Highschool Literature Questions

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  • teachme2learn
    Participant

    We’ve been using CM methods for a couple years but I still feel like we are beginners so I feel a little lost and this is one of those areas.

    When reading the selected books do you have your child narrate each passage they read?  Or do you have some other method of finding out what they have taken away from the reading?  My son is not a communicator so this is not always easy.

    How do you start discussions if you haven’t read the book yourself?

    Do you have a list of books that you would not want your child to miss reading in his highschool years?  And do you divide them up according to World Literature, British Literature, American Literature?

    I don’t post very often but I read the discussions on the forum religiously and so appreciate the advice that everyone shares and value it highly.

    Thank you!!!

     

     

     

    LyndaF
    Participant

    I plan on using Excellence In Literature for my youngest daughter for high school. My other kids read books of their choice and gave written or oral narrations. The difference with my youngest daughter is that she read whatever her brother and sister read so I need something that is more challengeing for her.

    greenebalts
    Participant

    We’ve used MFW and Beautiful Feet for high school literature.  It’s been divided by Ancient Civilizations in 9th grade and World History in 10th grade.  I’m really leaning toward more Beautiful Feet for U.S. History in 11th & 12th grade.  There are so many great books and so little time 😉  Blessings, Melissa

    teachme2learn
    Participant

    Thank you ladies!

    Anyone else with any other thoughts or suggestions?

    Bookworm
    Participant

    I’ve tried by high school to move more to various essay forms instead of only narrations, although of course we still do that frequently.  My kids are college-bound and essay writing is a necessity, so we stress this. 

    I do try to read the books my high schoolers read.  I want to be able to discuss with them, and this is important enough to me to sacrifice a little summer time or other time to read the books so I can be familiar.

    Some of the resources that have helped me include Total Language Plus (although I modify these pretty drastically when I use them) and Lightning Literature from Hewitt.  These resemble typical high school courses but involve WHOLE books and not the fragments many of us read in high school.  They have GREAT background info, literary terms, and terrific essay ideas.  We have switched to mostly these now for 9th and up.

    For college-bound, I recommend at least a credit’s worth of American lit, then any other kind you want–my transcripts have included a credit of World Literature and a half-credit of Shakespeare.

    I think you can’t go wrong with the suggestions on the SCM Literature guide for 9-12 grades.  I’d only quibble that perhaps Emma is a better book than Pride and Prejudice, though P&P is more popular, and I read Great Expectations earlier than David Copperfield (some students can be daunted by the length, and since I consider David Copperfield the finest novel ever written in the English language, I subject it to pretty intensive study in senior yeaer.)

    teachme2learn
    Participant

    Thanks Bookworm,

    Would you mind sharing how you modified TLP? 

    What kind of essays do you require?

    My son is most likely not college bound but I do feel being able to communicate one’s thoughts and ideas are highly important.  Writing is not a strong point for me and because of this I have been rather late in developing this skill but I want to do what I can at this point.

    Bookworm
    Participant

    I do not do the spelling or vocabulary exercises; they are a waste of time.  I pump up the dictation, choosing extra dictation passages so we can do one each day, and do at least one written narration and one essay or useful writing assignment per unit.  (Some of the TLP writing assignments are twaddle.) 

    Essay writing is still a useful skill.  If your student has not had instruction in it, I’d recommend some before expecting essays.  Useful helps would include Jump In by Apologia or Teaching the Essay by Analytical Grammar. 

    Bookworm
    Participant

    Oh, and Linda has recommended another essay teaching program, which I have not used myself but Linda also knows what she’s about and so I’ll pass it along too–it is the one done by EpiKardia.

    teachme2learn
    Participant

    Thanks so much for your time Bookworm. 

    Actually, I’m waiting for the program from Epi Kardia to come in the mail.

    I guess my biggest challenge is going to be assigning essays for the particular literature selections.

    Another question I have is what constitutes World Literature?  Any specific titles?

    Thanks

    SueinMN
    Participant

    Agreeing with Bookworm that Emma is better than Pride & Prejudice and David Copperfield is the best Dickens novel. It is in my top ten books for sure. Every time I think of reading another Dickens I think, but I really want to read David Copperfield again. We also use Lightning Lit for literature study. Christy had a writing class at the public school for first semester so I didn’t make her write at home too but now we will return to our LL guides.

    World Lit used to mean Western Civilization other than English and American but now it truly means World Lit and includes lit from all the continents.

    Bookworm
    Participant

    World Literature would be literature written by non-Americans.  You can choose a wide smattering if you like; if you choose only Brits or only Europeans you might want to call it British Literature or European Literature. 

    One place to find essay questions if you can’t think of any is to search on the net for lit/study/teaching guides for that book.  You have to pay for some, but you might find free ones available. If you do, mine them for a few essay questions and ditch the rest (they are usually twaddley.)    You remember the discussion and writing questions in things like Cliffs Notes; they got a bad rep because kids just read the notes and not the book, lol, but they are useful for things like essay questions.  Sometimes you can find them at libraries.

    teachme2learn
    Participant

    I sure do appreciate your help ladies.

    I was looking at Lightening Literature and was wondering which one you would recommend beginning with and whether you buy the packs or supply your own books and do you need the teacher manual?  My son is currently studying World History.

    Do you also use LL as it is written or do you modify?  I noticed a lot of questions in the sample I looked at. 

    Thank you

    Bookworm
    Participant

    Lightning Lit–

    Hm, you know, I didn’t even know there WAS a teacher guide.  LOL  So I’ve never used that.  LOL

    We get the books ourselves–I just make note of the titles and the versions.  Sometimes I find the versions they have and sometimes I get a slightly different one, hasn’t caused a major problem yet.  I’ve found every book either already on my shelves or at paperbackswap so that part hasn’t cost me anything.

    They really recommend starting with one of the American Lit ones first.  We did–just finished the American Mid to Late 19th Century (my son, oddly. LOVED Moby Dick–I’ve never managed to make it through that one despite starting it four separate times with the best of intentions!)

     

    teachme2learn
    Participant

    Sorry for all the questions but here’s some more.

    Due to a shortage of time we will be finishing with World History this year and doing American History next year and won’t be able to stretch it out for a longer time.

    Would it be silly to study American Literature while doing World History and do other literature when studying American History? A little confusing isn’t it.

    I should note that it isn’t that we haven’t read a lot of variety of literature but rather that we haven’t taken the time to study it or develop thoughts and opinions concerning what others have written.  Does that make sense?  We have not read British Lit.

    Any thoughts?

     

    teachme2learn
    Participant

    Another question I had concerning the LL guides was whether you covered each book selection included in the guide?

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