Teaching History in the Hybrid School

As a Charlotte Mason enthusiast, I am a big fan of living books. Living books are delightfully written and set the reader up for a relationship with the people and places and events of the story. History and literature are stories, and when presented as such, feed the ideas that nurture an understanding of humanity and culture.

In the hybrid model, this type of reading can be split between home and school with few problems by having books read at school and books read at home. This allows freedom at home and prevents some of the troubles that can come with the expectation that reading be done at home in order to stay on pace at school. This, of course, is not necessary, but it is simpler! One method that works well is to have a few history books for each class set in a particular time period. Biographies, historical fiction, or well-written nonfiction is read by the teacher for several weeks or months (with younger kids, short books can be finished in a day or two). At home, a ‘spine’ history that is written chronologically and follows the same time period often works very well. A few more books at home, and a well-rounded history course is complete. In a Mason school, reading would be narrated. In other methodologies, tests or quizzes or other assessments and exercises can be used.

Teaching Math in the Hybrid School

Ah Math! Everyone’s favorite subject, right?! I actually love math, but, in my experience, math is probably the single most challenging subject to teach in the hybrid model. Parents…and students…and teachers! all have opinions on math. They love it, they hate it, they tolerate it.

Strong leadership can allay some of the problems that can come with math. As a leader, you want to do your research well, choose a curriculum that straddles the home and school schedule well, and give it a solid and dedicated try before reassessing or changing.

A curriculum that works well for hybrids, in my experience, is usually a mastery program. Rather than having multiple topics covered and reviewed in each lesson, a mastery program will focus clearly on one skill for a while and keep the review sections tidy and predictable (such as one lesson per week or a review at the end of the chapter).

If the school days focus on primary teaching and application/practice, home days can then practice, and review can be assigned periodically. This way the school teacher knows that all the students are being introduced to the topic at the same time and the same pace. If the school chooses to be the review-er, the parent must be teaching and the school may have kids learning topics at different paces or even from different curricula. This can still work if the school days focus on arithmetic fluency only.

Not trying to do or cover too much is key! Following are some ideas:

• Use a program like Math U See that is laid out by week and focuses on one new concept per week. This makes it clear what home and school will be working on each week and the school can then take either the review or primary teaching end of the week. This curriculum divides nicely between home and school.

• Let parents use what they choose, but lay out a scope and sequence for the year and keep school focused on the arithmetic concept mastery of that year. Use the group to your advantage in the form of games. Stay focused!

Either way, lead confidently and communicate clearly to parents and teachers what their respective responsibilities are. Keep communication open through a survey at the end of the year and assessments often enough to catch any major problems.

Teaching Reading in the Hybrid School

If you are launching or running a hybrid program for early elementary kids, you are going to have to decide how to teach reading. Like math, this skill-based subject can be a little tough to teach if you don’t have a good plan. Unless you are following a schedule where days are short and parents have time to teach reading all five days at home, you will likely need to cover it in some capacity.

More and more parents are coming to hybrids because they want strong guidance in academics, so many wary homeschoolers will be reassured if you offer reading instruction. I’m always a fan of good, old - fashioned phonics taught systematically! It certainly can be done in the hybrid model, so let’s talk about how.

• Require all your parents to use the curriculum your school chooses and uses at home. This is the most seamless method, theoretically!

• You can also teach what you can and rely on them to do their part at home, or

• You can just reinforce and review.

The most school-led method is obviously the first. You require your parents to purchase (or provide them with) the pieces of the curriculum they will need at home. Then the teacher will pace out the year and divide the school and home work up predictably, communicate it clearly, and parents must follow along. This last part can be the sticky piece! If parents do NOT follow along, students end up working at different paces and it can be quite frustrating for the teacher. If they do follow along (and how successful this is is an admissions, training, culture thing!), it can work beautifully. One curriculum we’ve found has worked pretty well this way is All About Reading. Because it is divided nicely into phonics lesson and then reading practice/worksheet, it is fairly easy to use in the hybrid model. It is also pretty solid as a phonics curriculum. Check it out here. (I would earn a small commission should you purchase).

The second method keeps school days self-contained. The teacher chooses certain topics to teach and both presents and practices those with the students. Work at home is parent-chosen. This method can also work well as long as the pace is realistic and the parents are using a good phonics curriculum as well. This format allows parents to choose what they want to use and can afford, which is appealing to many of them, and also keeps the teacher from having to rely so heavily on parents keeping pace.

Lastly, the teacher can just work on word building and basic skills. The best way to do this is usually to have the teacher work on skills the student should have learned the previous year. A kindergarten may just work on letter recognition, rhyming, etc… This allows the teacher to not be reliant on what the parent does at home (not very much anyway!) and to work with the class where they are at. However, it may not feel like the best use of time and parents who want primary instruction from school might not be thrilled with it.

To ease the tension some, I recommend:

• Ask parents in the application process what curriculum they are going to use for reading or if they will use the school’s recommendation.

• Choose something solid for your teachers to work off of! A systematic teaching of letter sounds, CVC words, and then the phonics blends can be spread over three years and the students will learn a lot.

• Train your teachers! Make sure they know how to use the curriculum, what they are and are not expected to accomplish (many full-time school teachers have a hard time realizing they are not solely responsible for teaching the kids to read!), but give them some leeway to adjust to their class as well.

• Give assessments either during admissions or at the start of the school year. Do this a couple more times during the year. This helps you know if there are any potential concerns such as learning difficulties or parents who are just not doing anything at home, and gives you something objective to talk to the parent about.

• Give strong recommendations for home curriculum and maybe even incentivize through bulk ordering/discounts the curriculum you would like them to use

Parents and teachers work closely together to educate a child in the hybrid model and the skill subjects can certainly be done very well in this partnership.

The Grassroots Hybrid School Founder: Part 2-Your Market

Once you have your vision clearly defined, you want to take a good look at your market.

Your goal in doing this is to make sure your vision fits your market from a business standpoint.

ECONOMY

Your delightful dream of 250 kids paying $3,500 a year for a 2-day program might have no trouble coming to fruition in a well-populated area with a pretty good average income, but in a rural area or poorer area, you may need to cut some expenses or hours/weeks to get your tuition under $3000, or even $2,000. You might need to rely more on volunteers or get a building that will give you a very good deal.

COMPETITION

A very robust program might thrive in a place where there are no other private schooling choices, but not in a place where a local charter or religious school costs $0-$5000. What other choices do people have and how much do they cost? Remember that defining your niche clearly is one of the best things you can do! If you are the ONLY school of any type around that has Nature Study class and multiple recesses… or a classical curricula, etc.., it may not matter that there are four affordable private schools within an hour. Differentiating your offering is one of the best things you can do!

Once you have taken a bit of time to think about what your community will support, take your vision and make any modifications you need to to make it fit reality. This is most likely going to mean a change to your tuition, schedule, or further clarification of your uniqueness.

Assessing your market does not have to be a science. Even economists make an awful lot of guesses and get things all wrong :) But if you know who your competition is, how much they cost, and what they offer; what your potential customer can support financially and practically (think distance of driving and length of day), you will have taken a very useful step toward making sure you make any practical modifications early on in your planning.

Some questions to ask

• What differentiates my program from my competition?

  • Price?

  • Philosophy?

• How far do people need to commute to my program?

  • A lot of people driving far might favor fewer but longer days

  • Dense population might support shorter days

• What is average income?

  • An area with a good economy is more likely to afford a little higher tuition which may translate to more hours of school time

  • An area with a poorer economy or lower average income may need a one day program or shorter days

Good luck!