Unit Study Approach

Unit studies, sometimes called thematic units or integrated studies, are very popular with homeschoolers. Unit studies usually use a hands-on approach for effective learning. The child learns by actually experiencing or discovering through different methods and activities, rather than just reading a chapter from a textbook. Studies show that children using unit-study methods retain 45% more than those using a traditional approach.

Click for the Rest of the Slide Show

The "unit" or "theme" part refers to the idea of studying a topic as a whole instead of several "subjects." Thousands of years ago, the Greeks decided to break whole topics into subjects. For example: most people think of water as a science subject. One way to look at water is as H2O—a chemistry subject—but, it is also art (a beautiful waterfall), history (the Red Sea), economics (water bill), theology (baptism), language arts (babbling brook, which is a metaphor), geography (the location of bodies of water), etc.

A unit study takes a topic and "lives" with it for a period of time, integrating science, social studies, language arts, math, and fine arts as they apply. For example a unit study about animals would include

• Reading stories such as Charlotte's Web, Flicka, etc. (Literature)
• Writing stories about animals (Creative writing, capitalization, punctuation, etc.)
• Learning about the classification of animals (Science)
• Learning new words such as vertebra and invertebrate (Vocabulary)
• Finding out which animals live on which continents (Geography)
• Reading stories about animals in the Bible (Bible)
• Examining man's relationship with animals throughout history (History)

Unit studies are especially beneficial if you are teaching more than one child. If you are using textbooks and workbooks to teach three children seven different subjects each, that's a WHOPPING twenty-one subjects to prepare and teach. A family with three children using textbook methods might have one child studying the Civil War and another learning about Ancient Rome, while another is studying the American Revolution, all history subjects. For Science, one child may be studying plants, another the planets, and another reptiles. In Bible, one child may be studying Moses, another studying Joseph, and another studying Paul. With unit studies, history, geography, art, music, science, and Bible can all be taught together to all ages.

Each child studies the topic at his or her own level. This saves over half of your teaching and preparing time. All children can go on field trips together, many projects can be done together, writing assignments and vocabulary words will be about the same topic, just on different levels. For example while studying animals, a younger child may be able to classify birds, mammals, and insects, while an older child would classify animals in much more detail, such as arachnids, crustaceans, etc. The older child learns and helps to teach the younger while the younger learns from the older.

Unit studies work well for children with different learning styles. Most unit studies give several options to learn about a topic. For example: Study the history of slavery in the United States. Let your students choose how they want to study the subject and how they want to demonstrate what they’ve learned.

• Read about slavery in the encyclopedia
• Read a portion from a textbook
• Research from reference books in the library
• Read a historical fiction about slavery
• Read a biography about a slave
• Watch a documentary
• Write a letter as if you were a slave owner
• Write a poem about slavery
• Create and act out a play with slaves and a slave owner
• Do a web search on slavery 
• Create a shadowbox depicting a plantation and slaves
• Draw or sketch a scene depicting a plantation and slaves

Marilyn Howshall explains in Lifestyle of Learning, when the Unit-of-Life approach is used, all five of the learning tools are equally being developed in the student's life:

The Five Learning Tools are research, reason, relate, record, and rhetoric. Possessing a good command of these tools will aid a student in acquiring an education. In the traditional system the student remains in a passive role doing little, if any, real learning. He is not taught how to use the very tools that will equip him for a lifelong adventure in learning. The learning tools can be applied to any field or area of thought and are adaptable to all learning tasks, whether an informal or formal means of study is pursued. In fact, when a student is truly learning, he actively and consistently embraces an area of interest (science) that will lead him in a process (science) that reflects his individual expression and character development (art). He will apply the use of learning tools in a variety of informal as well as formal ways. In view of all the three components of learning (S.A.T.'s), it is easy to see how dead our traditional learning methods have become. We need to renew our minds to God's truth about learning, for it is only with a new mindset that we will be able to carry out God's plan freely and confidently.

Related Articles

Returning to Traditional Education - What Tradition?
Today, there is a surge of interest in the secular world to return to Greek classical education. "We need to return to the traditional literary culture, the classical standards of the past." experts demand. Insistence on a "back to basics" of "reading, writing and arithmetic," has again become popular. It is a desire to turn back to the fork where we took the wrong road. But is it God's way? Why go back to pagan Greeks ways? Why not return to biblical methods?

Taking the Challenge
We must do more than rail against guideless education. We must identify a distinctively Christian curriculum - one that takes its identity, its motion from the reality of our redeemed condition - one that begins with the authority of the risen Christ speaking through His Word.

Views of Knowledge
It is not enough simply to borrow a curriculum of the western tradition and sprinkle it with Christian words. God in this world has appointed wisdom to the structure, method and goal of our learning.

What is Education?
In our society, teaching is imparting knowledge and processing information; learning is acquiring knowledge and using information. It’s hard for us to realize that teaching did not have the same meaning for Paul or Timothy or the early readers of their letters.

What the Bible Says About Teaching
To teach the whole person, instruction must go beyond processing information. Even true information. As we look at 1 Timothy we realize that biblical teaching does involve verbal instruction. But it also involves urging, pointing out, commanding, setting an example, giving instructions. Christian teaching calls for a personal involvement that touches every aspect of the learner’s life.

Creating Reminders for Our Children
In Joshua chapter 4, God commanded His children to put up a pile of twelve stones as a reminder, specifically to prompt their children's questions!

Ancient Greek vs Biblical Education
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (Colossians 2:8).

Classical Education?
In the last five years there has been a growing trend which is reflected in the availability of numerous Greek mythology and philosophy books in homeschool catalogs and at curriculum fairs. I feel like the little boy who felt that he must point out the emperor's obvious lack of clothing. 

Education According to the Bible
What does the Bible say about eduction? Who, what, when and oow answers are found here.

Academic Requirements
Our first desire is to inspire students to become hearers and doers of God's Word, and to encourage students to search the Scriptures and apply them to everyday situations. Our second goal is to teach them a love of learning that will last a lifetime.

The Primary Purpose of Education
The primary purpose of education should be to train the whole person for lifelong, obedient service, just as it was in Bible times...

Developing a Christian Mind
Because a Christian mind is more than a mechanical skill, such as driving a car or operating a computer, there is no simple set of steps which can be offered. There are steps to be followed, of course, like reading the Bible, praying, meditating the Word, etc. But the Christian mind is primarily the result of a deepening relationship to God in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

God's Wisdom vs. Man's Wisdom
There is very little question of the meaning and importance of intelligence, but until we have defined education and its purpose and goals in biblical terms, we will not be able to aim for a higher education standard. We must look at wisdom from a biblical perspective.

Goals of Education
Schools evaluate learning by testing and measuring knowledge. Paul would say that character is a better indicator of a well-taught Christian.

Learning How to Learn Together
Assigning a number of pages to read in a textbook is not teaching. Dr. Bruce Wilkinson explains, in The Seven Laws of the Learner, "Talking in front of a class is not teaching. True biblical teaching doesn't take place unless students have learned. If they haven't learned, we haven't taught. "

One Needful Thing
Homeschoolers sometimes get so wrapped up in academics they forget the one needful thing. Remember the story of Mary and Martha.

Scheduling by Faith
We have asked "What would Jesus do?" And, "How would Jesus teach?" Now let us ask "How would Jesus schedule?" Jesus had obvious long-term goals but He practiced daily as a responder. He prayed daily and allowed the needs of the people around Him to set His agenda. He saw people's needs as opportunities to minister. We need to ask God to help us learn to schedule by faith.

Study: The Highest Form of Worship
The decision to study God's Word in order to do His Word is a meaningful act of submission and reverence - in short, it is worship.