[Audrey]

Hi! So in the introduction to the teacher’s guide, it mentions to allot 10 minutes for the video and about 10 minutes for the reading and question. My daughter, however, usually ends up spending at least an hour or more on these things. In the introductory video, the teacher recommends taking notes, which she does try to do. She has to pause the video in order to jot down what he says. And if she didn’t take notes, the exams would be fairly difficult to pass. Also, she is a good reader, but some of the longer readings are just impossible for her. I have two questions: is there a transcript or outline of the videos somewhere that I just haven’t found yet? I think that would help her with the note-taking. Second, is ten minutes a realistic time frame for the readings for most everyone else, or are others struggling too? If so, how do you handle it? The questions are based on the readings, so I feel like we need to do them in order to have graded work. I want her to love this class, and she was really excited about it, but the actual volume of work compared to what was presented has dimmed her enthusiasm. Thanks!

[Anna]

Three of my kids are doing American History this year, ages 15, 14, and 13. My younger two have definitely not been able to complete a days work in 20 minutes. Note-taking is not a skill they are fluent in yet. Since note-taking is an important skill to master I think it’s worth the extra time. I remind them that they’re doing more than just learning the history and that as their skills develop they will get faster and this class (as well as other courses in the future) will be easier and more enjoyable for them. My oldest can do the work in about the time specified and often doubles up, alternating days she works on history.

I don’t know about transcripts of the lectures.

[Michelle]

Hello there! I used “Modernity” with my 17 & 15 yr olds last year and this year we are doing the American history. I do sit with my girls and take notes with them since I find the lectures very interesting as well. We do “pause” if we need to catch up on notes and often one of us will have caught an important note that the other needs. We also recap with each other after the lecture for just a few minutes to make sure we got the main point. (Some of the Modernity lectures are quite long) It’s a learning process and note taking skill that will continue to grow throughout the school year! So, I definitely would recommend taking notes with your students at least for the first month or so until they really get the hang of it.

Also, with Modernity, our family found some of those readings to be too lengthy or confusing for my students to grasp for certain lessons. So we would skim or I would pull out a few lines to focus on and go through the “exam” questions together. Our focus is for them to learn and digest the information, not just be able to spit out the right answer. The 4 projects they will do through the school year can be huge learning opportunities. My kids really got into these, so I definitely weighted their grades for history on the credit they earned doing these research projects as well as the portfolios they created.

Hope that helps!