texasmama Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I've been asked to teach my literature analysis class again next year. The grade range will be 6th-8th. I am basing it on a Deconstructing Penguins type analysis. On my list of probabilities are: The Phantom Tollbooth The View from Saturday Frindle (yes, I know it is simple, but the kids enjoy the simple ones mixed in with the more complex) Possibilities: Animal Farm Five Children and It Gathering Blue The Fledgling My Side of the Mountain I need six books for the year. This year we read: From the Mixed up Files... The Whipping Boy A Christmas Carol A Cricket in Times Square The Bridge to Terabithia The Giver I will have many of the same kids in my class and will need to choose all different books. All feedback on my selections and on other possibilities are appreciated. I need to get a book list to the co op director pronto and am working on it now. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 All your titles look like good ideas, with a good variety of harder/easier, and different genres :) … A few more ideas for you: Fantasty/Sci-Fi - Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt) - The Hobbit (Tolkien) - A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle) - Enchantress from the Stars (Engdahl) - Below the Root (Snyder) Historical Fiction - Across Five Aprils (Hunt) - Rifles for Watie (Keith) - Amos Fortune, Free Man (Yates) - Hittite Warrior (Williamson) - The Bronze Bow (Speare) - The Master Puppeteer (Paterson) Realistic - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor) - Sounder (Armstrong) - Summer of the Monkeys (Rawls) - The Pushcart War (Merrill) - Dear Mr. Henshaw (Cleary) - The Wednesday Wars (Schmidt) - The Cay (Taylor) Classics - The Big Wave (Buck) - The Westing Game (Raskin) - Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Kipling) - Call of the Wild -- OR -- White Fang (London) - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) - a few Sherlock Holmes short story (Doyle) - Ivanhoe (Scott) - Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 Thanks, Lori! I actually have quite a few of these on my shelf. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 I'm doing a similar thing, with kids aged 12-14. Their skill levels are pretty varied. So far we have covered: War Horse (Morpurgo) Huckleberry Finn - not a big hit! Animal Farm - went down fairly well, big objections to the ending Playing Beatie Bow (Ruth Park, Australian) On the list for later this year Wind in the Willows (glorious language) Let the Balloon Go, and Hill End (Ivan Southall, Australian) - chance to compare the works of one author Macbeth And then something like Lord of the Flies if they are all up for it. Some are already, others no way. Watching this thread with interest! D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Forgot: Alice in Wonderland. I'd love to do Anne of Green Gable but the boys would be wretched D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 I looked at Wind in the Willows, and I would love to do Anne of Green Gables, but I think the boys might object. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 Wind in the Willows has similar descriptive language to Anne. I don't find the story as rich in character development, but the clincher is that the favourite girl has chosen it, and therefore the boys will read it and behave well because they love her. I'm feeling a little cheap but needs must! D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I am doing this exact thing with my son next year. We are covering about forty classical short stories along with an independent reading book list. Here is our book list - with duplicates already mentioned removed: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'engle Fahrenheit 451(so good and so much in this text) by Ray Bradbury Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway Anthem by Ayn Rand Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (a compromise for the boys) Ender's Game (another boy compromise book) Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 15, 2014 Author Share Posted March 15, 2014 Thank you all for the suggestions. I hope others are benefitting from this fairly comprehensive list of great books for lit analysis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 This was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks Texasmama (and responders). Actually, I REALLY wish we lived in the same part of Texas. We'd be attending your class in a heart beat! Our co-op does nothing like this.... So if we suddenly and unexpectedly moved to your area over the summer, can adults sit in if I promise to be really quiet? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 15, 2014 Author Share Posted March 15, 2014 This was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks Texasmama (and responders). Actually, I REALLY wish we lived in the same part of Texas. We'd be attending your class in a heart beat! Our co-op does nothing like this.... So if we suddenly and unexpectedly moved to your area over the summer, can adults sit in if I promise to be really quiet? :) Sure! I have invited the parents of my students to attend because some of our discussions are really "life" discussions, and they are deep and thoughtful and fascinating. No one has taken me up on that so far, though, but you would be welcome. :) ETA: Our co op had nothing like this, either, until I said, "Hey, I want to do this class based on Deconstructing Penguins!" lol They have a book club for younger kids, but it is a lot of comprehension questions and crafts. My littlest dd loves it, but I wanted something more meaty and thought-provoking for my boys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I thought I'd bring these books to your attention as possible resources: How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster The author also has a version for children -- How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 15, 2014 Author Share Posted March 15, 2014 I thought I'd bring these books to your attention as possible resources: How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster The author also has a version for children -- How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids. Regards, Kareni Thanks! I have seen this one mentioned but do not own it. Will check it out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 15, 2014 Author Share Posted March 15, 2014 Ordered it from Amazon just now. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I am doing this exact thing with my son next year. We are covering about forty classical short stories along with an independent reading book list. Here is our book list - with duplicates already mentioned removed: I was going to suggest some short stories. I have found it easiest to introduce literary analysis concepts with short fiction rather than novels. Would you be willing to share your list of stories? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I am on my iPad right now, and the list is on the desktop my husband is using. I can post them up tomorrow. Each short story is aligned to a literary or figurative language term which it really exemplifies. I have found it works well and helps knock my son over the head with great writers who have mastered on faction of their craft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 I am on my iPad right now, and the list is on the desktop my husband is using. I can post them up tomorrow. Each short story is aligned to a literary or figurative language term which it really exemplifies. I have found it works well and helps knock my son over the head with great writers who have mastered on faction of their craft. I really fuzzy heart love this idea and look forward to seeing your list. :) If we have time during my class, I would like to incorporate some of the short stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I want to make a middle school reading list for my son, so this is going to be very helpful. I've lead a book club for 3 years, but I'm taking next year off because it's dd's last year of high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Here are the first 25 weeks. We cover a literary device (or sometimes two if they lend themselves together), then in a couple days read a short story where the author really uses the device well. When we cover the literary device, I have pulled in poetry or exerpts from Great Books which really show it. Moby Dick has some incredible scenes of personifying the ocean; Fahrenheit 451 uses fantastic imagery with The Hound; The Gettysburg address has some great paralellism. That sort of thing. This way DS is not so stuck on the one device that he misses the beauty of the story. You can mix these around; it doesn't matter the order really. I'm sure there are other stories, and the stories could be used for multiple devices. This is just what I have come up with. Week 1 Mood/Tone Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe Week 2 Setting/Imagery To Build a Fire by Jack London Week 3 Metaphor/Simile The Willing Muse by Willa Cather Week 4 Dialog The Jockey by Carson McCullers Week 5 Characterization Yes, Ma'am by Langston Hughes Week 6 Nemesis/Hubris Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell Week 7 Symbol The Necklace by Guy Mapassaunt Week 8 Negative Capacity/Extended Metaphor The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Week 9 Hyperbole Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Week 10 Satire A Modest Proposal by Johnathan Swift Week 11 Conflict The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty Week 12 Flashback Snows over Kilimanjaro by Earnest Hemingway (lots of sexual referencing; total bravado Hemingway) The Bet by Anton Checkov (Much cleaner) Week 13 Dialect/Narrator The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain (read aloud, but allow print for kids to see dialect) Week 14 Irony Gift of the Magi by O. Henry Week 15 Rhetorical Question/understatement The Last Night of the World by Ray Bradbury Week 16 Static Character/Dynamic Character The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin Week 17 Parallelism Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. (Not technically a story, but SO good) Week 18 Point of View How to Become a Writer by Lorrie Moore Week 19 Parable/Proverb The Ministers Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne Week 20 allusion The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain Week 21 Personification The Open Boat by Stephen Crane Week 22 Foreshadowing The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier Week 23 Comedy/Irony The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry Week 24 Paradox A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor Week 25 Anthropomorphism/Allegory Terrible Things by E Bunting (a children's book actually, but still Whoa!) Hopefully this helps. I am trying to put together 36 weeks, but as the list gets longer it is harder and harder to remember more short stories! Any ideas or others thoughts would be awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 That is an amazing list, Endofordinary. Thank you so much for sharing it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 The Cask of Amontillado is great for irony in a very different way than Ransom of Red Chief. I love Thank You, Ma'am :wub: . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 EndOfOrdinary---that list is awesome! You've saved some of us quite a bit of time. You are definitely NOT Ordinary!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I have gotten so much from these forums; I'm just glad I can give something back. All of the stories are open source on the Internet for free as well, other than Terrible Things. Most libraries have that one, and their are probably a few pirated copies floating around the webspace. I'm glad it can work for others! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Great list! :hurray: And… NOT at all trying to rain on your parade, BUT… just pointing out for others that some of these stories are complex, subtle, difficult and may be better suited for high school analysis (i.e. Chopin, Crane, O'Connor, Hemingway…). IF you have a mature middle schooler, and if you know your student would be willing to do the more subtle/difficult stories again later on in high school to get a more meaning and depth from them, then by all means, go for it. If, however, you have young middle schoolers, impatient readers, or students not ready for deeper works, then I'd suggest previewing and hold off on some of these short stories. Another GREAT way to introduce literary elements with a clear connection with good literature is to use classic picture books! Nan in Mass has posted in the past about how she did this. Also, there are some resources out there on using picture books with middle schoolers to introduce literary analysis… Also, if you are using Figuratively Speaking, the Funschooling blog of Aiming High Taking Risks Having Fun links to some great classic stories, poems, etc. as examples for each of the 40 literary devices covered by Figuratively Speaking. Just another possible option! I am trying to put together 36 weeks, but as the list gets longer it is harder and harder to remember more short stories! Any ideas or others thoughts would be awesome! Here are some ideas that are all accessible to young middle schoolers on up: - The Lady or the Tiger (Stocken) -- suspense - The Open Window (Saki) -- irony - Story Without an End (Twain) -- story within a story; humor; plot structure - Rikki Tikki Tavi (Kipling) -- conflict; plot structure - There Will Come Soft Rains (Bradbury) -- personification; imagery - The Monkey's Paw (Jacobs) -- suspense; irony - The Remarkable Rocket (Wilde) -- irony; hyperbole - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Thurber) -- point of view; hyperbole; humor - Celebrated Jumping Frog (Twain) -- idioms; humor - How Much Land Does a Man Need (Tolstoy) -- moral fable; inner dialogue - Lamb to the Slaughter (Dahl) -- paradox - The Red-Headed League (Doyle) -- characterization; story within a story/flashback; mystery story structure Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Bierce) is a possibility, having heightened sensory descriptions and the first "twist ending" story, but may be better for older middle school/high school depending on the student(s)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Great list! :hurray: And… NOT at all trying to rain on your parade, BUT… just pointing out for others that some of these stories are complex, subtle, difficult and may be better suited for high school analysis (i.e. Chopin, Crane, O'Connor, Hemingway…). IF you have a mature middle schooler, and if you know your student would be willing to do the more subtle/difficult stories again later on in high school to get a more meaning and depth from them, then by all means, go for it. If, however, you have young middle schoolers, impatient readers, or students not ready for deeper works, then I'd suggest previewing and hold off on some of these short stories. Not meaning to hijack here, but the subtle, difficult, complex content is sort of the point. That is the incredible skill and beauty of the short story. I chose them not because they were short, but because at their truest short stories are intimate. They reveal life at its raw vulnerability. That is the truly great writing I want my son to read. Will he understand how Mrs. Mallard felt stuck and both sad but joyous with relief when she thought she was free, probably not the way Kate Chopin's intended it as early American feminist literature. That doesn't mean I am going to not have him read it. It doesn't mean that he doesn't have a feeling of stuck that I do not even realize. For true literature is designed to stretch us past our normal life experiences and place us into the world of another so intimately that we hear their inner most thoughts they don't even express to the other characters. What more joy can there be than discussing life, struggle, raw emotion, the conflict of the human condition, and the want/desire/responsibility that are all tied up together? More over doing that with you child, or other kids, who are on the brink of one of the most tumultuous emotionally conflicting periods of their lives. If there is ever a time to read stories so complex it is during middle school. I am not assuming this is their only time through such authors or content. Every time I retread theses stories I get something else out of them. They are classic in their way to reflect life, regardless of where you are in the journey. It seems I would be underestimating my son if somehow I felt my view of the story was more meaningful or deeper than his because I have more years or my experiences are differently varied. If I held all the answers, or if there was only one view point, why would I ask to talk to him about it? And why would he ever openly discuss his intimate, complex, difficult situations of the middle and high school times if I was going to consider his point if view too immature? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 That doesn't mean I am going to not have him read it. My sincere apologies, EndofOrdinary. My post was poorly worded and had the very unintended effect of looking like I was dismissing and disrespecting your contribution to this thread and your successful Literature adventures in your own homeschool. :( My first intent in responding to your thread truly was to cheer for your great list, and to reply to your request for more short story ideas. :) My second intent, in the spirit of the original post and the thread as a whole, was to provide personal opinion on what works might be a fit for what age -- NOT with the idea of limiting or preventing students from reading great literature, but because there can be a number of reasons why a work that is great for one student at one age, is not so great for another student at the same age. My take on this thread was that was what the OP and others were looking for... From my own experience with both DSs who were "late-bloomers", there are works they would have completely not connected with and rejected out of hand if we had tried them in 6th grade. By the time the high school years rolled around, they had SO much more background to bring to the work/author, they had something to say, and enjoyed discussing. Also, there is SO much wonderful Literature to cover and we always had such a difficult time cutting that mega-list down to a manageable amount, that I chose to have us NOT re-read, since re-reading would have meant not even getting a first exposure on other incredible works. So, because we were only going to be seeing works once, I tried to schedule the works in such a way as to "maximize" discussion, interest, analysis, and personal connection. I was speaking out of my own experience, and, not thinking more broadly, I forgot that others have students with different abilities, goals, and interests. :) … That is the incredible skill and beauty of the short story. I chose them not because they were short, but because at their truest short stories are intimate… Every time I retread theses stories I get something else out of them. They are classic in their way to reflect life, regardless of where you are in the journey... This is my view as well, and I have expressed similar thoughts about the purpose of Literature in past threads. :) I also highly value the unique form and artistry of literature that is the short story. One of our high school years, I cut back on the number of longer works for the year so we could focus on reading a large number of short stories. I had not thought of it before your post, but I like the idea you triggered here: of re-visiting a few short stories in the high school years that were read/discussed in the middle school years. If I held all the answers, or if there was only one view point, why would I ask to talk to him about it? And why would he ever openly discuss his intimate, complex, difficult situations of the middle and high school times if I was going to consider his point if view too immature? I would like to reassure you this is NOT at all our view of homeschooling or relationship with our DSs, and it is wonderful that it is not the situation for your family either. :) What more joy can there be than discussing life, struggle, raw emotion, the conflict of the human condition, and the want/desire/responsibility that are all tied up together? More over doing that with you child, or other kids, who are on the brink of one of the most tumultuous emotionally conflicting periods of their lives. This has *indeed* been the best of our homeschooling journey as well! :) We have had deep, intimate, challenging, fascinating discussions all through our years of homeschooling, and that trust and give-and-take continues with our now-grown DSs. Literature provided some of the "bunny trails" that led into those personal, complex, and difficult discussions; other school subjects did as well, as discussion has always been a critical part of our homeschooling. And then there are the wonderful unplanned deep discussions -- the "car conversations" on the way to somewhere, and personal thoughts and discussions after watching a movie together… :) My very BEST wishes for continued joy and success in your family's homeschooling journey, literary adventures, and discussions. Warmest regards, Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Texasmama, if you have time, could you describe how you adapted Deconstructing Penguins to make it into analysis for middle schoolers? I read the book a couple of years ago, and couldn't really see how to make it work. My middle schooler is begging me to start up a book club for her, and I'm floundering. EndofOrdinary and Lori D, thank you for the short story lists! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Texasmama, if you have time, could you describe how you adapted Deconstructing Penguins to make it into analysis for middle schoolers? I read the book a couple of years ago, and couldn't really see how to make it work. My middle schooler is begging me to start up a book club for her, and I'm floundering. EndofOrdinary and Lori D, thank you for the short story lists! I'm not Texasmama, but I do lead a book club if you'd like to hear from others. I read through Deconstructing Penguins and also went through Teaching the Classics. TTC probably helped me the most because he takes actual works (poems and short stories) and discusses aspects of them in the presentation. I think seeing it in action helped me. I've headed up a book club for 3 years now. The first year I wasn't comfortable with it, so I only asked 2 friends to have their children join me and ds. We read books at home, got together and discussed the books and then watched movies of the books. We went to see Arriety in the theaters after reading The Borrowers. I tried to teach them a couple of literary elements when we discussed each book, adding new ones each time and still discussing the ones we had learned. I also taught some figurative language with each book, depending on the examples I could find in the book. For example, I think I discussed setting and plot structure/conflict for the first book, point of view and characters the next, and themes in the book next class. We read 4 books that year. The next year I opened it up to our homeschool group and we still discussed the books and watched a movie of the book afterwards. I found some children wanted to answer every question and some would never answer in front of the whole group (we had about 15 the next year). I discovered most of them would discuss more openly if I put them in groups of 2-3. I would take different discussion questions and pass them out to each group. The groups would share the question and their thoughts to the group as a whole (choosing a spokesperson). I always discussed the basic literary elements together as a group, though. We read 6 books during that year. I made this graphic organizer for them to fill out as they read the books at home. I taught them some figurative language terms and we did this exercise to practice writing with figurative language. We ended the year with the kids writing a "figurative language cafe" menu with titles and descriptions of the items using figurative language. They also picked one of their food items to bring for our end of year party. This year, we read 5 books and began with a book fair. Set up sort of like a science fair, the kids made displays about a book they read over the summer and gave a short talk about it. I spent that lesson reviewing over the basics of literary analysis we had learned last year and helped them put together a notebook as a reference. I added new literary elements each time we met (author's purpose, mood vs. tone, etc.). Instead of movies, we decided to have a unit study day and do art, games, and projects that went along with the books. I had about 30 kids come this year(3rd through 9th grades), so we again broke up into groups to allow varying discussions at the level of the kids. We always had some discussion together. I have LOVED leading a book club. I have a math degree and never imagined myself as a literature teacher, but literary analysis made literature into a puzzle to figure out, a problem to solve, which helped me appreciate it all the more. I hope this helps a little! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I'm not Texasmama, but I do lead a book club if you'd like to hear from others. I read through Deconstructing Penguins and also went through Teaching the Classics. TTC probably helped me the most because he takes actual works (poems and short stories) and discusses aspects of them in the presentation. I think seeing it in action helped me. I've headed up a book club for 3 years now. The first year I wasn't comfortable with it, so I only asked 2 friends to have their children join me and ds. We read books at home, got together and discussed the books and then watched movies of the books. We went to see Arriety in the theaters after reading The Borrowers. I tried to teach them a couple of literary elements when we discussed each book, adding new ones each time and still discussing the ones we had learned. I also taught some figurative language with each book, depending on the examples I could find in the book. For example, I think I discussed setting and plot structure/conflict for the first book, point of view and characters the next, and themes in the book next class. We read 4 books that year. The next year I opened it up to our homeschool group and we still discussed the books and watched a movie of the book afterwards. I found some children wanted to answer every question and some would never answer in front of the whole group (we had about 15 the next year). I discovered most of them would discuss more openly if I put them in groups of 2-3. I would take different discussion questions and pass them out to each group. The groups would share the question and their thoughts to the group as a whole (choosing a spokesperson). I always discussed the basic literary elements together as a group, though. We read 6 books during that year. I made this graphic organizer for them to fill out as they read the books at home. I taught them some figurative language terms and we did this exercise to practice writing with figurative language. We ended the year with the kids writing a "figurative language cafe" menu with titles and descriptions of the items using figurative language. They also picked one of their food items to bring for our end of year party. This year, we read 6 books and began with a book fair. Set up sort of like a science fair, the kids made displays about a book they read over the summer and gave a short talk about it. I spent that lesson reviewing over the basics of literary analysis we had learned last year and helped them put together a notebook as a reference. I added new literary elements each time we met (author's purpose, mood vs. tone, etc.). Instead of movies, we decided to have a unit study day and do art, games, and projects that went along with the books. I had about 30 kids come this year(3rd through 9th grades), so we again broke up into groups to allow varying discussions at the level of the kids. We always had some discussion together. I have LOVED leading a book club. I have a math degree and never imagined myself as a literature teacher, but literary analysis made literature into a puzzle to figure out, a problem to solve, which helped me appreciate it all the more. I hope this helps a little! Wow, Amy! That helps a lot! Thank you for sharing. Your information was helpful and your worksheets are excellent! I have TTC, and the first book of Ready Readers. We were in a coop this year that worked through a dozen or so picture books using TTC story charts, so my kids are familiar with that process and the basic terminology of analysis and figurative language. I listened to one of Adam Andrews' talks a few nights ago. My dd commented that the analysis we had been doing wasn't as complex as what Andrew was mining out of the books. . I think I need to find a way to go deeper with my kids next year, especially the oldest. Do you mind sharing the list of books you read that also had movies available? My other dd would love to watch a movie for every book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Here are the book lists. My son was in 3rd and 4th grades the years we watched movies. Many had significant differences, but we always discussed those and what could cause film makers to change things. 3rd Grade: The Trumpet of the Swan/cartoon version Trumpet of the Swan Because of Winn Dixie/movie of same title The Borrowers/Secret World of Arriety ABeka's version of The Swiss Family Robinson/Disney's version from the '60s 4th Grade: Charlotte's Web/older movie A Cricket in Times Square/found a short cartoon on a Chuck Jones Classics dvd through Netflix; it also contains Rikki-Tikki-Tavi which we read from TTC in class and used to discussed setting The Tale of Despereaux/animated movie The Railway Children/older movie The Incredible Journey/older movie The Secret Garden/'93 version of movie 5th Grade/unit study approach Little House on the Prairie/pioneer life activities including sewing, science of the candle being extinguished and treating disease then and now, chalk painting of native americans, making flapjacks, geography of the book, music and games of the time period (Ds and I watched the Disney mini-series together at home.) Black Beauty/visited a local homeschool mom's horse farm who also loved the book, she taught all about horse care and brought in themes from the book. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe/ made a map of Narnia, art project creating a favorite scene inside a wardrobe, having hot cocoa and turkish delight while learning about Christmas around the world, science of winter and snow Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/ geography about where chocolate is grown, fraction math with Hershey Bars, statistics with skittles, science with candy, art project designing their own candy wrapper, history of chocolate and Hershey The Door in the Wall/medieval study having a medieval feast, played games from the time period, boys made shields with a coat of arms, girls made a hennin (tall, pointed hats), learned about the plague, made a booklet on becoming a knight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Amy, did you discuss each book over the course of several weeks? We've only been in book clubs that met after the whole book had been read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 No, we met only after it was read at home and discussed it, watched the movie, and/or did all the projects in one day. This year I did try to have some discussions during the book through an online, free website called Edmodo, but I only was able to get a few to participate regularly. I liked it, though, because I could create polls and ask questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 Texasmama, if you have time, could you describe how you adapted Deconstructing Penguins to make it into analysis for middle schoolers? I read the book a couple of years ago, and couldn't really see how to make it work. My middle schooler is begging me to start up a book club for her, and I'm floundering. EndofOrdinary and Lori D, thank you for the short story lists! Glad to see folks continuing to discuss while I was gone. (Been busy syringe feeding my sick cat and rushing to vets and such.) I am a "loose adapter" of pretty much everything. I use a lot of creative license. :) What we did was read three books a semester, meeting for an hour a week and discussing the chapters we had read. When we were a few chapters in, we began writing down our thoughts on the action, the protagonist and the antagonist. I was not always sure that I was "right" on these choices, if you will, but that is much of the point of discussion, right? Everyone shared their thoughts and why they thought they way they did. (I say everyone, but some class members were very quiet.) I had nine students. Sometimes the discussions went off on irrelevant tangents, and sometimes the discussions were very meaningful. We discussed the life of Charles Dickens and how it influenced his works (The Christmas Carol was one of our books). Bridge to Terabithia and From the Mixed up Files were two other books which produced some deep discussions of life. My class is composed of a couple of pre-pubescents kids and some kids well into puberty so Bridge to Terabithia gave us a chance to talk about the friendship between the two main characters, a boy and a girl, and how the kids felt that this worked "in real life". The kids and I noted similar themes in several of the books. There was no homework other than reading the books, and I didn't require any written work. The class was 100% discussion. The kids loved it when I let them write on the large, white flip pad. We did character sketches, wrote the protagonist and antagonist ideas and drew pictures. Sometimes I read passages that I thought were particularly meaningful. I don't know if that helps, but I ran it like a "book club with a twist" in that it was guided discussion and we did work on figuring out the protagonist and antagonist and themes for each book. The Deconstructing Penguins authors might have thought I botched up their idea. ;) But we had fun, the kids learned some literary terms and they read some good books. My class was not designed to be a heavy academic one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 I am a "loose adapter" of pretty much everything. I use a lot of creative license. :) That sounds like me. Only I like a very concrete plan to adapt. :lol: I appreciate you and Amy tolerating the hijack and explaining your book groups. It is helping me come up with a plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 EndOfOrdinary, I think your list is awesome, and I added some of yours to mine - I'm planning kind of a similar study building off of Figuratively Speaking. Here are a couple that I have on mine that I didn't see on yours, in case you're still "in the market" The Treasures of Lemon Brown Unified Plots Cathedral – Raymond Carver Flashback: Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain Paul’s Case – Willa Cather The Death of Ivan Illych – Leo Tolstoy Time of Passage – J. G. Ballard Story Within a Story: The Storyteller by Saki A Story Without an End – Mark Twain Foreshadowing Main Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland (read aloud) *The Fall of the House of Usher - Poe Trial by Combat – Shirley Jackson The Scapegoat – Paul Laurence Dunbar Suspense: The Pit & the Pendulum - Poe The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank Stockton Surprise Ending The Last Leaf – O Henry O Henry - Hearts and Hands A Harlem Tragedy – O Henry The Third Level – Jack Finney The Face in the Photo – Jack Finney Characters and Characterization The Green Door – O Henry The Daughters of the Late Colonel – Katherine Mansfield Narrator/Point of View A Predicament – Edgar Allan Poe *A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner Why I Live at the P.O. – Eudora Welty – 1st person POV Dialect Captain Jim’s Friend – Bret Harte Local Color Sarah Orne Jewett – The Country of the Pointed First Mood and Tone A Marriage Proposal by Anton Chekhov The Rubber Plant’s Story -O. Henry The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe The Legend of Sleepy Hollow The Bottle Imp – Robert Louis Stevenson *The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas – Ursula Le Guin Symbol Graham Greene's "Across the Bridge All Summer in a Day – Ray Bradbury Irony O Henry’s A Retrieved Reformation; The Cop & the Anthem The Remarkable Rocket by Oscar Wilde The Cask of Admontillado Pun The Importance of Being Ernest – Oscar Wilde Stream of Consciousness An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – Ambrose Bierce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 That sounds like me. Only I like a very concrete plan to adapt. :lol: I appreciate you and Amy tolerating the hijack and explaining your book groups. It is helping me come up with a plan. Glad to share! I like to have a framework on which to hang my own ideas. It is much simpler to adapt someone else's plan than to reinvent the wheel for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clear Creek Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 EndOfOrdinary and Chrysalis Academy, do either of you have any short story anthologies that you would recommend that would contain many/most of the short stories on your list? I am considering doing a study similar to what you have outlined next year, but a lot of our reading gets done when we are out and about, so a real book (or kindle book) would be much easier to use in our situation than reading the stories online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 What a cool thread this has turned into! Thank you to all who are sharing your book/short story lists and contributing to this thread. Fun discussion. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 EndOfOrdinary and Chrysalis Academy, do either of you have any short story anthologies that you would recommend that would contain many/most of the short stories on your list? I am considering doing a study similar to what you have outlined next year, but a lot of our reading gets done when we are out and about, so a real book (or kindle book) would be much easier to use in our situation than reading the stories online. Oh man, I would love to find that book!!! Here is a short story anthology that I absolutely adore - it has essays by each author, as well as biographical info. But unfortunately, it only has some of the stories on my list. It's a bit more of a high school/adult level anthology. I'd love to find a single book that had a lot of these "cool for middle school" stories in one place! http://www.amazon.com/The-Short-Story-Dana-Gioia/dp/0321363639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395271878&sr=8-1&keywords=the+art+of+the+short+story You can find things like O Henry anthologies at any library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 That looks really cool. I love author bios alongside their works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 It's super cool. It's not just author bios, but also author essays - they write about some aspect of short-story writing. So it's nice for an essay study as well as a lit study! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegeyser Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I read this post the other day by Avi at WordCraft, and it made me think of this thread. Just thought I would share here: http://www.avi-writer.com/blog/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I read this post the other day by Avi at WordCraft, and it made me think of this thread. Just thought I would share here: http://www.avi-writer.com/blog/ That was great, thanks for posting! We might not make "a short story a day" but I hope we'll do a short story a week! I think it's a great point that these are such good tools for middle grade kids - you get to analyze literary elements over and over and over - 30+ times - rather than just a few times if you are focusing on novels. I would imagine that once you've done it over and over for short stories, it will become much easier to tackle novels. Kind of like how my dd has written soooooo many summary/narrations that now she can summarize a book in a couple of paragraphs without breaking a sweat - it was a skill learned by summarizing first short passages - many,many, many, many times - and then by summarizing longer novels, section by section (i.e. read three chapters and summarize them each day) and then putting the summaries together and revising them into a whole-book summary. Breaking down the process and repeating it made it easy. Same thing goes, maybe for analyzing lit. Hmmm, something to think about for sure . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I read this post the other day by Avi at WordCraft, and it made me think of this thread. Just thought I would share here: http://www.avi-writer.com/blog/ Thanks for sharing that, the geyser. One can see the contents of Avi's book, Best Shorts: Favorite Stories for Sharing at the Amazon link. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 A couple of other compilations of short stories: Best Short Stories, Introductory Level (Jamestown Publishers) - you can see the contents at the link. Little Worlds : A Collection of Short Stories for the Middle School -- you can determine some of the contents by reading the comments. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 … my dd has written soooooo many summary/narrations that now she can summarize a book in a couple of paragraphs without breaking a sweat... Sounds like she's ready to move on to the next step of reader responses and beginning analysis! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Sounds like she's ready to move on to the next step of reader responses and beginning analysis! :) Yep, that's what we're working on now, along with learning how to write intros and conclusions! I have another post about that going right now! We're spending a lot of time *talking* through analyses right now. If we talk through something, and she's thought about it deeply and really understands it, she can write about it without much trouble, but if the thinking isn't solid, the writing is hard. It's been very interesting, we did a couple of poetry lessons from WWS recently. The first one was analyzing The Bells - she loved the poem, loved the discussion, loved how it led her to see the symbolism in the poem, and she wrote a really nice essay about it. Now we're doing Ozymandias, and the conclusion we're being led to discuss just isn't so clear and obvious to either of us, the idea of "movement" clearly hasn't clicked. And hence the writing is much more difficult. Anyway, I think writing about short stories and poems - things that don't take too long to read, so you can write about many of them - will help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 My little lit analysis class is really enjoying The Giver. We discussed the first four chapters yesterday, including a comparison/contrast between the society in the book and our society. This made for very thoughtful and interesting discussion about topics from gender roles to the risks/benefits of personal choice vs. governmental control. As an aside, I was fascinated by the sexism and misconceptions found among the girls about women - not so much having to do with roles, but that some of them seem to have some views that men are better as work supervisors and such. I know these kids do not come from homes in which a model is taught for girls to not have education or careers. These moms are educated and have had careers. Some of them still do. The kids brought up the topic of sex as related to the Birthmothers and the married couples, too. And one kid brought up the topic of homosexuality. Menstrual periods and hormones were discussed. I had to correct a false generalization about only children. Geesh, it was like group therapy or something. ;) (But I happen to love group therapy. :D) It is interesting to lead these discussions and provide information/ask leading questions without acting as the kids' moral teachers, since I view that as the role of the parents. I have one very bright and talkative fourth grader in my class among the mostly older kids (and she was one who brought up much of the above for discussion) so I did speak to her mom after class regarding the broad topics covered just to give her a heads up. Mom is a friend of mine so it worked out fine, but it was a rockin' group discussion, I tell you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 My little lit analysis class is really enjoying The Giver. Total side note, but I recently found out about & read the 4th volume in Lowry's quartet. The final novel, Son, is centered around a Birthmother.The second one doesn't really seem to have much to do with #1, but #3 relates and intertwines characters from #1 & #2. #4 brings you back to #1 and gets you all the way to the "end" of the story. Don't forget to let your lit analysis class know there are three "follow-up" novels after The Giver. (There might be themes in some of them that aren't appropriate for younger kids. Pre-read for your own kids.) Back to the awesome discussion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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