Can we talk planners as prompts to study for tests?

[enbateau]

I'm intrigued by the idea of an HLS planner. I have a 4th grader who is looking for some autonomy with figuring out when tests are coming up and when/how often she should be reviewing her study guides, flashcards, et al. She is pretty good about grabbing my curriculum manual to see when tests and quizzes are coming up, but honestly, with the day's boxes all stuffed to the brim and quizzes and tests not bolded, it is sometimes hard for us to see them. I have started highlighting them in my own CM (and often I will have a "This Week..." section on my whiteboard listing unit tests), but her main work area is now the desk in her room. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to do a lot of legwork teaching her to actually look inside the planner or if maybe we should wait a few years. I don't remember using a planner until closer to 6th grade. In general, there isn't a lot of "assigning" done, so the daily/weekly pages wouldn't get any use. We would just want the at-a-glance monthly calendar.

So, if your student switched to a planner, when did that take place, and how long did you have to train your student to look at it daily to make sure it was actually being used?

[jen1134]

We're not in the CMs right now as we're doing a reduced load but will be returning to them shortly. We use the CM as a student planner. After I teach a lesson(s), I highlight the assignments for them to complete between now and our next lesson. Anything unchecked/highlighted is their responsibility. I would use a different color highlighter for things we were going to do together. Quizzes/tests can be highlighted in another color or a post-it flag can be placed next to them for attention. I also write in additional study/review times throughout the week (or write these on mini post-its that can be moved to the next week to save rewriting).

It makes for a great intro to planning because they're seeing me use it daily and I can see how they're using it. My daughter will even use it to write notes to me if she needs help with something. Basically, the CM becomes a source of communication between myself and the kids and a form of modeling for how to plan well.

[KF2000]

We use the planners in a manner similar to Jennifer. My kids begin to take ownership of it as soon as they start to feel confident doing some of the steps of their work themselves. My current third grader started taking possession of it about halfway through last year (granted, there was still a lot we did directly together, but it was cute to see her imitating the bigger kids that way).

My kids put a check mark next to the things they have completed, and then when we go over them together, I add a dot that looks like a large bullet point. They know that what we are shooting for is everything checked AND bulleted. But this also makes it easy to see what has gotten left from the previous day still to be done, or still to be checked. The CM is something that is just as much theirs as their notebooks or student guides.

For you to make a transition, you could simply do a brief orientation of the CM, showing her how it is all laid out and what sort of system you want to use to keep track of what work she does herself versus what you guys do together. Kids actually gain a great deal of confidence by getting to keep track of it themselves, and they can develop a really nice sense of responsibility over their own work. To the point that you end up with high schoolers whom you have to fight tooth and nail to bring you their stuff to go over! ??♀️

?
AMDG,
Sarah

[MBentley]

Order Out of Chaos makes a cool planner that I'm considering.

[Hahcook]

We use the CM as planners until they get more MPOA/non-MP courses than they have at-home Core. This seems to be about 8-9th grade with Latin and comp.

My high school students use the Order out of Chaos planner as it has more space to track after school activities (gives a more realistic view of how much time they actually have available to complete their bigger projects). My younger kids use the HLS planners.

[Fireweed Prep]

My fourth grader uses the HLS planner. When we are done working together, I tell her what she's responsible for in terms of independent work/studying/homework, and she writes it in her planner. One of her afternoon chores, before playtime, is "finish schoolwork." The fourth graders around here are expected to write down their assignments in their planners, so I figured we'd start, and it's going well. She likes checking off her boxes!