My question got deleted off the year 3 group and I don't know why. I am in the middle of printing the 231 page poetics.. PLEASE tell me that I will use this for year 4, year 1, etc and that each one isn't different.. PLEASE> If I have to print this every year, I may need to buy stock in ink!!! The framework is another 158 pages!!! I'll be ok, if this is the only thing I need to print for the 4 years for rhetoric level. It is a FABULOUS document, by the way. What a lot of work went into this. Yall are great. I may just wear out the printer we just bought last week. I've already used up one ink cateridge.

Christine

Hi Christine! The answer is yes and no. Yes, the majority of those documents will remain intact and will be used in Year 4. No, they will not remain exactly as-is and a good bit of what will be used in Year 4 still needs to be written and put in (because we are still writing Year 4). For this reason, I'm going to advise you not to print them yet---at least, not if you are doing Year 4 next year (if you are doing Years 2 or 3, I would just print the Year 3 version and then that should suffice for both Years 2 and 3, because the Year 3 version contains all the Year 2 material as well, with some tweaks to definitions and explanations here and there).

Here are my recommendations if you are thinking about printing for Year 4:

1. Most of Frameworks is irrelevant to Year 4: only the Realism section will be used much in our twentieth-century literature studies. HOWEVER, this section is also going to be revised (not hugely, but some) in preparation for Year 4, so I wouldn't print it yet! However, the good news is that you don't need to print most of Frameworks at all for Year 4! That should significantly help your print count. :-)

2. Whatever else you do in terms of printing these Loom documents, I would not print the appendices. This is just me, but I find that using the search feature to look up authors and terms in a digital appendix is a lot simpler than flipping endless pages. It would also mean that you lose about 100 pages worth of printing from Poetics at least.

3. Poetics is safer to print than Frameworks, because it will be changing relatively little for Year 4 and much of what is there will be used in our Year 4 studies. However, there will be some revisions that will affect page numbers, etc., so I would bear in mind that you would probably wind up reprinting a lot if you want to keep page numbers accurate. Also, as I said, I wouldn't print the appendices.

My overall recommendation is that you try to "hang in there" for one more year and print off sections each week "as needed". At the end of Year 4 we will finally have versions of Frameworks and Poetics that are in pretty much "final form" for Years 2-4 (which has always been the goal). So the good news is that yes, eventually, you will be able to do one printing of each of these documents that is good for ALL THREE of those year plans. Year 1 currently does not use Poetics or Frameworks at all, so that should not be a problem. :-)

I know it's frustrating to have to work with documents that are still in production (believe me, it's frustrating to write them while trying to compose class plans at the same time!). That being said, I'm so grateful that we are in our last year of the Redesign, and SO VERY GRATEFUL to you and the other ladies for your flexibility, graciousness, and patience with this process!

Also, as a final note of encouragement, I have found that my class of thirteen kids seem quite comfortable and savvy with these Loom documents in their digital form: the lack of printed pages doesn't seem to bother them. I know that we teachers prefer to have our pages in hand, but it is some encouragement to me that at least my students aren't suffering. :-)

I hope this helps a little!
Christy Somerville

Hi Christy,

Yes, that is very helpful. I'm sorry I've had so many questions lately. Yes I am preparing for year 3 that we will start in July with a 9th grade rhetoric (while trying to finish up unit 3 of year 2 on dialectic level!)

Since this will be my first year teaching rhetoric level, I'm trying read everything and get my printing done and such in May and June. Yes, my son will have NO trouble reading off the computer and will be more saavy. The problem is that I need to read it as well!!! Now it makes sense. It WILL be complete once it is finished. That makes complete sense. It will be like Writing Aids. I wasn't planning on doing the appendix either as that did seem easier to read on screen.

Thanks again for the help.

Christine

Thanks for explaining! That helps me understand what you are up against. :-) And also, just a thought---we really did try to "boil down" the substance of each week's Loom readings into the Teacher's Notes. I know it all says that it would be good for you to read Poetics and Frameworks if/as you have time (i.e. over the summer), but if you find that overwhelming I want to encourage you that you really can just print off each week's readings (usually a couple of pages) from those documents as you go---or skip them altogether, since we've boiled them down for you in the Teacher's Notes. :-)

Christy

Thanks and as a former English teacher, this is somewhat familiar, but your terminology is different. To be honest, my analysis wasn't this in-depth in college. We just used more general terms. I remember writing about themes, characters, etc but not in SUCH detail!! Of course I only took one or two junior or senior level courses. Plus, it was more about quantity. For my Shakespeare class we studied a new play every week. We did not go into the detail you did on Much Ado About Nothing. My teaching fields were history and English and the semester I had that class, I had 2 other history classes where I had to read 6 novels in EACH, an easy education textbook class and another literature class with 8 novels in it. My roommates said I never studied. I just read!!

Christine

We are finishing Year 2 and we did print the Frameworks/Poetics and had it bound. The reasons we did this were

1. I wanted my son to be able to highlight while reading...something I wanted him to work on.

2. Even though we have three computers he does not have his own so...he does have to vie for computer time. With having it printed it was always available and he didn't have to wait for anyone to finish up thier stuff to do his assignment.

3. With it printed there could be no technology excuses. =)))

4. Also...we are involved in a virtual co-op...it would be easier to have it in hand while using the computer for class.

5. Oh...he really likes to read in his room and we don't allow computers in bedrooms very much...just to be on the safe side.

I know it was expensive but it was well worth it in the end. I hated printing it as well but am glad we did.

So...just some other considerations when making printing decisions. =))

Blessings,
Barb Spanier

Just some other thoughts.