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Looking for Lit./ Writing options for accelerated 11th grader


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I am looking for some options for my 11th grade daughter who has out read all of my planned high school curriculum. She finished all the R&S English books (2nd through 9th) by 8th grade. This year she has almost finished the Life of Fred high school English series. She completed Jensen's writing and vocab books. She has read almost every book recommended by Sonlight. The ones she hasn't read yet, she is planning to read over the summer! She edits all of the writing done in our home and enjoys it! She wants to major in English with writing. She enjoys reading Dickens, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, & Jules Verne. I am not sure if I should allow her to read whatever she wants for her 12th grade year, or if I should find a curriculum for her. Does anyone have any ideas for advanced literature or writing? Does anyone have a child in college majoring in English/ writing/ literature who could suggest ideas to prepare her for that major? Thanks for any suggestions! :001_smile: 

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I like the idea of an in-depth author study. That would open up a lot of possibilities for her. She has read some Old English and Middle English works. She has a running " want to read this" list that she keeps adding to, and I know there are some from that time period on her list. Would the Bressler's Lit. book be something she could work through herself? One thing with homeschooling is that your child often surpasses your own schooling! That is the situation here.

I know she would agree with the never reading too much Shakespeare!  :001_smile:

 

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Thanks for the help with some good ideas for reading lists! :)

I'm still looking for good writing ideas. She knows the basics, but wants to go further. She hopes to test out of the 1st level college courses.

What types of writing assignments are usually required of college students?

She has written reports, answers to essay questions, response papers to books, poetry, and a research paper each year. She needs some fresh writing ideas.

I typed up a book profile paper for her to fill out for the books she reads. It includes: Genre, type of narrator, point of view, tone, setting, character info.,

motifs, themes, plot, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, different types of figurative language, allusion, foreshadow, symbolism, and

quotes. I'm not sure if that is over kill or if having her fill in those things will improve her skills. She wants to be challenged.

I would love to enroll her in the local Christian college for an English class, but that is not an option due to the cost.

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Michael Clay Thompson's Classics in the Classroom is a great reference. https://www.amazon.com/Classics-Classroom-Michael-Thompson/dp/0880922206

 

It explains beautifully the kinds of questions that readers can ask and discuss with peers, in order to delve deeply and encourage a book to open itself to them, without artificially imposing an external analysis on the work. It's based on Bloom's Taxonomy, and encourages gifted students particularly to focus their work at a higher level. It also has a list of 1300 suggested works, taken from lists like Harvard Classics, Great Books of the Western World, AP recommendations, etc. I'd love to use it as the base for teaching literature to an interested high schooler (or better yet, a book club of interested high schoolers?)

 

Oh! And I'd also love to see an interested high schooler use Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book. I found it so inspirational as a guide to a growth mindset in literature, increasing your ability to delve for meaning from more and more complicated works as you challenge yourself to read at a higher level. https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-Touchstone/dp/0671212095

Edited by Alison1
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My kids' literature lists are nothing traditional at all. My 12th grader had a semester spent on War and Peace, a lit credit for the apologetic works of CS Lewis, and this yr she has an independent study on Shakespeare (she completelupy designed it herself.) My other kids have had courses designed around things like the movie Inception and illusion literature.

 

What she reads is absolutely wide open to whatever you want to do.

 

ETA: I would have most writing assignments focus on literary analysis. My dd's Shakespeare course is a capstone thesis paper on research she has done on his Catholicity and messages in his works.

Edited by 8FillTheHeart
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My daughter is loving all of these suggestions! :001_smile:  We both appreciate all the advice and suggestions. 

Does the book "Classics in the Classroom" need someone who has a lot of literary background to teach or is it something she can go through herself? 

 

I was wondering what MOOC is? I'm not up to date on a lot of the abbreviations.

 

8FillTheHeart, sounds like our girls both love Shakespeare!  It is wonderful you will be graduating your 5th! You're an encouragement to all of the rest of us.   :001_smile:

What do you mean by writing focused on literary analysis? What would the assignments look like? She has gotten past most of my "public school schooling", so I feel a bit inadequate coming up with advanced writing assignments on my own. I am looking into getting Bressler's Literary Criticism to help guide her in the literary analysis concepts.

 

*Please excuse my lack of knowledge. This is my first one going through high school.

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Thank you Amoret! I am the daughter that my mom is trying to figure out curriculum for. Your assignment sounds exactly like what my mom has been trying to figure out for me.

 

To everyone else, thanks so much for all the input. My mom has been driving herself nuts trying to figure out what to do with me, and your suggestions are really helping! Probably our biggest problem right now is finding some type of guides for the types of books I want to read, and some sort of writing guide. I would like something that will prepare me for a English w/ emphasis on Creative Writing major in college. I love to write, but my mom is concerned that I'm not getting enough guidance in that department. She has been looking at logic/rhetoric courses for me. Are there any good ones that are self-explanatory?

 

Again, thank you very much for all your input!

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Just wondering if anyone has used IEW's Window to the World: Intro to Literary Analysis? Is it an easy overview of the basics or a more difficult course?

 

 

Thanks everyone for the continued suggestions.

Thanks MedicMom, we will take a look. :001_smile:

I have used bits and pieces of it. It is definitely lower level overview of the basics, not a difficult course.

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I have a degree in English and Rhetoric.

 

For someone with such a voracious reading habit, I would actually shy away from most traditional homeschool curricula. Many of them will be below your daughter's level.

 

I like a former poster's suggestion to work through a Norton anthology.

 

I also recommend this book:

 

Essential Literary Terms (Norton)

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Literary-Terms-Norton-Exercises/dp/0393928373

 

Check out SWB's lists in TWTM and The Well-Educated Mind. 

 

For writing, the best thing your daughter can have is some feedback from someone who knows what they are talking about. A tutor? Community college course?

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My daughter is loving all of these suggestions! :001_smile:  We both appreciate all the advice and suggestions. 

Does the book "Classics in the Classroom" need someone who has a lot of literary background to teach or is it something she can go through herself? 

 

I was wondering what MOOC is? I'm not up to date on a lot of the abbreviations.

 

8FillTheHeart, sounds like our girls both love Shakespeare!  It is wonderful you will be graduating your 5th! You're an encouragement to all of the rest of us.   :001_smile:

What do you mean by writing focused on literary analysis? What would the assignments look like? She has gotten past most of my "public school schooling", so I feel a bit inadequate coming up with advanced writing assignments on my own. I am looking into getting Bressler's Literary Criticism to help guide her in the literary analysis concepts.

 

*Please excuse my lack of knowledge. This is my first one going through high school.

 

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course.

They are courses offered by universities and they are all web-based. They are often free and there's a huge range out there. You may want to have a look a Coursera, Futurelearn, EdX.

 

This can be a good place to start: https://www.mooc-list.com/ 

Just pop your key word/s into the search box. You may need to scroll past a bit of advertising though before you get to the actual MOOCs.

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