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Windows to the World-- a complete Lit course?


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I don't think so. The selections are few - and all of them short stories or poems. I would recommend completing the course first semester then doing some full length selections (at least 4 -with essays) for second semester.

 

(If you are planning to send your child to university, I would research what THEY are looking for in an English course. Our state university focuses on the list of the full length novels completed.)

 

BTW:

 

The above WAS my plan for my then 10th grade dd last year. However, due to her heavy course load at coop, we stretched the course out to cover the whole year along with selections from our study of the Ancients: Genesis, Daniel, Epic of Gilgamesh. the Odyssey, The Death of Socrates, Oedipus Rex, Antigone (along a modern rendition of the play), and Julius Caesar. She felt a little pressured and she is STILL plugging through Julius Caesar right now. This was perhaps a little ambitious :)

 

Her sister will work through the course this coming year. She only has one class at coop so we will follow the original plan but I plan to cut back on the full length novels for her anyway.

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The review I got on Windows to the World from a lady who used it with her daughter (I believe in 10th grade) was that it is a heavy duty course. So it surprises me to hear the postings that it shouldn't count as a lit credit. Did you mean no lit credit at all or just a partial credit? It is designed as a semester course.

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But it would be ok to count it as the "lit" part of an English credit?

 

 

No; Windows to the World (WW) would really only be enough lit. for 1 semester of a high school English credit, as it only covers 6 short stories. So, you could count WW as PART of your lit -- BUT, because of the in-depth instruction and the number of assignments, you could also count WW as part of the composition (writing) portion of an English credit.

 

Here are 2 past threads that may be of help:

 

IEW's Windows to the World questions

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92946&highlight=windows+world

 

What is considered an English credit?

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64928&highlight=windows+world

 

 

To fill out the rest of the lit. portion of an English credit, you would typically need to add enough *other* types of literature, and in the amount, that a typical high school English class would cover:

- 4-6 novels (2-3 per semester, depending on length), each with a lit. guide and a writing assignment

- 2 poetry units (1 per semester)

- 1-2 plays (*only* if you do 4 novels), each with a lit. guide and a writing assignment

 

 

Below is a list I've compiled from my own research on the 30 literary works most often covered in high school classes to give you some ideas about what else to add to make a full literature portion to your English credit. In addition, to help guide you through whatever literature you add, we really like the lit. guides from:

 

- Sparknotes (free online lit. guides; secular)

- Garlic Press Publishers (secular)

- Progeny Press (Christian) -- they have 1 guide all on poetry, divided into 3 units

- The Great Books (Christian worldview)

 

These resources are also very helpful:

- Wikipedia (free online articles/analysis of specific authors and works)

- Cliffs Notes (free online summaries and analysis)

- Portals to Literature (secular lit. guide)

- Parallel Text Shakespeare (secular lit. guide and text translation set)

- Brightest Heaven of Invention (Christian guide to some of Shakespeare's plays)

 

 

BEST of luck as you create your own English credit! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

 

TRADITIONAL, CLASSIC HIGH SCHOOL LITERATURE

This is a list of books that most high school students read in most high schools, listed chronologically as to when the work was written:

 

- The Iliad (Homer) -- OR -- The Odyssey (Homer) -- c.800BC -- Ancient Greek -- epic

- a play by Shakespeare -- 1585-1610 -- British -- drama

- Pride and Prejudice (Austen) -- 1813 -- British -- romance

- Frankenstein (Shelley) -- 1820 -- British -- gothic/horror

- Jane Eyre -- OR -- Wuthering Heights (Bronte sisters) --

- The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne) -- 1850 -- American -- gothic

- a short story by Edgar Allen Poe -- 1840s -- American -- gothic/horror

- Moby Dick (Melville) -- 1851 -- American -- adventure/realistic/naturalism

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland -- British -- fantastical

- Great Expectations (Dickens) -- 1861 (set in 1810s-20s) -- British

- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain) -- 1870s (set in 1830s) -- American -- adventure/realistic

- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain) -- 1870s (set in 1830s) -- American -- adventure/realistic

- Treasure Island (Stevenson) -- 1883 (set in 1700s) -- British -- adventure

- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- 1880s -- British -- gothic/horror

- The Red Badge of Courage (Crane) 1895 (set in Civil War) -- American -- coming of age

- Call of the Wild (London) -- 1903 -- American -- adventure/naturalism

- All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) -- 1920s (set in WW1) -- German -- war/existential

- The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) -- 1925 -- American -- lost generation

- Brave New World (Huxley) -- 1930s -- British -- utopia/dystopia

- Animal Farm (Orwell) -- British -- parody/moral tale

- 1984 (Orwell) -- British -- sci-fi

- Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) -- British -- fantasy trilogy

- Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) -- 1951-- American

- The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) 1951-- American -- existentialism

- To Kill A Mockingbird (Lee) -- American -- coming of age

- The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) -- (set in 1930s) American -- tragedy

- The Diary of Anne Frank (Frank) -- (set in WW2) Dutch-Jewish -- journal autobiography/coming of age

- Lord of the Flies (Goldman) -- (set in 1940s) -- British -- Christian themes

- Death of a Salesman (Miller) -- American -- drama/tragedy

- Things Fall Apart (Achebe) -- Nigerian

- Farenheit 451 (Bradbury) -- American -- sci-fi

Edited by Lori D.
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