Homeschool Resources – Home Based Education

To put this article in perspective, I should mention that I write a lot of harsh articles about the counter-productive practices used in public education.

A few weeks ago I wondered: well, is there any good news? Let’s approach this thing from the other direction and ask: are there still classrooms that are sensibly conducted; are there still subjects that are taught in an intelligent way?

I thought about French (or other foreign languages). And I was immediately sure that this was the least contaminated area in American education. Here’s why:

I bet that most French classes are still taught today very much as French classes were taught 100 years ago. This is great news. It means there is a laboratory where we can see how it should be done.  

And what are the main components of this successful formula? There are two. First, teachers and students are deeply respectful of the content being taught; everybody loves French and wants to master French. Second, language classes are completely transparent; everybody in and outside the class can view and evaluate the progress made by all the students.

Think of the contrast with a typical public school classroom, where content is disdained, and the proceedings are so murky that almost nobody knows what success looks like or whether anybody is achieving it.

 I wrote up these reflections in an article titled “French Class As A Paradigm For The Perfect Way To Teach Everything.” (On AmericanChronicle.com.)

Trying to keep the article short, I left out some interesting points. Run through your own list of the most popular fads in American education. You would probably think of Constructivism, Self-Esteem, Multiculturalism, Cooperative Learning, Portfolios, No Memorization, and many more. Now imagine a good French teacher evaluating these gimmicks (as I think of them) for use in her French class: 

Constructivism? This means the kids are going to invent French? Sure they are.

Cooperative Learning? Learning French is like eating lunch at a bistro: you have to do it for yourself. When you interact, you should interact with the whole class or the teacher. Kids shouldn’t be chatting with each other, whether in French or English.

Multiculturalism? That’s why they take French to begin with. They’ll learn the glory of French civilization. Are you saying we have to stir in some stuff from Africa, Asia and South America. Bizarre!

Self-Esteem? Where does this go? Kids will hear records, movies, television news. Can they pronounce it like that? Then they’re good. If they can’t, should the teacher say they’re good. Everyone knows it’s a lie.

Portfolios? Oh yes, students will learn French by cutting out pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe this is a way to learn about France in elementary school. But it is clearly not the way to learn to speak French in middle or high school.

No Memorization? And you want to learn French? Does this actually work in history and science?? Well, it doesn’t work in French. The whole point is to memorize French…  

My point here is that thinking about French clarifies how useless all these things are. My thesis is that these gimmicks are harmful in history, biology and all other subjects. You don’t always feel it because the Education Establishment has woven them into the fabric and made you think it’s normal to have contempt for content, and murkiness and ignorance in every direction. 

 (For more about respect for content, see “47: Teach One Fact Each Day” on Improve-Education.org.)

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By edarticle.com

The next three causes of difficulties in mastering the multiplication tables are considered in this article: the times tables from 11 to 20, poor memory of pupils, and the use of calculators.

Cause #6. Some educators suppose that pupils must learn the times tables up to 20 by 20. But several results (16 by 17, 19 by 18, etc.) are too difficult for kids to remember for a long time.

A few months ago I had written that I could not even imagine some explanation to justify this immoderate demand. Recently I have found one reason – the 12 times and 16 times tables are needed to help with inches and ounces. If so, I can not be a referee, because I have never dealt with inches and ounces at school.
If a math curriculum provides for wide use of inches and ounces, then, maybe, the demand for knowing by heart the 12 times and 16 times tables is justified. But what about the13 times tables or the 19 times tables, etc.? Even if a pupil has learnt them by heart, he/she will forget them soon because of the lack of use, and the time spent on the learning will turn out to be wasted in vain.

Cause #7. Many pupils have poor memory in view of the fact that the methods of teaching mathematics which are used at school do not encourage the development of their memorizing abilities.

Teachers and parents notice often that many children have weak memory now. They can not memorize simple math facts totally; they do not remember the rules which have been learnt a month or even a week ago; they can not recall the methods of solving tasks used recently, and so on. I suppose, the cause is connected with our methods of teaching math, and not only math, but other school subjects too. Now there is decreased emphasis on memorizing at school. We do not develop pupils’ memory duly; we do not use proper exercises to drill their memorizing abilities. At the same time, most researchers agree that memorizing abilities play a significant role when kids think with numbers.
Learning multiplication affects different parts of the brain. Drilling the times tables uses one area, while learning multiplying methods uses others. According to Brian Butterworth, Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology at University College London, anything that is memorized is consigned to the back (memory) part of the brain, freeing the front of the brain (the learning area) for more learning. So the practice of learning the times tables by rote (which is named unfashionable very often) turns out to be not as ineffective as it is considered. It looks like kids are “born with a start-up kit for numbers,” Butterworth said, and have to practice, just as musicians do. “Processing is done at the rear as you become more experienced,” he explains. In other words, if pupils have memorized the times tables by heart (the back part of the brain), they become more experienced, and the front parts of the brains become more receptive for advanced learning.
I think that multi-digit operations, for instance, are important not only as a drill in calculations. During implementation of such operations pupil’s memory is continuously working. The pupil recalls and uses simple math facts (the results of the times tables, for example), memorizes the intermediate results, performs simple mental computations, and, hereupon, his/her memory gets a good training.

Cause #8. Pupils are allowed to use calculators too early, and, instead of development of their independent computational abilities, their brains get a cripple wheel-chair for moving in the world of numbers.

The debates on the use of calculators at school have been lasting thirty years or even more. The main claim of the proponents is that calculators allow students to spend less time on calculations and more time on understanding and solving problems. They believe that the use of calculators helps students develop better number sense. Moreover, some of modern curriculums can tell you that basic arithmetical skills are not necessary now, because pupils can use calculators.
The opponents say that calculators produce students who can’t perform basic tasks without calculator. One of their mantras is “Calculators were invented by vampires to suck your brains out.”
I am not an opponent or a proponent of calculators. My opinion is closer to standpoint of those educators who consider calculators as useful devices only, but not as a mean of teaching math. Calculators can not be used to excuse pupils from learning the fundamentals. If pupils do not master mental arithmetic, they will also be poor users of calculators. To use a calculator effectively, a kid should learn to monitor and control the obtained results. This requires good developed skills in mental calculations.
I agree, there are many problems which are too difficult to be solved without the use of calculators, but we can postpone these problems until our pupils master mental computational skills totally, and only then the use of calculators may be begun. In the hands of an inexperienced kid a calculator ceases to be a useful device – it becomes a useless toy. Regrettably, we can often observe pupils who implement the same calculations with the use of calculator several times and, herewith, each time they receive different results. It seems that only one part of their brains is acting at that moment – the part which has charge of moving hands, and, if they need to add 15 and 10, their fingers stretch to the keys again, press them mechanically, and, without slightest delay, write in the copy-books a ridiculous result: 150 (or, maybe, 5 or 1.5).

By edarticle.com

I love seeing kids excited about Science.  Reading about Science, exploring the world outside, seeing a science video are ways in which children enjoy and become motivated about Science.  And, through the years, that is what we have successfully done. However, recently it has been confirmed in my own mind, that a real and extremely valid way for kids to love Science and be keen to know more, is to provide them with time to play around with really cool Science experiments.

As a homeschooling family we have questioned, “What have been the things that we look back on with fond and treasured memories in Science?”   It is either the hands-on nature walks and finding animals, or the fun in setting up and doing an experiment with great results.  Many of the experiments my children have enjoyed have been totally unrelated to any science text we may have been following at the time.  Most of the successful ‘science’ messes have sprung up from their own interest and trying to solve a question which they have posed themselves. (Like fixing a cheap toy and making it far better than it ever was.)

So, how do we encourage our children to play around with Science?

• Ask them Questions

Firstly, ask your children questions without giving away the answer.  If you are working through a text which has science experiments, present the question to them and don’t read or let them read what sorts of results they should be getting from performing the experiment.  Ask them questions during the experiment and after it – what do you think would happen if we changed  x,y or z?
Ask them questions about life – about their physical environment or why things happen?  Ask them the curious questions before they ask you.  And then let them think and ponder about it.  It does not mean that you should never give answers, but at the same time, don’t rush in – give them time first.  When answering, relate the answer to their current experience.  And remember, it is okay to admit you don’t know the answer – that can become an ideal time to discuss how to research and find answers we are looking for.

• Let them Experiment

Let them play with all sorts of things around the home and experiment.  Using a book or Science course will give you ideas about exciting science experiments. There are also a ton of books at the library that will interest your children.  Recently, I discovered an online Science Curriculum which is full of really cool science experiments.  You can see science experiments listed here.

The experiment instructions are also on video, which we all really love watching. Using all sorts of common household materials, and some that you need to buy, these experiments have amazed and excited my children.  In fact, it has been the recent catalyst for a whole heap of hovercraft experiments which in turn has motivated my other children to fiddle with a toy gun changing it from a gun using air pressure to one using spring mechanics.

• Be prepared, Grow a collection of Science Tools  and Encourage Mess

If you want your children to experiment, you will need to accept and even encourage mess.  Set up some boxes where you keep
all sorts of odds and ends which will come in handy for science experiments.

You will need materials like rubber bands, straws, pipe cleaners, paper clips, balloons, popsicle sticks.

You will also need tools and materials to bind items together like sticky tape, masking tape, hot glue gun, super glue, rope or string, stapeler and staples, hole punch, scissors.

Then you will also need to collect some clean junk – bottle tops, soda bottles, clean cans, bottle lids, icecream containers and cardboard boxes of all sizes.

Perhaps you can create a Science Corner – filled with experiment books and all the materials, and a table to work on.

• Allow for mistakes

Every Science experiment does not need to work perfectly and make sure your children know that.  When an experiment does not
work the way they had hoped,  ask them, “What did you learn from that?”  “What might you do differently next time?”  “Why do you think that happened?”

• Be Curious alongside of them, but don’t take over

When your children are in the middle of a project or have completed it, they love to have a fan club.  As they become more independent, they may not need you to set up an experiment or help them do it, but they really want to share their enthusiasm with an interested party – like their family and parents! So, let them inspire you – cheer them on as they set up an experiment – ask them questions so they can verbalize what is happening and why – problem solve with them – search out answers together,  BUT don’t take over.

As parents we have the tendency to ruin the child-led learning experience and make it a full-blown lesson.  We want to run with their idea because we can see how it will make a wonderful ‘unit study’ and so we plan, get books, blah,  blah, blah, and  run off with all of our great ideas, but meanwhile our children have turned the corner, lost interest  and moved on. It doesn’t matter!  Even if their interest in that topic may have been short lived, another experiment at a later date will most likely, help to reinforce the science concept.

So, do what you need to do to excite your children about Science?

Be curious, ask questions, encourage messes, grow a collection of Science Tools and find materials to help you.  You can find some easy and totally ‘cool’ science experiments. as well as links to science experiments on video, plus two free Science Experiment Ebooks (A Science Experiment Guide usually valued at $25, and a Science Activity Manual and Video Guide valued at $30) , here – easy science experiments.

By edarticle.com

When you begin to homeschool, you are keen to go to curriculum fairs and search out the perfect homeschool curriculum for your family.  When you have been homeschooling for a few years, you may discover that your first choices did not work out that well, and you are on the hunt again.  Five or so years later, you may be bored and keen to re-think
the homeschool curriculum and cater for your highschool students.  Ten years later, you throw out so much of what you have bought and never used and keenly look to simplify your homeschool curriculum.

I am not sure if you subscribe to numerous homeschooling e-newsletters or ezines (perhaps you subscribe to mine!).  I subscribe to a few to find out what homeschool curriculum is around and the see what other homeschoolers may be using.  At times, I like to read reviews.  However, as my email box is continually bombarded with new homeschool products and resources,  I wonder if all the new products have helped our desire or vision for homeschooling.   Are we more focussed on the task of homeschooling now with the
 plethora of curriculum that is put before us or did those early veteran homeschoolers with limited resources capture the essence of homeschooling in a better way?  Have we lost the vision?

Am I against homeschool curriculum?  Absolutely not!  I am very thankful to numerous publishers who have put time and thought into a product and are selling it to the homeschool market.  Thankyou!  It has made my task so much easier!  However, I am concerned that some publishers are just viewing homeschooling as another market and we are steered into thinking that each child needs to have a textbook for each subject each year!  Four children, eight subjects each year means literally 128 textbooks for every year of homeschooling.  Most of these will be pricey and consumable.

“What are you doing for Language Arts?”
“DS has a Year 3 book for Spelling, Year 4 for grammar, Year 3 book for Literature Studies, Year 3 text for writing and Year 4 Book for Reading Comprehension.  Yes, I am so glad that we can cater for his individual abilities!”

Is this the only way?  Are you ready to simplify your homeschool curriculum and not fall into the marketing traps?  How can that be done?

If you have spent any time on my website, you would know that I always refer to your educational and family goals.  That is the first thing that you need to do now if you want to simplify your homeschool curriculum.

• Decide on the big picture goals

Why are you homeschooling?  For what purpose and to what end are you preparing and educating your children?
Let these answers drive the curriculum you choose to implement in your homeschool.

• Decide why you want to teach a certain subject</li>

Here you should pose questions to yourself which will help you formulate why you want to teach a certain subject.

This step can be quite simple.  The most obvious answer as to why we want to teach reading, is, so that our children will read widely and understand what they read.  True?  How do we do that?  Firstly, we set up an atmosphere that encourages reading.  We read widely to them;  We give them the tools so that they can read for themselves (phonics instruction when ready); We offer a range of quality reading resources – both fiction and non-fiction living books.  We include reading in all subject areas and do not treat it as a separate subject, but instead, a skill to be developed in each subject.

The most obvious answer as to why we want to teach writing, is, so that our children can write appropriately for different audiences and in different situations.  This includes writing notes, letters, essays, descriptive writing, fiction, non-fiction,  responses, critical essays, essays of persuasion and more.  (More writing skills can be found listed here: http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/teaching-writing-skills.html.

So, how would we do that?  Does it mean we need a consumable textbook for each grade level?  Probably not!  If we want to teach our children to write, they need to write! – all types of forms of writing, across the curriculum. Begin by teaching them correct letter formation, writing words, copying sentences, narrations, copying their own oral narrations, essay writing. I would encourage you to get a book which explains different writing forms.  I like the Write Source books and have chosen a few age-appropriate teaching texts.  These are non-consumable and are written directly to the child.

If you would like to work on writing skills, you could choose an excerpt of literature, discuss the grammar, spelling, sentence structure, word usage and use it as a basis for copywork, and modeling.

Spelling can flow directly from their own writing and an individual spelling list can be created from their incorrect spelling.  Spelling in context is far more effective.  However, if you would like a Spelling Program, choose one which spans across the ages and years.

If your goal for history teaching is that they memorize dates, you would look for a program that just focusses on memorization of facts, but if your goal is that they gain an understanding of the time period and understand it in the context of a Biblical Worldview, you would look for a curriculum that helps you to do that.

The answer you give for each subject area, will help you choose appropriate homeschool curriculum which has the same purpose in mind.

• Combine subjects and Skill Teaching

To simplify the curriculum, you need to look for ways to combine subjects.  If you teach history in an integrated approach, you can teach history, geography, literature, art history, science history, music history and worldview (depending on the curriculum you choose to help you teach).  As you integrate these subjects, you use and develop age-appropriate reading and writing skills. Writing can be done in the context of any subject area!

During a study on Ancient Egypt, you can read aloud an historical fiction novel such as “Mara, daughter of the Nile”, create a salt map of Egypt;  Read about the culture;  Put the time period into the Biblical timeline;  Copy the way the Ancient Egyptians decorated their tombs; Dress like an Egyptian, Hold a feast; Write a story/narration/summary/book report/essay from  what was learned.

• Combine ages

To simplify your homeschooling life, combine ages where you can. History can be taught successfully to the whole family at once, but the writing and reading assignments which are set will be different for the different ages.  I expect more from my fifteen year old, than from my ten year old.

Some families like to begin their day with their ‘together’ work – such as Bible, Memorization, History/Science Readings, Art, and whatever they combine, and then continue the day in independent studies.  Other families like to begin independently, and then finish working on projects together.

• Make memorable learning experiences and products

Textbooks may have a place as educational tools, but the consumable workbooks that some children work in year after year, will not be treasured years after.  However, a book which they have created, a scrapbook, a personal diary, an art collection,  a poster, a photo journal,  a project, notebook or portfolio will have an important place in the lives of your children for years.  These will be kept as wonderful memories and as the pages which they have spent energy, heart and soul creating, are turned, the experiences and memories of that year of homeschooling will come back too!  My children love looking back at what they have created, but have not had any attachment at all to a consumable workbook, which subsequently has been tossed in the bin.

• All of Life is Education

To simplify your homeschooling, do not confine education to books.  All of life is education even chore training, kitchen duties, house cleaning.  Do not be anxious if you can not get to the books as much as you would like.  Talk to your children, converse with them about all of life, as you sit down, as you get up and as you walk along the road.  Remember there are phases of learning and different ages have different things you need to focus on.  When a child is ready, they can work quite independently, structure their own days and learn things quickly.  How much more effective would it be if we taught our children a difficult concept when they were truly ready, rather than to our timetable or the timetable of our text?

Remember that excursions, holidays, visiting the sick, providing a meal are opportunities for training and education.

Also, one needs to be reminded that you can not do it all.  Be realistic in your own expectations.

• Do not compare

Above all, do not compare yourself with others.

Use the homeschooling resources which conform with the goals you have for your children.  If it is working for you and your
family, there is no need to change.

As you step out to simplify your homeschool curriculum, keep your own goals in mind and be driven by them, not by the
hype and advertising of numerous publishers.

By edarticle.com

We all know how reading can benefit us both in our personal and business lives. When we read, we learn many things and we even have the opportunity to improve our communication skills although we may not be aware of it. We are exposed to the right usage of language and correct structure of sentences when we read that’s why our communication skills are improved. Those who read for pleasure are benefiting from it though they may not be aware of it. For children, though, reading can be a very powerful tool. By having the entire family join a book club, the children can become interested in reading or in books. Kids can benefit from reading in three different ways.

Firstly, those who grew up reading books have a higher chance of excelling in their studies and finding great jobs. But we’re not talking about occasional readers or comic book readers who are mostly dealing with incorrect or informal usage of a language. We are referring to those who have the opportunity to develop a love for reading so that they actually pick a worthy book themselves and just start flipping the pages without an adult or elder telling them. We are talking about those whou would love to join book clubs or perhaps collect books by themselves. When children are able to develop this kind of habit, they can eventually master written word and eventually sharpen their intellectual abilities as well. There are of course other means to do this but reading is by far the most favored one.

The second is that those children who love reading can learn so many things from the books they choose to read. The subjects aren’t limited. These books can include subject matters like those discussed in schools like biology, physics or chemistry. Even reading fiction has its benefits. Reading can open a child’s mind to different possibilities about life. Although it would take an actual experience of things to be able to really learn from them, it cannot be denied that knowing about certain life situations ahead in fiction can make us think twice about possibly making such events happen in reality. When children read, they are exposed to different scenarios about life and somehow, when they have to go through such scenarios for real in their own lives, they will not completely new to the situation because somehow, he has gained insights from a good book that he has read.

Third, reading improves a child’s writing ability. While it is easy to say that a speaker is a good one just by listening to his pronunciation and delivery, not all good speakers are good writers. There are good speakers but when it’s time for them to write, they find it hard to construct good written sentences. But a person who is good in writing, is most probably, good in speaking as well. To improve a child’s writing skills, it is important to expose him to the correct and formal usage of language through the published books that he reads. This way, the kid masters the language subconsciously which is, by the way, the best method for learning anything, whether not related to language.

Third, reading improves a child’s writing ability. Although a speaker may be judged of how good he is by his diction and his delivery, always remember that good speakers sometimes may not be good writers. There are good speakers but when it’s time for them to write, they find it hard to construct good written sentences. Those who are good in writing, however, are most of the time good in speaking. A child’s writing skills can be improved by exposing him to correct and formal usage of language through reading published books. The child can eventually master the language subconsciously.

By edarticle.com

Two years ago producer Robert Compton put out 2 Million Minutes. a documentary about high school students in China, India and the US. The basic idea was that the foreign kids master their subjects, sacrifice to excel, and will out-produce us forever. Meanwhile, the American kids are lazy, never pushed to achieve real mastery, coddled by constant praise and inflated grades, more concerned with sports and dating. 

Now along comes another American producer with a movie called A Race to Nowhere (you’ll see a discussion in the item below this one). I went to the website and looked at the trailer. Let me summarize the message from these people: American school kids are worked to death; this effort is mindless and soul-numbing; our culture is obsessed with tests, grades, performance, and standards, but this approach doesn’t work, as our kids end up ignorant and empty.

These visions are contradictory with each other. So we have to ask, what the heck is going on here?? Who is telling the truth??

Let’s note, first, that for the past 10 years the Education Establishment has been squealing steadily about No Child Left Behind. I’ve seen it in my local paper, month after month, year after year. Somebody is always complaining about teaching to the test, drill and kill, rote memorization, and the death of creativity in the schools. The wailing is so relentless, so repetitive, you just know it’s orchestrated. At least, that’s how I feel. (And “Race To Nowhere” seems to be part of that wailing. )

I just don’t trust any of it. Here’s why: ever since 1930 the Education Establishment was trying to purge academic content from the schools. The buzzwords by 1950 were “life-adjustment” and “real needs.” Translation: schools should be dumb and dumber. That’s the DNA in our Education Establishment. They don’t like facts, knowledge, basics, memorization, or mastery.

Here’s the whole nutty thing in one phrase: our educators–I mean the people at Teachers College, etc.–are very enthusiastic about social engineering but, in truth, ANTI-education. They are also deceitful. I suspect they try to manufacture evidence for their position by making schools more chaotic and oppressive than they need to be. 

The first trick in the book, from the earliest grades forward, is NOT to teach foundational knowledge. Things that 100 years ago every sixth-grader knew are simply not taught. Ignorance is cumulative and galloping. By the time these kids get to high school, they have no background for learning science, history or anything else. How can you teach American history to children who don’t know the names of oceans, mountains, states and countries?

The second biggest trick in the book is to scorn and discredit memorization. Keep those heads empty. If there is anything in there, make sure it’s multicultural mush.

Finally, you’ve got whole classrooms full of teenagers who hardly know anything. Then you give them these complex, bottomless assignments such as compare Chinese and Roman culture in the year 100 A.D. What? These kids don’t know the name of the longest river in the United States and you want them to do what? Just think how frantic, overworked, stressed out, and hopeless these children will appear. Methinks it’s all theater. (Even if they write such a report, the knowledge learned will be fragmented and incoherent.) 

Another favorite gimmick is to start the school day early, say at 7:30, which means that kids are getting out of bed around 6:00. They’re always going to be sleepy and cranky. Then some schools close at 1:30 creating a big problem for parents and under-utilizing the buildings. Again, no logic but plenty of melodrama. 

The Education Establishment can say, oh, these poor kids, they work so hard!!! But we know that when these kids get to college, half of them need remedial education.

Final piece of the puzzle: I suspect that the much-hailed “Race To The Top“ is really a gimmick whereby the government throws money at the states until each one gives up any attempt at objective testing or standards. Authentic Assessment is code for not much assessment at all. 2 Million Minutes is the movie to trust.

(A professor at a community college summed up her incoming students for me: “They don’t know anything!!!” The main theme at Improve-Education.org is that this failure could be easily reversed if schools decide to be serious about education. The stress and chaos could be removed if schools would teach every subject in a smooth, steady, systematic way. “47: Teach One Fact Each Day” and “49: How Do We Learn?” develop this point.)

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By edarticle.com

TOEFL test is undeniably the world’s most popular English Language test. It is conducted at over 45000 administration site across 165 countries. The test so far has been taken by about 25 million students so far. The TOEFL is now conducted globally in two formats Internet Based Test (IBT) and Paper Based Test (PBT). It is very important to know the difference between the two tests in terms of pattern, structure and benefits according to individual applicant. StudyPlaces bring you a detailed comparison of the two tests to help you understand TOEFL better and shorten the distance between you and your dream college. Read on…

IBT is four hour long and PBT in 3 hour long. IBT requires integrated tasks and note taking while PBT does not require any of it. While listening, reading and writing are common to both the tests, IBT has speaking as the fourth section and PBT has Structure which is majorly based on grammar.

Due to their different structure, there is also a difference in the time duration of both the tests. While IBT is for four hours, the duration of paper based test is only 3 hours. Following is a section wise comparison for IBT and PBT tests:

READING

The Internet Based TOEFL exam can consist of 3 to 5 passages of around 700 words each. Each passage contains 12-14 questions often based on comparison, contrast and cause & effect. The Paper Based Test or PBT is always made up of 5 passages from academic texts which are around 250-350 words long. The ideal time for reading section IBT is 60-100 minutes and the score scale of section is from 0-30. While the ideal time for paper based text is around 55 minutes and the score scale is between 31 and 67.

LISTENING

The listening section in TOEFL IBT is made up of 4-6 lectures (some with classroom discussion) and each lecture is 3-5 minutes long with 6 questions. For PBT, there are 3-4 mini talks, each one around 60-90 seconds and with 3-5 questions. In the next phase of IBT there are 2-3 conversations of about 3 minutes and 5 questions each. While in PBT, there are 2-3 extended conversations of 60-90 seconds and 3-5 questions again. PBT has another set of questions. These are about 30-40 dialogues followed by 1 question each dialogue. The duration of these dialogues is not more than 15 seconds each. The time for IBT should be between 60 to 90 minutes and it has a score scale of 0-30. While the time for PBT should be around 30-40 minutes with a score scale of 31-68.

SPEAKING

As we mentioned before, there is no speaking section in Paper Based TOEFL. In IBT, there are Six tasks is speaking section. 2 of these are independent where candidate has to express an opinion on a familiar topic. The other 4 are integrated tasks where candidate is expected to speak on basis of what is read and heard. The candidate gets about 30 seconds to prepare and 1 minute to respond for each task. The total time allotted is 20 minutes. The score of speaking section in IBT is on a scale of 0-4 which is converted to a 0-30 score scale.

WRITING

In writing section of PBT, there is only one independent task (Test of Written English) to be ‘written’ in 30 minutes. In IBT, there are two tasks, one integrated (write on basis of what is read and heard) and one independent ( support and opinion on a topic). The time allotted is 20 and 30 minutes respectively. The score scale of 0-5 is converted into ratings of 0-30 score scale.

STRUCTURE (Grammar)

While grammar is evaluated in speaking and writing sections, there is no separate grammar section in Internet Based Test. In the Paper Based Test, there are a total of 40 questions to be done in 25 minutes and the score scale is between 31 and 68.

TO CONCLUDE…

The total score of IBT exam is from 0-120 and the total score of PBT exam is from 310-677. The IBT version scores on the fact that in it, a candidate gets performance feedback for each skill in the test taker report, which is missing in PBT.

Acquainted these facts about IBT and PBT, we hope now you are in a better and more informed state to prepare and appear for TOEFL.

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By edarticle.com

Graduating from homeschool to university is an exciting time – and also a little intimidating. Here’s the good news: plenty of homeschooled students have made the transition, and we know many times over that these students are more than up to the challenges of college.

Below are five things you should know about the transition from homeschool to university. Keeping these tips in mind can ease your mind and help you appreciate everything you’ve accomplished and all that’s ahead of you.

1. Get Oriented
Chose a university with a variety of orientation events and training seminars for incoming students. From social events for freshmen to afternoon presentations on how to use the campus library system, such offerings are of value to all students, but of special value to homeschooled students, who may have less experience dealing with an institution.

2. Find Your College Family
Before college, homeschooled students enjoy a level of parental support and affirmation that traditional students don’t often experience. So when homeschoolers leave the house and head to the university, building a new support network is critical.

The sooner homeschooled students make friends at college, the sooner they’ll feel at ease in their new home. New students should look for a local church with a strong university fellowship, or join a campus Christian group. Or maybe they can find a good crew of friends in the dorm who enjoy eating dinner together every night. A strong feeling of fellowship makes all the difference.

But remember this: according to a study by Mary Beth Bolle, Roger D. Wessel, and Thalia M. Mulvihill published in the Journal of College Student Development, the more often homeschoolers call their families during the first year, the faster they will make new friends. So neither parents nor students should worry that severing the bond is the only way that a new college student can meet new people. Rather, the feelings of love and support give way to an appealing confidence in a young college student.

3. Trust Your Skills
Homeschooling teaches students how to budget their time and learn at their own pace. Also, homeschooled students tend to study in more personal, individualized ways than their private and public school peers.

So when homeschooled students arrive at the university, they should trust the skills they developed while learning at home. Because in college, success depends on time management, self-pacing, and study skills. Far from being less prepared for life away from mom and dad’s supervision, homeschoolers know how to work on their own.
The skills learned in homeschooling are the very skills needed as a college student.

4. Get to Know Your Professors
One of the greatest challenges for the homeschooled graduate entering college is adjusting from the expectations of the parent or primary teacher to the expectations of professors.

During the first week of class, new students should visit all of their instructors during office hours. Ask professors about their expectations, what they look for on tests and in papers, how much they imagine students should study each week. Before the first assignment is due, ask to see a sample of a successful paper or project to see firsthand what they think is exemplary work.

5. Remember, It’s the Same but Different
The homeschooled student doesn’t make a transition all that different from the public or private school student. Both adjust to life away from home. Both discover how to responsibly manage their new freedom. Both learn to navigate the services and procedures of campus. And both must discern how to meet new expectations. When you arrive at your new school, look around at your classmates. Take peace in knowing they’re experiencing the same feelings of excitement and intimidation you are.

By edarticle.com

Race To Nowhere is an excellent description of the standardized testing movement. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, increased the role of the federal government in public education and also expanded the role of standardized testing. This morning, I had a conversation with another educator who was ending a California State Testing week. The dedication of this teacher is commendable; although exhausted and stressed, this educator was hopeful that her students did well. She wanted them to have a chance at the best education possible. When I mentioned to her the best education possible is not based on state testing, she went through the myriad of reasons why testing is a benefit. These alleged benefits of standardized testing permeate the public educational system causing harm to students, teachers and the future of public education as a whole.

According to the California Department of Education, the purpose of standardized testing is “to measure how well students are learning the knowledge and skills identified in California’s content standards.” In addition, standardized testing results will assist with focusing curricular instruction and organizing teaching methods. The goals of standardized testing seem to be falling short; instead of measuring student knowledge and focusing instruction and methods, the rigor of testing seems to be a silent erosion of our school system. A recent documentary, Race To Nowhere, chronicles the culture of today’s youth in public school. According to the documentary, the epidemic of standardized testing has produced a culture for cheating, disengaging students, stress-related illness, depression, burnout, and of compromised young adults seemingly unprepared and uninspired for the future.

“Only a handful of scholars and practitioners have argued in defense of standardized tests,” wrote Lishing Wang and fellow researchers Gulbahar H. Beckette and Lionel Brown. The Educational Research Newsletter analyzed the pros and cons of standard-based assessments. According to the website one of the pros of these assessments are a common core of knowledge. These common standards assist in comparing grades across teachers and schools. Students should be expected to meet common standards that are challenging and are more than just minimum requirements regardless of socioeconomic status, race or disability. The other side argues that by imposing standards on students’ minds they are constricting intellectual freedom. These standardized tests oversimplify the core knowledge and do not test higher-order thinking. Cookie cutter standards either dumb down instruction or condemn low-ability students to frequent failure. Students can become disengaged and burned out.

Regardless of the side of the argument, all students, teachers and schools are not created equal and this fact is not taken into account when examining the practice of standardization. The practice of standardized test are to meant to level the playing field when in fact the playing field with struggling learners in school is never level. In other words the interventions that are being utilized to assist struggling students are not individualized or unsuccessful. According to the California Department of Education website’s data for July of 2008, 13, 237 students took the Math portion of the California Exit Exam and 13, 373 students took the English portion of the exam. 29% of the students passed the Math and 30% passed the English portions of the test for the state. When we superimpose the same standards on every student, teacher and school, we receive results that are disappointing—a race to nowhere.

These disappointing results are rooted in non-profit school communities maintaining for-profit activities, i.e., test scores. Data has become the catch phrase and teacher’s names are associated directly with their student’s scores. Improvement has been demanded on the back of a shocked system, and therefore an increase of assessments and pacing guides has followed. This increase of standardized testing is big business for the private sector. There are four companies that dominate the testing market: Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing (a Houghton Mifflin company), and NCS Pearson- three test publishers and one scoring firm. Press reports value the testing market anywhere from $400 million to $700 million. There is a top-down chain between policy, content, materials, and instruction. Policymakers dictate the content, textbook companies convert the content into materials and schools purchase these materials for consumption by teachers and students. According to a blog entitled, When Pedagogy and Policy Collide written by Brigitte Knudson, what America is experiencing is called “commodification” of education. In others words, education has became a commodity or moneymaker. Knudson goes on to state, “Education – the process of learning – has been co-opted by an alliance of business and government interests, for the dual purposes of maintaining the government’s economic interests and propelling the private sector, all while fostering a climate of continual educational crisis in the country that places blame on a system of its own creation that is intentionally underfunded to perpetuate the cycle.” This marriage of big business, government and non-profit school communities continues to lead to disappointment and a move toward privatization of public education. It’s a lose-lose situation as reformers concentrate on splintered areas of need while big business and government erode the core, destroying the public education system right under our noses.

“Race to Nowhere is a call to challenge these current assumptions and mobilize families, educators, and policy makers for how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens,” Race to Nowhere website. Check the website to find a screening, go see it. Spread the news to educators, parents, students and your community. Join the Race to Nowhere Facebook Page in your area. This link is the  Los Angeles page. If a page or community group is not available for your area, start one. Let’s continue to examine the facts regarding our educational system and make it our own again.

By edarticle.com

Recently, students across the country took the Advanced Placement English Literature exam. This three hour test, which grants college credit to qualifying students, is the culmination of a year of intense study and preparation in a high level class. On this year’s exam, students were asked to write an essay in response to the following quote: “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.”

While exile as a theme is a good launching point for an essay, the College Board used the topic to launch an apparent political agenda by identifying the author of the quote as “Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said.”

Quoting Edward Said, a man who has infamously been photographed throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, isn’t the issue. It isn’t even quoting a Palestinian, per se. What is problematic is the linking of a Palestinian with a quote about “exile.” It creates a sympathetic image of exiled Palestinians without any qualifications. It assumes one side in a longstanding conflict. After spending a year studying the nuances in language and writing, most of my students did not miss this inference.

Many of them had a fundamental problem with the question. As a teacher, I had a serious problem with it.

Political propaganda is something my students will certainly get used to, particularly as they head off to college campuses in the fall. But it has no place on a high-stakes exam that is supposed to be standardized. Not when they’ve worked hard all year studying literature and language.

They were blindsided and left with a choice: agree with the quote about Palestinian exile and write an essay, or disagree with the supposition that the Palestinians were torn from their “true home” and possibly throw their chances at a high score.

There isn’t anything “standardized” about that.

The College Board is particularly sensitive to language. This prompt could not have come out of nowhere. Politically motivated and particularly disturbing in its inclusion on the exam, it is a manipulation of facts and as such, it is a manipulation of education. In essence, this educational measure was a forced indoctrination of the College Board’s political beliefs. 

I voiced my concern to the College Board and was told that they had not received any complaints. I called two more times and received the same reply. A Facebook group of close to 700 members has voiced its concerns. An article was written about this issue in a Jewish newspaper, The Forward, but still the College Board claims that they know nothing about the “problem.”

I shouldn’t be surprised. They are simply following the higher academia pied pipers down the path of bias and partiality. Literature and Composition: Reading, Writing, and Thinking, the Bedford St. Martin Press anthology just completed for the AP Literature course, contains two poems by Palestinians. Not one Israeli poet or author is quoted. Not even as an alternate view to Mahmoud Darwish’s “Identity Card”.

The College Board is notoriously politically correct. In fact, their dedication to being PC has gotten them in trouble over the years. But this time, they have chosen sides in a controversy that has offended a large portion of their testing audience. They have drawn lines, not in the sands of higher academia, but in the sandboxes of impressionable high school students.

Many in the academic world have pooh-poohed the controversy and called the protesting students overly sensitive or even racist. Interestingly, the same day as the exam, students in Brandies University were dismayed to learn that Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was asked to give the commencement address. The student newspaper came out against the choice on the grounds that Oren is “a divisive and inappropriate choice” because “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a hotly contested political issue, one that inspires students with serious positions on the topic to fervently defend and promote their views.”

I find it remarkable that University students cannot handle political controversy, but high school students are expected to “get over it.” Moreover, they are forced to actually agree with a statement they dispute, from a man who is so controversial that even his status as a Palestinian is questionable.

As an AP teacher, I have respectfully told my school that I am not comfortable teaching a course that has a clear political agenda. My students would be better served taking a literature course at their local university and graduating with actual college credit rather than relying on a politically biased exam to test their skills.

And while they will get their fair share of propaganda on campuses, at least the manipulationwill be blatant. There will be opportunity to debate.

I can’t say the same for the College Board.

By edarticle.com