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High School: Language Arts
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I’m curious what others are doing their high schoolers for LA?
I’m torn about what to do with my daughter. We’re currently using Learning Language Arts Through Literature, which I really love and it’s possible we’ll just carry on…
I’m just idea hunting as I’m looking to put together her high school years.
I don’t use any specific curriculum. I have a book list for them to read through and discuss with me, and they write narrations and turn them into essays (loosely based on Karen Glass’s book Know and Tell). Some of the books on the list line up with history and they write 3-4 essays about literature during the year. Then I schedule in 2 weeks of studying poetry (mostly just reading and discussing), 2 weeks of short stories (I have them look for literary elements in each story) and 2 research papers (one in December and one in May).
We spent Grades 9 and 10 alternating writing essays with writing narrations, and learning to turn narrations into essays. For Grades 11 and 12, they write an essay per week plus some narrations in other subjects. I have also been known to throw in random weeks of writing business letters, taking notes, and other things that I think are important to know.
It really is a mish-mash of things, but it’s worked here so I keep doing it. Partly why I do it this way is because I can’t find a curriculum I like, and my sons really balk at doing lit analysis-heavy courses, or writing programs with pre-made prompts. It just doesn’t work for them.
Are the books you have them reading through specific to language arts/writing? I bought Eat, Shoots, Leaves last year and it looks so wonderful, but my brain is fried and putting together my own program seems so overwhelming. I might be shamelessly mooching off of you. 😉
The books I have them read are all literature (actually there is occasionally a non-fiction title). Things like Eagle of the Ninth, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Cry the Beloved Country, The Hiding Place, Animal Farm, etc.
I couldn’t have my boys read anything about writing. I’ve tried that and they just can’t stand it. But Eat, Shoots, Leaves might be interesting enough that it would work. You could always try!
My son is reading how to write a novel books and writing a novel. He is done with traditional English curriculum. For literature he is currently reading Tolstoy.
I just wanted to come back and say that I really like the high school levels of LLATL. If I had to use a pre-planned program, that’s what I would want to use. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for my boys (I’ve tried). So to the OP, there is nothing wrong with LLATL, especially if you like it and it’s working.
We simply read good books (mostly classics) and write for high school English in our homeschool. My son used IEW in middle school and we applied their principles across the curriculum for high school composition.
My daughter is more of a natural writer and hasn’t needed much instruction. She used Hands On Essays at the end of 8th grade and portions of The Power In Your Hands in the 10th grade. She applies the skills learned by writing an essay once a week. She wanted to write and illustrate a children’s book so we took a break from essay writing for her to work on that.
She reads from a classic 4 days a week and does composition on the 5th day.
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