alisoncooks: FWIW, I see the merit in separating the study of literature from that of writing. What's more, it drives me nuts that so many English courses pretend that writing = literary analysis — a peculiar type of writing that no student will produce after leaving school...

[bolding mine] So sorry to hear that, kokotg! — Such requirements are onerous but in our experience rare. They may, however, be more common in state schools...

kokotg: When we needed to outsource a course, the strategy we pursued with both our kids was to defuse any concerns among admissions officers about all our students' coursework, including not just unaccredited courses but courses done at home, or anything resembling "mommy" grades or credits. To implement this strategy, we did two things: identified the best instruction we could find & afford — and the key criterion was not accreditation but excellent teaching; include coursework that would help validate all the other credits & grades. To illustrate the second point above: In their junior & senior years, both our kids took courses at a local university*, where they not only got As but formed relationships with their professors. As a result, both students' portfolios included letters of recommendation from their university professors. Each of our students interviewed at a number of colleges, and not one of them asked about accredited courses. Also, both of our students received significant merit aid, and as a result, both are graduating college debt-free (one of our aims). So in an earlier posting I wrote: Some admissions officers harbor concerns about homeschooling, and there are indeed things that colleges really care about. But accreditation is not one of them. — In other words, admissions officers want to know that your student has done quality work throughout the high school years, but they don't imagine that accreditation is the only way to demonstrate quality. Just one more point: My wife and I, as teachers ourselves & vendors of honors-level instruction, looked into getting our courses accredited. We were dismayed by the meaningless and mercenary process involved — basically a matter of paying thousands of dollars to some agency to award us a piece of paper. Hope this is helpful. __________________________________________ * Courses at a local university, not a local community college, where — in our area, at any rate — the quality of the teaching seems a roll of the dice and, more often than not, mediocre or even appalling.

EKT: Some admissions officers harbor concerns about homeschooling, and there are indeed things that colleges really care about. But accreditation is not one of them.

My Shakespeare Intensives are relatively light on output. They're courses in both 1) understanding & appreciating the greatest writer in English; 2) close reading of challenging text.

pehp: My wife is a superb biology teacher, and her honors-level course is really engaging: https://hscollegebound.com/Online-Courses-Honors-Biology-With-Lab.htm

First, mlktwins, I applaud your idea for your boys's 12th grade studies. At the same time, if you're contemplating a DIY approach, what I can offer won't be available in time for your boys. — I'm sorry about that. Background: I have always found it distressing that we ask students to write essays before they're actually read any. So I spent an entire year dipping into essay collections (including many Norton Samplers), searching for a book of — essays that adolescents would find compelling; pieces that would model what can be achieved in the essay form. What I found was disheartening — book after book featured essays that were listless, dull, pointless, self-indulgent meanderings in prose, and then perhaps the occasional gem. The point is that most of the essays that would in no way be compelling to teenagers; more than nine out of ten of the collected pieces were not even in the same league as, say, the essays of George Orwell. So the proposition of these collections was something like: Buy the whole book; get perhaps one decent essay. Result: For my writing courses, I use two collections of essays that I myself have hand-picked for high-school-aged students. The essays have been selected both to demonstrate the essay as a form of writing and to make teenagers fall in love with the form. Reading closely, analyzing, & discussing in real depth such essays is a major part of my writing instruction. What's more, I've steadily improved each collection — jettisoning pieces that fell flat with my students, adding new ones for trial with my class. Sometime in the next few years I plan to publish both collections, precisely because I know there are parents & teachers like you, mlktwins, who see the need for and utility of such collections. — I'm sorry they're not ready for you now. At the same time, if you'd like a conversation by phone, I may be able to make a few recommendations, steer you in some useful directions. Good luck with your efforts. — Roy

For a ninth-grader: Try The Year 1000.

Please add this chemistry course to the list! Name: Honors Chemistry With LabProvider: HS College-Bound — Instructor: Diane SpeedWhere to buy: https://hscollegebound.com/Online-Courses-Honors-Chemistry-With-Lab.htmLevel: HonorsType: Online provider; NOT asynchronous, but live & interactive in real time, in three classes per week. Students routinely interact with the instructor, ask questions about the content, and discuss with one another.Additional Materials: Lots, but teacher distributes as the class progresses. (See lab materials below, under Lab kit available.)Teacher Resources: N/ALesson Plans: N/ASecular/Christian: SecularProgram includes labs: Yes—hands-on & virtual. Lab kit available: Yes. Lab materials are shipped to each student at the beginning of the year. Cost of materials is included in the course fee.Math background needed: Algebra 1

Can you be a little more specific about what you have in mind? I'm teaching a course right now that might work for you. You can read about my approach here: https://www.city-journal.org/reading-essays If you'd like to discuss with me, just let me know; I can fill you in on how my course works. In any event, good luck to you.

My wife's course is live and highly interactive. — Students attend two classes per week, beginning August 31: Tuesdays 11:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT Fridays 10:30 – 11:30 Am EDT https://hscollegebound.com/Online-Courses-Geometry.htm

It sounds to me as though this provider's only interest is in sliding your son into one of their boxes. For my part, I would recommend a little more diagnosis — i.e., pinpointing the problem, understanding why he scored poorly. My first thought would be to investigate his reading level as well as his reading habits.

I've enjoyed the "Spenser" series of detective novels by Robert B. Parker. — Favorite so far: Looking for Rachel Wallace. I would also second The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. In all such novels, I think we're seeing descendants of the Knights of the Round Table and the chivalric code. I feel emboldened by Lori D's more outrageous suggestions (Wife of Bath's Tale, Jane Eyre) to mention what I consider one of the earliest detective stories: Shakespeare's Hamlet. — Explanation: The ghost of Hamlet's father, the king, tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his own brother (Claudius). Implications: The crown has been stolen, usurped. But there's a problem with the ghost's testimony: in Elizabethan England, a ghost was not automatically assumed to be the spirit of a dead person; rather, a ghost was believed to be a demon — and in particular, a demon adopting the guise of someone familiar to you, recently dead, in order to lure you into some evil. (Close reading of the text reveals this to be Hamlet's belief.) So what the play is about is Hamlet attempting to solve a mystery: Has the ghost spoken the truth? — Did Hamlet's uncle really kill Hamlet's father? Or is the ghost a demon, speaking lies to lure Hamlet into murdering his own uncle? Hamlet has to find the evidence...

KristenHeart: I teach a course that may provide what you're seeking. It's called Logical Communication. Also, if it turns out that what I teach is a fit with your needs, I'm open to discussing a partial scholarship. A few details about this class: Logical Communication is a year-long online course, and it's all live interaction (not asynchronous). The course emphasizes logical progression of ideas, i.e., the skeletal structure that underlies any great essay — hence the title of the course. In addition to writing their own essays, my students read closely and discuss at length more than forty essays by great writers. (I've always found it crazy that we ask students to write essays before they've actually read any.) I teach a process for getting started quickly and moving through the stages & decisions that will have you producing a first draft in record time. I teach tools for revising & editing your work that can transform your draft into a smooth, polished read. To learn more, just visit the link provided above. I'd also be happy to meet with you online, KristenHeart, and show you exactly what I teach and how. Good luck in your search.

Alice: Your daughter may be a bit young for my course, and perhaps we should speak by phone. Please have a look at this course description— https://hscollegebound.com/HSCB-Blend-Logical-Communication.htm —and then let me know if you'd like to discuss. All the best.

My wife is a talented and experienced biology teacher, and she has fashioned a series of science intensives that may appeal to your son and satisfy your own concerns as well: Each intensive is only 8 weeks long. Each comprises two 60-minute classes per week, for a total of 16 classes. Each includes labs — but you won't have to do anything. (Your son should do just fine without any hand-holding from you.) These courses may be short, but they're real science — the real deal. My wife's intensive on ecology is high school level, but all the others are honors-level. She uses mostly college texts, and most important, she believes in going deep, i.e., the opposite of AP, which must by design teach to the test and is therefore lots of work, a mile wide, an inch deep. Also, doing labs in her class is not just ticking the lab box. For her students, more important than doing each lab is analyzing the results for deeper meaning — seeing how the experiment brings to life theory they've just been grappling with in the textbook or in the lectures. So each lab is about achieving real scientific understanding. Her labs often include jaw-dropping experiences and deliver real insight. My wife's students also do research projects and make presentations to the class. — Her current science intensives are as follows: Ecology Genetics Botany Anatomical Systems So your student can take any combination of these intensives, or all of them, or just one. — Assigning appropriate credits is up to you. Hope that's helpful, Roadrunner.

Here are two online summer intensives — one in Science, the other in Shakespeare: 1) Anatomical Systems: Tuesdays & Fridays, June 4 – July 30 https://hscollegebound.com/Science-Intensives.htm#Anatomical Instructor: Diane Speed 2) Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: Tuesdays & Fridays, June 4 - 29 https://hscollegebound.com/Roy-Speed-Twelfth-Night.htm Instructor: Roy Speed

Newlma: A number of useful resources: "The Weird Sisters," by Albert Harris Tolman. This essay appeared in Tolman's 1904 book The Views About Hamlet and Other Essays. It's wonderfully readable, despite its age — a model of fine literary analysis. Tolman delves into Shakespeare's use of the word "weird" in Macbeth, as well as the origins of the word in Norse mythology. Turns out that the word weird entered English because of its use in this play, and Tolman reveals that when Shakespeare calls the witches "the weird sisters," the term has a depth and resonance that most students will find stunning. (My students do.) "Shakespeare's Imagery in Macbeth," by Caroline F. E. Spurgeon. The piece comes from Chapter 15 of Spurgeon's amazing book Shakespeare's Imagery (1936). She writes in limpid prose of certain patterns in the imagery Shakespeare uses in Macbeth, claiming that his imagery in this play is in a class of its own, making Macbeth unique among the plays for the richness and variety of the images. — It's yet another model of clear, easy-to-read literary analysis, putting to shame today's obscure academics. Holinshed's Chronicles, Volume 5: Scotland (1577). This is Shakespeare's source for many of the events — and even the speeches! — in Macbeth. I love having students read aloud the antiquated English and discover, to their surprise, that when pronounced aloud, it's perfectly intelligible. Here's an excerpt: It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho iournied towards Fores, where the king then laie, they went sporting by the waie togither without other companie, saue onelie themselues, passing thorough the woods and fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a laund, there met them thrée women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of elder world, whome when they attentiuelie beheld, woondering much at the sight, the first of them spake and said; "All haile Makbeth, thane of Glammis..." You can access this portion of Holinshed here: https://shakespeare-navigators.com/macbeth/Holinshed/ Hope this helps, Newlma. My thanks to SusanC for plugging my Shakespeare courses, and yes, my own series on Macbeth begins on March 10!

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful! — Good luck to your daughter!

Kelly: I'm attaching pages from my course The Writer's Guide to Grammar that relate to your request. Just a few words of warning: I don't have a section called "The Comma Splice." Rather, this section is called "Independent Means," and it teaches how to punctuate a compound sentence. In this material, occurrences of a comma splice are usually described as "run-on sentences." ("Run-on" does not mean, as is commonly believed, a really long sentence; rather, it's the technical punctuation error also described as "a comma splice.") Don't get me wrong: I think the term comma splice is really useful. In fact, I tell my students there's a punctuation error so common in student writing that teachers gave it a name — the comma splice, i.e., the attempt to splice together two independent clauses using only a comma. Just one more thing: For your convenience, I'm including here both the pages from the student workbook and the corresponding pages from the teaching guide & answer key. (You can purchase the complete workbooks on Amazon.) Hope you find this material useful, Kelly. Pages from Writers-Guide-to-Grammar-INDEPENDENT MEANS (Student workbook).pdf Pages from Writers-Guide-to-Grammar-INDEPENDENT MEANS (Teacher's Guide).pdf

Have you looked at my book yet: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983545510

See my course Logical Communication.

How old is your son? — I might expect an 8th-grader to discuss things differently than a 12th-grader. If your student is truly reading primary sources, that's awesome. Among the things I do... I try to encourage my students to notice what's right in front of them — including their own reactions to specific aspects of the document: Was there anything here that you found surprising? — What, exactly? What was surprising about that? What do you notice about the "voice" of this writer? — How does he or she sound to you? Was there anything here you found really easy to read & understand? — What, exactly? Was there anything here you found really hard to read or understand? — What, exactly? [Go to the difficult passage; then:] What was it exactly that made this hard to follow? [Have your student pinpoint the things in the writing that the student found challenging, e.g., unusual words; allusions to events or customs the student is unfamiliar with; long, tangled sentence structures, etc.] Not a complete list, obviously...

Hi, bfw0729. I offer honors-level intensives in close reading of Shakespeare that might meet your son's needs. I have two upcoming series: Hamlet — A ten-week intensive beginning December 2. Macbeth — A seven-week intensive beginning March 10. I usually recommend that parents award one-third of an English credit for each intensive, so the two intensives would definitely merit a .5 credit. If you have any questions, bfw0729, feel free to reach out to me via our website. Good luck to you and your son. —Roy

Literary criticism & analysis are essentially the same thing; there's no clear, agreed-upon distinction. For my part, I can steer you to examples of awesome (as opposed to loathsome) literary analysis. But I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you're looking for, i.e., your son needs to take issue with two other writers, yes? — What's his topic? Here are two pieces, for instance, on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet — each is a great piece of writing (see attachments). But is your son writing about Shakespeare, or something else? —Roy CAROLINE F. E. SPURGEON - Shakespeares Imagery - Chapter 15.pdf 2006 - Ryan McKittrick - How Romeus Became Romeo.pdf