Multi-Level Writing in Lapbooks

My three children (almost 13, 11, and 8) work together on unit studies in science, history, and sometimes, literature. For the 2009-2010 school year, I have planned the following unit studies:

• American Revolution (completed)
• Human Body and Drug Awareness (completed)
• Ancient Greece and Ancient Greek Mythology (current unit study)
• Astronomy
• Early 19th Century American History
• Atoms and Molecules

All of these unit studies involve multiple writing assignments for my children, and most of them involve creating a lapbook. I try to make sure that my children are writing every school day, and I incorporate a lot of writing into our unit studies. One way I do this is through mini-books, with each child writing at his or her own level.

To better understand how I do this in our homeschool, let's look at a recent mini-book that the children completed and take a peek at the writing within. Currently, we are studying Ancient Greece and Greek Mythology. The mini-book of focus is one on the different social classes of Ancient Greece. For the lesson about social classes in Ancient Greece, I read "You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece" by Fiona MacDonald to my children.

Then, I led my children in a discussion about what life was like for slaves in Ancient Greece. I used our white board to keep track of the main points of our discussion. I started with a very open question - "What can you tell me about being a slave in Ancient Greece?" Then, when there was a lull in the discussion, I asked other, more specific, questions. For example, I asked, "How would you know by looking at a person that he or she was a slave in Ancient Greece?"

After discussing slavery in Ancient Greece and writing the main points on our white board, I gave each of the children a brief writing assignment to be completed at that time.

For my 3rd grade child (8) -

• Choose 4 of the main points you find most interesting on the white board and copy them very carefully in your mini-book.
• He wrote:

*slaves come from prisoners of war, stolen by slave traders, abandoned baby girls, people in debt

*no rights at all

*outward signs of slavery - short hair, tatoos, brands

*unhappy life

For my 5th grade reluctant writer (11) -

• Write 3 full sentences about being a slave in Ancient Greece using some of the ideas from the white board.
• He wrote:

Slaves had no rights what so ever. A sign of a slave would be short hair - tatoos - and brands. If you were a slave you would have the most worst life in the world.

For my 7th grade "loves to write" child (almost 13) -

• Write one descriptive paragraph about what life was like for slaves in Ancient Greece.
• She wrote:

Slaves did not have any rights. At any time they could be sold, their owners could die, and they could be beaten. Slaves were sold in the agora, or marketplace. They could be prisoners of war, stolen by slave traders, people in debt, or abandoned baby girls. Slaves could be branded, tatooed, or have their hair cut if their masters wished, all of these were signs of slavery.

After completing the Slaves portion of the mini-book, I read from a few other books about metics, women, and free male citizens. After each reading, we talked about what life would be like in Ancient Greece for that social class. For the remainder of the mini-book, the children simply copied the notes from the whiteboard with my youngest only copying a portion of the notes.