First & Second Timers
Within each Global Topic there are two study tracks offered: First Timers and Second Timers. First Timers is for students going through the program for the first time, and Second Timers is for students going through a second time. The content is mostly the same for both, with the differences being in the depth of writing and the difficulty in the questions. The written material in First Timers is less complex and there is more explanation. In Second Timers the questions are more difficult. The videos, pictures, and basic concepts are the same in both.
Something that Miss Grace and i both loved was how there is the 2 different levels– first timer and second timer. While concentrating on the same core subject, CWS actually offers 2 different levels of learning. The second level builds on what was learned at the first level.
This repetition is what helps with that long-term memory retention- learning different parts of the same topics twice and testing them.
CWS does this with experiments, too. Students can bring their life experiences back with them on the second round of experiments and may actually be able to handle them very differently! My daughter is at a 7th to 8th grade science level (though she’s in 6th grade), but she actually enjoyed the first timer videos and learning as “it helps me make better pictures in my brain and to pull the info back when I need it”.
The second timer level actually challenged her, so she wants to go back through both levels for each unit!
You CAN skip back and forth if you want to, and each level’s grades will show on your student’s dashboard and you can see what all they have completed. I would actually recommend middle school and lower go through the lower level first, just to fill in any missing gaps they might have, before starting the upper level.
It is also worth noting that there are two tiers to the curriculum–First Timers and Second Timers. It is exactly how it sounds. You will use the First Timers section the first time going through the material and then you will go to the second timers for the second time through. Just as most topics, you can glean even more with extra exposure.
I had my 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th graders all using the program. We did it in the “First Timers” mode, which is for students new to the studies. If you do it again as a “Second Timer”, you’re able to check off everything once again and the material will likely be processed and understood differently the second time around! It would be for older students who have completed it once and are wanted to revisit the information for a more in-depth look.
Families can study the same subject matter at the same time. With 2 levels, they can complete assessments and other activities that fit their current abilities. My elementary student works on First Timers Curriculum while my high school student is in Second Timers Curriculum.
A great feature that I found interesting is that the program has a first timer and second timer option. Subscribers to CrossWired Science are given a science curriculum that gives “First Timers” a chance to move through the program and also a deeper curriculum for “Second Timers.” The “Second Timers” curriculum digs a little deeper and provides more complicated and thought-provoking questions in the quiz section of each lesson.
The thought is that a child and an adult can each learn from the videos and will learn at different levels. Using the first timer and second timer model, it can provide the additional learning needed to go deeper.