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What exactly does "literature analysis" mean?
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I’m not for sure how to word my question
. Could someone give me examples of this?I’m trying to make my plans for high school literature, and looks like I will be learning right along with my students. I just can’t seem to get ahead of them.
I have an idea of what I want to do, but I’m not sure if it is enough. I’m really stuck here. Blessings,
Missy
When I did literary analysis as part of my BA in English, I had to look for themes in the work-an overall theme as well as any underlying themes, symbolism, character analysis, how the setting contributes to the story and/or theme, things like that.
Karen
You might want to find a literary elements handbook that has definitions and maybe even examples. Use these to help you as you look at the literature. I used to teach HS English, and so we would look at the different elements as they appeared in the novels, poetry, etc. Sometimes it was obvious, and other times we really had to stretch to make it “fit” (I sometimes wondered if we were adding more than the author intended!).
I did a quick search for literature elements on google and here are 2 that came up:
http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_elements.htm
http://www.roanestate.edu/owl&writingcenter/OWL/ElementsLit.html
ahhhh….I’m relieved to know I wasn’t too far off. I know I took literature classes in highschool, but I can’t remember what it involved.
I have been looking at literature guides, and so far they all involve a book we don’t want our children to read or only reading a short parts of them instead of whole books. Some of them require way too much reading and writing for what we want to accomplish. We would like for them to feel comfortable discussing these books with other people, and also prepare them for college lit classes they may choose to take.
Do you have a good handbook you can suggest?
Blessings,
Missy
Missy wrote, “Do you have a good handbook you can suggest?”
Unfortunately, no! The one I had from college I barely used because it had too much in it and wasn’t user friendly!
This might some dumb, but one idea is just to get your hands on a high school English anthology textbook (the higher grade level the better as the same stuff is just repeated every year with a few additions; so maybe look for a 12th grade textbook at a used sale, or even contact the local school and ask if they have any textbooks that are being discarded). Then use that textbook as your handbook: thumb through it and see what terms they use and their examples, and then apply it to the literature that your kids are actually reading. 🙂
I saved my textbooks from when I taught for just this purpose. The textbooks themselves were boring(!) and I knew I’d never use them with my own kids, but I knew they could be good as a resource for myself…
HTH,
Tanya
Teaching the Classics looks really good to me, have heard great things–on my wish list:)
:)Gina
Ladies, thank you! The suggestions and links are very much appreciated!
I am hoping to learn to do this without having to use guides. I do like the Progeny Press guides. I have one that I used with my 7th and 8th graders this year, but they really didn’t like answering all those comprehension questions. So, what I was thinking if I had to use a guide I would use it for: an intro to the book, vocabulary, and pull an essay question or two from it. I would just have them write narrations instead of the answering the questions. Their guides take awhile to do. They suggest 4 a year for highschool. I would like to cover at least 6.
Right now we are using Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. I like this, but it is intended to use through 8th grade. We have not done literature studies until this year. Gina, I think I will try to buy the Teaching the Classics dvd.
I have also been looking at Skills for Literary Analysis (Christian Book Distributors). It looks thorough (maybe too much). Once again, I’m unsure about the book selections (mainly because I haven’t read them), and I think there is too many. I don’t know if it would hurt to skip any of them.
Blessings,Missy
I’ve been looking into this and I came across a recommended product by IEW called “Windows to the World”.
http://www.christianbook.com/windows-the-world-introduction-literary-analysis/lesha-myers/pd5007348
It is said to be gentle and self-directed. That Teaching the Classics is more for you, the teacher. That it is useful for that purpose especially. It was also recommended to add more literature to it and it can last a year instead of a semester. Here’s some info on it: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/ILA-T
Lightening LIt. was another I came across, though apparently it’s fairly light (and too workbooky for me).
Rachel
. Could someone give me examples of this?
I have an idea of what I want to do, but I’m not sure if it is enough. I’m really stuck here. 
Blessings,
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