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8th Grade Literature?


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I am feeling out our 8th grade year. So far we have not done much, if anything, in the literature department. My daughter is a great reader, and reads all the time on her own, I just haven't directed her reading or tied it to school in any way. This year I'd really like to get her reading books that correspond to our history studies (modern era). Do I go with structured literature guides, or just pick from lists of classics that she should be reading?
In the laguage department we have already gone through Hake Grammar 8, we will be doing the final Spelling Workout book, and we will be doing the second half of WWS 2 and I'm thinking of using Cover Story next year as well, (other subjects are math, science, Latin, and logic) so I don't want it to be overkill.

Maybe there is kind of a "light" literature program that will guide her reading and give her a little more in-depth look at what she's read? Like I said, we've never "done" literature as a subject, so it's all pretty new to me. Thanks!

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Yes, you can DIY (do-it-yourself) with study guides to go with specific books. Short stories can be a super way of starting into Literature/analysis, as the work can be read one day and discussed/analyzed the next, and then write in response to a prompt to dig deeper for the rest of the week.

 

Some ideas of titles that would work well for getting started with a more formal Literature study and literary analysis:

 

19th century classics:

- Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain) -- Glencoe Literature Library

- Call of the Wild (London) -- Glencoe Literature Library

 

20th century classics to go with your Modern History

- To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) -- Garlic Press Discovering Literature guide

- The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)

- Animal Farm -- Glencoe Literature Library

- Diary of Anne Frank

- Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)

- Watership Down (Adams)

- The Good Earth (Buck)

 

"tween" books in reading level, but great for beginning literary analysis:

- Sounder (Armstrong) -- Glencoe Literature Library

- Number the Stars (Lowry) -- Glencoe Literature Library

- The Westing Game (Raskin)

- A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)

- Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt) -- Glencoe Literature Library

 

early teen books easier in reading level, but great for beginning literary analysis:

- I Am David (Holm)

- Bridge to Terebithia -- Glencoe Literature Library; Garlic Press Discovering Literature guide

- The Giver (Lowry) -- Garlic Press Discovering Literature guide

- The Hobbit (Tolkien) -- Garlic Press Discovering Literature guide

 

 

A Literature program can also be a great idea to help you get started if you've never done formal Literature before.

 

I like Lightning Literature 8 for those who have not done any formal literature yet, as it is very light and gentle, uses workpages to help the student put into practice the literary lesson being learned, and the last half of the program's workpages really start building into gentle guided literary analysis (read an excerpt from a work and answer specific questions). I also really like it because it covers several types of literature (novel, short story, poetry, and biography). So, in 12 units you cover 6 novels, 3 short stories, and have 3 poetry units (each covering about 8 poems). And a bonus for you: 3 of the 6 novels in LL8 fit right in very well with your modern History: 

 

- A Day of Pleasure (Singer) -- set in pre-WW1 Poland (early 1910s)

- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell) --set in 1930s; British family on Greek island of Corfu

- To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) -- set in 1930s deep south U.S.

 

Another solid intro Lit. program option that is more formal and more writing-based is Excellence in Literature: Introduction to Literature. Nine units (one per month of the school year); one unit covers 6 short stories, two units each cover a play, and the remaining 6 units each cover a novel or novella. Two works are "modern" (written in the 20th century): Animal Farm, and the play, Pygmalion.

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Lightning Literature might fit what you're looking for. We read all the books/stories/poems, but did some picking and choosing from the assignments. Some of them seemed too much like busywork for my ds, while others were definitely valuable. I liked the literature selections, and we discovered some authors we probably wouldn't have gotten to if all the choosing had been up to me (e.g. Chesterton, Durell); some of those books ended up being family favorites.

If you want to tie her reading to her history studies, the modern era has a ton of great books to choose from. Try searching this forum for a modern history book list - I know I got one from here that I'm using for ideas. We use History Odyssey, which uses novels along with non-fiction sources. I also try to steer ds towards other classics that fit the era we're studying, and will add in other books I think he'll enjoy (e.g. we'll read 1984 together after we study WW II). We aren't using a formal literature program this year, just reading a lot of great books and discussing them afterwards.

 

 

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Penguin has a bunch of free literature guides too, which I like better than the Glencoe ones overall. I use guides for the discussion questions because we read a book over about 3 weeks and discuss every day. Some books I've used lots of graphic organizers (Novel Units are great for that) and some we write a paper at the end (Moving Beyond the Page units are great for that). Novel Units actually come in two parts - the teacher guide has the discussion questions and summaries, and the student guide has most of the worksheets. We used a Portals to Literature guide for Tom Sawyer and it was the most comprehensive guide I've ever done. LOTS of lessons on literary techniques and good discussion questions, vocabulary activities, just lots of good stuff. You could do one of those a quarter and it would be plenty of "literature study" since your daughter already reads a lot on her own.

 

Penguin Teacher's Guides: http://www.penguin.com/services-shared/teachersguides/

Novel Units (this link is for the grades 7-8 eBooks): http://www.ecslearningsystems.com/webstore/store/showproductslist.asp?idcategory=263

Portals to Literature: http://www.perfectionlearning.com/portals-to-literature

Moving Beyond the Page (age 12-14 literature package): http://www.movingbeyondthepage.com/purchase/skudetail.aspx?skuID=1768

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I really like the set from Memoria Press, Poetry and Short Stories, American Literature. I am saving it to see if my book club or co-op wants to do it, but I'll use it at home if they don't. 

 

http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/literature-and-poetry/poetry

 

While it would include selections from earlier than your time period, it covers vocabulary, literary terms, comprehension, Socratic discussion, and finding supporting evidence leading into writing about literature. 

 

 

 

 

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