High School Language Arts

For literature we use a curriculum and tweak it to make it more CM. I read a selection aloud and go over a few of the questions that pertain to literary elements and analysis.  I used Rod & Staff Reading 9 and some of BJU literature.

Next year I am going to try Christian Light literature.   I am very particular about what we read, so most of the high school literature programs don’t work for us. I own Notgrass history/lit. but we ended up only using their reading list.

I also have a list of classics for each teen to read on their own.  One title is Across Five Aprils.

We do not study literature every semester,  but they also have their book list going, and many of our history books count as literature also.

High school English is a mix of composition,  literature,  grammar,  and speech. I don’t log hours in each topic.  My goal for literature is that my teens are exposed to a few classic works, know the basics of literary analysis,  and can have conversations about a piece of literature and see basic elements such as foreshadowing.

They learn a lot from watching movies and the bonus features and commentaries on movie dvds also.

The above link reminded me that we also went through Deconstructing Penguins together. That was a favorite for my teens.

It sounds similar to Teaching the Classics.

I keep literary analysis down to a minimum in our homeschool. We analyze a few books throughout the high school years but mostly we just read and discuss lots of great literature.

I mix lighter lit choices in with harder ones to keep things on an even keel. I give my daughter a choice of books and she chooses from that list. She reads 30 minutes a day for literature and I plan on doing at least one lit guide a year, maybe more if we want to.

She also reads lots in her free time. Sometimes she chooses her own free reading books and others she gets so into her current lit book that she wants to read that in her free time instead. Right now she is loving Pride and Prejudice and reading it whenever she gets a chance.

I also have her write 2 page-long papers per week. Some are essays, others are narrations.

We use a combination of grammar programs. We mostly covered grammar in middle school but we will have some review each year to keep the concepts fresh.

I will probably just label my daughter’s English studies as English I, English 2, etc. on her transcript.

I agree with the statement above, “Different methods for different children!”  I use a different book list for each child, but a few of the books are the same. I like to have two curriculum choices for each subject for high schoolers when possible.

I just bought a few lit guides from 7 sisters last week because they were half off. They are decent. My biggest problem with most lit guides is that they are usually too wordy and they take an enjoyable subject and make it tedious. 7 sisters lit guides aren’t too long, at least. I just pick and choose sections that I find worthwhile.

I do find that I like to use a lit guide for some books that are extremely meaty or allegorical to bring out the full meaning behind the literature. For instance, we used a lit guide for Animal Farm and I bought 1 for The Pilgrim’s Progress as well.

I do try to keep it down to 1 or 2 literature guides a year. I don’t want to over analyze literature, or suck all the enjoyment out of great books!