looking for input on possible literature class/group/club

[AngieW in Texas]

I have found that working with my 9th and 11th graders together on literature discussion has helped a lot. My 9th grader and I think too much alike, so our discussions don't really go anywhere. My 11th grader thinks completely differently, so putting my 9th and 11th graders together for literature discussions has helped a lot. I've been splitting my kids off as they hit high school age, but now that I have two high schoolers, I can see how much better it is to have two kids for discussion rather than just one.

 

My oldest is going to do her English at the cc next year, so I will be back to having just one high schooler. My youngest will be in 7th grade, but is dyslexic, so she's not at all up to the kind of reading that I'll need my then-10th grader to be doing.

 

I'm thinking of holding a literature discussion/essay group/club/thing at the library. I found that I could use one of the rooms at the library at no charge as long as I don't charge for the class. I would have to schedule around activities there and could get bumped for city meetings that sometimes spill over into the library, but city stuff doesn't usually happen all that often.

 

What I'm thinking of doing is one semester groups with a different focus each semester. We'd meet 2x/month. The 1st time we'd discuss the book for that month (everybody should have finished it already) and the 2nd time they'd each have the opportunity to present a paper (must be able to read it within 10 minutes, preferably 5). I'll have discussion questions for them to look over when they start reading each book and suggested essay topics. I won't actually grade the papers, but I will offer feedback.

 

My plan was to come up with 5 books for each semester and cover one each month. I would choose a shorter/less complex book for December. Each semester would have a different focus: 5 American literature novels, 5 world (not British) novels, 5 British novels, 5 Shakespeare plays, 5 (not Shakespeare) plays, selection of short stories in 5 themes (or maybe 5 authors rather than 5 themes).

 

Do you think something like this would work? Would you be interested if it was available somewhere near you?

 

My primary reason to do this would be to have a group for my dd to discuss literature with. That's one thing that's hard to do as a hser.

[SonshineLearner]

I'd love to have it... If I had an actual "tutor" for my daughter... I'd pay:-)

 

:-)

[dirty ethel rackham]

I do something like this for ds16. It has worked well. I am hoping to do something like this for ds13 next year, but I am having trouble finding a peer group. Most of the kids we know his age don't seem to be ready for higher level thinking (discussing other than comprehension type questions) and the moms don't expect that much.

[AngieW in Texas]

I've talked it over with another mom who I figured would be interested and have changed up my plans a bit.

 

Now I'm planning on one year each of American, British, and world literature, probably in that order because I think the difficulty will increase each year that way.

 

I plan to have yahoogroup for the kids to post questions and discuss the books online and have an actual meeting just 1x/month. We'd cover one book or play or a set of short stories each month. Any papers that the kids write can be posted to the email loop, but there won't be any grading and writing won't be required by the group. It's just that to count it as an English class, you'd need to have a writing component in addition to the literature.

 

So far these are the books/plays I plan to do for American literature:

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Crucible or Death of a Salesman (probably Crucible) by Arthur Miller - plays

Our Town by Thornton Wilder - play

 

This year we have already covered To Kill a Mockingbird, Gift of the Magi, Most Dangerous Game, Contents of a Dead Man's Pockets, Ransom of Red Chief, Tell-tale Heart, Pit and the Pendulum, Black Cat, Fall of the House of Usher, Murder in the Rue Morgue, Annabel Lee, The Raven, Story of an Hour, The Lottery, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Tom Sawyer, Call of the Wild, The Pearl, Bartleby the Scrivener, and some other short stories that I've forgotten that are typically covered in American Literature.

 

The novels I'm considering for the remaining two book slots to add to the list above are:

Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

A Separate Peace by Knowles

I haven't read any of the books on my maybe list, so I need to read them all to decide which ones to cover.

 

For short stories, I'd want to do 10-20 of the stories below:

Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

at least one story by Poe

The Bell Tower by Melville

Outcasts of Poker Flats by Bret Harte

one story by Stephen Crane

Celebrated Jumping Frog by Mark Twain

Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

To Build a Fire by Jack London

an O. Henry story that we haven't done yet

1-2 short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald

a story by Flannery O'Connor

a story by Ray Bradbury

a story by Ursula LeGuin

I haven't read everything on this list either, so I need to get started reading to decide what to cover.

[Peek a Boo]

I found that the best way to start a group like this is to start with short stories read aloud and discussed: it can be completed during the one hour, so if anyone hasn't read it, they won't feel left out. As they get used to group participation, they will feel more comfortable and knowledgeable in knowing "what" to look for as they read an assignment. Libraries are especially vulnerable to this as they tend to have more "drop-ins" than a "regular class." But if you're doing it during school hours so you can pretty much know whom to expect, that shouldn't [hopefully] be too much of an issue......

 

good luck!