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high school literature questions
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Hello everyone. I haven’t posted in a long time; but, I do read regularly. Can anyone suggest resources for analyzing literature? Ds doesn’t really look at books as something to be picked apart. He likes to read for the sake of the story. He has a hard time writing about literature in an analytical way. He can do it, but it’s a struggle. Also, when doing his narration over the novel, should he be briefly recording what happened in that reading or should he be finding deeper meaning? How long should a narration be? How often should the book be narrated? Daily? Finally, is it necessary to do all kinds of background work while reading the novel? For example, one program I looked at had the student using internet resources to read about the author, look at art from the time, read poems from the time and read about the poets themselves, listen to music of the time, read about other things historically from the time…etc. It was an endless list of extra stuff to do while reading. In addition, the curriculum had tons of introductory information for the student regarding writing, how to read a book, expectations, etc. And, all kinds of formats for a zillion different papers that might potentially be required. It was overwhelming for me to go through. I can’t imagine my teen absorbing all that. Frankly, by the time we’ve done the background stuff each day, we don’t even want to read the book. FYI—We are on our last year-ish for high school. We are taking some extra time to finish his high school studies due to a surgery setting things back. We may take a whole extra year for this student. He will still only be 18 when he graduates even adding an extra year. Thanks for reading. Robin
I would love to hear any wisdom from the moms that have went before us. I have twin sons that are in 9th currently and the English Literature/composition is really confusing me. I am not comfortable “teaching” composition and have never found a good guide for this. I am also not understanding the analyzing of Literature and wondering what other moms use for a curriculum. Thanks for asking this question!
Learning Language Arts Through Literature is what I bought for analyzing lit, but we did not use it. My younger son plans to use it.
We used a book called, Words of Delight, which explains literature using the Bible.
We used some of Rod and Staff Reader 9 for lit. also.
My kids and I really enjoyed the book How to read Literature like a Professor. It’s not a literature program, just a book that explains the symbolism in literature.
A friend told me that in Sweden they don’t do lit analysis like we do here. I wonder if it’s true of other places too. I don’t think CM would be a big fan of picking books apart personally.
Having said which I do feel like we need to prepare our kids for what may be expected of them in college. I recommend reading Deconstructing Penguins and also Meaning at the Movies. Both have helpede understand lit. I have been doing studies based on Deconstructing with all my kids and it’s gone really well. Shameless promotion — I have been blogging on our discussions too. It uses much younger books but I think that can be a great place to start. It takes away the burden ofunderstanding while you learn to analyze.
Nebby
I have no advice on analyzing Lit. However, my older children (10th & 7th grade) are using Writing with Skill from Peace Hill Press. There are 10 weeks of Samples for each level. There is a student book and the “brain” teacher’s book with a Rubric and how to help your student. My older children are enjoying the program.
HTH
For our high school literary analysis, we used Windows to the World sold by Institute for Excellence in Writing. We used it in a co-op style setting thus we could discuss the stories. We had 16 meetings, meeting every other week. This curriculum uses many short stories to teach the different devices of literary analysis. IEW had some lesson plans as well and we followed that format for the most part. We also read two novels(Jane Eyre & Animal Farm) and wrote a literary essay on each.
I found this to be a very complete curriculum and wished that I had had a course like it before going to college. However, my oldest hasn’t used much of what he learned in that class in his college experience at all. He writes pretty well naturally though.
One thing about this course is that the short stories are mature themed stories, some have a dark nature with murder themes and such. You may want to preview that if it is something you would be concerned about. The student should probably be at least 16 or older.
You can check out the table of contents and samples here:
http://iew.com/shop/products/windows-world-introduction-literary-analysis-student-book-onlyIf you have any other questions about it,feel free to message me.
I haven’t homeschooled my own children through high school (DS is 7), but I have taught college composition and now teach high school literature at a cottage school for homeschoolers.
College-bound students must be able to write analytically about literature. Their English courses will assume this ability. Any humanities class will assume the ability to write clearly and persuasively. And that’s what literary analysis is all about. Effective literary analysis requires the ability to analyze and synthesize information; to formulate your own opinion or stance on an issue (the thesis statement); and the ability to defend that stance through organized, clearly-articulated supporting arguments (the supporting paragraphs). These skills are hugely beneficial in many areas of life.
The question is, how do you get there? I have a few favorite curricula that offers step-by-step instructions. First, once your student can write a basic 5-paragraph essay, I recommend The Elegant Essay through IEW. It’s structured to take approx. 1 semester and will give your student the foundational reinforcement in writing essays that is needed before trying to tackle literary analysis. There is a student book and a TM, both of which are required. The TM is pretty good; all of the lessons are laid out for you.
After that course, I transition students to Windows to the World, also from IEW. This course provides an excellent introduction to literary analysis. It covers plot, setting, characterization, irony, etc, as well as how to write an analysis paper. Again, it has a student book and a TM. This course can take anywhere from 1 semester to 1 full school year.
Once students have completed these two courses, you can go several directions. IEW offers a syllabus for literary analysis that includes a huge list of analysis questions that can be used with any book. Essay prompts are not included, though. They can be found on Spark Notes or Cliff Notes, etc. Or you could use Hewitt’s Lightning Lit modules. I haven’t used this, but plan on utilizing it in my lit classes soon. It looks to be well-organized and thorough. I love their 4-book modules. You get to pick and choose what to read.
The most important thing is to remember why literary analysis is important. It’s not about being able to pick a book apart and steal the joy from reading. Instead, it’s a way to help students gain higher-level thinking, writing, and argumentation skills that they will need throughout life.
Hope this helps!
I agree with Nebby as far as what Charlotte Mason’s view would be of dissecting a book like literature analysis studies often do.
If one thinks this to be necessary for college, I would hold off until 12 grade and keep it as brief as possible. Of course that’s just my humble opinion and you know what they say about opinions………
Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful replies.
My ds17 is technically a senior. Due to a surgery he is somewhat behind so we are considering tacking on an extra semester, at least.
I will look into Elegant Essay and Windows to the World. I’ve considered these before and will reconsider now.
He still has to do Government and Economics, finish math and science. It may end up taking another whole year.
Fortunately, he’s a young student and could possibly take another whole year to complete high school. I’d have to do a bit of transcript shuffling, but that’s okay.
Thanks for all the replies.
You all have been most helpful.
Robin
I wanted to recommend a couple of resources we have used for high school literature. First, Robin Finely’s (of Analytical Grammar) book The Eternal Argument is great for understanding the purpose behind reading classic works of literature. She talks about the worldviews of authors, the “pendulum swing” through the ages of worldviews and gives some specific examples from famous works of literature. This is a great resource for both parent/teacher and student. It is available in both print & audio book.
For study guides for literature, this year we have used lit guides from 7sistershomeschool.com They have a wide variety of choices, some bundled into complete courses, like Amer. Lit, Brit. Lit, and, in my opinion, they are a great balance between “enjoy the story” and literary analysis. There is no busy work and they introduce the elements of literature, along with background info on the author and his/her influences/culture. They are very affordable at 3.99 for most titles as downloads.
Great points Rebecca! I just wanted to add that I think a great deal of the prep work for this type of composition can be done orally and in a most enjoyable and Charlotte Mason way. The grand discussion time that we normally use in our narration sequence with younger children can be adapted to be a time with older children where the groundwork, the language and the “mystery” if you will – is revealed for this more advanced, critical thinking on what they are reading. I’d also just add that to write well you must write and write more and then write more … it takes the fear away in most cases and lets the process become more natural.
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