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Fun units with teens?


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Please don't worry about a lack of responses being related a disinterest in Gothic novels. I think your study sounds fabulous! I loved Wuthering Heights and Fankenstein. I think it also helps our teens to see the difference between the true origins of gothic culture and how gith is interpreted today.

 

I know many others here have done wonderful, creative projects with their teens: Nan's Natural Science study, Lori's sci fi class etc. Maybe everyone's just tooo busy to post.

 

My favorite study I've done with my kids was a yr of C.S. Lewis for a literature class. This yr I'm doing a literature study on lit of the middle ages focusing on what is a true hero and what is the best model for society.

 

That's about the end to my creativity. Maybe some others will post if we bump this thread up!

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Oh no. It's just as I feared. The love of the Gothic novel is too painful a notion for many. Our pedantic undies are showing. :D lol

 

Not at all! It sounds brilliant! When I worked in the Lit department at UC San Diego, way back before children, one of the most popular courses was gothic lit. I think the professor, Bram Djikstra, even published a book on the genre.

 

This isn't an organized study, but more like a thread over the last few years. My younger ds and I love to analyze literature in relation to the tv show LOST. Nothing formal, it is all just for fun. But we noticed for instance in one of the early seasons that Sawyer was reading Watership Down, so we talked about how the book related to the show. We just read Shakespeare's Tempest last month and had a field day with LOST tie ins. My ds has to read about Enlightenment thinkers next month, and I'm sure we'll get into similarities between the characters on the island and their namesakes from the Enlightenment.

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I love many of the books you mentioned with the exception of Anne Rice - too explicit for my family. Two current ones you might consider are The Thirteenth Tale and The Forgotten Garden. My dd is reading Jane Eyre; you've given me some good ideas.

 

 

We didn't include Anne Rice ( I read only one book of her books many years ago, although dd hasn't). Rice is enticing to many. Including Rice might offer an interesting comparisson to 18th century Gothic lit, if one was so inclined to explore that. I am not a Rice fan (eek!)

 

That's for the titles!

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I love that! Bill Moyers did an older series on Myth and Heroes. I don't know if you've seen it. I enjoyed it.

 

Please don't worry about a lack of responses being related a disinterest in Gothic novels. I think your study sounds fabulous! I loved Wuthering Heights and Fankenstein. I think it also helps our teens to see the difference between the true origins of gothic culture and how gith is interpreted today.

 

I know many others here have done wonderful, creative projects with their teens: Nan's Natural Science study, Lori's sci fi class etc. Maybe everyone's just tooo busy to post.

 

My favorite study I've done with my kids was a yr of C.S. Lewis for a literature class. This yr I'm doing a literature study on lit of the middle ages focusing on what is a true hero and what is the best model for society.

 

That's about the end to my creativity. Maybe some others will post if we bump this thread up!

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Two courses we've made ourselves were VERY successful and greatly enjoyed:

 

A full-credit filmmaking class as an elective for DS:

- Read "Attack of the Killer Video" by Shulman

- Read "I-Movie HD" by Pogue

- Made 6 short films (4 animated, 2 live action), using video camera, free downloadable I-Movie software, Legos, friends, etc. -- one film he even made the music soundtrack, too, using free downloadable Garage Band software!

- Write 3 short (2-page) reports, one on pre-production, one on production, and one on post-production, using info from the books and his own filmmaking experiences

 

 

"Worldviews in Sci-Fi Literature", a full-credit class, in which we read aloud/discussed together:

1. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Progeny Press; Sparknotes) = Christian theme of inborn sin nature

2. Frankenstein (Progeny Press; Sparknotes) = romanticism; gothic elements

3. Time Machine (online guide) = evolution; socialism

4. Animal Farm (Sparknotes) = communism/capitalism

5. The Giver (Discovering Literature Garlic Press pub.; Glencoe) = utopia/dystopia

6. Brave New World (Sparknotes) = utopia/dystopia

7. Farenheit 451 (Progeny Press; Sparknotes) = loss of literacy; cultural ascendency of the image

8. Canticle for Leibowitz (Wikipedia article; online guide) = post-apocalyptic world; rise to power/self destructive cycle of the state vs. church preserving culture/literacy/knowledge

9. short stories from Cosmicomics (Wikipedia article on author Calvino) = existentialism

10. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy = absurdism

 

We also enjoyed watching the movie versions of some of the books, too. :)

Edited by Lori D.
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Not at all! It sounds brilliant! When I worked in the Lit department at UC San Diego, way back before children, one of the most popular courses was gothic lit. I think the professor, Bram Djikstra, even published a book on the genre.

 

This isn't an organized study, but more like a thread over the last few years. My younger ds and I love to analyze literature in relation to the tv show LOST. Nothing formal, it is all just for fun. But we noticed for instance in one of the early seasons that Sawyer was reading Watership Down, so we talked about how the book related to the show. We just read Shakespeare's Tempest last month and had a field day with LOST tie ins. My ds has to read about Enlightenment thinkers next month, and I'm sure we'll get into similarities between the characters on the island and their namesakes from the Enlightenment.

 

We are huge LOST fans and this sounds so interesting!!! Thanks for the idea!

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I am so inspired by this thread! The Gothic study is perfect for my DS as is the film study.

 

This is a little less academic, but "Sushi" has asked that I develop a Fundamentals of Cooking class for him. We will do a combination of lessons from http://www.freeculinaryschool.com and cooking for the family at least once per week. If all goes well, he will document his progress in a blog. Actually, even if it doesn't go well, he will blog. :lol:

 

We also did some brainstorming on a special topic he can research this spring. Through a strange series of ideas we have come up with a tentative idea of having him consider the history of swearing. :blushing: The funny thing is, no one in our family is big on swearing. It won't be a topic for everyone, but I'm curious to see where he can go with it.

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