Do you do formal Lit study in K-8?

[Quiver0f10]

I was considering doing just read alouds of good quality lit and discussing the books, verses doing a formal lit study suich as using lit guides from Veritas or MP. We would do formal lit in high school. yay or nay?

[Hunter]

For K-8 I no longer cover anything more than what is in the What Your Grader Needs to Know books for lit analysis. I just let the book be the book.

 

I've done more lit analysis and I've done less lit analysis in the past. I just don't think it matters for MY students. My students are not planning for AP English in 10th grade and direct entry into an Ivy, though.

[Hunter]

I consider literature to be an art and NOT one of the 3Rs. I teach it as an art, not a skill.

[Another Lynn]

No, I do not do formal lit study. I think it's fine to go without, k-8.

[redsquirrel]

I start in 5th grade and I align it to our history study. In 5th and much of 6th I keep it more to historical fiction or shortened versions of the longer works, but not only. In 7th grade he read much less historical fiction and more actual literature, poetry and short stories.

 

I am a big believer in starting as you mean to finish, and by incorporating lit studies in the middle grades I am creating the expectation of it being a part of studies in high school.

[3andme]

I don't think you absolutely need a formal lit course but I use CLE's Reading program because I like the structure it provides. It's a very solid and comprehensive program that comes with its own readers and workbooks. In the early years, it includes some phonics reinforcement and comprehension exercises. In the later years (3+), they begin to introduce literary vocabulary and analysis. A full scope and sequence can be found here.

 

CLE is a Christian curriculum but we are secular and have adapted it to our situation. My 3 ds are not big readers so at least I know they are reading something each day and the program is very open and go for me. I have tried a number of other lit guides along the way but always return to CLE. I do diversify a bit by including a few outside whole books each year. In years 4 and above, the reading program is only scheduled for half a year so there is plenty of time for additional readings. 

[WahM]

I do. I like the Memoria press lit guides, progeny, and blackbird.

[My3girls]

I don't plan to use formal lit studies until 8th grade. I think k-7 is the time to build language arts and reading skills and to instill a love of literature. In 8th, I plan to introduce formal literature studies then hit it hard in high school.

[Quiver0f10]

Thank you all!

[Chelli]

Yes, starting in third grade using K12 Literature bought used with no online component.

[mom31257]

I lead a book club for elementary and middle school. I've taught them literary analysis as well as literary devices/figurative language. Most have really seemed to enjoy discussing the characters, their importance, themes in the books, the author's purpose in writing the book, how the setting determines the outcome, etc.  

 

We're working on a reading journal that includes mini-books, graphic organizers, etc. I had the kids make a Figurative Language Cafe menu. They were to create a restaurant menu with everything described and named using figurative language. They really had fun with that assignment.

 

Here is a literary analysis graphic organizer I made. Here is a figurative language exercise, too. 

 

I think you should begin to discuss books in a manner that leads them toward literary analysis, and if you find they are grasping it, then why not? 

 

 

[Tardis Girl]

I really like Teaching the Classics material for this, rather than book-specific guides. The literary graphic organizer that Mom31257 posted is very much used with TTC, as well as the numerous discussion questions in the the back of the TTC guide for those of us who need a little help getting rolling with it. ;)  We don't do this for all the books we read, but we've had some better conversations that I expected when we do use those resources. 

[Tardis Girl]

 

We're working on a reading journal that includes mini-books, graphic organizers, etc. I had the kids make a Figurative Language Cafe menu. They were to create a restaurant menu with everything described and named using figurative language. They really had fun with that assignment.

 

Here is a literary analysis graphic organizer I made. Here is a figurative language exercise, too. 

 

 

Would you give some examples of the menu/descriptions? This sounds fun! I'd also like to hear more about your reading journal, what those included things look like, etc. And how do you use that figurative language chart you shared? 

 

And finally, do you have a resource for these ideas, or are you just coming up with these on your own? Thanks! :)

[boscopup]

I'm waiting until 5th to really start doing much lit analysis, and even then, I don't plan to use lit guides yet. Our history curriculum includes some basic lit analysis, so we can do that. I also have Teaching the Classics. I did analyze the Pokey Little Puppy with my kids earlier this year. My 4 year old correctly picked out the climax (much to my surprise). :lol: In fact, I think my 4 and 6 year olds discussed it better than my 9 year old did. Oh well. We mainly were just figuring out who the main characters were, looking at the plot, what was the conflict, etc. We made that triangle chart thingy in TTC. I didn't get into any specific literary devices, though my kids know about alliteration, personification, and onomatopoeia (because that one is just fun to say!). I taught personification during a reading of Proverbs - tons of personification in there! My 9 year old likes to pick that out.

 

So I guess I've taught a little bit in the early elementary years, but it's not something we focus on each week or anything. :)

[8filltheheart]

Definitely don't for elementary school. For middle school it depends on the student. My 6th grader is not bc she has other skill needs that are more important for us to spend our time on, specifically writing and fractions. I do not see lit ana as a necessary skill for kids under 8th grade. However, when my 9th grader was in 6th grade she was advanced and more than ready for deep lit ana and would have been bored w/o it. I have a hard time keeping up with her. Last yr as an 8th grader we spent several weeks on Paradise Lost and Inferno bc that is simply the level she was functioning on.

 

So....no harm done if you wait until high school, but for some kids, before then is something they might really enjoy and inspire them.

[mom31257]

Would you give some examples of the menu/descriptions? This sounds fun! I'd also like to hear more about your reading journal, what those included things look like, etc. And how do you use that figurative language chart you shared? 

 

And finally, do you have a resource for these ideas, or are you just coming up with these on your own? Thanks! :)

 

I went through Teaching the Classics before I ever started leading the book club, and it helped me a lot. As far as ideas, I usually spend some time researching online, and then tweak ideas, create my own handouts, etc.

 

For the menu, I passed out this example sheet to the kids. It's only title examples, but I discussed descriptions with them. Some really took off with it and created a very visually appealing menu. The kids also brought a dish from their menu for our meal. It was the last book club meeting of the year, so we were having a party. 

 

For the figurative language chart, I had the kids choose one topic or object and write it in the middle. They had to write figurative language about that one topic/object. For example, the topic could be trees. Simile: The tall, thin trees were like sharply pointed pencils.  Hyperbole: The trees were so tall they could reach outer space.

 

The reading journal is an interactive notebook. It's like a combination of notebooking and lapbooks and uses a bound composition book. You can look on pinterest for ideas. I got a lot of the graphic organizer ideas on it. Homeschool Share blog has a link to editable mini-books if you subscribe to their emails. 

 

I had the kids make their own title page and put the following in the notebook.

 

2 page spread of books read (Title and author on one page, date and favorite thing about book on right)

1 page list of books they want to read

Title page for Literary Elements 

Pages for: Setting graphic organizer, Point of View mini-book, Plot mini-book, Conflict graphic organizer, Characters(cut out to glue in) Protagonist, Antagonist, Foil, Character Traits (make a list of traits they find in characters); More character cut outs (dynamic, static, flat, round), Author's Purpose graphic organizer, Theme graphic organizer. and some blank pages for me to add in things.

 

Title page for Literary Devices;

Definitions and examples of 15-16 devices such as imagery, simile; 2 per page so there's room to put more examples from books they read

 

Reading Response Journal Title page (This is the part for the books they read, but each parent was free to use this however they wished.)

Each book has a title page with information about the author and thoughts before reading the book.

I printed a page they could recreate with response during the reading.

Chapter(s)

What Happened:

Places I Went:

People I Met:

Words I Learned:

Box to draw favorite scene

At the end there is a list of things to think or write about after reading the book.

 

 

I hope this helps! 

[Quiver0f10]

Thank you all again!  Mom123, thank you for sharing how you do lit and the pages. I appreciate the help!

[mom31257]

I should add that one reason I lead the book club is that as much as I hate to say it I work harder to make things interesting and fun for a group than I do just one child at home. My kids are 6 years apart, so doing things together is very limited. Ds wasn't loving reading fiction, so I started the book club to keep myself accountable for having him read whole books. We meet 6 times each school year. This year we're also doing a unit study with it so it counts as a whole school day (science, art, history, geography, etc., projects that go with themes or ideas in the book).

 

 

 

 

[redsquirrel]

WWS does have some literary analysis instruction as well. The student is given short stories and poems and instructed how to write about them. My son discovered a love for poetry when we did WWS1.

[MrsH]

We don't do much but I try to fit in some, at least informally.  I like to discuss books using some of the questions from the WTM.  We read most of the CHOL books and each year there are a few short stories for which she's asked to fill out a chart similar to the one listed above.  I like that that's w/ short stories b/c it's a little easier to grasp, but then it's introduced the concept and vocabulary, which we can then use as we discuss longer readings. 

 

WWS is teaching dd about uses of figurative language, and once it was introduced there, I started spotting it w/ dd in our shared reading times.  Now she notes it herself.  I don't make it another "thing" though, just part of reading.