1. Choose the topic
HomeEd means the pupils can choose the topic. Having 2 in my class makes this pretty easy as they can take turns; K was up first and inspired by the impending heat wave (hooray!) his choice for the topic this month is Weather.
He did a quick mind map of things he's interested in relating to weather.
A good topic will give opportunities for teaching across the curriculum; weather is a great choice as I can bring in geography, science, D&T, art, maths, PSHE and literacy. The SoW is a rough plan for what you're going to teach - linking topic elements to the curriculum. It can live in your head but if it also lives on the fridge that's a bonus.
I took K's mind map, added a few notes and made it into a more formal scheme.
3. Find resources
Trawl the internet for resources which will support the teaching. Powerpoints, youTube videos, worksheets, posters, etc etc. One of the most useful things to do in terms of preparation is to get powerpoints downloaded or prepared and worksheets printed in advance - the days flow better when I've got things ready to hand out.
4. Use the SoW, loosely
It's absolutely essential to scribble all over it as you go along, crossing out entire sections and going off on fantastic tangents...
Marks for showing our working - here's the process :
K mind maps, I add some notes as we're discussing
Write up the SoW noting curriculum links and beginning to capture task ideas
As resources turn up so do opportunities. I'd put compass readings in the climate section thinking it would be a brief side note but I found a fantastic resource using treasure maps which links to literacy so it's enough to spend a day on. It's been upgraded to compass points, exploring directions and how to write instructions.
A note on differentiation. It wouldn't be fair on K if everything was too easy or on W if it's too hard. Some sites provide low/medium/high ability worksheets which (as K & W are only 16 months apart) is enough for us to cover all bases. Even if an activity feels like a single version, differentiation is always possible: any worksheet can be made more accessible by writing in sentence starters, prompts or annotations. Any task can be extended or made more accessible - the tricky bit is pitching every activity so that both kids are challenged but not overwhelmed...
For a great summary of differentiation and what it means to teaching, see:
http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/MethodsofDifferentiationintheClassroom.aspx
