Great Resources to Have on Hand
The Content of the Newspaper
Many of these activities we did together, but C11 loves anything literary and asked if her project could focus on Chaucer rather than Da Vinci. Of course I said yes, and together we decided that her main project could be creating a newspaper containing everything Chaucer related.
It contained A Retelling of A Knight’s Tale:
A simple advert for A Play of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale:
Using Chaucer’s Prologue the children created their own in Cartoon form using Modern Day Authors:
Charlotte also wrote a recently found long lost tale of Chaucer’s:
She then gathered bits and bobs on line and printed them out for her very own ‘The Chaucer Tymes’
And gradually she cut and stuck everything in place to create her newspaper. She used butcher’s paper I bought off Amazon, which was perfect for this purpose:
I giggled when she exclaimed how much work had gone into creating just two pages. She asked whether newpaper printers had machines which did the outlay for her. On finding out they did, she begged me to buy her one!
This was a good project for her to do. She did it completely alone and finished it, seeing it through and keeping her interest right until the end. I am beginning to realise that project based learning works best when the student is engaged fully with her learning; when the subject matter is interesting enough to stand the test of time (6-10 weeks) and when they are using their strengths to complete a project which is neither too easy nor too hard. The dynamics of project based learning are not quite as simple as I first thought. It is building skills in C11 which she did not have at the beginning – the ability to pace herself, plan her work, carry it out and produce a final piece of work she is proud of. It all takes time and we are inching towards success. I am very proud of C11 because, although she loves this way of home schooling, she doesn’t always find it easy. This time however, she worked hard and created something to be proud of. Well done sweetie pie!