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Recommendations, please! Favorite lit course for high school?


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I enjoyed using Windows to the World with Jill Pike's lesson plans that are posted in the files section of IEWfamilies on yahoogroups.

 

I just got Oak Meadow English 10 for next year and I think it looks great. It doesn't have as much reading as I'd like, but I was already going to set up a short story discussion group for next year, so that's pretty much taken care of.

Edited by AngieW in Texas
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Our top 3, in order of most enjoyed and most "meaty":

 

1. Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings (best for gr. 7-10)

1 year course. Great, gentle intro into literary analysis on a trilogy of best-beloved books. Also encourages you to "springboard" into several other works, such as The Iliad or The Odyssey; Beowulf; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Wonderful, in-depth chapter notes and discussion questions. Twelve very enjoyable additional units (includes things like The 11 Conventions of an Epic; Analysis of Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and various Poetry selections; The Literary Genre of Fantasy; etc.). If you have done a fair amount of literary analysis you will likely find this program "lite". We did it with 8th and 9th graders as the intro into literary analysis and it was perfect.

 

 

2. Worldviews in Sci-Fi and Gothic Literature (best for gr. 10-12)

1 year course. We made our own literature, selecting a terrific list of books, using various study guides, and had fantastic discussions. DS had just gotten very interested in worldview, and we just couldn't stomach doing a lot of depressing 20th century lit. to go with our 20th century history, so we focused on some very well-written and thought-provoking sci-fi, which is often an overlooked literary genre. We had great flexibility in picking works of interest to us, and looking for works to cover as wide a variety of worldviews as possible. DS still tells me how much he loved doing that! Due to the mature themes in some of the works, I would suggest doing this kind of study in 11th or 12th grade. Here is what we used to create this course:

 

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

 

 

3. Windows to the World (best for gr. 8-11)

1 semester course. Teaches annotation while reading, which you then use to help you "see" what's going on in literature in order to analyze it. Also the best, most specific and clear explanation of how to write a literary analysis essay I've ever seen. Easy to use while also covering other literature. Only downside: only covers 6 short stories. Can be done with an 8th grader who is a strong writer and who done a bit of literary analysis previously; otherwise, a good prep for literary analysis essay writing for high school students.

 

 

While I like the variety of literature types (poetry, short stories, novellas) and the specific literature selections in Learning Language Arts Thru Literature: Gold: American Literature, the 1-semester program ended up being too "lite" for us -- mostly comprehension questions rather than discussion or analysis questions, and most of the writing assignment ideas were more about creative writing rather than literary analysis essays. The most helpful part of the program were the prompt questions in the poetry section, but even though that was the most in depth portion of the guide, it was still too superficial to guide you into deep analysis.

 

 

BEST of luck finding the literature program that works well for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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2. Worldviews in Sci-Fi and Gothic Literature (best for gr. 10-12)

1 year course. We made our own literature, selecting a terrific list of books, using various study guides, and had fantastic discussions. DS had just gotten very interested in worldview, and we just couldn't stomach doing a lot of depressing 20th century lit. to go with our 20th century history, so we focused on some very well-written and thought-provoking sci-fi, which is often an overlooked literary genre. We had great flexibility in picking works of interest to us, and looking for works to cover as wide a variety of worldviews as possible. DS still tells me how much he loved doing that! Due to the mature themes in some of the works, I would suggest doing this kind of study in 11th or 12th grade. Here is what we used to create this course:

 

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

 

 

Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Lori, this is a great idea. Which book would give you the most concern for a 15 yo moving into 10th grade? I am familiar with all of the works except Canticle for Leibowitz.

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Was up late, and I'm sooo glad I visited here again before bed. Hadn't checked this thread in a couple days, and was pleasantly surprised to see the replies. :-)

 

Lori D, your recommends for the sci-fi studies are so interesting. Thank you so much, and thanks to EVERYONE for all the helpful info!

 

I haven't settled on any particular program yet, so I'm open to more suggestions and critiques. :-)

 

TIA!

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Lori, this is a great idea. Which book would give you the most concern for a 15 yo moving into 10th grade? I am familiar with all of the works except Canticle for Leibowitz.

 

 

Frankenstein

The Victorian language and the page-after-page of scenic description was a bit thick and off-putting for DS to wade through (although the length description of the landscape mirrors the emotions of the characters, which is what the romanticism in the novel is all about -- though, that doesn't make it any less tedious to read.) Also, Victor Frankenstein whines and snivels in a most irritatingly irresponsible way through the entire book -- DS said later that he needed a "dope slap of reality." LOL!

 

 

The Giver

Some people are very upset with the theme of euthanasia in this book, and the calm acceptance that concept -- and others -- have in this utopian society. But I think that is the point of the book -- utopia is really dystopia, because it comes at a cost and a loss. A fast read; not at all a difficult book. We got a lot of good discussion out of this one, and it was an excellent book to do before moving on to the harder, more mature dystopian world of Brave New World.

 

 

Brave New World

Some people believe this book is about nothing but sex and drug use, and that it promotes and glorifies a culture of casual hooking up and staying in an altered state of mind. I think the author was actually trying to say just the opposite. Either way, this is a book to read/discuss together -- I would NOT let a high school student attempt this one on their own. Check out this past thread (Brave New World by Huxley) for some great discussion on this novel.

 

 

Farenheit 451

Some students find Bradbury's writing style to be dull and too "talky". Our DSs really enjoyed it, and older DS says Bradbury is one of his favorite authors from all the classic literature we've done over the past 3 years -- because of his creative writing style! Nothing I can think of that's objectionable in this one... Check out this past thread (Farenheit 451 -- thoughts?) for more input.

 

 

Cosmicomics

Throughout Calvino's body of work is the theme of male sexual yearning for unobtainable women in his works. The little bit of that in Cosmicomics is tame (compared to other books by Calvino). We read 3 or 4 of these that I selected in advance to illustrate specific worldviews. Perhaps pre-read if you have concerns.

 

 

Canticle for Leibowitz

DS really enjoyed this, but it was good we read it together, as there are a ton of references that need to be explained (Latin Catholic church phrases; historical references; allusions to specific people; etc.). This is a good free online guide to explain all of those things. There are a few very slightly physical crudities, but they are not gratuitous, but rather are humorous and are meant to show the frailties and failings of human beings. I really love the writing style of this book, but, like Bradbury, it may not be a student's style.

 

 

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

A few unnecessary crude sexual references/allusions. Otherwise, it is a fast read; funny; irreverent; extremely creative and clever.

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If you are looking to incorporate a poetry study, I really recommend Progeny Press' Poetry. You use 3 very cheap little paperbacks (I think they are around $1.50 each at RR) and read some great stuff, learning to analyse it in a very straightforward and clear way. There's only a little of the "Your assignment is to write your own in this style!" which I really can't stand, except as a brief exercise to show how darn hard it can be to write a sonnet (for example).

 

You might also consider doing a semester of short stories (we combined those with the poetry above). We used Fifty Great Short Stories along with a study guide of roughly the same name (but I can't find it at RR, so you might try amazon or something like that).

 

ETA: Ah, found the guide we used--Teaching With 50 Great Short Stories.

Edited by Chris in VA
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Lori - I'm trying to put together a literature study list for my up comming 10th grader and love your list and the idea of doing a world view theme with sci-fi!

 

If I didn't do Farenheit 451, Brave New World, or Cosmiccomics - any idea for replacements? (

 

I have a fairly decent home library to choose from.

Which is my problem - it's hard to narrow it down!

I have Orwells 1984, which we will certainly be doing.

And I might replace 451 with Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I'm currently reading to decide if he's ready for or not. He hated 451. Said it was boring as could be.

 

I would like your opinion on using Wizard of Earthsea and Lord of the Flies?

 

Oh and thanks again for the LL from LOTR recommendation! My just starting 9th grader is chomping at the bit to get starting on it in about a month.:D

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How about C. S. Lewis' Space trilogy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lori - I'm trying to put together a literature study list for my up comming 10th grader and love your list and the idea of doing a world view theme with sci-fi!

 

If I didn't do Farenheit 451, Brave New World, or Cosmiccomics - any idea for replacements? (

 

I have a fairly decent home library to choose from.

Which is my problem - it's hard to narrow it down!

I have Orwells 1984, which we will certainly be doing.

And I might replace 451 with Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I'm currently reading to decide if he's ready for or not. He hated 451. Said it was boring as could be.

 

I would like your opinion on using Wizard of Earthsea and Lord of the Flies?

 

Oh and thanks again for the LL from LOTR recommendation! My just starting 9th grader is chomping at the bit to get starting on it in about a month.:D

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