can’t use the same approach and create your own high school English credits for your children that will align with what they are interested in.

A lesson from a veteran homeschooler

The year I started homeschooling, I volunteered at our church library. The librarian had homeschooled her children until they graduated from high school. She told me how her son hated writing essays for her. He loved everything to do with technology though. So, she suggested he start a blog writing reviews of tech products and she told him she would count his reviews as his English writing.

A year later he had written many many sentences with no further complaints. And he had lots of people reading his writing. And companies were sending him free products to review!!

That story challenged me to try to think outside the box when a traditional curriculum wasn’t working for one of my children. It also encouraged me to try to incorporate their own interests into lessons wherever possible.

In 9th grade, I created an Arthurian Legend English credit for my oldest daughter based on one I had done at college. It was a success and so after that, I would choose a literature curriculum (I didn’t create anymore) and then added grammar, punctuation, vocabulary etc as necessary.

What must you include when creating an English curriculum?

You want to be sure, that by the time your teen graduates from high school, they know how to use good grammar, have an extensive vocabulary, be able to write the basic types of papers and be able to discuss literature and poetry with understanding.

You have 4 years to achieve that – and you can achieve it in SO many different ways.

If you are piecing it all together yourself, here are some resources I used with my children that I can recommend:

• Word Power Made Easy
• Editor in Chief
• Vocabulary.com
• Painless Poetry

And here is a fun grammar program I would have LOVED had it been available then

• Fast Grammar

You can either use a writing program – 7 Sisters Homeschool has a variety of good options – or you can assign some “real” writing eg blogging to cover this aspect of English.

A module approach to creating English curriculum

If you don’t feel confident in your ability to develop your own English curriculum, then there is something else I can suggest. You can find online 1/2 credit (1 semester) classes to put together to create a full English credit. This is similar to what students will do at college and allows you to find the topics your child will enjoy.

FundaFunda has started creating classes to cater to this approach. We currently offer

• • Writing Mechanics:  This class covers grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, and how to write the 4 basic types of essays.
  • Visual Literacy: This class gives students the tools to notice more of the images in their daily lives and learn how to critically engage with them.
  • Exploring Jane Austen: Students learn about Jane Austen and the world she lived in and then read three of her novels. Assignments are engaging and relevant to 21st-century teens.

In addition, here are some other options:

• Intro to Shakespeare class
• Poetry and a Movie
• Virtual Book Clubs

You can also select use literature guides from 7 Sisters Homeschool and make your own selection of what books to study.

Just want it all done for you?

FundaFunda does also offer full-year English 1 and English Honors classes. These classes are asynchronous so fit into any schedule. There are weekly deadlines and all assignments are graded for you.

Prefer a live class? True North Homeschool offers a number of live English classes (please note: their classes are from a Christian worldview)

With so many options, you can make sure your teens enjoy their English studies and are well equipped for college and careers.

The post How To Create Your Own High School English Credit appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

Chances are, the first words that pop into your mind when you hear the word ‘teenager’ are probably not ‘cautious, rational decision-maker.’

But that doesn’t have to be the case! With some attentive studying, your teen can become an expert critical thinker.

So, why should your teen study critical thinking?

10. Avoid drama

Building critical thinking skills will not only help your teen advance a logical argument, it will help him or her avoid the types of heated arguments that can rupture friendships.
By studying critical thinking and logic, teens can learn to make sound and valid arguments that could convince others to accept their ideas by presenting solid reasons and evidence.. Even better, your teen will learn how to avoid alienating or intimidating others, and how to avoid being alienated or intimidated.

9. Get better grades

Studying critical thinking helps encourage a logical mindset. Your teen will be able to study more effectively because he or she will be able to better sort relevant from irrelevant information. Critical thinking skills can help teach teens to prioritize their time and resources.

8. Stand up for beliefs

As a parent, you’ve spent years instilling strong values in your teen. It’s inevitable that the time will come when your teen is confronted by a situation that challenges those values — and you will want your teen to have the tools to stand up for what they believe in. Critical thinking will help make teens more confident and effective communicators because they will be able to make consistent and relevant points that support their ideas.

7. It’s in the Standards!

If you’re reading this blog, it’s likely that you homeschool. One of the great joys of homeschooling is the freedom to create a custom-tailored curriculum according to your child’s strengths and interests. Adhering to standards such as Common Core may or may not be a priority, but it bears keeping in mind that when your teen is eventually in a college classroom, there will be an expectation that they are proficient in the material covered by high school standards. As of 2018, Common Core Standards include the recognition and identification of logical fallacies.
“CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.3
Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.”

6. Be more empathetic

Learning how to think critically can help your teen understand and appreciate differing worldviews. Being empathetic will not only help your teen be a better team-player, it can help your teen become a kinder human.

5. Communicate clearly

When you study critical thinking and logic, you learn a go-to framework for evaluating and making arguments. Good critical thinkers understand how to analyze and give evidence for a particular premise, as well as to discern the assumptions that may underlie it. Finding consistent and relevant points to support an argument and determining whether assumptions are reasonable is crucial to effective communication.

4. Be more persuasive

We’re all familiar with persuasive tactics such as clever wordplay and appeal to emotions. While these tactics may be effective in certain circumstances, they are not a substitute for cogent arguments. The most powerful arguments are those with compelling evidence, where the conclusions follow logically from the premises. Studying critical thinking will boost your rhetorical prowess by teaching you how to out-reason your opponents.

3. Recognize faulty reasoning

A good critical thinking class will devote a substantial amount of time to teaching students how to recognize and avoid important logical fallacies, or common flaws in reasoning. Understanding the myriad ways reasoning can go wrong will help a student make reasoning go right.

2. Be a better citizen

A key aspect of good citizenship is making informed, rational decisions in the voting booth. With an understanding of critical thinking, voters — particularly inexperienced voters — will be able to better assess dubious campaign rhetoric.

1. Make better decisions

The teen and early adult years are a time when young people are bombarded with choices that could have a dramatic impact on their health, safety, and success. Studying critical thinking will help young people to think more clearly and make better choices that could give them a brighter future.

Do you have more reasons you can think of to study critical thinking? Or would you like to share your favorite resources to include critical thinking in your homeschool? If so, leave them in the comments down below!

The post Top 10 Reasons to Study Critical Thinking appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

FundaFunda offers an online high school Biology class for homeschoolers. To provide more insight about the class, I interviewed the instructor, Dr Dana Underwood.

What does each unit look like?

Dr. Underwood: We do small projects for each unit – not worth a ton in terms of points, but the goal is to have students work with the material at a deeper level.  They can draw, write, make a chart, do a computer animation, sculpt, etc.  Some approaches work better with certain material – nobody has ever sculpted glycolysis – but I also want for them to learn that, if there is an approach to learning that helps them (writing, modeling, acting it out, whatever) then they can use it to learn even if they’re not specifically assigned to make a 3D model.

In my last few years of college and in grad school, I kept play-doh at my desk so that I could make a model of anything that I couldn’t visualize (and just sniff it if I needed to channel my non-stressed 6-year-old self).

I see you assign a textbook. How do you use it in the class?

Dr. Underwood: The textbook is there so that students can refer back in case their notes from the lectures are missing anything, and to look at specific figures and diagrams. Occasionally short passages are assigned for students to read, but it is not the primary way the material is taught.

Are there tests?

Dr. Underwood: We do one test per unit, which ends up being 4 per semester. The last unit is set up to be a little shorter so that the last test is 1/2 new material, 1/2 cumulative.

How are students graded?

Dr. Underwood: In addition to the test grades, students get points for homework and projects, but what I keep emphasizing to them is that usually if they do all of the work, they learn the material enough that the points don’t matter.  Except in the (rare) cases where students have some sort of learning/test taking disability, homework pulls up test grades by no more than one letter grade.  I can teach difficult material and they don’t fear that they’ll bomb it because they have homework to ‘pull them up’, but for most students, the act of doing the work causes them to learn the difficult material.  I emphasize that even the absence of the assignments that I give, they should still use the techniques – making up practice tests, drawing, making flowcharts or lumping things into categories – to study anything.

Biology is a lot of studying – how do you help the students do that?

Dr. Underwood: We talk about how to approach different parts of the class – for genetics, I tell them to treat it like math and practice many problems.  For the parts of the cell, I tell them to quit saying that they’re ‘confused’ because it’s mostly a list to memorize and they just need to buckle down and do it because they can’t do much else until they know the parts, and for the metabolism and replication/transcription sections, I tell them that they need to think through flowcharts because it’s a process – they can memorize the steps, but they can also choose to think logically about what has to happen next to get to the end result and they’ll end up understanding what’s happening.

We do learn a lot of material.  Much of it is molecular biology and even students who don’t especially enjoy the topic are impressed with its complexity and how much they learned.  At the end of the year, we do ecology, which most students find to be easier – it’s a good way to end the year.

How does this class prepare students for college?

Dr. Underwood: The entire class is set up to teach students how to prepare for a college class, in addition to the biology content.  Instead of detailed questions for homework, I give questions that they should use as a study guide – in college they might not give you homework questions asking ‘why is x important’ or ‘why does y have to come first in the pathway?’, but hopefully at the end of my class, you’ve learned that if you’re given a list of 8 reasons that something is important, you should familiarize yourself with it, and if you’re presented with a pathway or flow chart, understanding why it happens in that order is important.

What are students likely to gain from this class?

Dr. Underwood: Alas, as much as I think that biology is the coolest subject ever, I know that many of them will use the study methods more than they’ll use the details of cellular metabolism.

Anything else you do that most biology classes don’t?

Dr. Underwood: Throughout the year they write article reviews about the science articles of their choice, so they can either do something with topics that they find interesting or they can learn about current ‘science in the news’.

To sign up for this class click here

The post FundaFunda’s Online Biology Class for Homeschoolers appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

I asked our teachers to share 3 of their favorite educational tools. Some of these you might enjoy using in your own homeschool environment. And it will give you some idea of what to expect in our classes.

Suzette Laporte-Ayo

Suzette teaches our Spanish classes.

• Quizlet

  A website where teacher or student can enter lists of vocabulary or anything else that needs to be memorized and the website will turn the list into various games. Students and teachers may share these lists with the general public or only with the class (password protected) or you can use someone else’s lists. Students can practice vocabulary in fun ways: first they can use the flashcards to listen to all the vocabulary pronounced in English AND Spanish (or any other language you choose), there is a matching game, a spelling game, it generates a test and there is even a video game where you have to type the word before it gets blasted or disappears from the screen.

• Pinterest

  A visual collection that you or another has created – I like to use it to increase my students’ cultural awareness while practicing the language use. For example – I have made a collection of arts and crafts from Spanish speaking countries. We can use it in several ways – the students can look through my collection and describe in Spanish what they are seeing. They will be practicing vocabulary and sentence structures using authentic material instead of boring worksheets. The students can also make their own collections and write a short descriptive sentence under each picture to describe it.

• StudySpanish.com

  This is a website with Spanish grammar lessons. This one is not necessarily the students’ favorite website but it is mine. The grammar lessons are well worded and then the students have quizzes and test they can take and they get graded. There is also a vocabulary section and a cultural section. They can even get a daily generated idiom to practice. There are links to newspapers in Spanish and radio stations and podcasts in Spanish. There is a paid option but there is plenty do in the free version.

Dana Underwood

Dana teaches our Biology classes.

• Crossword Puzzle Maker

  This is great for quick vocab checks or reviews and converts to PDFs so you can save them from year to year

• Youtube

  These days, you can find live action videos of things that they used to learn about from drawings. I did work with Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) back when the idea of glowing proteins was new, so I always explain how recently it was that we were able to see mitosis happen like this:

• Play doh and other physical “tools”

  I also do modeling with simple physical tools on a fairly regular basis – at least a couple of times each semester. I keep a big multi-pack of play doh in the class. We simulate mitosis/meiosis (sometimes we use pipe cleaners instead), the lac operon, etc. I use felt boards to model transcription/translation. For the online students, I either give detailed typed directions or I model it in a video so that they can see it.

Heather Fulghum

Heather is our Earth Science teacher and teaches part of the Health class.

• Trello

  I love the fact that you can make assignments and send them to students in a virtual folder. Organizing learning material is easy to do with Trello and has made my life easier.

• Khan Academy

  Great review for all ages and learning levels. Khan allows kids to earn points after completing certain videos, practices, or quizzes.

• cK-12.org’s Flexbooks

  are a great resource for a variety of subjects. The books are very well organized and have interactive videos and pictures to emphasize the written text.

Rachel van der Merwe

Rachel teaches our Visual Literacy class.

• Podcasts

  I frequently use podcasts in my classroom to supplement whatever topic or material we are covering, usually assigning a specific episode or two. My preferred podcast player is the app Overcast. The podcast shows I most frequently assign include:
  – Note to Self
  – Science Vs.
  – Radiolab
  – Invisibilia
  – Reply All
  – Planet Money
  Note to Self’s “Bored and Brilliant Project” and “Infomagical Project” are two week-long interactive series that I frequently recommend to students to help them think about their daily interaction with technology. (Editor’s note: Infomagical project is actually used in the Computer Applications class)

• Anki

  I actually owe credit to my brother for introducing me to Anki. Anki is a “smart” flash card service that provides a platform for creating custom flash cards (complete with images/formulas/etc). What makes Anki flash cards “smart” is the ability for the learner, after flipping each card, to report on how well their memory performed. Depending on the learner’s response (e.g. got it wrong; got it partially right; got it right quickly; got it right slowly), each card will return to your deck at the optimal time for the learner to revisit that particular card.

• Kanopy

  In my classes, I often assign movies or other video material. As such, I am always checking to see where I can stream that material online. (A great place to begin is the website: wheretowatch.com) Besides the usual suspects, like Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, and Amazon, many local and university libraries also offer their patrons access to a movie database called Kanopy. While you won’t find the most recent movie releases on Kanopy, the site does host quite a range of classic films and documentaries, which are particularly helpful for teachers.

  Another similar service that I have recently discovered is the Internet Archive, which houses thousands of free movies, television clips and episode, e-books, and audiobooks.

  Bonus tip: Don’t forget to see what other digital services and resources your local library offers. With my library, I have access to Mango Language Learning software, Hoopla and Overdrive (ebooks/audiobooks services), and much more.

Josh Watson

Josh teaches our Adobe Photoshop class.

• • Evernote

    Great for organizing, archiving and searching everything. Use for note taking and marking up PDFs. You can even make flash cards!

  • Photobooks

    A great and in depth way to experience photography. A good one to start with is Walker Evans’ “American Photographs.”

  • Board games

    A fun way to learn skills and history. Many games are historically based and find creative ways to abstract thematic concepts. Twilight Struggle (a game based on the Cold War) is a fantastic game in its own right and wonderfully simulates the historical events of the era (Ed: Josh wrote a post about board games here.

Jeremiah King

• Cambridge Elevate

  Cambridge’s Elevate platform enhances the Latin student’s learning experience through interactive activities that give instant feedback in the moment when it is most beneficial. Its tools allow the student to identify some deficiencies without their teacher’s help so that they can most efficiently use their study time.

• Google Docs

  While Google Docs has many uses, I have found it particularly useful for extracting text from PDF quizzes and tests for use in online quizzes and tests. This can be a great timesaver when migrating large quantities of text to online formats.

• Wheelock’s Latin

  Even when I am not teaching from this textbook, the Summary of Forms in the back is a clear and useful reference for Latin students.

Meryl van der Merwe

• Padlet

  Padlet is an electronic pin board that allows students to pin the work for their classmates to view. It is essentially the virtual equivalent of putting work up on the classroom wall. I usually get them to decide whose is best and that one gets extra credit. This encourages them to work harder as they know everyone will see what they did, and it gets them all to learn from each other.

• Powtoon

  This is a very fun and easy way to create animated videos. I love seeing what the students come up with! We just use the free version in class.

• Canva

  Canva makes it easy to create graphics of any kind. It is a free website or you can use their app. I suggest students use it if I want them to make digital posters but you can use it for cards, newsletters, social media graphics and much more.

Have you used any of these tools? What do your children think of them? Let us know in the comments.

**Please note: some of the links above are affiliate links. You don’t pay anything more but we get a small portion of the sales.

The post FundaFunda Teachers’ Favorite Educational Tools appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

FundaFunda Academy has developed a very specific philosophy for its online classes. While each of our teachers has a different teaching style, we all hold to the general philosophy outlined here. This should help you decide if our online homeschool classes and online summer classes are right for your children.

1. We recognize different students have different learning styles

Although all students are presented with the same material to study, we try our best to select a variety of different ways to provide the instruction in order to cater for different learning styles. We use podcasts, videos, games, infographics, interactive websites etc.

We also try to vary the types assignments students submit. Students may write the occasional paper, but we also assess their understanding by allowing them to create cartoons, animated videos, games, posters and much more. Some teachers even give students a variety of options for the way they can submit assignments. For example, when students study cells in biology they can choose any way they want to show what they have learned. Some use clay, some make videos, some draw and one even programmed an animation of a cell!

Not every assignment will appeal to every student, but in each class, there will be enough variety so that everyone will be able to learn the way they learn best at least some of the time.<

2. We use the best material we can find

We do create our own videos, but if there is already excellent material available, we use resources we find online. In fact, there is so much one can find online that the teachers spend hours wading through everything to select the best ways to engage students. If we don’t find anything suitable – we create it ourselves.

3. We want students to master the material

We do not want students to finish the class without actually knowing the material in the classroom. So we encourage students to re-submit work they don’t get perfect grades on. We will work with them to achieve mastery.

4. We want the students to have as much FUN as possible

Obviously, some parts of any class are going to be hard work, but we want to infuse our classes with fun. We do this through the videos we choose, funny memes we may post, games we incorporate and the assignments we create for them to do.

5. We want the classes to be relevant to the students

via GIPHY

Don Wettrick, in the book Pure Genius, says, “When teachers make material applicable to their everyday lives, students can see the value of learning.”

Students won’t enjoy a class if they think what they are learning is pointless! So in Spanish students will really learn to speak the language (I know – my kids took the classes and have no problem communicating in Spanish-speaking countries). In Economics, students will understand what they hear on the news and know how it might affect them. In Biology, they will be introduced to current discoveries and research. In Geography they will “travel” virtually and meet the people who live around the world. In History, they will constantly need to answer “So what?” as they study what happened in the past. In Programming, students create games that others will enjoy playing.

6. We involve students in the learning process.

Benjamin Franklin said: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” If students watch a video or listen to a podcast we always encourage them to take notes, but we also may ask them to tell us what they think about what was said. We encourage students to research topics and to create projects to share their findings with the other students in the class (yes, you can share work in a virtual classroom too!) Sometimes we even have students collaborating on projects.

7. Minimal use of textbooks and tests

Some classes do need tests to make sure students have learned the material (eg Foreign Languages) but we know that not all students are good test-takers so even when we do use tests they never count for more than 50% of the grade. Fun online quizzes that students can retake as often as they need to, often are all that’s needed to help students remember details. As googling information is so easy today, memorizing facts is no longer as important as it used to be, so we prefer to focus on students gaining an understanding of each subject.

We only use textbooks if they provide useful diagrams etc. But there are often much better and more interactive resources online. Would you rather read about a country, or view a drone video of it and then use Google streetview to walk through the streets of the capital city on a virtual scavenger hunt? Would you rather read a text book explaining how to pronounce words in Spanish – or listen to a video where Spanish is spoken?

8. We are preparing students for college

As most of our students will continue on to college, we make sure that our classes are preparing them for what they will face there. We make sure they have sufficient knowledge of the subject and are used to meeting deadlines (yes, we keep them accountable and there are penalties for late work). They will also learn memory skills in some classes and get to use technology they will be expected to be familiar with in college (slide show presentations, video creation etc). And most importantly our classes encourage students to THINK – which is the most valuable skill we can teach them.

9. We love teaching and love students

All our teachers are very approachable and if students are struggling with the material they can ask for help. There are also usually teaching assistants in classes who were past students and they are there to help too.

If you have read all the way down to the end, then I am guessing you liked what you were reading and now is the time to take a closer look at our classes! The student reviews will also be helpful to help you determine if FundaFunda Academy is the right fit for your teen.

The post FundaFunda’s Educational Philosophy appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.