Soror Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 So far we've just read and enjoyed books together, we have some discussion here and there but mostly we just enjoy them. Now, I'm starting to consider adding more, although I'm not sure that I really want full lit guides so I was hoping I could glean some ideas from the Hive. Fwiw my oldest will be newly 11 next year. TIA! ( I do have teaching the classics but I haven't went through it yet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 We read books and talk about them. We never used literature guides for anything. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I bought Teaching the Classics at convention last month. I've watched about half of the DVD's. It, and a talk by Andrew Kern, inspired me to get rid of our current literature program and just read one really good book a month, then discuss it using Teaching the Classics method. This month will be the first month that we try it out, but I'm super excited. I think it will really help us dive into literature in a way that we've never done before. So my vote is to dust of Teaching the Classics and start watching! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 They just read for the enjoyment of getting caught up in a great story. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reign Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I really liked the book Deconstructing Penguins. It was really useful for figuring out how to engage kids in book discussion. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mona Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I agree with Chelli. I had TTC for years, but haven't took the time to watch it. I just watched the first DVD and I'm kicking myself for not making the time to watch it sooner. Excellent instruction on how to enjoy literature together for all ages. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I agree with reading for the love of reading but also with the suggestion of Teaching the Classics (maybe skipping the first part of the DVD set, which I have always felt was mind numbingly boring for some reason). They go hand in hand here. Unlike lit guides for individual volumes, TTC has enormous lists of generic Socratic questions to ask about a book. So it's not at all about some expert telling you what each book really means, directing you to find hidden meaning (which is what I never could stand about book discussions in school). Rather, it is simply prompts to help you think more deeply about what you are reading. You can take this as deep or shallow as you wish, make it as time consuming or not as is warranted/desired. We certainly do not do an in depth discussion of every book we/they read. But I think it is worthwhile and pleasant to slow down and think about some books on a deeper level. Not to analyze, which I couldn't care less for, but to savor. My kids are all Readers, reading for both school and pleasure daily. But they love discussing books in depth, relating to each other about common reading. (Lots of books are assigned to my oldest two together now, and I do many read-alouds for all three.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 I have read Deconstructing Penguins, granted it has been awhile. Do you assign books? Do you keep a theme by the year? So far I've kept my bookshelf filled with good books (from various lists- Memoria Press, Great Books/Angelicum, etc) and as my son is a voracious reader (my only fluent reader so far) he is generally always reading something. If he goes through a spell of not reading or reading lower quality books then I will have him pick a higher quality selection to read during school time, this is pretty rare. If he starts a book then he is usually clamoring to finish it so it doesn't take much prodding. I tried to do a Narnia study this year but that went over like a lead balloon with him, he has already read them and he didn't want to re-read them and he found the discussion silly. Now, he does ok with little bits of discussion here and there as we are reading but doing it as a full on study it was a bit contrived, for both of us really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Never used any for elementary. I'm currently looking for some just to be able to check up on reading when I can't read the book. I am doing a lot of reading to keep on top of stuff, and I am finding it difficult to keep up because I can't spend all day reading. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Read voraciously to them, books on tape, private reading, etc. . Have the kids narrate and copy if you want. Usually they narrate or read long sections out-loud just for fun. I have used a few MP lit guides but as they get older, for stuff I'd like a bit of support with- The Trojan War, Dante, etc. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I have read Deconstructing Penguins, granted it has been awhile. Do you assign books? Do you keep a theme by the year? So far I've kept my bookshelf filled with good books (from various lists- Memoria Press, Great Books/Angelicum, etc) and as my son is a voracious reader (my only fluent reader so far) he is generally always reading something. If he goes through a spell of not reading or reading lower quality books then I will have him pick a higher quality selection to read during school time, this is pretty rare. If he starts a book then he is usually clamoring to finish it so it doesn't take much prodding. I tried to do a Narnia study this year but that went over like a lead balloon with him, he has already read them and he didn't want to re-read them and he found the discussion silly. Now, he does ok with little bits of discussion here and there as we are reading but doing it as a full on study it was a bit contrived, for both of us really. I didn't assign specific books for the longest time, but I have started to do so over the past couple of years, more this year than ever before, to DS12 in 6th and DD10 in 4th (but she has a very early birthday, so that I could easily consider her 5th...and truth be told, she is probably past his level in reading/comprehension, an avid reader to say the least). Before this, I just kept book baskets full of choices I would be happy for them to pick up, which made them feel like they were choosing anything they wanted, unaware that they were all ones I wanted for them. :D Our increasingly enjoyable discussion of read-alouds made me feel that it would be worthwhile and beneficial for us to come together in a similar way to discuss independent reading, so I started to assign some specific books. Sooooo, in your situation, with a child who is reading widely and generally picking worthwhile books, I doubt I would start assigning yet. For me the benefit has been the enjoyment of our own little book club. It's fun for us all to hear each others' impressions of our reading. In your shoes, if you want to begin literary discussion, I would pick up whatever quality book he is reading, read it myself, and casually start discussions to see where they go. My kids love when I read what they are reading, when they picked it first. (My DD begged me to read Warriors and was thrilled when I finally started. I couldn't possibly read all 5 box sets of 6 books each, but I made a tiny dent. She read through one book a day, but I've got homeschooling, housekeeping, a DH, and two other kids... :lol: ) By the way, I should say that the above is all about school, and every school book is not specifically assigned. Far from it. I still keep book baskets from which they choose a great deal of their school reading. They also get whatever they want from the library (for content reading, research, pleasure reading, anything and everything), and they have Paperwhites to check out digital books and buy from Amazon. By no means are they consumed by the assigned reading I ask of them, just to be clear. One of my big pet peeves from school, especially high school, was having so much assigned reading (both textbooks and novels) that it kept me from reading virtually anything I selected for myself. And definitely no yearly theme. Also, I do not purposefully match most literature to history. If the sweet spot for reading a book happens to coincide with history, all the better, but I don't push ahead or wait on anything just to be in sync. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 We are just reading books. The only literature discussion I am doing currently comes from whatever model we are using for writing. Mostly we work with character, plot, setting, theme, mood and we dip into some figurative language when it comes up. I don't know if that qualifies as literature study. ETA: I do chose the selections based on plot, and will pick some element to study in depth based on how I think the particular story is leaning. Our last selection was a dark one, a pursuit plot but with a emphasis on mood, and then theme came up in the reading. We spent about a day on mood, determining how words can be selected to create an emotional response in the reader. Theme just sort of happened, so we discussed that whenever it came up and discussion was wanted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 I didn't assign specific books for the longest time, but I have started to do so over the past couple of years, more this year than ever before, to DS12 in 6th and DD10 in 4th (but she has a very early birthday, so that I could easily consider her 5th...and truth be told, she is probably past his level in reading/comprehension, an avid reader to say the least). Before this, I just kept book baskets full of choices I would be happy for them to pick up, which made them feel like they were choosing anything they wanted, unaware that they were all ones I wanted for them. :D Our increasingly enjoyable discussion of read-alouds made me feel that it would be worthwhile and beneficial for us to come together in a similar way to discuss independent reading, so I started to assign some specific books. Sooooo, in your situation, with a child who is reading widely and generally picking worthwhile books, I doubt I would start assigning yet. For me the benefit has been the enjoyment of our own little book club. It's fun for us all to hear each others' impressions of our reading. In your shoes, if you want to begin literary discussion, I would pick up whatever quality book he is reading, read it myself, and casually start discussions to see where they go. My kids love when I read what they are reading, when they picked it first. (My DD begged me to read Warriors and was thrilled when I finally started. I couldn't possibly read all 5 box sets of 6 books each, but I made a tiny dent. She read through one book a day, but I've got homeschooling, housekeeping, a DH, and two other kids... :lol: ) By the way, I should say that the above is all about school, and every school book is not specifically assigned. Far from it. I still keep book baskets from which they choose a great deal of their school reading. They also get whatever they want from the library (for content reading, research, pleasure reading, anything and everything), and they have Paperwhites to check out digital books and buy from Amazon. By no means are they consumed by the assigned reading I ask of them, just to be clear. One of my big pet peeves from school, especially high school, was having so much assigned reading (both textbooks and novels) that it kept me from reading virtually anything I selected for myself. And definitely no yearly theme. Also, I do not purposefully match most literature to history. If the sweet spot for reading a book happens to coincide with history, all the better, but I don't push ahead or wait on anything just to be in sync. The bolded is pretty much how it plays out here :) We do go to the library and he sometimes picks out some twaddle (for lack of a better word) but generally he picks out good books and often he asks me pick out books for him, he is really easy going and just loves reading. He is starting to be able to engage in more discussion, which is why I'm considering if we should do something more or different in this area. We've not done any books where we read it separately at the same time, usually if it is a book we are discussing I read it aloud to him, he would probably really enjoy us reading at the same time. The hard part is that he is also a fast and voracious reader so I see him devouring it before I make it out of the 2nd chapter! From this thread I can see I'm in good company, so that is reassuring. I think we will continue on our path for the most part, no need for sudden changes. I will keep our lit time open to explore various books old and new that I think our worthwhile for our time, continuing to let him self-select for the most part. I reserve the right to assign books that I think are good and worthwhile but that he wouldn't necessarily pick on his own- even though he generally ends up loving them anyway. I do need to finish going through TtC, I remember now that I did read part of it but the video was so boring I had a hard time watching it, I'll put it on my summer teacher training list :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 So far we have just read and enjoyed. Some discussion will begin to show up here in the next couple years, As Dd moves into the logic stage. My kids do narrate and do copywork from literature. I have read Deconstructing Penguins and I have TtC, but my gut instinct is that formal lit analysis is not neccessary or even helpful in the elementary years. I did make a list for Dd this year, to add some structure to her reading choices and give her exposure to some new authors and styles. It has worked well. 10 books for the school year is a small fraction of her actual reading and she has loved "discovering" Redwall, Madeleine L'Engle and several others. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaceful Isle Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I use BJU. I also look at different homeschool companies' websites to get reading lists for their age group. Then I will check them out at the library for them to devour. ;p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohini Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I started a similar thread a few months ago and got some great info about creating a kind of reading journal. It has been working well for us as an alternative to "book reports." I'm not sure if there's a more sophisticated way to link the thread ... but here it is. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/526063-what-do-you-use-for-literature/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 We read books and talk about them. We never used literature guides for anything. Same. I complied lists for every grade up to 6, using AO and great books academy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I am currently watching the teaching the classics dvd's and I'm hoping the implement the idea's next year. We'll see how it goes. I use lit guides because I am forgetful and have a hard time covering everything if I don't have something to sort of guide me. This year I bought lit guides from MBtP, TLP, Memoria Press, Confessions of a homeschooler lapbook guides and I had planned on doing a progony press guide but I threw in the towel on all of them this past week. They are so boring and they all seem like busy work. I feel like they are taking school time away that could be used actually learning something. At the same time I want to make sure my kids are actually reading their books, understanding them and I would like them to understand plot, characters, setting and decoding words with the context of the sentence. I haven't found anything that does all of that. I also want my kids reading good, strong literature books not little snip its so I don't like those reading workbooks. I'm hoping teaching the classics helps me figure all of this out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I can't imagine using an entire lit guide. I did pick up a couple levels of Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus from RFWP. I find them helpful in helping me prompt discussions about the stories that we're reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldilocks Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 We read one book every 3 weeks from the lists in the WTM. Before our discussion I think through the questions that are also listed in the WTM. However, we are adding in more literary terms, such as "protagonist" and "climax" as my children are getting older. Then, I google the name of the book + literary analysis and get a few more ideas of what to discuss. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Read voraciously to them, books on tape, private reading, etc. . Have the kids narrate and copy if you want. Usually they narrate or read long sections out-loud just for fun. I have used a few MP lit guides but as they get older, for stuff I'd like a bit of support with- The Trojan War, Dante, etc. I use MP lit guides just one per year in grade 4 or 5, and 6. This is as much to give extra practice in answering questions in complete sentences and increasing writing stamina as it is to process the books, but I choose things like Greek Myths and Trojan War, where I want them to remember the events and characters. I don't use anything for actual lit analysis, other than talking about some of the books they read. I have Figuratively Speaking, to remind me to bring certain things up. I find that the WWS series covers quite a few literary elements. Of course, that isn't a substitute for more informal discussions, but it provides an introduction and a nice platform for noticing those elements in other readings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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