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MCT LA literature lists -- who wants to play?


StephanieZ
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On another current LA thread, someone asked about literature suggestions to go along with MCT LA. I was thinking it would be great to have a list of authors/books cited/quoted/alluded to/etc in the various MCT levels. It could be fun to choose some of them for reading that year (or prior years). . . If anyone knows of such a list already created, please post a link or post it here!!

 

Until/unless someone posts a comprehensive link. . . anyone want to help post lists?

 

I'll start with the Town level. . .

 

I'll put * by ones that seem to be referenced quite heavily.

And a - by ones that seem noticably minor.

 

Paragraph Town

 

Moby Dick, Melville (* major references)

Leaves of Grass, Whitman (- minor reference)

Walden Pond, Thoreau

Gettysburg Address, Lincoln

Wind in the Willows, Grahame

Alice in Wonderland, Carroll

The War of the Worlds, Wells

Tale of Two Cities, Dickens

 

Ceasar's English 1

 

Leaves of Grass, Whitman

Peter Pan, Barrie *

Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Julius Ceasar

Dr. Jekylls & Mr. Hyde, Stevenson

Last of the Mohicans, Cooper

Tom Sawyer, Twain

The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer

 

(I stopped at p.13 b/c I am out of time! There are tons of them in this one!!)

 

 

Grammar Town: none

 

Practice Town: ? none (skimmed only)

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There is a graphic novel of Moby Dick. I think it is illustrated by Eisner. You could always use that type of method to cover some of the more difficult novels.

 

I am a big fan of using the graphic novel as a learning tool.

:D

 

You and my daughter must be soul mates :D She will read *anything* if it's in graphic novel format!

 

I never did manage to get entirely through Moby Dick myself, I don't think.

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I'll join in-

 

Essay Voyage

Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities; David Copperfield

J.M. Barrie - Peter Pan

Charles Montaigne - Of the Education of Children

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

Kenneth Grahame - Wind in the Willows

Ralph Waldo Emerson - The American Scholar

Jane Austen - Emma

Harriet Beecher Stowe- Uncle Tom's Cabin

Abraham Lincoln - The Gettysburg Address; letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby; 2d Inaugural Address

Edgar Allen Poe - The Philosophy of Composition

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels

Alexander Hamilton - The Federalist Papers, #6

Thomas Jefferson - Declaration of Independence

James Boswell - Biography of Samuel Johnson

Henry David Thoreau - Walden

Marjorie Kennan Rawlings - The Yearling

George Orwell - Politics and the English Language

Thomas Paine - Common Sense

Thornton Wilder - The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage

John Adams - XYZ Affair

Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim

Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure

Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography

Ulysses S. Grant - The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant

Richard Wright - Native Son

Herman Melville - Billy Budd

Frederick Douglass - Narrative of Frederick Douglass

John Miur -Douglas Squirrel, Sciurus Douglasii

Edith Wharton - Ethan Frome

Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights

Jack London - White Fang

John F. Kennedy - Profiles in Courage

Robert Louis Stevenson - Kidnapped

Theodore Roosevelt - Autobiography

 

This list does not include the minor references with the text.

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WWW1 (complete)

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

Herman Melville - Moby Dick

James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Harper Lee- To Kill a Mockingbird

Eudora Welty - One Writer's Beginnings

M. Barrie - Peter Pan

Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim; Heart of Darkness

John Hersey - Hiroshima

Rachel Carson - Silent Spring

Martin Luther King - Why We Can't Wait

Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights

Sir Walter Scott - Ivanhoe

William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair

Joseph Heller - Catch-22

Henry James - The American

Charles Dickens - David Copperfield; Great Expectations

H.B. Stowe- Uncle Tom's Cabin

Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

Frederick Douglass - Narrative

Marjorie K. Rawlings - The Yearling

Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

H. D. Thoreau - Walden

T.S. Eliot - Murder in the Cathedral

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter; The House of the Seven Gables

Upton Sinclair - The Jungle

Washington Irving - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

J.F.K. - Profiles in Courage

James Hilton - Lost Horizon

George Orwell - 1984; Animal Farm

H.G. Wells - The Invisible Man; War of the Worlds

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice; Emma

John Knowles - A Separate Peace

Bram Stoker - Dracula

E.L. Doctrow - Ragtime

Jack London - White Fang; The Call of the Wild

Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon

Mark Twain - The Prince and the Pauper

Mary Shelly- Frankenstein

Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

John Milton - Paradise Lost

Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

James Watson - The Double Helix

Thomas Hardy - The Return of the Native; The Mayor of Casterbridge

Mary Wollstonecraft - Vindication of the Rights of Women

Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man

Kate Chopin - The Awakening

Kenneth Grahams - The Wind in the Willows

Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography

John Gardner - Grendel

William Shakespeare - Othello; The Tempest

Virginia Wolfe - Mrs. Dalloway

Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea

Neville Shute - On the Beach

James Baldwin - Go Tell It on the Mountain

Kate Wiggin - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Natalie Babbit - Tuck Everlasting

William Golding - Lord of the Flies

Alfred Lansing- Endurance

Eugene O'Neill - Long Day's Journey into Night

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles

Esther Forbes - Johnny Tremain

Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage

Edith Wharton - Ethan Frome

James Fennimore Cooper - The Last of the Mohicans

Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe

William Faulkner- As I Lay Dying

Jonathan Wyss - The Swiss Family Robinson (in translation)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by The Dragon Academy
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On a different note, I am preparing a list of RFWP novels from their website and how they can be used in conjunction with our other subjects - literature across the curriculum, so to speak. I will try to find the thread where I began doing this and post it here. It is a work in progress, but very ehlpful for me as otherwise, those titles would sit and I would have no direction as to where to use them.

 

Below is a list of what I have so far.

 

We are reading JULIETTA - I selected this as a novel for dd 5th grade as literature with her History Odyssey Middle Ages work, but we are doing it as a read aloud as the twins (3rd grade) LOVE the story as well.

 

Here are the others (we are reading JULIETTA and one other right now - I get :willy_nilly: if we have more than two read alouds going on simultaneously. I have given the links to other RFWP titles below that I have purchased or will be purchasing as I plan for summer and the new school year.

 

http://www.rfwp.com/0890.htm (reading right now) - Harly Weaver (I selected this b/c we are seriously impressing upon all three children the discipline and responsibility involved in playing a sport)

 

http://www.rfwp.com/2621.htm Ordering this to use with Medieval History in 4th grade curric for coming school year. TALES FROM MERRIE ENGLAND I AND II

 

http://www.rfwp.com/9007.htm (Ordering this simply b/c I am baseball fanatic and I collected BB cards when I was a kid -it will probably be a read aloud.) THE T-206 HONUS WAGNER CAPER

 

http://www.rfwp.com/1609.htm (Ordering for all three to use as Literature when studying this time period in History) TRAPPED!

 

http://www.rfwp.com/4632.htm (Ordering as Lit to be read when studying Civil War) WAR COMES TO MADELINE

 

http://www.rfwp.com/3733.htm (Ordering for Lit for WWII History Study) WE HAVE TO ESCAPE

 

http://www.rfwp.com/6393.htm (Ordering for Lit for Civil War Study) YOUNG HEROES OF THE CIVIL WAR

 

http://www.rfwp.com/6416.htm A WILL OF HER OWN (Link to a review if you follow my link) - shakespeare, elizabethan - dd will be reading this within a month or two

 

http://www.rfwp.com/1064.htm CASSIE'S WAR (WWII)

 

http://www.rfwp.com/4969.htm CHARLIE BOY (1890s)

 

http://www.rfwp.com/3105.htm THE EERIE CANAL - (1829) Will do as a read aloud for the 4th grade twins

 

http://www.rfwp.com/3105.htm GLASS INHERITANCE (WWII)

 

I have many more on my list to order, but I am too exhausted to do any more on here tonight. Basically, I go by GRADE, click the link on the RFWP website to the Grades I am planning, and read down looking for novels (which are marked as such), read the description, click the longer description, and determine if this book will become part of our plan.

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I'll play.

 

Here's what I found in the first half of Grammar Island:

- Treasure Island (Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, Robert Louis Stevenson)

- Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot (Grizzlebones)

- Three stooges (Larry, Moe, Curly)

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Okay, ladies, I played along with two of the books and you can see that the lists are rather long. The references in The Magic Lens Vol. 1 are just as numerous.

 

The easiest way to see the titles that MCT uses throughout the Language Arts program would be to buy Classics in the Classroom. The books are not referenced by MCTLA level but the CitC list is comprehensive.

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Okay, ladies, I played along with two of the books and you can see that the lists are rather long. The references in The Magic Lens Vol. 1 are just as numerous.

 

The easiest way to see the titles that MCT uses throughout the Language Arts program would be to buy Classics in the Classroom. The books are not referenced by MCTLA level but the CitC list is comprehensive.

 

:iagree:

And there are some broad age recommendations with each book. Not all the books mentioned in the MCT books are books my dc are ready to read. Moby Dick, for example. (I think MCT mentions this...that some of the quotes are from books they might read in the future. Just getting them some familiarity.)

I do wish the list of books in Classics in the classroom was also listed by age range.

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This is so cool.. we are so pleased that you 'get' the idea of how the novels can help and enhance your studies in other areas. We took a great deal of trouble to cross-reference several hundred novels we have in print so that you can search in the website by grade level,subject, and/or geographical area, as well as by author and title. Enjoy!

Rachel

 

On a different note, I am preparing a list of RFWP novels from their website and how they can be used in conjunction with our other subjects - literature across the curriculum, so to speak. I will try to find the thread where I began doing this and post it here. It is a work in progress, but very ehlpful for me as otherwise, those titles would sit and I would have no direction as to where to use them.

 

Below is a list of what I have so far.

.......

 

I have many more on my list to order, but I am too exhausted to do any more on here tonight. Basically, I go by GRADE, click the link on the RFWP website to the Grades I am planning, and read down looking for novels (which are marked as such), read the description, click the longer description, and determine if this book will become part of our plan.

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  • 2 months later...

While I think quoting selections from great literature is appropriate for elementary level children, I would urge caution in approaching many of these books in their entirety. The lists include all books that I believe educated people should have read at some point; yet, the themes of several are not appropriate for younger kids. (There is no way I would introduce Conrad's works to an elementary level child! Nor Lord of the Flies, nor the Scarlett Letter, etc)

 

Even if a child was able to completely understand the story, the social significance underlying books like Frankenstein would be lost on a child. FWIW.......my oldest kids have read most of the titles, but most not until ages 13+.

 

I'm not quite sure what the numbers are in Michele's posts. At first I thought they were grade level references, but it is impossible that Moby Dick would rate 4th grade reading level and Scarlett Letter post- high school. Are those chpt references within the text themselves?

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While I think quoting selections from great literature is appropriate for elementary level children, I would urge caution in approaching many of these books in their entirety. The lists include all books that I believe educated people should have read at some point; yet, the themes of several are not appropriate for younger kids. (There is no way I would introduce Conrad's works to an elementary level child! Nor Lord of the Flies, nor the Scarlett Letter, etc)

 

Even if a child was able to completely understand the story, the social significance underlying books like Frankenstein would be lost on a child. FWIW.......my oldest kids have read most of the titles, but most not until ages 13+.

 

I'm not quite sure what the numbers are in Michele's posts. At first I thought they were grade level references, but it is impossible that Moby Dick would rate 4th grade reading level and Scarlett Letter post- high school. Are those chpt references within the text themselves?

 

First of all, this is an old thread. :)

 

I too, am not sure what the numbers refer to...

 

However, I don't think anyone is suggesting that these should be read by 4th graders. MCT uses passages from classic lit. to explain vocab word usage in context of actual writing. He mentions, quotes and gives author info on all the books mentioned above, in his elementary texts. He is not expecting you to have your kids read them right then... he wants to expose them to the idea of great literature, the titles and authors and some passages at a young age.

 

I know that my 10 yo wants to read both Moby Dick and Lord of the Flies, due to his exposure through MCT. I, however, know that is not a good idea. :D

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First of all, this is an old thread. :)

 

 

However, I don't think anyone is suggesting that these should be read by 4th graders. MCT uses passages from classic lit. to explain vocab word usage in context of actual writing. He mentions, quotes and gives author info on all the books mentioned above, in his elementary texts. He is not expecting you to have your kids read them right then... he wants to expose them to the idea of great literature, the titles and authors and some passages at a young age.

 

 

 

I didn't realize this thread was old b/c I responded to Michele's which was posted today. :tongue_smilie:

 

But, the OP of the thread did specifically mention creating the lists to pick some of them to read:

 

I was thinking it would be great to have a list of authors/books cited/quoted/alluded to/etc in the various MCT levels. It could be fun to choose some of them for reading that year (or prior years). .

 

That is why I posted what I did. Quotes in isolation demonstrate the qualities of timeless literature. That is not the same as exposing them to the actual work. ;) Future years would be a wonderful objective, though!

 

FWIW.....my high schoolers would gladly give their copies of MD to your children! I love MD and make my kids read it. My older 2 ds's both detested it. I always told them that should feel a sense of victory after reading an entire chapter defining the word "white." They accomplishment is completely lost on them! My dd, OTOH, will be reading it this yr. For her, I am going to have to encourage to not cry about the slaughtering of the whales or pucking when she reads about how they actually get the whale oil!

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What is there in Moby Dick that is not good for a 10 year old?

 

MD is not an exciting adventurous tale about pursuing a whale. It is written in very Romantic language (as in stylistic writing of the time period, not love). It is a tough read when you are older. Many parts of the book would not hold the attention or even be understood by a 10 yr old.

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I completely missed this thread as well. We have done numerous lists like this over the past year, but it is primarily to show someone considering MCT the level and quality of literary works used for examples and analysis.

 

Even though this thread is old, I am glad 8FilltheHeart made the point she did. The purpose of the lists on this thread is not clear. My first impression was the same as 8's; that it is a recommended reading list to go with the various MCT levels. As Jen tried to point out, this is not MCT's intention. The works are used for exposure, not mastery. ETA: I would hate to have a potential MCT user panic thinking those were reading lists or try to overwhelm a child with works they are not developmentally ready for.

 

Korin, Swimmer Dude asked me about almost each novel we encountered. I had to give a summary (sanitized in some cases). I thought I was doing quite well; however, at the end, he turned to me and said, "You aren't very well read are you Mom?" According to his calculations, I could only tell him about roughly 60% of the works.:tongue_smilie:

8FilltheHeart, I know as someone once said that half the literary allusions belong to the Bible and the other half to Moby Dick, but you know, Melville has other novels. White Jacket. I love that book and Melville's humor is so sly. The opening chapter is one of my favorites. Just a thought.

Edited by swimmermom3
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Awesome contribution Michele!!

 

I started this thread as a long term project, and I am glad it was refreshed. I think it could be very helpful.

 

Of course, many works would not be the best choice for young children, but plenty of them are quite appropriate for some children (Peter Pan is quoted a lot in Town!) Also, childrens' ages will vary when they do the various levels. . . My dd13 did Town this year and will read Lord of the Flies in the coming year, so. . .

 

Anyway, I think this is very handy and I'll save Michele's Town list for reference when my little does Town in a few years. . .

 

I sure wish someone would do a Michele style list for Voyage. . . as we're doing Voyage in the fall and I don't want to buy it 4 mos in advance just so I can scope out reading list ideas. . . But, I might very well do that b/c I love the idea of bringing in at least a few titles. . .

 

Thanks again Michele!

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The numbers are approximate reading level off of the Scholastic Site: http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do

 

 

 

 

Ok, Michele, I understand what you did. Just wanted to point out that that site is not giving you RL based on the original works for some of the titles. I didn't go through them all, but I knew there was no way that MD would rate any where near a 4th grade level. It is an adaptation that is giving that RL. Same with Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein. (those were the only 3 I checked. Most of the titles listed are inappropriate for below a high school reading level if read in the original form. There are a few titles that are fine for younger kids, but the vast majority are not.)

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Music of the Hemispheres:

In many cases you get fragments of the poems rather than the complete poem. Also, the Dickinson poems were numbered differently than in the collection I have.

Some of the ? are notes I was making to myself as I was trying to find the poems in my Norton anthologies :)

 

Emily Dickinson XXXIII (33) ; XLVII (47) ; CXXVI (126)

Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth , Sonnet 73 , Sonnet 27 , Sonnet 30 , The Taming of the Shrew , A Midsummer Night's Dream

Carl Sandburg Splinter

Percy Shelley The Cloud

Robert Burns Afton Water ; John Anderson, My Jo ; A Red Red Rose William Blake The Tiger

Thomas Hardy The Darkling Thrush

Ralph Waldo Emerson Brahma

A. E. Housman To an Athlete Dying Young

William Butler Yeats The Lake Isle of Innisfree

William Wordsworth I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

John Keats On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

Dylan Thomas ?p93, p98 (Fern Hill) - Norton p1571

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Charge of the Light Brigade

Aristotle The Poetics

Rupert Brooke ? P126 "The Soldier"

Christina Rossetti ? P144 "My heart is like a singing bird"

Sylvia Plath TG: p145 - The Moon and the Yew Tree

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Awesome contribution Michele!!

 

I started this thread as a long term project, and I am glad it was refreshed. I think it could be very helpful.

 

Of course, many works would not be the best choice for young children, but plenty of them are quite appropriate for some children (Peter Pan is quoted a lot in Town!) Also, childrens' ages will vary when they do the various levels. . . My dd13 did Town this year and will read Lord of the Flies in the coming year, so. . .

 

Anyway, I think this is very handy and I'll save Michele's Town list for reference when my little does Town in a few years. . .

 

I sure wish someone would do a Michele style list for Voyage. . . as we're doing Voyage in the fall and I don't want to buy it 4 mos in advance just so I can scope out reading list ideas. . . But, I might very well do that b/c I love the idea of bringing in at least a few titles. . .

 

Thanks again Michele!

 

Stephanie, did you see Dragon Academy's list for Essay Voyage on here? Or did you want reading levels to go with the mentioned works? Or were you looking for the works in Caesar's English II?

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Stephanie, did you see Dragon Academy's list for Essay Voyage on here? Or did you want reading levels to go with the mentioned works? Or were you looking for the works in Caesar's English II?

 

Oh, I must have missed that post! TY!! I will go back and save it!!! (No, I'm not worried about the RL that much. . . I think I can guess or look them up myself if I am interested in a particular book.)

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