9th Grade Lit and Comp plan - Windows to the World with Elegant Essay or Jill Pike Syllabus?

[happy7]

For my 9th grader this coming year, I was planning to use the Jill Pike Syllabus, which would combine Teaching the Classics with Windows to the World. But I went to the local homeschool convention, and the kind representative at the Excellence in Literature booth recommended using Elegant Essay after Teaching the Classics instead. But my understanding is that Teaching the Classics is actually teacher training rather than aimed at the student, so I'm wondering whether we should use WttW first semester and Elegant Essay second.I definitely want to have him read novels as well.  I've also looked at Kilgallon Paragraphs for High School, and I think that my son would really benefit from this. He has done Lost Tools level 1 and is good at invention, but could use help with sentence structure. I'm at a loss for how to put together our 9th grade Lit and Composition class using some combination of these resources. Am I better off watching Teaching the Classics myself this summer, then using WttW and a few novels that we choose ourselves?  Or maybe get a guide from Center for Lit to make my life easier? How would I fit Kilgallon in? Any suggestions?

 

One other consideration is that I have a 7th grader who might be able to tag along with Elegant Essay. (My expectations for output would obviously be different than what I expect from my 9th grader.) So it might be nice to use one program for both. But I was thinking of using Lost Tools for him, so I don't have to use Elegant Essay.

 

Another factor is that I have 5 kids, so the less I have to come up with myself the better! 

 

ETA: And now I've been looking at Excellence in Literature and I like the looks of it. But I'm not 100% sure he is ready for it. He probably needs more writing instruction than is given in this curriculum. Has anyone added in something like Kilgallon to this? Should we watch Teaching the Classics over the summer together, then start Excellence in Lit this fall? 

Edited June 19, 2017 by happy7

[monalisa]

My dd did WttW this year (in a co-op setting), and based on that I would recommend doing Elegant Essay first semester and WttW second.  She really should have gone through EE first.   WttW is assuming the student has essay writing experience (my dd didn't have enough, and it was a problem for her).  Both of those require a fair amount of teaching and aren't student directed, which you probably realize if you talked to the IEW reps.  You are correct that Teaching the Classics is teacher training.  I had my dd watch TTC with me, but it is really directed to the teacher.  You could do both EE and WttW (without the Jill Pike Syllabus) in one year and add a few novels like you mentioned.

[happy7]

My dd did WttW this year (in a co-op setting), and based on that I would recommend doing Elegant Essay first semester and WttW second.  She really should have gone through EE first.   WttW is assuming the student has essay writing experience (my dd didn't have enough, and it was a problem for her).  Both of those require a fair amount of teaching and aren't student directed, which you probably realize if you talked to the IEW reps.  You are correct that Teaching the Classics is teacher training.  I had my dd watch TTC with me, but it is really directed to the teacher.  You could do both EE and WttW (without the Jill Pike Syllabus) in one year and add a few novels like you mentioned.

 

Thank you! I hadn't thought to do EE first. But that makes sense. 

[Renaissance Mom]

The EE would work for both the 7th grader and the 9th grader, and definitely do it first. When you do WttW, you can always start applying some of the later assignments to novels instead of short stories. That's what we did with my oldest. She wrote the characterization essay on Odysseus since we were doing the ancients that year. It really prepared her well for more in depth literary analysis and literary writing later in high school.

[ScoutTN]

How does EE compare to Lively Art of Writing?

Is LAoW enough essay teaching to move into WttW?

Edited June 26, 2017 by ScoutTN

[freesia]

Laow would be enough to handle WttW. EE and LAOW teach similar skills. I think EE also covers descriptive essays, but whether that matters depends on your student.

[Momto6inIN]

My dd did WttW this year (in a co-op setting), and based on that I would recommend doing Elegant Essay first semester and WttW second. She really should have gone through EE first. WttW is assuming the student has essay writing experience (my dd didn't have enough, and it was a problem for her). Both of those require a fair amount of teaching and aren't student directed, which you probably realize if you talked to the IEW reps. You are correct that Teaching the Classics is teacher training. I had my dd watch TTC with me, but it is really directed to the teacher. You could do both EE and WttW (without the Jill Pike Syllabus) in one year and add a few novels like you mentioned.

I second this.

 

Also, I wouldn't start EiL until after EE and WttW are done. I really love the EiL units, but there really is no writing instruction whatsoever in it. It assumes they know how to write a literary analysis essay, which is what WttW would prepare them for.

 

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