high school english?

[HollyDay]

what does english look like in high school? We are required by our state to have 4 credits of english for high school. It is not specified what content is taught, just that 4 credits worth are taught. Other than doing a "boxed" curriculum, what can I do to get 4 years of english?

[TravelingChris]

High School English for us is something like Intro to lit, American Lit, British Lit and finally world lit. That is how I am doing it with child 2. Child one did WTM reading list plus writing. Child two has writing also. Child 3 I am not decided yet. SHe is my non liberal arts kid.

[Michelle in AL]

I emphasize literary analysis and writing.

My favorite thing to start with in 9th grade is Window to the World (on IEW's website). Then I apply the concepts learned to things we're reading.

 

This is what we've done so far:

9th grade: Ancient Lit and C.S. Lewis course (this was 2 credits of English)

10th grade: Great books of the Middle Ages

 

I plan to do:

11th grade: AP Lang and Comp with an emphasis on rhetoric

12th grade: AP Lit

 

For writing I used Write with the Best and used models taken from their reading as a resource.

 

There are soooo many good books to read, that once you learn the principles of literary elements, you can apply them to anything.

 

Are you by any chance on the Gulf Coast (I thought I remembered you being from lower AL for some reason. You can pm me if you are, I teach English here).

[Julie in MN]

what does english look like in high school? We are required by our state to have 4 credits of english for high school. It is not specified what content is taught, just that 4 credits worth are taught. Other than doing a "boxed" curriculum, what can I do to get 4 years of english?

 

In our local public schools, where I had a couple of kids, English is cementing of all the previous skills in grammar and such (more about the correct use of words, punctuation, etc., than formal parts of speech), and moving towards literature analysis. Honors kids typically start using lit analysis more heavily at an earlier age.

 

During literature analysis, the same types of things are done (writing properly, reading comprehension, learning different types of writing, vocabulary, etc), but are done in the context of literature rather than just straight units on, say, vocabulary roots or common word errors.

 

A regular track kid in our high schools will usually read 2-3 easy books (Tuesdays with Morrie is popular), and an honors track will start out just doing more busy work about those same books, but later take courses like World Literature which do more books at a higher level. Some exposure to different genres is included, such as the popular Romeo and Juliet for Shakespeare/drama.

 

Speaking is usually included somewhere in regular English, and sometimes a separate Speech class is also required.

 

Some non-literature "elective" English courses are offered in the higher grades, such as creative writing or journalism, but students must do decently well in the first 2 basic years first.

 

Homeschoolers typically focus on "real" literature right away in high school and I think get a broader education IMHO :)

 

Julie

[Tullia]

My son ended up with quite a few language arts credits and 27.5 credits total. I grouped his transcript in columns by subject and the rows reflected the order in which he completed different subjects.

 

I called one column "Language Arts" but it could just as easily been called "English". I named those courses "English Grammar and Composition I-IV. We used a combination of Classical Writing, Write Shop II, IEW, and Lost Tools of Writing

 

I included literature under the column called "History, Literature, and Aesthetics". The course titles were Western Civilization II-IV and U.S. Studies. (Most of our literature was done under this heading, but CW includes literature as well.) For HL&A courses we used Teaching Company, Spielvogel, History of Art for Young People, various books, and the occasional literature textbook. Many of his writing assignments for these courses were applications of things he either had already completed or was doing in composition.

 

He also had language arts credits in Civics (one half of a two credit course in Classical Rhetoric) and Electives (Logic)

[newbie]

High School English for us is something like Intro to lit, American Lit, British Lit and finally world lit. That is how I am doing it with child 2. Child one did WTM reading list plus writing. Child two has writing also. Child 3 I am not decided yet. SHe is my non liberal arts kid.

 

This is same for mine. W/younger she is throwing in a couple of Comp courses too.

[Ellie]

If you look at major publishers like ABeka and BJUP, you'll see that English includes, each year, grammar/composition and literature. (BJUP also has vocabulary, but it's really optional.) The same was true for me all through high school--3 states, 4 different schools.