What do you think of the study guides from The Great Books?

[Kfamily]

If you've used any of the guides from this site, would you please share your opinion of them?

 

Here is the site: http://www.thegreatbooks.com

 

 

Thanks!

[Kfamily]

bump

[FloridaLisa]

I believe LuanneinID and Lori D have used some of them. You might want to search for a post on thegreatbooks on the high school board.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[Lori D.]

So far we've only used the one for Beowulf. It was fine -- a nice variety to the mix of lit. guides we have used this year for 2 students, which has included:

 

- the Parallel Shakespeare book / student workbook / teacher guide

- Brightest Heaven of Invention, Christian lit. guide to 6 Shakespeare plays

- Progeny Press Christian guides

- Portals to Literature guide

- Sparknote free online lit. guides

- Garlic Press publisher lit. guides

- Lightning Lit & Comp 8

 

 

The Great Books booklet was a guided discussion through Beowulf, with the emphasis on worldview, particularly Christian worldview themes in Beowulf. It is a "half-size" booklet of 40 pages, broken down as follows:

- 3 pages = "how to use this booklet" (Socratic method)

- 2 pages = background of author/times

- 2 pages = historical context

- 17 pages = guided discussion questions / meaty answers; some could be used as essay prompts

- 4 pages = "big picture" of themes and comparison to other lit.

- 7 pages = key quotes from book reprinted

- 3 pages = key Scriptures referred to reprinted

 

 

Hope that is of help! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited May 23, 2009 by Lori D.
correction for clarity

[dymphna57]

I use the Great Book Study Guides from Angelicum Academy, the catholic offshoot of GBA. There are two per year for for years. They are loose pagesvin a notebook form and the cost is about fifty dollars each. I bought mine several yrs ago so that might have changed.

I am looking at semester one ,third year, Middle Ages. It is 124 pages with pages 1 & 2 introducing the guide.

The use Brittannica's GBOTWW as a spine and acknowledging the debt to Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins. There are sixteen selections, all prefaced by a poetry selection from Dr. James Taylor ,author of Poetic Knowledge.

Each reading has a brief summary then a suggestion of suggestions of important ideas , themes or images that might be missed by first time readers. I am attempting to paraphrase Dr. Alexander here to make this brief.

Following the suggestions are studyvquestions and then reflection questions for deeper meaning of the whole work.

I have found these questions very helpful in discussing the readings with my sons.

"recall Aristotle's definition of tragedy: that the plot was an imitation of an action, the action being some interior movement that the plot was making visible and that the action turned on a movement of recognition and turning. These two elements combined produced a catharthis,a purging of unhealthy emotions. Do these apply to Chaucer's stories? Are there moments of recognition that turn the action? Do purging regularly takevplace? How important are these for comedy?"

They are worth considering. IMO

[dymphna57]

I use the Great Book Study Guides from Angelicum Academy, the catholic offshoot of GBA. There are two per year for for 4 years. They are loose pages in a notebook form and the cost is about fifty dollars each. I bought mine several yrs ago so that might have changed.

I am looking at semester one ,third year, Middle Ages. It is 124 pages with pages 1 & 2 introducing the guide.

The use Brittannica's GBOTWW as a spine and acknowledging the debt to Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins. There are sixteen selections, all prefaced by a poetry selection from Dr. James Taylor ,author of Poetic Knowledge.

Each reading has a brief summary then a suggestion of suggestions of important ideas , themes or images that might be missed by first time readers. I am attempting to paraphrase Dr. Alexander here to make this brief.

Following the suggestions are study questions and then reflection questions for deeper meaning of the whole work.

I have found these questions very helpful in discussing the readings with my sons. Here is a sample.

"recall Aristotle's definition of tragedy: that the plot was an imitation of an action, the action being some interior movement that the plot was making visible and that the action turned on a movement of recognition and turning. These two elements combined produced a catharthis,a purging of unhealthy emotions. Do these apply to Chaucer's stories? Are there moments of recognition that turn the action? Do purging regularly takevplace? How important are these for comedy?"

They are worth considering. IMO

[Kfamily]

Thanks all! That was very helpful-:001_smile:

[Miss Marple]

I've used a few of these and find them helpful. But I do not use them exclusively. They have some good thought-provoking questions and comments. I particularly like the summary at the end of each booklet. However, one of the things that bugs me is that the questions are not tied to chapter/page number, etc. It is sometimes difficult to find the passage to which the question refers.

 

I use a variety of online resources, sparknotes, etc. along with the notes from TheGreatBooks in order to gain a more rounded view of the work. I think they are worth the money. In fact, I'll be using a lot of the medieval guides next year.