1.5—Readings, Assignments, Exams, Portfolios, & Projects (8 min video)

Transcript

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Well, in this last lecture of our orientation lesson, I want to take some time for some more practical aspects of this curriculum. I want to speak with you about the things you’re going to be doing for this. Now, obviously, you’re already watching these videos. You’re already taking notes. We’ve already talked about that, especially reviewing your notes, going back over them, things like that. But you have other things you’re going to be doing along the way. have readings and assignments, for example. In fact, the majority of your reader is made up of often first-hand accounts or poems or old letters from the people of the past, particularly of American history origins, that connect whatever we talked about.

Now, some of the readings are easy. Some of the readings just kind of will flow off the tongue. Some of the readings are not so easy. If you’ve already looked ahead, you might have noticed that. Some of the readings are excruciatingly long even. Well, here’s what I want to tell you. Here’s how I want you to kind of approach these things. First of all, take your time. You don’t need to do this in a rush. You don’t need to sit down and just get through it so you can check it off your list of things to do. Take your time. Find a comfortable place in your house or a comfortable place outside if you’re not too distracted by the cars driving by and the birds singing outside your window. But take your time with these things. comfortable spot. It’s always helpful to have something nice to drink, pick up something hot to drink, especially if it’s a cold day while you’re doing these things. Make sure you have like a pen or a pencil, maybe a journal to write things down. If you really want to understand something, you have a lot of questions, like have no idea what’s going on, start writing about it. Start asking questions about what is your reading and trying to answer those questions. Still confused? Read it again. Still confused? Ask someone for help. You’ve got to be able to do these things and pursue these things if you really want to know and you really want to understand the readings that I have given you.

Now you won’t always be doing reading. Sometimes you’ll be drawing something. Sometimes you’ll be researching something online. And all of those assignments, enjoy them as much as you can. In fact, there’s even one poem, Paul Revere’s Ride, that I have given you where instead of asking you a question about the reading, I’ve simply told you read a second time and enjoy it. But most the time when you come to a reading I will have a certain question that I’ve given you and the purpose of that question is to give you something to look for in the reading. Something to be asking yourself as you complete this task. Something that will actually build in you wisdom or so I hope. Also a part of this reader you’ll notice that after the end of each lesson or the fifth lecture you will notice that I always give you an exam. Often it’s ten questions, sometimes it’s less, sometimes it’s more, But the exams are again, they’re designed to see if you can recap what it is you have learned. Can you retell the stories? Can you explain who this person was and why they mattered? Specifically, can you explain the principle? In fact, typically, the very first three questions are always principle-based questions. I’m often asking you, “Do you understand this idea and can you explain it to whoever might be testing you on this?” Might be your parent, might be someone else, might just be you. be you. But in either case, you need to be able to know the answers to these things. If you don’t know the answers to these things, go back. Look at your notes again. Still don’t know? Go back and re-watch it. Search and find as best you can. See, this is…the whole study of history and the study of the humanities is really an art. There are often multiple correct answers to the same question, because I’m asking questions about “why did this matter?” or “what caused this man to to pursue this thing. Now of course with these exams you’ll be able to answer them without using your notes while you’re actually answering the exam and really we’re looking for three things. We’re looking, do you have a knowledge of the past? Do you know the dates? Do you know the events? Do you know the people? But do you also understand why those are important? Do you also understand how those things connect to each other and how this caused this over here? How Christopher Columbus’s faith caused him to actually pursue the gospel to the natives? Or do you understand how his involvement with the slave trade, or at least the cultural involvement with the slave trade the Spanish had, caused their involvement with the slave trade in the New World?

Do you understand those connections? But even more importantly, this is the hardest part to grasp and really takes a lifetime, can you actually see wisdom here? Can you actually take these lessons and apply them to something that you’ve swatched? Apply them to another discipline? Or apply them to a relationship of yours? If you can do those things, then you really are on the right course to being able to have moral philosophy in the great study of history.

Now beyond exams and beyond these readings and assignments, you have two other great things you’re going to be working on. One of them is the portfolio, which is basically a scrapbook which you’re going to be doing all year long. Every single lesson, which might be a week for you, might be more, might be less, but With every single lesson, you should make a portfolio entry.

Now I’ll talk about portfolios in another video, which you’ll need to watch after this one. But the portfolios are meant to be a visual scrapbook of what we’ve talked about. It’s your way to make your own visual representation through pictures, through maps, even through poems, even through original artwork of what we’ve actually studied. And then finally, you’re also going to be doing projects. In fact, you will have a project, you’ll have two for every semester, which really works out to about one a quarter. Now once again, you will have four separate project videos, which you’ll get to watch throughout the year as you complete your lessons. But I’ll go through these projects real quickly. The very first quarter, which is roughly half of the first semester, you’re going to be making a colonial map. You’re going to find a map of the past that shows you some kind of spot in colonial America. It could be North or South America. And you’re going to be recreating it. You’re going to be redesigning it the same way that it was designed years and years ago. In the second quarter, you’re going to actually select a part of a letter or a part of a speech or a part of a first-hand account, something from early American history.

You’re going to memorize it. You’re going to create a costume involving at least one article of the person that you’re recreating. And then you’re going to deliver that, hopefully to an audience of your own choosing or of your parents choosing for that matter and you’re going to see how well you can actually deliver a memorized speech as well as creating a costume to go with it. In the third quarter you’re going to be writing a research paper. You’re going to be sitting down coming up with a thesis, coming up with an outline, doing lots of research and hopefully writing about something that you love.

And then of course in the last quarter we’re going to do something I call the hour project. And your parents can determine the number of hours based upon your age and based upon your abilities, but essentially you’re going to be spending say 30 hours or 40 hours over that last quarter or that last half of the semester doing something that connects to American history, creating something, making something, but hopefully using a skill that you love to use.

Because in each of the projects there’s two primary things I’m looking for, two primary things your parents should be looking for as they coach you and as they grade you. First of all, craftsmanship. Really pour yourself into these projects. Really make them quality works. Really make them finely detailed. In other words, make these projects something that you want to actually keep. And secondly, I’m always looking for calling in these projects with my students. Did you actually pursue something that somehow shows what you love? Did you actually pursue something that you’re actually attracted to? You may not understand why, but there’s something about it that intrigues you and interests you? Often those are clues as to your future calling. So at this point, you have the luxury of being a student, you can just pursue those things for the mere pleasure of doing them, and also because they’re assigned to you, but still, I hope they show a calling in you. But once again, you’ll need to watch these project videos, in fact, you’ll need to watch the very first one, the colonial map, after you finish this lecture. That’s all for now, I’ll see you in the next lesson.