As part of our ongoing commitment to providing service to Waldorf homeschoolers, we at Christopherus are pleased to be able to offer more and more resources for parents with older children and teens. We know that there are far fewer resources out there for these students and our hope is to help fill some of the gap.
High School Notes
Donna has been teaching at a Waldorf-inspired high school and is eager to create a whole series of High School Notes. These Notes will be fairly rough outlines, drawn from the classes that Donna teaches. Likely topics include Zoology, Comedy and Tragedy (now published), American Government and Poetry.
In the meantime, we have a list of high school literature texts, grade by grade.
Writing
One of Donna's real passions is for good writing (part of what underlies the Living Language book). She has taught writing classes for homeschoolers, in a Waldorf-inspired high school and via a local charter school in addition to teaching both of her sons at home into the high school years. She has also done remedial work with high school students in English on a one-on-one basis.In the past, Donna worked with homeschoolers via a Christopherus correspondence class called YoungWriters. Donna disbanded YoungWriters because she felt that much of her power as a teacher lies in the relationship with students in flesh and blood, in the playful banter, warmth and interest that can only really be cultivated when everyone's sitting in the same room together.
However, Donna is also aware that many parents, especially those with older children, feel a need for a yardstick by which to assess their teen's progress. Likewise, teens can need an outside authority both to inspire them and to give them feedback on their work.
Writing Assessment Program
And so Christopherus now presents our Writing Assessment Program for teenagers (8th grade and up). Here's how it works:
- Your student sends Donna a 1 - 2 page letter describing herself and her interests as well as any thoughts, questions or concerns she has about writing.
- She also includes 2 or 3 examples of uncorrected writing. This could be a descriptive paragraph, a report, a story, a journal entry. Donna needs at least 4 or 5 pages in total to work with.
- Put all this in an envelope and send it - snail mail - together with a check for $75 to:
Donna Simmons,
Christopherus Homeschool Resources
PO Box 231,
Viroqua, WI 54665
- Donna will then acknowledge receipt of her packet by e-mail. She will then go through the work, correcting what the student has written and adding any comments. Donna will then return this via snail mail together with another assignment or two. (This could be tailored to fit in with other work she is currently doing.)
- The student then returns the assignment. Donna will correct and comment upon this work and, probably, request a rewrite.
- The student works on and mails the corrected assignment. Finally, Donna returns it together with a longish assessment of what she sees as the student's strengths and weaknesses, making concrete suggestions for further work.
- And that's it! Upon mutual agreement, this process can be repeated again and again (each instance costing $75).
Please contact donna (at) christopherushomeschoolorg if you would like to join this program or have any further questions. You might also like to have a look at our Assessment Consultations for a slightly different approach to getting feedback on your high school work.
High School Resources
At present we offer the following resources for older students:
High School Literature
Christopherus Audio Downloads:
Waldorf High School at Home
Christopherus publications specifically for high school:
Publications with sections devoted to high school:
Recommended Reading for Teens:
See the list in our Amazon store
Student Work:
Homeschoolers' Work: High School
Articles:
Homeschooling Sons Through High School
Posts on the Homeschool Journey blog:
See the Older Children category. See also Donna's high school blog which she wrote during 2008 when her son was at home - full of useful links, review, suggestions and musings about teaching high school at home.
Waldorf at Home Forum:
Our Waldorf at Home internet discussion forum has a section for High School. Conversations have included "Bored Teens", "Piercings" and "Tough Love".
Waldorf High School Links:
Austin Waldorf School
Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School
In December 2006 we had a great study on the Waldorf at Home forum of an article by Craig Holdrege of the Nature Institute (a former Waldorf high school science teacher) entitled, You can find this article on the Nature Institute website.
Online Articles:
The Online Waldorf Library is a great resource.
Here are some recommended articles (all in PDF format):
Recall in Upper School Main Lessons
The Value of Art for the Adolescent
Parzival - the Journey of Adolescence
Towards a Sensible Kind of Chemistry: Part 1