High School English Courses

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  • October 20, 2011 at 12:52 pm
    livken
    Participant

    I know this topic comes up frequently, but I just want to add one more. I am having trouble designing a 9th grade(and beyond) English course. This is my sons most detested subject area so I am trying to put together something steamlined. I want to cover what needs to be covered in the simplest way. My mind gets muddled up when I start to think about all the topics that need covered so I think my son ( and I) needs some very clearly defined objectives. What needs done each year in order to call it a credit and graduate? He has already completed Season 1 of Analytical Grammar, and we have watched IEW’s Teaching the Classics. We tried IEW, but it involves too many writing assignments. Now he has started Help for High School from Bravewriter. We haven’t done much yet, but he does like the ‘light’ tone of it. As for the literature aspect, we have completed AO yrs 1-8 so he has covered a ot of ground there. He doesn’t mind reading small amounts that I require, but he has never been one to pick up a book just because he wants to read it 😉

    So out of that rambling I am wondering if anyone (especially those with older kids) has ideas for a simple 4 year English course that ‘covers the bases’ without torturing my son. His strengths are math, music, and physical movement … not grammar and composition. 🙂

    Thanks for listening!

    Olivia

    October 20, 2011 at 1:17 pm
    Bookworm
    Participant

    Is he planning on college, Olivia?

    I think you have a good start.  If you continue with the AG and work on writing some each year–Bravewriter or find other ways at different times–that’s good.  If he is college-bound, he really needs to do essay and research papers.  AG has really good helps for those two things you could look at.  If he is not college-bound, what does he want to do?  You could explore some other ideas–a speech course perhaps, for public speaking?  Business writing?  Find something practical that would help him in life if it turns out he’s not destined for college and research papers. 

    I know you say he’s covered a lot of ground in literature, but I do think he needs to continue to read and discuss literature.  You could draw from the HEO and the SCM lists here and choose a certain number of books that you agree on to read and discuss.  Then I think you have most of the necessary stuff covered.  I don’t do spelling in high school unless there is poor spelling; if his spelling is OK don’t worry about it; if it needs work, take a look at the dictation books here at SCM.

    Another thing to try for literature if he doesn’t want to read a lot is (don’t yell at me, lol, it’s not perfectly CM but we love them) a lecture series from the Teaching Company.  He could listen to the lectures, choose a number of the books discussed to read (maybe 3 or 4 depending on length)  and call it good.  These are college lectures but aimed at people who may  not be in college or who maybe didn’t go.  We have watched a bunch and love them.  There are courses called The Skeptic’s Guide to the Great Books; Great American Bestsellers; The Art of Reading;  Books That Have Made History:  Books That Can Change Your Life; Life Lessons From the Great Books; Understanding Literature and Life.  Lots of nice choices.

    Another possibility if you feel you’ve covered most things well would be to look at Lightining Lit courses at Hewitt Homeschooling.

    October 20, 2011 at 2:00 pm
    missingtheshire
    Member

    Just want to second what Bookworm said about the lecture series from The Teaching Company, we have a lot of those because we all enjoy them as a family, especially the history ones. We also have some of the literature ones and they are great. We used EpiKardia courses for essay and research paper and we were very impressed with the end results, they are clearly explained and the girls really enjoyed going through them. Linda

    October 20, 2011 at 4:49 pm
    livken
    Participant

    Thanks you two … you always have great ideas!

    Bookworm, he doesn’t really want to go to college, but I wanted to have the college prep classes on his transcript in case he changes his mind. He is very smart, but not ‘academic’. He really doesn’t know what he wants to do yet. He is 15 1/2 and desperate to spread his wings, get a job(any job) and live on his own. In his mind he’s had enough schooling, so I’m trying to make everything as practical as possible. He has expressed an interest in the local tech high school(auto mechanics) for his junior year.

    We are loosely following HEO yr 9. We are using A Patriot’s History along with biographies and videos for history.

    He’s reading The Count of Monte Cristo and listening to Anne of Green Gables for Lit. right now.

    He’s reading the Maybury book scheduled in yr 9 and The Land of Fair Play for Government.

    He’s also doing Spanish, Life of Fred Alg., Geom., & Trig (alg/geom are review), and struggling with Apologia biology (looking into Biology 101 … any other suggestions?).

    He spends a good amount of time playing the guitar, learning new techniques from Youtube, and mixing and recording songs.

    He has asked for more videos so The Teaching Company may be good. Thanks for the title suggestions, there are so many available I’m never sure what to look at.

    Linda, I’ve never looked at EpiKardia. I’ll check it out.

    Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and responding. It seems to be hard to find homeschool moms with older kids 🙂

    God bless!

    Olivia

    October 21, 2011 at 5:22 am
    LIKE2LEARN
    Member

    Olivia, I don’t have much advice for you, but wanted to ask how your son likes Life of Fred Geometry?  We used Videotext for Algebra and my daughter would like to try something different for Geometry.  Some say LOF is all you need, others say it’s a little light.  ??

    Also, regarding Apologia Biology, I highly recommend http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com  They use Apologia and we did Biology with them last year.  Free online live classes. Free.  I’m not positive, but I think you can join even though they started last month.  Just go to the site and send an email. 

    Margie

     

     

    October 21, 2011 at 6:41 am
    Sue
    Participant

    Wow, Margie, I didn’t know that the Virtual Homeschool Group site existed!  I have now spent too much time in the “wee hours” looking at it, but I might enroll my daughter in the the Apologia General Science at-your-own-pace course.  It might be just what she needs to help her through a subject that’s not really her favorite.  Thanks!

    October 21, 2011 at 10:42 am
    livken
    Participant

    Thanks, Margie! I’m going to check that out.

    Olivia

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