Mastery Learning: Why Your Child Should Make A’s

Here at AliYah Academy, we are always reassuring parents that it’s OK, if not typical, for our children to make all A’s while homeschooling. For some reason we feel guilty like maybe we aren’t hard enough on them or maybe we are showing favoritism, after all, most children in traditional schools aren’t making all A’s.

There is a very good reason for this, apart from the fact that your child IS a genius and you ARE an awesome teacher (one of the best,) you are teaching to mastery. This is something that would be quite challenging, if not impossible, in a traditional school setting. Your child gets A’s simply because your child has you. For example, if your child takes a math test and misses a question you do not simply mark it wrong, give him or her an arbitrary grade A-F, and move on to the next chapter of the book. No, you stop everything and help your child understand and correct the problems they did wrong and then you pay attention and celebrate with your child when you see that they figured it out on their own and now understand the concept. Whether it happens that day or weeks down the road, you, without thinking, teach to mastery because it doesn’t make sense to skip over or rush through something your child doesn’t understand. We naturally want our children to understand, to learn. If they don’t understand a concept we don’t give a grade of failure, we just simply aren’t finished with that concept yet. This holds true for all subjects and skills. We want our children to do their personal best and be their personal best.

I have been explaining this to parents for years now. Mastery Learning is something we instinctively do with our children, but is not (maybe can not) be practiced in a classroom of 30-plus students, who have just met a teacher for the first time that year, and may not see said teacher again after the year ends, to move on to the next unknown teacher, and so on. This is the traditional system, but you have made a different choice, to teach Mastery. To enjoy the process, not just check off required boxes but teach your child to master each task set before them and teach them to love learning.

I recently came across this video from Khan Academy that explains Mastery Learning pretty well. I am thrilled that others are realizing the need for change in the current system and I hope it continues. You can find a link to Khan Academy on the resource links page, They have a free, good math program. Enjoy.

Happy Homeschooling!

Confessions of a Homeschool Mom

So here it is, January, mid-school year, and time for us to record semester one grades. I have to confess, even though I am confident in the education that my children are getting, I have a moment of doubt when it comes time to record grades. After all, I am a busy mom, I work 2 days outside of the home and I also help to run our business from home. I have a one-year-old who is still quite attached to me; a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old who both require lots of my attention and constant activity; and a 7-year-old girl who is such a big help but still needs much guidance and training. Then I have 3 teenagers, high schoolers. I spend so much of my time reading to and teaching little ones, that I doubt, for a moment, that my high schoolers have gotten what they need. Besides that as a homeschooler our “school” does not have to be founded on grades, these are my children. For most subjects, we go over or they go over, whatever material is at hand until it is understood. We don’t move on until it is mastered, it’s as simple as that, it’s an “A” or we aren’t done. In a typical school setting where there are 30 students in a classroom, one year with each teacher to accomplish said subject and all subjects are compartmentalized. Yes, a grading system would be needed to try to “chart” how much of said subject was internalized by each student that year. But we as homeschoolers are not limited in that way. When I hear my children discussing “the British perspective of the Revolutionary War vs. the “American” perspective”… Then I know they “got it”. That would mean the material was mastered and that, my friend, deserves an “A”. So now here I am, mid-year to record my children’s grades. I go subject by subject that I have put before them at the beginning of the year to complete. I have trained up my high schoolers to be independent. I stay mostly hands-off, only to check final reports I have assigned, and I commonly discuss with them what they are doing just to check that they are still on track with their “school,” after all, their school is still my responsibility. I allow them to chart their own course in high school but they know the boundaries and what is expected. If they get off track, I am there to guide them back. So I get to each subject, some of them they do on the computer, I check their progress, remind them where they need to be by the end of the year, we make a new plan for completion if needed, then move on. I get to English… What have they done for English? I can’t even think, have they done anything? I had a teacher in high school who, at grading time, would call me up to his desk. “What should I give you an A or a B?” This was so crazy to me, did he not know my grade? Did I really have a choice? I would then have a discussion with him that would end up with me reminding him of all I learned and accomplished in his class. Everyone did not pass his class so I know our grades were not only based on that discussion but looking back, how brilliant, to remind the student of all they had learned by getting them to regurgitate it back, or was this not unlike our family discussions around the dinner table and me being able to see that they “got it”. So I call each child to me, first Mason, a senior this year, “What have you been doing in English?” He reminds me he is writing a novel. Of course! He is using the book “Learn to Write the Novel Way” by Carole Thaxton. He references it and uses it to get his writing juices flowing. He is always discussing his ideas with his dad, his brother, and me. He shows me his progress, I have to say, I am impressed. We discuss plans to complete it by the end of the school year and I happily mark down “A”. Now Ethan, a junior this year, … oh my what has he done? So I call him to me, “What have you been doing for English?” He says “Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction”… at first I’m about to blow that off as a joke, it’s a book by Jason Austin, using office supplies to make fun little gadgets like catapults, slingshots, etc. Then he says, “No really, I’ve read it like 3 times.” Then I start thinking, he had “OKed” a project with me concerning this book, I just didn’t think of it as English. But he is making “how-to” demos on YouTube. He writes and creates a dialog, does research, and creates video media, not to mention computer skills, mathematical, and scientific applications. Oh yeah, he gets an “A”! We discussed what I would like to see by the end of the year to include more writing, and I continue with my grading. By the way, we are always reading and discussing novels and Scripture around here, so I know that we have that covered, in their English, I am looking for more writing. Now Ethan is very hands-on, he would much rather be reading a manual than a story. Twice in the past few weeks, I have heard the quote “Find what you love and you will never work a day in your life.” I do believe, that is what both of my boys have found this year in English, so much so that I didn’t even see it as work until they showed me. To me, this is a dream come true, for my children to love to learn. For them to be finding their strengths and building on them. Now, again, I have no doubts. And I LOVE homeschooling! It is my hope that this will be an inspiration to you in your home.

Happy Homeschooling!