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High School "required" reading
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My oldest will be entering 9th grade in the new school year….and I’m wondering: How do you all organize your students’ required Literature-type reading?
Where do you find a list of books that “ought” to be read? Do you assign each book? Do you create a list and allow the student to choose? About how many Literature-type books do you ask your students to read?
We’ve transitioned to “workbook” type learning for Language Arts, Civics, and her elective. Math and Science are online video-based. This is my dd who LOVES to read, so that isn’t an issue. I guess I’m just wanting to figure out how to guide her so that she’s reading a good variety of Literature each year of high school.
Thanks!
I determine what they “ought” to read by reading all the books myself and choosing the best ones for them. I get my ideas from Sonlight, HOD and other curriculum providers, plus we use Notgrass history so there is literature built in there.
That is certainly not the easiest or most efficient way to do it, but I want to make sure it’s good literature and also know the story myself so we can discuss things.
Right now, I assign my high school kids a chapter a day (unless the book is really long and the chapters are shorter, then I assign two per day). My goal is to have them read 8-9 books per year. Usually, they end up finishing the books on their own time because they get into the story, so then we have time for more. I do a mix of books they choose and books I choose. After something more challenging, like a Dickens, then I usually give them a break and let them choose something easier and more fun.
Okay, that’s sort of where I was leaning. I didn’t want to come up with an enormous list and have her get discouraged….I thought about coming up with some categories (short stories/poetry/ancient type lit/classic lit, etc.) And then some examples for each category, and have her choose from each category.
8 or 9 seems like a reasonable goal, too.
Do you ask for a written narration of each book? For our diploma program I will need some kind of “proof” that she’s read a variety of classics.
Thanks!
My son rotates his narrations through history, science and literature each week, so yes, he writes at least one written narration per book, but it’s usually just 2-3 paragraphs about what’s happening in the book; nothing very academic.
For my ninth grade son I required that he read some books that I picked and some books that we picked. This is his first year at home. Since “classics” have not been required reading at his previous school, I wanted to ease him into reading living books.
My picks: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Our picks: Shaken (Tim Tebow), Rise (Trip Lee), Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I use a combination of sources.
Ambleside Online
Excellence in Literature
Personal experience
James Stobaugh literature series: American, British, and World.
Well Trained Mind’s Susan Bauer’s classical list
My son just wants me to assign. He reads sci-fy on his own, but all else, he’s content with being told what to read.
This year, he’s taking a separate writing course online for fall semester and we’re doing WttW together in spring.
I will be reading the same books as he; we’ll discuss and fill out a story chart, ala Teaching the Classics style. The exception being our Shakespeare choices and C.S. Lewis; I have other srudy guides for those. Additionally, my son will be using Stobaugh’s British literature student book for most of his reading, just no essays for me.
Thanks for reminding me about The Well Trained Mind – it’s on my shelf. (I forgot about it!)
And I haven’t heard of Stobaugh, I’ll look into him.
☺
You can see the entire table of contents of each of Stobaugh’s literature books on Christianbook.com
Since she’s a good reader, his stuff would give her a challenge as it’s more of an honors program. Also, he has essay recommendations in the TG.
Recently I came across the best high school literature list I’ve ever seen. It was in the insert of the Apologia catalog. The list is in an article titled “The Well-Read High Schooler” written by Whit Jones who homeschooled his own children and has been an English professor for many years. If you don’t have the catalog, you can download it from Apologia’s website and find the article around page 111. I used that article to make my own list for my rising 9th grader.
We plan to study the Christian Classics too.
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