This is our 9th year of homeschooling (wow) - and we have used unit studies for many of those years. Although we have tried Konos and Amanda Bennett's unit studies, and we were enrolled in the Advanced Training Institute for 2 years, we have generally found that the unit studies that work best for us are the ones that we plan ourselves. Sometimes we follow our students' interests and sometimes we plan a unit around something that we see that needs to be covered (for whatever reason). Either way - we have found that planning our own (and using several resources to help us along) works best for us.
Here is how I plan our unit studies.
First, decide upon the topic of the unit study. Ask yourself why you want to study that topic - and to what extent do you want to study it. For example - let us pretend you want to study the MIddle Ages. Do you want to study it because your student is fascinated by castles and knights? Because you know they have never studied it? Perhaps because it is in a scope and sequence you need to cover? It doesn't matter what your reason is - but understanding that reason will help you to plan your unit (trust me on that). Secondly - do you simply want to introduce the topic to the student - or do you want to study all the major people and events of that period of time? These are decisions you need to make BEFORE you plan out your unit study.
Next, find out what your student knows already. You can do this several ways - you can just ask them to tell you what they know about this subject. You can ask them specific questions to see if they know the answer (like "Who was King Henry VIII?"). Or you can just go ahead and plan anyway without finding out what they know...(but I wouldn't...I've been there - done that - have the scrapped unit study plans to show it).
Third, decide upon your objectives - and find your resources. Now -let's pretend you want to study the Middle Ages. What do you want to study? The people? Places? Events? Inventions? Deciding on objectives isn't easy - but let's face it - when you are the one planning the unit study - you need to decide upon your own objectives.
(Please note that you may need different objectives for each child if they are doing this together but are several years apart in age.)
There are some good resources for helping you plan objectives:
For science-based unit studies: Design-A-Study's Science Scope (see favorite resources page for a description).
For history-based unit studies: Incentive Publication's World History Yellow Pages and American History Yellow Pages (available in most teacher supply stores) or History Helps by Bonnie Dettmer of Small Venture Press. (Once again - see favorite resoure page once it is fully up and running).
Once you know what to teach - go to the library (or a friend's house?) and pull books off their shelves to see what you can use. Many times you will find a lot of helpful resources (like outlines) in some encyclopedias. Try to decide how long it will take you to teach your unit (I tend to have 4 week units - other friends have 6 week units and longer...while others only go a couple of weeks - it depends upon how deeply you are delving into a subject).
Fourth, decide on your vocabulary words and any activities like map work, writing, etc. Decide if you're going to be doing any writing! (I will soon have a webpage on writing (after July 2nd) to help you come up with writing assignments when planning your own unit study).
Fifth, plan out a schedule. I tend to plan a "weekly" schedule - as in "This week we will cover objectives 1-4" so that I can flex my plans if something comes up or we have a bad day (or an extremely good day).
Finally, work your plan. Keep an eye on the calendar to see if you are staying "on schedule" and make decisions about whether you need to extend your study longer (or shorten it because they kids are racing through it).
Two last things to add:
#1 - I do plan to work on this page after July 2nd, 1997 (my mom is coming for a visit till then) - so please feel free to come back and visit for more specific and helpful information (I hope).
#2 - I do "cheat" and am either using - or going to be using some "units" or "curriculum" to help me plan my units.
For astronomy and oceanography - I am going to be using Charity Lovelace's "Useful Units" - you can get to Charity's page by clicking here ---> http://www.alaska.net/~cccandc/
For history, I am using TRISMS (both volumes) - but instead of following their day by day schedule, I am pacing the work like a unit (basically using their map work and vocabulary words, etc.).
Well - that's it! Here are some links back to my pages!
Peg's Unit Study Checklist
Peg's Homeschool Reviews
Learning Styles
Peg's Weather Unit Study
Peg's Homeschooling Helps
Peg's "Talkback" Page
Peg's Pages (my home page)
If you'd like to comment, please feel free to write me ---> pegflint@aol.com