What is out there for online live courses for literature courses?....

[Whitneyz]

for instance, my dd is doing a Progeny Press study guide for Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis. I can tell that she would benefit greatly if she could participate in a discussion with other students and had to submit her writing to a teacher for a grade.

 

thx,

Whitney

[newbie]

Veritas Press.

 

k12 Icademy, but that is more teacher graded assignments and every once in awhile a Class Connect, but you can email teach and ask questions.

 

Apexlearning.com does not have class connect but they may have discussions, I remember History was a definite.

[readwithem]

My dd is doing English Lit online at Scholars Online and plans to continue with American Lit next year. Dr. McM is a really good facilitator. I know he has some summer classes, maybe Shakespeare?

 

They're not doing that much writing though - there is a separate class the student can do for that.

http://www.scholarsonline.org/Info/index.php

[cmpet7]

Memoria press has online classes have on-line literature classes. My son took Latin from them this year and really liked it.

[Whitneyz]

I will look into these.

[teacalm]

These are what I know and looked at:

 

Regina Coeli Academy

 

Potter's School

 

Scholar's Online

 

Oxford Tutorials

 

Laurel Tree Tutorials

 

Veritas Online class

[Whitneyz]

thx,

Whitney

[hswarden]

I would like to give a comment or two about the Scholars Online "Western Literature to Dante" class, which I was searching for feedback on last summer. I am not saying this to disrespect someone's hard work, but I think various accounts can be valuable to the one researching a course. My dd is in 9th grade, is a generally curious & very capable reader & thinker, and I thought she'd be challenged by this material, and it fit in with our history study pretty well. Her experience has been that most of the material was not interesting or enjoyable, and it was a lot of hard work to understand. She did not enjoy the banter of students in the online-chat each week, or find it very enlightening or instructive. She is a get-to-the-point kind of student, and was bored wading through the remarks that were not on-topic or appearing to be filling some student's quota of required posts. The only production required of the student other than this discussion are a few tests. The tests cover absolutely everything read so far, with no real guidance about what to study; examples of questions include please give the year & author of a certain book, what the nurse said about Odysseus's scar, or the meaning of an archaic literary term. Unless you had seen the kind of tests he gives, you would have no idea what you should be doing as you go through these weeks of reading. Uninspired as she was, my dd did not spend a lot of time prepping (it seemed so overwhelming! Go back and re-read every book & chat log? No thanks!) and she did very poorly on every test.

 

I have heard that "a lot of students" really appreciated this class and counted it their favorite, but I am just posting this to mention that it is not the case for everyone, even kids who initially find the reading list and subject matter looks appealing.

 

On the plus side, a person who is truly fascinated by ancient & medieval literature might enjoy the pacing of the class and the comments by the instructor. We had no technical problems at all, and the difficult-to-find literature was often available via links posted on the class page.

 

The website for Scholars Online has a description of the course, but also a link to the course webpage which is full of detailed information. I would suggest a prospective student & parent study that material carefully before committing to the class.

[CO MOM]

We have used The Potter's School for several English classes, including an Intro to Lit when my dd was in 10th. They have numerous Lit classes covering a great variety of eras and genres. The teachers have been excellent, though challenging, and having the outside assessment and interaction was very beneficial. They all have placement tests, so you will know if your student is at the appropriate writing level. The weekly discussions - the classes meet for 90 minutes live each week - were great. The students respond orally as well as through a chat box. My dd really enjoyed the assignments and the class experience. HTH

 

Jane

[Cynde]

I agree with Jane about TPS literature. Our dd took TPS Shakespeare lit course (one semester course with Heidi Zylstra). She loved the class and really learned a lot. I was impressed with the depth of study and analysis. Dd was evaluated by weekly written assignments (essay type and creative) answering specific questions and exams which also required writing. The weekly questions weren't fluffy recall type. They required serious thought, and the instructor expected a well-written response both in content and written quality. Overall, fantastic course.

[ValRN]

your feedback was very helpful. Reading the good and bad about a particular curriculum, online course, etc is VERY helpful when I'm trying to make a decision. I appreciate your feedback (I'm not the original poster).

Val