What to Teach – Literature Analysis

I love the book Deconstructing Penguins for this. It is not a how to book but more the story of how a couple did such things in a library setting. I have adapted what they did and used it with my own kids on a number of books. You can see one example here:

https://lettersfromnebby.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/literary-analysis-lost-horizon/

Hi Erin,

Have you heard the story of the boy who wanted to grow potatoes but kept digging them to check their growth, hence hampering the end results?  So often I feel that is my experience with a Charlotte Mason education, especially now that I have a child in high school.  I have been thinking a lot about these things as I plan out our home school.

Literary analysis wasn’t exactly taught through a neat class or textbook in her schools.  Each term, Charlotte’s students sat down to an incredibly generous feast of literature and poetry, much of which was ancillary to their history studies, though not all.  A term could include a reading of essays, poetry (including contemporary poetry), fables, Shakespeare, an ancient epic and a historical novel -and we can also include Plutarch, which was read for Citizenship, along with the reading in the other subjects.  Narration, oral and some written summaries, were performed by the students and, as they got older, they added written narrations done in blank verse, ballad, dialogue, etc..  Charlotte tells us readings were with attention and concentration thus the students had “perfect recollection and just application.”

In about our seventh grade, Charlotte’s students began “History of English Literature” or “English Literature for Boys and Girls” by H.E. Marshall.  This is really quite an amazing book and gives name to things like blank verse, sonnet, essay, lyric writing, tragedy, novel, etc.  The pages read coordinated with the time of the history being studied just as the literature, for the most part, did as well, so the students were given “a sense of the spaciousness of the days.”  In this English Lit. book, we meet some specific literary criticism, which students would gain a more intimate acquaintance with in high school by reading Carlyle’s Essay on Burns, or Jonathan Swift’s Battle of the Books.

Teachers also gave some small object lessons.  So, say, if your high schooler were going to be reading Kipling this term, you could talk about what a ballad is (which he would have met in the reading of Marshall, perhaps in 7th or 8th grade), he would then hear examples of ballads by Kipling, would choose a poem for recitation, and then later you could ask for a narration from a different subject’s reading to be done in ballad meter.  Since your child has been hearing, reading and reciting poetry since childhood in a CM education, he may now make the connection with ballads he’d heard and recited when you studied Dickinson, Tennyson, or Longfellow.

Anyhow, this is getting long and I’m really just thinking aloud.  The information can be found in SCM’s “Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing” along with other of their resources and blog posts. It can be had firsthand from Charlotte Mason’s “A Philosophy of Education” under The Curriculum, ‘Knowledge of Man.’

If I’ve made it sound difficult, I apologize as it isn’t.  The resources SCM puts out now weren’t all there when my kids were in the lower grades but just having the original Family Studies ensured much of it played out in their younger years.  Matching the time period of history with literature, poetry, composer, and artist; adding in “English Literature for Boys and Girls” at about seventh grade and up; varying written narrations to include forms met; not including the writing of essays until the students have carefully read some of the famous literary essays in high school; these are all simple methods found in that idea of a Charlotte Mason education.  I’m seeing that since I didn’t dig up my potatoes in those earlier grades, I’m seeing real signs of their growth now.

Warmly,

Richele

Hi all,

I’m new here! 🙂 I LOVE Charlotte Mason styl of learning andteachig.

We start of with all of those early, but gentle. We use mind maps…the little bubbles? Mind mapping is fun, and gives the young learner a visual, an early easy, did mention fun!? Lol. It gives them an Intro to what the whole picture is about. Sort of, the ‘why’ and /or the ‘this is the beautiful creation I get in the end. And really, it is, mind maps show rhem, ‘set’, this beautiful creation , in their minds. I think it aids an adds to the beauty of the wonderful beautiful books they are being read to? Or reading themselves . mind maps I believe , gives them a jumpstart to that very thing…mind mapping. Ahows them how to organize all the wonders a creative sparks in their brains, trains the brain early to set it all on place in their imaginations. Where and how to organize it in their?…minds.  Lol, my kids can and usually do use colored pencils, cute little lines for their bubbles. And mKes them want to further investigate and stay on the task because …it’s so pretty :

From there they can tell me about it or write about it. Sometimes I ask for oral narrations, other times I require written paragraph (s).

Because this makes it fun, is very systematic for the mind, helps with organization and planning (mind/motor planning), the kids want to do it. They love doing it. My kids esp when younger will decorate the page. Sometimes with stickers, other times just geometrical shapes. (Throwing in some math there too lol ;)) we hang them on the wall with tape on display 🙂 they can go back and look at it (review and setting thst mind map of literary analysis), we show it to dad and everyone who walks through the door. He he

This jumpstart to early wonder and exploration of the imagination, which really whst writing, analyzing literature is, has served all my kids well.

Two of my kids are currently in college, the oldest has he bachelor’s and working on moving forward . She wants her phd. And reading, understanding and writing with ease and skill has never been a problem and their professors will often compliment them on their writing . but, they were Charlotte Mason and classically trained 😉

AND?….best if all?…they enjoy it.

Score!!! Ha-ha 😉

That’s what and how we do. And we are happy campers over here. Happily exploring the wonders of good books /reads . 🙂

The pp about Pinterest ideas are spot on and fun too.

I have a Pinterest page with all of these and more on there.

My Pinterest page has this name on it (my real name :)) ,I believe or the full written name.

Kathy Wiley.  Lots of good stuff there I’ve spent hours compiling. weve used all of the writing pins. I did them with my big kids along Charlotte Mason with my big kids.

English for the Thoughtful Child. Awwww. Best and sweetest book ever! Imho 😉 I used that cm English book with all 5 of my kids. Sweet sweet. Wed cuddle up on the couch with fuzzy blankets and pillows and squishy things the have in their hands to ensure no wiggles 😉 and go through this azing book together all of us.

Such fond memories . 🙂

The “span height” and other gibberish looking stuff is computer coding for how the text will look. Sometimes the code slips in where it shouldn’t show. I’ve removed the computer coding for you.