TOG Year 1 question: Which books can I cut?

[ABQmom]

I'm just starting to prepare TOG year 1 for my dc for the fall. I'm wondering about the reading for rhetoric and dialectic stages and am thinking I will need to pare down the reading selections some. For those that have gone through year 1, what books would you not want to miss, and what books would you leave out if you had to cut down on the reading.

I think I'll cross post to the K-8 board as well. Thanks!

[choirfarm]

I'm currently doing year 3. I'm sorry, but I am way too lazy to get up in the attic and get down my box of books and year plan. Could you give me the list of books and I'll tell you which ones we liked/disliked. The only one that comes to mind is the Black ships Before Troy we enjoyed. I remember condensing some weeks... A couple of weeks went into the minutia of judges maybe??? I can't remember but it was chart after chart after chart on a Biblical history I didn't find interesting or meaningful at the dialectic stage. We loved studying about the Temple, however. We were able to go to a life size one that came to the area. Fascinating!!

 

Christine

[Leanna Tomlinson]

I'm currently in year 3 as well, and my year 1 is loaned to my sil, so I'll have to go by memory. Are you considering him R or D? When we did yr 1 my ds was doing R history and I was transitioning to R lit.

 

For History, we enjoyed most of the books, but I would not buy any book that is only used 1 week. I just have my kids do internet research to answer questions that are based on books we don't have, or I lecture from the Teacher's Notes.(The Punic Wars is one title that we didn't buy.) Also, for our first year, we only read the core books. One book that I would substitute is the R level Egypt book. Our whole co-op hated it. When we study Yr 1 again, my R students will read the D selections for those 3 weeks.

 

For Lit., we read mostly D level books like Black Ships Before Troy etc.. Together we would read a short excerpt from the real work (Iliad, Odyssey, etc.). These excerpts are suggested in the Teacher's Notes in the R discussion outlines. You could read these excerpts online or from a library book and not have to purchase the Norton Anthology. In 3rd unit, We did some R lit by having each student in my co-op class read 1 Greek play instead of all that were listed for Rhetoric. We were able to access the plays online since no-one in my younger lit class owned the Norton Anthology. You might consider reading one play and watching one if your library has a good video. Also, I would completely skip the Egyptian poetry and the Mesopotamian Lit books if you are looking at R selections.

 

If you want to ask about certain books, I may be able to remember...

 

HTH,

Leanna

[ABQmom]

I'm currently doing year 3. I'm sorry, but I am way too lazy to get up in the attic and get down my box of books and year plan. Could you give me the list of books and I'll tell you which ones we liked/disliked. The only one that comes to mind is the Black ships Before Troy we enjoyed. I remember condensing some weeks... A couple of weeks went into the minutia of judges maybe??? I can't remember but it was chart after chart after chart on a Biblical history I didn't find interesting or meaningful at the dialectic stage. We loved studying about the Temple, however. We were able to go to a life size one that came to the area. Fascinating!!

 

Christine

 

Yes, I wouldn't want to come up with that list out of my head or dig in the attic for it either! Good point. I will post a list of books later and ask my question again.