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CM Composition Helps for High School
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I thought it might be helpful to start a thread for sharing helpful information for doing composition the Charlotte Mason way in high school.
First, Sonya includes some information on this in the following blog posts:
Details by Subject: Homeschooling through High School the CM Way, Part 2Composition the Charlotte Mason Way: Language Arts, Part 5
You can also read what Charlotte says on composition in Volume 6 of her education series HERE.
When I was looking through some material I have, I came across a PNEU schedule from 1921. Under Forms V and VI (approximately Grades 10-12), both forms were to write essays on subjects taken from their work in that term in History, Literature, and Economics. Or they could also write about a picture they had studied or something from nature. Now, this was from one year’s specific schedule. Another year my not have something like Economics listed. But I think, in my opinion, we can draw an application from this and that is that essay writing was most likely primarily done in the context of their other work.
Think about the various things studied in history. There’s no doubt there could be ample opportunity to write various types of essays on things studied. Same with literature. A good writing handbook will most likely include the necessary instruction for various types of writing, including essays. So we can couple the instruction with choosing topics from a student’s studies.
Anyway, I just thought I’d share those links and some of my thoughts on the subject. I’m hoping this will be helpful for those of us who have high schoolers and would like to continue following CM’s methods in composition.
Just wanted to add:
I think some of my concerns come from me not knowing (or keeping great ideas where I can find it
) how to word essay type questions or whether my student had done them correctly. Plus, I’m not a writer (or anything close to it) so I’m not clear most of the time on what an “essay” would entail and/or how to critique it. Hence, the need for specific guidance. Which, of course, opens a whole new can of worms. When I (we) begin to “search” for one, the ideas start popping up all over the place and the worry sets in that we haven’t done, or been doing, any of what said program/s ask of the student. Then, we feel behind, guilty, lacking, and like we’ve just missed the boat with our first student.Next!!
I need specifics, but at the same time I completely trust CM methods. I was bound to not use a writing program this year and, for the most part, I am glad I didn’t as my oldest needed more time to just practice written narrations. But, it would be good for him to have some guidance. (But from which program??!!)
I need to print out the ideas shared and not trust my ‘bookmarked’ sites for my ds and I to look over.
Hope this made sense.
@my3boys –
Totally makes sense! Hey, I’ve been there in feeling like I need more guidance or worrying – are we doing enough? In fact, was just there last year! I was looking at writing programs and even bought one (but sent it back). That’s why the articles How I Raised a Professional Writer Without a Composition Program and The Due Use of Books were so encouraging to me when I read them last year. Both articles helped build that confidence that yes – CM’s methods are effective and are enough. And also, last year, I really began to see my daughter’s writing grow. And even though there are still moments where that doubt tries to creep in wondering if it’s enough, I just have to look at the things my daughter has written…narrations, reports, essays….to see that she is not only growing as a writer, but developing her own writing style. She’s grabbing the thesaurus so she can look for words that are more descriptive…she’s getting better and better at paragraph and essay construction. I see her thoughts coming through in her writing like with the essay she did on Frankenstein.
Sonya’s book Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing: A Charlotte Mason Language Arts Handbook looks like it would be very helpful. I’ve read through a lot of the sample and found it very helpful. I’m thinking about buying it. I know it discusses composition because it’s listed in the table of contents. Maybe someone who has it or even Sonya could let us know if the book addresses composition at the high school level specifically.
And it has been extremely helpful to read Charlotte’s own words. I’ve read most of Volume 6 and parts of some of the other volumes. Once I read through Volume 6, that really helped me gain even more confidence in applying CM’s methods.
Sorry about that short post. I accidentally deleted the rest of it.
I really am driven to not give up on CM methods, even in composition. And I have seen the changes in my ds narrations that have only encouraged me to continue.
Does the book discuss composition at the high school level?
You mentioned about keeping good ideas where you can find them…have you thought about having a CM binder? I have a section of a bigger binder where I put articles and information related to the CM method. That seems to work better for me than to just bookmark something on the computer.
While not specifically about composition, here is a post at Sage Parnassus written by one of Nancy’s sons regarding how his Charlotte Mason education prepared him well for college.
Yes, the handbook does mention composition at the high school level, but I’m not too sure what it says. I had not finished printing it before I started reading it so I have not gotten that far. My printer is not working or I would print out the rest today, I’ll just read it from my pc instead.
I just read a bit and on pages 139-171 there are examples of Charlotte’s narration/exam questions and the dictated or written narrations of her students, age and all. Page 173 has examples of more narration questions she used.
So, yes, the handbook is full of info and a lot of examples. I need to print out the rest soon so I can make that my CM composition notebook.
Thank you for the link, I think I’ve read that before but it’s always good to read inspiring information again!
Thank you, Mrs. K, for the links to the posts from Higher Up and Further In about raising a writer without a composition program. Excellent post. I printed that (along with the other article you linked) and added it to my homeschool binder.
Take if from an avid IEW fan, Lindafay’s articles a are much easier and less expensive way to pursue composition instruction IF you can hang on to the “trust” part. Years ago, I had no idea that CMH/HUFI existed. Our older children had various onlookers watching for us to make mistakes as homeschoolers. So, I enlisted IEW. It was a huge blessing at the time and I don’t regret using it with our four older children.
That said, our youngest will pursue writing based on all I learned from Lindafay (with IEW in my back pocket.)
Those articles are ones I think are good to read every now and again just to have that ongoing encouragement that it is enough.
Maybe more often… LOL…especially in the high school years!
) how to word essay type questions or whether my student had done them correctly. Plus, I’m not a writer (or anything close to it) so I’m not clear most of the time on what an “essay” would entail and/or how to critique it. Hence, the need for specific guidance. Which, of course, opens a whole new can of worms. When I (we) begin to “search” for one, the ideas start popping up all over the place and the worry sets in that we haven’t done, or been doing, any of what said program/s ask of the student. Then, we feel behind, guilty, lacking, and like we’ve just missed the boat with our first student.
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