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Lori D.

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Everything posted by Lori D.

  1. Be sure that a classical writing curriculum is a good fit for THIS STUDENT. All of the traditional/classical writing curricula would have been a hard no go for both of our DSs -- one due to hating writing, and one due to LDs with writing. Of course, your DS is unique and may be very different from my DSs. 😄 Does your DS do well with formal, structured, parts-to-whole style writing instruction? That is how Memoria Press's Classical Composition, SWB's Writing with Style, Circe's Lost Tools of Writing, and Meaningful Composition (and another that is escaping me at the moment) are set up. CAP's Writing and Rhetoric is based around the pro-gym, but is less formal, with more practice exercises/activities. IEW's writing is set up such that the parent and student can watch the videos together. IEW is not a traditional/classical method for teaching writing, and is based on writing imitation, key-word outlines, breaking the writing process (brainstorm, organize, rough draft, revise, proof-edit) into "bites," etc. Sharon Watson's Jump In is very informal in tone -- not at classical in set-up -- but can be a good fit for a whole-to-parts learner, and can be fairly independently done by the student. It is helpful in guiding a student into thinking of what to say, and how to organize your thoughts/writing. Cover Story looks like it's flat out fun, and teaches grammar along with writing (rather, how grammar as a tool is used in writing), and has a more creative writing bent to it. Very informal, with video lessons. Completely NOT classical in approach.
  2. Yes, that's typical 6th grade boy stuff. 😉 I had 2 boys, and NEITHER was motivated to do academics, as some on these boards are. 😉 But I also agree with @SilverMoon that he may be bored -- it may be time to move on from penmanship into typing, and move on from so much narration (sure, keep a little) into more interesting writing that requires some thinking, . Writing that could be mostly solo-working: - Cover Story - Jump In - outsourced class (local co-op, online... possibly Lantern English, although I believe that is a sort of "correspondence" style that requires parent oversight at home) Geography that could be mostly solo-working: - workbook of choice -- maps & charts skills, other Evan-Moor Daily Geography Practice (gr. 6) Mark Twain Geography Warm-Ups (gr. 5-6) Discovering World of Geography: Western Hemisphere (gr. 6-7) - Beautiful Feet Geography guide & map pack (covers the 4 Holling C. Holding books -- 3 US-based, 1 world-based) This could be done by the whole family, but have 6th grade DS do more of the guide ideas on his own. The guide suggests ideas for additional research, and short writing projects, so that could add to History and Writing, as well as covering Geography, by having DS pick an idea from the guide from time to time. History - 1x/week he watches s historical documentary (maybe an occasional feature film set in a time period)and do a different thing as output: • short narration/illustration on a page in a continuing notebook • give a short oral presentation to the rest of the family on it • make a short video (lego animation!) or slideshow "recreation" of the key event • make a "movie poster" that visually (with a few exciting words/phrases) expresses the key event • recreate something of interest from the documentary -- make a food, make a model of a building/plane/ship etc. Logic that could be mostly solo-working -- really, more as a fun once-a-week thing: - Blastoff with Logic series -- he would fly thru 1st book, but worth laying the good foundation • Logic Countdown (gr. 3-4), Logic Liftoff (gr. 4-5), Orbiting with Logic (gr. 6-7) - Critical Thinking Press -- Smartypants Puzzles; Dr. Funster Think-a-Minute; Critical Thinking Detective - Critical Thinking Activities in Patterns, Imagery, Logic (gr. 4-6) (Seymour) Art that could be mostly solo-working: - Mark Kistler's Draw Squad - Artistic Pursuits Music that could be mostly solo-working: - self-teach the recorder Penny Gardener's Nine Note Recorder Method - outsource music lessons on an instrument or vocal lessons, so that also means daily 20-30 minute practice
  3. Totally depends on the child: - delays? advanced? average? - interest level (or lack thereof 😉 ) in school and academics? - "fit" of materials used for schooling? Also, 6th grade can be a transitional stage for the child, as pre-adolescence and hormones start to kick in -- for boys especially: brain fog, forgetting they ever had seen the material before (lol), and loads of physical energy so very restless and less inclined towards formal schooling. All that said, if you are doing a solid 4 hours of work per day 5 days a week, you're getting 20 hours/week of concentrated learning most weeks during your school year. I know some families here are able to be more rigorous and are able to do 1 hour per grade, so in 6th grade they're doing 6 hours of schooling a day. But again, you must look at the child before you -- what is reasonable for THIS child. (We were NOT able to do about 6 hours/day until 9th/10th grade here. So YMMV.) The big picture goals for middle school (gr. 6-8) tend to be: - solidify foundational / core subjects - time for exploring interests - introduce/work on study skills - as appropriate, add some subjects (logic, typing, computer, foreign language...) to fill in for those subjects that are being finished up (spelling, grammar...) If you feel your 6th grader is not doing enough, and is *capable* of doing more, perhaps start going a bit deeper in one or more ways: - writing = explore writing his own blog entries or creating a newspaper/newsletter or creative writing; check out Cover Story - literature = add Figuratively Speaking or other resource for learning literary elements to prep having a few "tools" for digging deeper into lit. - literature = add a weekly "poetry and tea" time - science = add some hands-on activities and maybe a very occasional simple lab report -- or use a TOPS unit and answer questions on the activity - penmanship = replace handwriting with learning/practicing typing for future papers/essays Or, add some additional subjects: - foreign language = add a Latin program that will work for you both - logic = add a gentle/beginning Logic resource - art/music/drama = start lessons in art or musical instrument or voice; join a community youth theater; once a week, use an art program - home ec = once a week do baking/cooking/meal; a beginning personal finance resource; learn basic auto maintenance; etc. - electives = DS choose an activity of interest: computer coding; soldering electronic kits; robotics; woodworking; etc.
  4. If planning on going on to a 4-year university after high school graduation, the 2 subject areas that they REALLY like to see 4 consecutive years of work are: English and Math. They especially want to see those in 12th grade. Perhaps your student could take Writing 101 and 102 as DE in 12th grade, which would each by 1.0 credit of English AND would likely transfer as accepted credit to knock out the future university's gen. ed. requirement of Writing 101 and 102. As a side note: reading/discussing/analyzing selections of Literature from a college-bound reading list, for 0.5 credit in each of 11th and 12th grade, would really add a solid foundation to your student's future History and Social Studies courses.
  5. Typically, a 1-semester college course that is counted as 3 units/credits or more in the college course listing, translates as 1.0 credit (1 year) of on the high school transcript. So, NO, when you include the Speech 101 course on YOUR high school transcript, it would be listed as 1.0 credit, NOT 3 credits. The college units/credits refers to hours per week of classroom contact -- so a 3-unit (or credit, whichever the school calls it) course means 3 hours per week of classroom/instructor contact. That may be 3 50-minute classes per week (like, M-W-F), or 2 90-minute classes per week (like, T-Th). A course that is listed as 4-units/credits means there are 4 hours per week of classroom/instructor contact -- often this is 3 meetings with the main instructor, plus a 4th meeting that is a lab or discussion, usually with a TA. A high school credit refers to a full, 1-year course (if determined by hours, then usually an average of 150 hours of work/learning -- which comes out to a little over 4 hours per week x 36 weeks of a typical school year. On your transcript list it with the college course name, award no more than 1.0 credit, and include the grade earned. Also footnote it was an outsourced class (dual enrollment at the college). Example: ENGLISH course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit . grade English 9: Intro to Lit & Comp . . . . 1.0 . . . . A English 10: Advanced Lit & Comp . 1.0 . . . . B English 11: American Lit . . . . . . . . . 0.5 . . . .A English 12: World Lit . . . . . . . . . . . 0.5 . . . . B Speech 101* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0 . . . . A TOTAL credit/GPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.0 / 3.625 * = course completed as dual enrollment at XYZ College As with AP, you may weight the DE grade, so that any college level course is on a 5.0 grade scale rather than the usual 4.0 grade scale: AP/DE . . Honors . . Typical A = 5.0 . . . . 4.5 . . . . . 4.0 B = 4.0 . . . . 3.5 . . . . . 3.0 C = 3.0 . . . . 2.5 . . . . . 2.0 D = 2.0 . . . . 1.5 . . . . . 1.0 Great! Sounds like your student is getting a good amount of writing in this course. I personally would still have my student do at least 0.5 credit of Literature for the 11th grade credit, and count the Speech as an additional 1.0 credit under the English heading (see example above).
  6. Yes, speech can count towards an English credit. Speech is often counted as 0.25 to 0.5 credit of English in many public schools -- in fact it is often required to be a part of one of the high school English credits in public schools. I could see counting this Speech 101 course as up to 0.5 credit of the 1.0 credit of the 11th grade English credit. Maybe you and your student could select a book list and reading/discussing literature could be the other 0.5 credit in 11th grade? Or, if your student is writing several research papers for History or Science, that writing could be the other 0.5 credit of English for 11th grade. And yes, the other subject area that Speech 101 would usually be counted under on the high school transcript is Electives.
  7. Below are some ideas -- be sure to note the year in parenthesis after each movie, as there are often multiple versions, and more recent versions often contain more mature content. ______________________ MEDIEVAL: Non-Fiction (all ages) - David McCauley's Castle, and, Cathedral - Life in the Middle Ages -- kids' documentary by Schlessinger Media Fiction/Feature Films & TV: - Cadfael episodes -- mid 12th century - Ivanhoe (1952) -- Normans/Saxons - Knights of the Round Table (1953) -- King Arthur - Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Secret of Kells (2009) -- animated I have NOT personally seen these, but they look like they would be fine: - Prince Valiant (1954) -- spin off story/character from traditional King Arthur - The Black Knight (1954) -- time of King Arthur - The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) -- 1400s, time of Henry IV - El Cid (1961) -- the Spanish epic knight hero - Prince of Foxes (1949) -- end of 1400s, Italian Borgias - The Black Rose (1950) -- 1200s Saxon leaves Norman England to seek his fortune in the Far East - The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) - VERY loosely based on the real 1200-1300s merchant's travels from Venice to China Medieval England "biopic" (movie biographies) -- probably more for late middle school/high school ages: - Alfred the Great (1969) - 800s England - The Lion in Winter (1968) -- 1100s England; play about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine - Becket (1964) -- 1100s England; Henry II and Thomas a Becket - Joan of Arc (1948) -- 1400s France - Henry V (1989) -- 1400s England; Kenneth Branagh's version of Shakespeare's play PREVIEW FIRST for age-appropriateness: - Ivanhoe -- more recent versions: (1997 TV mini-series) (1982 TV movie) - The Legend of William Tell (1998) -- TV series - Marco Polo -- more recent versions: (2007) or (1982) - A Knight's Tale (2001) -- a very fun "rock opera" version of jousting and the middle ages with Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales author) playing the role of; the violence is knights getting off of horses while jousting; occasional mild rude comments, suggested-but-not-seen s*x, and one scene with a nude man from the rear, because his gambling addiction caused him to stake all his belongings and he lost (hence, learning a lesson from consequences) Non-realistic -- musical, silly, fun, magical, or fantasy adventure films set in Medieval Times: - Aladdin (1992)-- Disney animated; Aladdin is a 1001 Arabian Nights tale character - Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) -- Sinbad is a 1001 Arabian Nights tale character - Thief of Bagdad (1924) -- silent B&W adventure; loosely adapted from 1001 Arabian Nights - Robin Hood (1973) -- Disney animated version - Thor: Tales of Asgard (2011) -- animated - How to Train Your Dragon (2010) -- animated; Vikings and flying dragons - Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013) -- animated - Camelot (1967) -- the musical play - The Princess Bride (1987) -- vaguely Medieval setting, romantic romp with fantastical elements - Ever After (1998) -- sweet re-telling of Cinderella; setting is more fairytale than medieval - Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) -- Bing Crosby in a musical take on Twain's tale - DragonHeart (1996) - the last dragon and a dragons laying knight team up together; humor and kid level adventure START OF THE RENAISSANCE 1492 -- Nest Videos -- Christopher Columbus 1500s - Nest Videos: Leonardo da Vinci - Nest Videos: Galileo - The Royal Diaries -- 3 princesses in their teen years: Cleopatra (ancients); Isabel (late Middle Ages); Elizabeth 1 (Renaissance) - The Prince and the Pauper (1937) -- from the Mark Twain tale about Henry V's son/heir and a street boy who is his twin - Disney Storybook Favorurites: The Prince and the Pauper (1990) -- animated; Mickey Mouse version - Young Bess (1953) -- early life of Elizabeth I from childhood to becoming queen - Mulan (1998) -- animated Disney film 1600s - Nest Videos: Pocahontas - Nest Videos: William Bradford - Captain Blood (1935) -- swashbuckling adventure - The Three Musketeers (1939) --OR-- (1948) - Courageous Mr. Penn / Penn of Pennsylvania (1942) - Daniel Boone -- the 1936 movie, OR, the Disney live action TV series "King of the Wild Frontier"
  8. Sounds good. 😄 Don't feel that he has to do every.single.problem of every.single.lesson -- it's fine to adjust and do excerpts or skip if he's solid on some of the concepts, just needs some review on others, and needs to spend more focused time on yet other topics. If he's somewhat math-y, and if you feel comfortable with guiding through Algebra 1, you really don't need the videos. 😉
  9. Hmmm... I personally would find car read-alouds (listen to as audio books) harder to use as literature -- i.e., listen in the car and then later on when we got home dig into more deeply... Maybe lean more towards works that are more just for exposure or for fun, and save the deeper digging works for things you can do at home?? Just a thought. In no particular order, and some you may already have done or be saving to dig into, but... car audio book ideas: YA - Maniac Magee (Spinnelli) - Tuck Everlasting (Babbit) - A Long Walk to Water (Park) - The Cay (Theodore Taylor) - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred Taylor) - A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore (Le Guin) - Harry Potter series (Rowling) - The Hero and the Crown; The Blue Sword (McKinley) - Holes (Sachar) - Binti: the complete trilogy (Okorafor) older (pre 1950/1960) classics - mythology (Ancient Egyptian/Greece/Rome; Norse; etc.) - Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne) - Ivanhoe (Scott) - The Fall of the House of Usher, or, short stories by Edgar Allen Poe - something by Dickens -- A Christmas Carol... etc. - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Twain) - The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass (Carroll) - The Call of the Wild (London) - Dracula (Stoker) - The Prisoner of Zenda (Hope) - The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) - a Wooster and Jeeves novel or collection of stories (Wodehouse) - Sherlock Holmes short mysteries (Doyle) - Father Brown short mysteries (Chesterton) - Animal Farm (Orwell) - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) - The Outsiders (Hinton) - Farmer Giles of Ham; The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) more recent (1950/1960-2000) great books - I, Robot (Asimov) -- short story collection, loosely connected stories - Foundation (Asimov) -- short story collection; each jumps forward in time but stands alone, with an overall "arc" - The Sword in the Stone (White) -- 1st book of The Once and Future King -- next 3 books have mature content for a 12yo - All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot) - Watership Down (Richard Adams) - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams) - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury) - The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury) -- short story collection, loosely connected stories - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) - The Martian (Weir) -- the school edition, which removes all the unnecessary 4-letter words
  10. Gotcha. 😄 Maybe look at samples of Jacobs and see what you think -- if DS could go straight to Jacobs Algebra 1, but at a slower pace.
  11. Not quite clear what you mean here ^^^ - Are you thinking Jacobs Elementary Algebra is pre-algebra, and you'll do something else for Algebra 1? (answer: Jacobs is an Algebra 1 program, not a Pre-Algebra program) - Or were you thinking that you'll do a Pre-Algebra program alongside with Jacobs as the Algebra 1? (answer: Depends on the student, but I'd probably do a quick run-through of a pre-algebra program to make sure the student was solid with the basic concepts that are needed for success with Algebra.) - Or that you'll skip Pre-Algebra and go straight to Jacobs as Algebra 1? (answer: Depends on the student. You'll want the student to be very solid with working with fractions, decimals, and basic solving for X to do this.) Another idea, instead of a full pre-algebra program before starting Jacobs -- possibly do excerpts (as much or as little as needed) from the Key to... math series -- whatever the student would benefit from and get solid with. (Key to... Fractions; Decimals; Percents; Algebra). Each topic has several workbooks, with each workbook focusing on different aspects of that topic. So you can get the whole set of workbooks, but just do excerpts, as needed on specific aspects.
  12. Two off-the-beaten-track options: Play On! Stage musical of Duke Ellington's music, with the story of Twelfth Night. It is the story of the play, but not the language of Shakespeare. If your DC enjoy musicals, and if you're just looking for just an introduction to the story of a Shakespeare comedy, this is wonderful. The ONLY place I can find it is the linked VHS recording that has been uploaded. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales 30 minute versions that use the original language. Comedies include: • A Midsummer Night's Dream • As You Like It • The Taming of the Shrew • Twelfth Night Also, you might look around and see if there's a live version being done by a community youth theater, or at a high school -- while the quality of acting and presentation will be amateur rather than pro level, it's SO cool to see a live version -- and one put on by one's peers! 😄 Agreeing with previous posters about the film versions they listed.
  13. In this video review of the Masterbooks version, it looks like set 4 is in the student book. set 1 = review of past concepts set 2 & set 3 = identical types of problems** set 4 = optional challenger problem ** = set 3 is if wanting additional practice on the concept; both set 2 & 3 put the lesson concept into practice; the problems in each set start more simply, and build up to require more thinking ETA It looks like Exodus books carries a few used original editions of the original for $50. Otherwise, I see the ori5ginal editions run for $75 and up at Amazon.
  14. Jacobs Algebra ^^ this is a thread from 2018 that discusses differences between the original 1979 version, and the newer Masterbook version
  15. And, at some point, please consider popping back in to let us know what you all decided on, and how it all worked out! 😄
  16. Yes, as with everything, you really need to check with the specific college for their specific policy. Since it didn't sound like there was a specific future college/university selected at this point for the original poster, I just felt it was safer to make that point very strongly so that there would be no accidental slip-ups. 😉
  17. ALL COLLEGE transcripts MUST be submitted when you apply for admission to a university. Failure to do so is, in essence, a form of fraud, and universities frown very heavily on that. Consequences can include: - student losing scholarship monies from the college -- and possibly even be required to pay back scholarship monies awarded and used - student may be kicked out of the university - student may even be stripped of a degree earned at the university (if the deception is not discovered until later) ANY CC or university courses taken, whether as DE while still in high school, or as a college student after high school graduation, WILL show up on that transcript from the CC -- which you are required to submit when applying for admission to the university. So, if wanting to do CC courses towards an AA, or courses in a CC/University art program, do them as DE, while she is still a high school student. That way she maintains freshman eligibility. If you mean taking courses for audit, rather than for credit -- be very careful. Many colleges still will count for audit classes as knocking the student out of freshman eligibility and into transfer college student status. And audited courses also show up on the transcript, and all transcripts are required to be submitted when applying to the university. I would highly recommend speaking directly to the university and find out their policies on all of these details -- and get it in writing of what they will/won't accept or allow. It is NOT worth the risk to try and "hide" any college classes a student took during a gap year.
  18. Beowulf! So fun! A few things my co-op class has had fun with as go-alongs with Beowulf: - Benjamin Bagby performs Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon - images from the oldest surviving manuscript - Animated Beowulf -- 28-min. video nice introduction to the story, as the art is in the style of the Anglo-Saxons, and the language, while in prose rather than in the original epic poetry style, echoes a lot of the lovely images from the work - Beowulf Pronunciation Guide - Beowulf Resources -- website - Sutton Hoo website -- Anglo-Saxon burial site in England, from the time of the writing of Beowulf - Sutton Hoo artifacts -- images of some of the Anglo-Saxon grave goods / artifacts - The Dig -- Netflix feature film about the discovery of Sutton Hoo
  19. For clarity: the person living in San Rafael said that it was almost a guarantee in SAN FRANCISCO that you'd get a car window smashed. The San Rafael resident said that had happened to them each of the last several times they had gone to San Francisco. The San Rafael person said that when they do have to go to San Francisco, they leave nothing in the car AND fold down the back seats so would-be thieves can SEE that there is nothing in the trunk. This was said by the San Rafael person this summer, so their San Francisco experiences were fairly recent. Just passing on experiences, in case it helps. So glad to hear that others have had GOOD experiences in living near the Bay Area. 😄
  20. Speaking of the refinery, I stumbled over this review by someone who lived there and wrote about their experience, back in 2008: "I lived in Martinez for 6 years, and I have mixed feelings about it. I liked our house and our neighborhood (Westaire), but we didn't feel like Martinez had much to offer. Yes, the downtown is kind of cute, but it's pretty much dead during non-working hours. There are also very few (good) restaurants in Martinez. We always seemed to have to go to Concord, Pleasant Hill, or Walnut Creek to eat out. I don't know much about the schools, but I don't think they are all that great (not as good as Walnut Creek, anyway). I also don't know about the safety of the refinery, but it's an eyesore. Actually, every once in awhile, there would be a ''shelter in place'' alert. A horn would blow or you'd get a phone call to shut your windows and stay inside. I think this was due to soot being spewed out. I guess I didn't worry much about it, but maybe I should have. Some people love Martinez, but I just didn't. We lived in Walnut Creek before moving there, so maybe I'm biased, but I wish we had stayed there, or moved to Pleasant Hill instead. That said, Martinez is more affordable than the other nearby cities, which is exactly why we moved there in the first place..."
  21. Oakland (30 min. away) and San Francisco (40 min. away) are listed as 2 of the top 3 CA cities with the highest homeless population rates. From news articles, it looks like homelessness is on the rise in Martinez as well, and the small city has had increasing difficulties accommodating needs in the past few years. Not meaning this as judgment, but there are a lot of difficult, non-family friendly issues that frequently orbit homelessness, such as unaddressed mental health issues, drug use, and crime. Friends recently were visiting in San Rafael CA, and were going to go into San Francisco to sightsee, and were told straight out to not drive or park their car on the street, as their windows would be broken by those looking to take valuables.
  22. - jewelry making kit - sun catcher kit - candle making kit - soap making kit, gemstone soap making kit, etc. - card making kit, birthday card making kit - sewing kit - origami - bake and decorate a special cake or cupcakes Just an FYI: 10 Things I Hate About You has language, partying with underage drinking, and teen drunkenness; it is not really "cute" or "girly" IMO -- it is useful as a contemporary teen adaptation of Taming of the Shrew. Girly movies more geared for an 11yo: - Tangled (2010) -- Disney animated - Cinderella (2015) -- Disney live-action - Enchanted (2007) - Kitt Kittredge: American Girl (2008)
  23. There are a few threads on the topic of taking a gap year linked on PAGE 6 of the "College Motherlode" thread pinned at the top of the WTM College forum. Also linking for you here: Let’s chat about gap years Revisiting the gap year conceptTalk to me about a gap year after high schoolGap year ideas: have we lost our minds (specifically a wilderness experience) When to apply for college when a gap year is being planned? Gap year and financial aid A few key things to consider in taking a gap year, when the student will go to college the following year: • Do NOT take ANY college classes -- for credit OR for audit -- from a university or community college or other That automatically kicks the student out of freshman status into "transfer student status -- which loses the student eligibility for freshman scholarships -- which are the most plentiful awards / largest awards / renewable awards (good for more than 1 year). • Talk to the future college Some will want the student to apply during the 12th grade year as normal, and be accepted, and be offered a financial aid package FIRST, and then will want the student to follow the school's process for deferring entry by a year in order to take a gap year. Other colleges will not grant deferments, so you need to find out if she can wait a year and apply as a freshman (again -- having taken NO college classes during the gap year). • Go into a gap year having FIRST made a plan Make sure you and the student have outlined expectations of what will happen during the gap year -- is the student going to self study? do volunteer work? get a job? learn or work on real-life "adulting" skills? or... ?? In your situation... a few thoughts: - I've known several families with a 16yo, too young to send to college; so they have the student "walk" the graduation ceremony with their peers, but do NOT award the diploma. For the following year, the student continues to live at home and does all dual-enrollment (college level) courses. At the end of the year, the parents award the diploma, and the credits transfer to the future university, so the student still entered with freshman eligibility for scholarships, but was already going in ready for more advanced courses, and with the gen. ed. courses knocked out, so ready for core concentration course focus for the degree, and able to graduate college in less time. - I understand that Law degree programs really like having students come in with a wide variety of Bachelor degrees -- Science, Economics, History, Political Science, etc. -- because that allows for a lot of helpful background info depending on what kind of law the student decides to "specialize" in. For both reasons above, would your daughter be willing to consider this option? Especially if the DE was all coursework that could be applied toward a future minor or towards doing a double major? - Again, how about "walking graduation" and then doing a year of DE -- and getting her Paralegal AAS degree? That would make her more employable at a higher salary and in the field she is potentially interested in WHILE she goes to college to earn her Bachelor's degree. There are online Paralegal AAS degrees, so no need to be on any college campus, if that is a problem. - Or, if DD is adamant about graduating high school this year, and sending her to college next year is not in her best interest, then how about using the gap year to either work -- in a law office, if possible -- or doing student internship work -- again, in a law office, if possible. You would possibly need to work with a law office or place of business to create an internship program for DD. - Or, what about spending a gap year where she sets up and runs her own business -- baking, for example. Just some rambling thoughts, and hopefully others will jump in with more ideas. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D. ETA: - Or, what about a year of a combination of activities to deepen/extend her knowledge/experience: + working part time + actively pursuing personal interests -- like writing towards a project (a novel, or creation of a blog or newsletter, or whatever the type of writing is that she is interested in) + self-studying in art, literature, history + volunteer work - OR, what about she plans and accomplishes a big year-long project as either her no-classes senior year, or as the gap year if you go ahead and award the ? Something like a managing a group community project, or a business venture, or teaching a course, or...? What a fantastic activity that would be on a college or job application. 😄
  24. Just to clarify, I see Figuratively Speaking (FS) as just one possible way of learning and practicing seeing some of the devices used in literature. We NEVER analyzed literature by literary device (in other words, NOT like doing a "word search puzzle to find devices and check them off a list, lol.). We were definitely in the more informal camp, and with lots of discussion, as it arose naturally-- or not, lol. With 2 laconic DSs, sometimes I *did* have to ask a few leading questions to get DSs to tell me what they were seeing in the work. Often it was just a short statement like "hey, that's a lot like Star Wars there," and me asking "how do you mean?" I tend to refer to what we do when reading some of our literature as "digging deeper," rather than "literary analysis". But because "literary analysis" is the term most frequently is used to talk about discussing lit. or digging deeper into lit at the high school level, even though it's not really the same thing as theformal college-type of "literary analysis" (discussed up-thread), I think most of us just go with "literary analysis" when we are talking about doing something beyond just reading to find out what happens next. 😉 No. They didn't do that until high school, and even then, literary analysis essays were only a small part of the overall writing we did in high school. DSs only wrote about a few works of lit. during the high school years -- mostly it was discussion. As a side note, our writing in high school consisted of a lot of different types of "assignments" for writing such as: - oral presentation with slideshow - science labs - research paper with citations - real life writing -- resume, cover letter, various types of business letters - essays for schosarshipship applications or college admissions - "opinion" papers -- take a topic, decide on an opinion, then build an argument of support - various types of essays: cause and effect; personal narrative; definition; process ("how to") - etc. Windows to the World's unit on writing the literary analysis essay is the clearest, most specific step-by-step instruction I've seen. Designed for gr. 9-12, or for a strong reader/writer 8th grader. It starts with teaching annotation, then goes in to how you use some of your annotations as support in writing the literary analysis essay. The last half of the program covers 8-10 of the major literary devices and how they work, but also how they deepen the work. A high school literary analysis essay would look like NOT narration or a summary of the story. It would look like whatever the student's idea is (beyond the simple plot, or "what happened"), being explained, developed, and supported with points and examples from the work. It might be a character analysis. Or a comparison of some sort. Or writing about a theme that is at work in the lit. Or explaining a "key quotation" in the work. Or how/why the author built a certain mood or created suspense. Or an exploration of an aspect of the author's writing style. Or... At heart, a literary analysis essay is seeing something in the work and writing about that, using specific examples from the work as support. Like any type of persuasive writing, you have an opinion, or claim, or contention, or have drawn a conclusion about something (which is the claim part of the thesis statement), and then the body of the persuasive essay develops an argument of support for that claim, through points/reasons, which are in turn supported and fleshed out by evidence (examples from the work). Teaching the Classics is designed to teach you the teacher how to dig deeper with Socratic questioning. Many people watch the videos alongside their 8th or 9th grade student and they learn/do together. SWB also has an audio lecture on What Is Literary Analysis and When to Teach It -- and here's the conference hand-out that goes with it.
  25. Informal appreciation of "craft" -- a writer's style or how a writer chooses to use language and develop the characters and story -- is also a lovely yet often underrated part of looking at literature. Not like you have to dig really deeply, unless you want to, but just pointing out beautifully written passages, or scenes that are very powerful, is a valuable part of literature studies, IMO. For example, I still remember being so delighted and surprised by both DSs (who tended to be laconic when it came discussion ;)), when they each, independently and unprompted, mentioned how much they appreciated Fitzgerald's writing skill and style in The Great Gatsby.
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