This is our 4th year doing Tapestry but our first doing Dialectic. I'm so confused and could really use some help.

First of all, Dialectic level seems like such a big jump from Upper Grammar. I'm not sure our daughter is ready. Is there any way to "soften" this level at first. We are already going to try leaving out literature selections for a while. I also want to mention that our daughter is only 12 because of a summer birthday so she is a little young but she is going into 7th grade. She is definitely ready to move out of UG but I don't think she is ready for the amount of reading or the difficulty in the questions. She does love to read but it seems like a lot to get done and she stresses easily. How do you handle the transition from UG to Dialectic?

Next question. Do you read all the teacher's notes plus the discussion questions and answers before you have the discussions?

Another question. Are the answers to the geography questions also in their reading?


okay one more question. If you have the discussions towards the end of the week like on Thursday, does that leave enough time? that would mean sitting with her probably an hour each day for 2 days?

I really appreciate any one who takes time to answer my questions. I know there is someone out there with some Tapestry experience who can help me. I just feel very lost right now and I feel like I am just missing some information on how to teach the dialectic level. I have tried to read what I can but I just need some help. I am a little nervous about teaching this level too. Thanks in advance!

I have no prior experience, but I also have one moving from UG to D. What I'm going to try is to scale back the reading some and, where appropriate, use an occasional UG book as substitute reading. I consider this a transition year.

How do you scale back the reading? are you just leaving some assignments out? Thank you for taking time to help me.

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How do you handle the transition from UG to Dialectic?

I have eased my children into this. Usually, I will have him/her read only the core history assignment (and the President's book), but not the in-depth. He has to answer the questions, but I tell him that some may be in the in-depth reading, so if he can't find the answer, don't worry about it - we'll discuss them in tutor time. I have him read the Church History assignment, but not do the questions - we just discuss them in "class". I'm not having him do the arts assignments, unless he has time at the end of the week. I try to look ahead, and if an assignment, esp. literature, seems hard or more than usual reading, I'll either excuse him on the written assignment, or I'll drop him back to UG for those weeks.

quote:

Do you read all the teacher's notes plus the discussion questions and answers before you have the discussions?

Yes. I find it really helps me to make the discussion flow smoother, and also helps me to put things in my own words and/or custom-fit the discussion to the children and what we've done that week. There are weeks that I don't get to it, and that's ok. I just read through it as I go, but it's not as good a discussion.

quote:

Are the answers to the geography questions also in their reading?

Not usually. They need to do work on their own - using an atlas or historical atlas. When first in D, I help them a lot. We'll even do it all together in "class time", but I try to get them to do a lot of it, gradually weaning them off my help during the course of the year.

quote:

If you have the discussions towards the end of the week like on Thursday, does that leave enough time? that would mean sitting with her probably an hour each day for 2 days?

What we do is have history discussions on Wednesday, Church history on Thursday, and Literature on Friday. They read their assignments in that order from Monday through Thursday. The discussions can range from 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how much we get into it! I have allotted 45 minutes for each, and that is usually adequate, with a little breathing room.

Don't worry about teaching this level. It's really a lot of fun to have these discussions, and I have learned soooo much from just the teacher's notes and discussion outlines. It'll take a couple months to feel like you have a way that works for you, and those first months may feel like you're not doing a good job teaching, but they are getting a lot of good from it even if you aren't perfectly organized. They are also learning from you how to work through something new. Little by little, day by day, you'll get a little more confident.

HTH,

My dd is moving up to D level this year. Although she is an excellent reader, I don't want to overwhelm her with too much too quickly. What I plan to do is to start her with half D level assignments and half UG, then slowly transition to all D level work.

We will also start the discussion questions orally. I do have her write out the answers for church history questions.

Hope this helps a little.
Shirley

My oldest went from using a program where I did most of the readings to him and was at about the UG level (maybe even a little lower on some points) to reading the D stuff all on his own and did fine.

Another positive thing about D is I think the literature selections are all much better written than most of those at the UG level.

A little depends on the year plan as well. Year One has been the easiest at my house thus far. The hardest D stuff in our house has been the church history book which gets used a lot in Year Two and less so in Year Three.

I'd give it a go and see what happens. Have a back up position where your student can read UG stuff instead or nothing or you read aloud.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have a dd moving into D this year and have been wondering just these questions. It's great to have "friends!"

Thank you Thank you Thank you! These answers help definetly help me to get started. I am looking forward to digging deeper into each subject but D level is just something new to me! It amazes me every time how many people are willing to help on these forums.
Thanks again for taking time to help me.