Arm-chair activism - please help research online content for Scholars' Academy!

[alecmuller]

Want help fight for liberty without getting up from your computer?

Scholars' Academy is a private school for gifted kids 5-12.  It was founded largely by porcupines, and has only been open a couple of months.  I've offered to help them out by finding free teaching material online.  If you'd like to help this school succeed by contributing to this research, please check out the topics below from Diane Ramirez (the school's lead teacher) and share what you find.

Sincerely,
Alec

p.s. FYI, I'm going to be cribbing everything from this thread to put on the educational website Daniel Royer and I built (http://Alekese.com).

Here are some things I need...not quite sure if this is the type of thing you're looking for...

Grades 3-8 spelling lists (at least 100 wds per year)

Grades 6-12 vocabulary lists (at least 100 wds per year)

Any and all online lesson plans for the following books:
Fantastic Voyage-Asimov
Kon-Tiki
Flowers for Algernon
Treasure Island
The Odd Couple
Foundation--Asimov
Lord of the Flies
Fahrenheit 451
Kidnapped--Stevenson
The Time Machine-Wells
Three Musketeers
Red Badge of Courage
All Creatures Great and Small
The Pearl-Steinbeck
Any websites that have mini Language Arts lessons...so just a conglomerate of conglomerates?

I'll definitely have more later but this is the list I'm working from now

THANK YOU!

[Kat Kanning]

You can use my copy of Spelling Power if you want.

http://spellingpower.com/shopping/spellingpowermenu.htm

It's not separated by grades though.

[ancapagency]

For Vocabulary/Spelling Lists, I use key words and concepts from science lessons or whatever else we're studying.  For example, as we were studying the fundamentals of auto mechanics today, I added the following words to the list Tristan (12 y/o) will be defining and learning to spell:

Internal
External
Exhaust
Gasoline
Petroleum
Refining
Combustion
Ignite
Ignition
Vapor
Explosion
Kerosene
Piston
Fuel
Cylinder
Engine
Motor
Hydrocarbon


I find it's both easier on me to come up with a word list, and more interesting and beneficial to him if as many of the subjects we have to cover are as closely related as possible to whatever he's working on at the moment.  When we were working on Catapults and Trebuchets, some of the words added to his list were:

Torsion
Balance
Counter-balance
Counter-weight
Lever
Fulcrum
Center of Gravity
Pivot
Mechanical Advantage

When we were doing Land Navigation, the words on his list were:

Longitude
Latitude
Navigation
Sextant
Altitude
Celestial
Astrolabe
Chronometer
Triangulation
Angle
Degree
Azimuth
Cardinal Directions


When we were talking about firearms, and doing ammunition reloading, we added:

Ballistics
Velocity
Characteristics
Caliber
Sabot
Muzzle
Pressure
Variation
Identification
Propellant
Versatile


When we were learning some musical stuff, we added:

Acoustics
Frequency
Modulation
Vibration
Percussion


For Mathematics, of course, we cover the basics, but all the problems and such are related--e.g. when we were doing Navigation, we were calculating azimuth, back azimuth, degrees from cardinal directions, pace counts and conversion back and forth from standard measurements (i.e. how many paces are 1 mile?  How many feet are 16 paces? etc. after having taken him out and taught him to do a pace count).  Firearms we're converting from fractions of a pound to grains, calculating sectional density, etc.  When we are cooking, we double the recipe, or halve it; calculate servings, cooking times, figure out unit prices at the store, etc.

[ancapagency]

As for the books, I'd have any questions be as open-ended as possible, and even more so, encourage the students to ask and answer questions, rather than the teacher doing so.

However, some good questions to ask are:

What did you think of when you read this?  Why?

What did this remind you of?

What do you think will happen next?  What will this character do? 

If you met this character in real life, would you like them?  Why or why not?

Did you find this interesting or entertaining?  why or why not?

Do you find this story believable?  Why or why not?

Was there anything you didn't understand in this chapter/book?

If you were one of the characters in this book, who would you be and why?

If you were in this character's situation, what would you do?  What about this other character?

And so on.

If the story takes place in some sort of real historical context or period (e.g.  Red Badge of Courage, Three Musketeers, Treasure Island, etc.) it's a good idea to cover the real history of the period in conjunction with the story, which helps to understand the story and setting and such.  Especially if the story is set in one period, but is actually referencing issues in another--for example, Arthur Miller's "Crucible" which is set during the Salem Witch Hunt, but is actually about McCarthy's Anti-Communist witch hunt.  So you get both a grounding in the history of the early colonial period, as well as of the 1950s/early Cold War, and also examine the psychology/moral questions/etc. of witch hunts, mob mentality, hysteria, etc.

[ancapagency]

Come to think of it, if they're looking for lesson plan material, they're free to contact me directly (or maybe we can set up something thru Alekese) and I can usually gin up something pretty quickly, with just a few ideas of what they're looking for.  I'm used to taking whatever Tristan seems to be interested in at the moment, giving him something to do for in in one area, and while he's working on that, coming up with a spelling list, a page of math problems, an art project, or something by the time he's finished the first activity in the area.

[KBCraig]

spanishdict.com has free Spanish lessons online.

[Moebius Tripp]

Here are some links you may find helpful:

http://www.khanacademy.org/ - many short videos of a guy with a whiteboard teaching many subjects.

http://www.stormthecastle.com/ - (not affiliated with stormfront, as far as I know  )
nifty science projects and fantasy/medieval activities, also, a mead making page for us adults.

www.worldsciencefestival.com - another cool video site recommended by a teacher-ex (not an ex-teacher) that I'm still on good terms with. 

[PattyLee loves dogs]

Here's some great grade 9-12 books:

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men

Machinery Of Freedom

Mining The Sky