Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: English, high school, literature, writing

This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 6 months ago by smartypants.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Author
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October 21, 2015 at 11:18 am
Debbie
Participant
My oldest ds is a senior. His plans are a 2 year computer degree..probably programming. Right now his English credit consists of Literature with analysis (we are using LLATL Gold..which IMHO is a lot of BUSY work…) Vocab (Wordly wise) grammar (short daily grammar/punctuation type lessons) and some writing/composition.
With the degree he is going into the only english courses he will need are writing/inquiry based…. not sure if there will be any literature based content or not? I have the course description but it’s hard to tell. He really struggles with the literary analysis and therefore it takes him a long time to complete that work… maybe LLATL just isn’t what he needs?
I really need to add in more writing/composition, note taking, outlining etc…. but I already feel like I am bombarding him with work.
just not sure what to do, where to focus…
Curious if any of you have any thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks
Debbie
October 21, 2015 at 8:13 pm
retrofam
Participant
Since he has done some literary analysis and being that he is a senior, I would concentrate on composition. For high school English we either rotate composition and literature per semester or use an English curriculum that alternates the two more often.
My goal for literary analysis is for my students to understand the basic terminology, and be familiar with the storyline and mainstream interpretation of a few classics. This is assuming that literary analysis is not their passion or major in college.
For composition I want them to be able to communicate well in writing, without it being a stressful ordeal that takes weeks. This takes a lot of practice, and modeling.

October 22, 2015 at 5:38 am
Melanie32
Participant
I would stop the LLATL and focus on the writing as well. I’ve heard good things about The Power in Your Hands-a highschool writing course. You could always work on writing for a month or two and then come back to lit analysis for a novel and switch back and forth for the rest of the year. That way you wouldn’t be adding another thing to his schedule but replacing one thing with another.

October 22, 2015 at 10:37 am
smartypants
Participant
7 sisters homeschool has some nice, no busy work lit guides. They also have writing curriculum at different levels.
*no, I don’t work for them, but I do like their stuff.
Robin
October 22, 2015 at 10:50 pm
marmiemama
Participant

Just my two cents…Power in Your Hands, and also Jump In for my two middle girls, just didn’t work for us. Pulled them out of the attic twice to give them another try, but nope. I can’t even really say particularly why my three girls didn’t like them. Perhaps how the lesson would start with one small topic, and they would have to keep writing various papers to have the topic grow. Currently returning to narrations only, with some IEW Structure and Style concepts thrown in. I also liked their Essay Writing DVD.
Robin, I was looking at their site, but I couldn’t get any of the sample pages to work. How would you describe their programs?
October 23, 2015 at 9:15 am
smartypants
Participant
marmie:
The 7 sisters stuff is to the point and does not drag on forever. So many literature study guides beat the book to death with lots of silly comprehension questions (you know the kind…what color was so-and-so’s dress…ugh).
These guides ask pertinent questions and usually only cover a couple of literary elements at a time rather than trying to cover a bunch like some of the other lit guides do.
Their writing guides are also to the point. The lessons are “by the day” and only take about 15 minutes or so per day. I think the writing books are scheduled for about 10 weeks. There are various levels plus a research paper book.
I know you can see samples, but they have changed their website and it’s not as easy to find them now.