Planning and Scheduling with The Write Foundation

The Write Foundation provides a system that makes it easy to plan your writing lessons and schedule your time.

Scheduling Your Time

• Once you the teacher catch the lesson rhythm, planning and preparation are easy.
• Daily and General Schedules hold your hand every lesson.

How much daily time you need to schedule depends on whether you are completing a lesson in one or two weeks. You should average about five hours per lesson. Beginning lessons for each level might take more time. Take some extra time at first to establish good working habits but the time needed should taper off soon. It should take about:

• 60 minutes per day for 1 lesson in 1 week: This will vary from student to student depending on how ready they are to tackle the work.
• 60 minutes every other day or 30 minutes per day for 1 lesson in 2 weeks

  Some will need less time. If you average much more than 60 minutes per day for teaching and independent work, consider slowing your pace.

When planning the year understand that lessons take from one to two weeks to complete. The teacher needs to determine how much time can be devoted to writing on a regular basis.

• Each level contains 30 lessons, as two sets of 15 lessons.
• For many, 30 lessons-per-year works fine.
• For others, a 15 lessons-per-year format works well. If extra time is needed, take it, to avoid rushing.

Consider working at a slower pace if your student is:

• The youngest recommended age.
• Struggling for any reason.
• Tackling several subjects at once.
• Or if home life is hectic.

Planning Lessons: Teaching sessions may be planned or organized in different ways.

• At Home: You might want to teach a lesson over several days with different sections taught each day and student independent work completed daily. Daily Schedules divide the lessons into daily layouts.

  One mom said, "… what we ended up doing was splitting up the "lesson" part over a few days, and assigning the … (independent work) a bit as we went. … typically, we'd spend about 30 minutes of teaching time twice a week, and the other three days, (my son) would mostly work on his own for 30-45 minutes, usually getting 5 or so minutes from me in there somewhere."

• In either a Home or Co-op setting: Teach a lesson in two days with student independent work completed the other days. Daily schedules can be easily adapted to split lessons into two days of teaching with the students’ independent work completed the other three days.
• Many Co-ops meet one day a week: So, teach a lesson one day with student independent work completed the other days. Just start at the beginning of a lesson and teach it. This can usually take anywhere from 1½ to 2 hours.

Student Assignments

Extra instruction and reminders for paragraphs and poetry. For students to use when they are completing their independent work.

• Assignments are divided into segments that are referred to in the Daily Schedules. You are told when students need to use which segment.

  Assignments:

• Found in the student worksheets at the end of each lesson.
• And found in the instruction manuals at the end of each lesson.

Each lesson is divided into “Sections” in the teacher instruction manual which are lesson objectives.

• Sections are listed at the beginning of every lesson at the top of the first instruction page in the lesson so you can easily see what will be taught that lesson.
• In the Daily Schedules the sections are grouped into daily tasks.

Daily Schedules divide every lesson into daily formats.

• Show sections that work well taught together
• Show sections that should be spread out over different days because they will take longer to complete.

At the beginning of each lesson in the instruction manuals are two possible schedules:

1. 5 day schedules
2. 8 – 10 day schedules.

The two schedules are arranged the same except in the 8 to 10 day schedules the sections are organized in smaller groups.

General Schedules are designed for those who only want basic guidance or a general pattern to get going.

The 5 Day General Schedule is for 30 lessons per year. It corresponds with the 5 Day Daily Schedule and averages:

• 10 – 30 minutes per day teaching instruction
• 30 – 60 minutes per day including student independent work

The schedule is included in the teacher instruction manual for easy reference.

The 10 Day General Schedule is for 15 Lessons per Year, It corresponds with the 8 to 10 Daily Schedules.

10-day general schedule: one lesson takes about two weeks.

• Allow about 5 to 15 minutes per day teaching instruction
• With about 30 to 60 minutes per day including student independent work. 60 minutes allows for younger and or struggling students to have more time if they need it.

  This schedule is useful for students who need to work shorter periods each day.

Planning is easiest for many with the Daily Schedules. As a veteran homeschool mom I know your time is valuable. TWF lays everything out in an easy to follow format to help you guide your children through the learning process.

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