Literature- part of english credit or separate?

[charlotteb]

I'm planning ahead for my son's 9th grade year. We plan on following the WTM history and literature recommendations. In her book, Susan Wise Bauer recommends using Literature as a separate credit, instead of keeping it with English. When I was in high school, it was not separate. But I can see how kids who use SWB's program will be doing much more reading than I did at their age!

So, how did you all count it on your children's transcripts?

[Mrs Mungo]

My eldest will be in ninth next year. However, I plan on listing them separately. The deciding factor is: how many hours will she be spending on it? She will be spending enough hours in English, writing and book study to count it as two credits.

[Ellie]

It is usually assumed that 1 credit (or 10 credits if you're in California :D ) of English includes composition and literature, maybe also grammar. So if you give "literature" a whole credit, then logically it would mean that there would have to be a truckload of composition to make up the difference, KWIM?

 

Maybe it could be 1 credit for English and half a credit for literature.

[VBCaroline]

I asked this question not long ago, and I decided to go with two credits as recommended in WTM. In addition to a Great Books study, dd is taking a full-credit composition course. We'll also be working on R&S grammar, VfCR, and Norton's Essential Literary Terms. She'll have plenty of hours for two English credits.

 

Caroline

[momofkhm]

I bought 2 books on scholarships for college. He asked about being in that stage and I said yes, just finishing freshman year. All the sudden he was giving me all these papers. One of them was a "blank" transcript that they used for their daughter to get into UNC Chapel Hill. (I've heard that it's very hard to get into Chapel Hill by other locals so I put high value on what they used.) Anyway, he listed English and literature separately.

 

English consists of reading(being able to read), handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and composition. He likened it to "it all leads to composition, in the order listed."

[Lori D.]

Here is a recent thread on that same topic: Literature and Transcripts.

 

Like Mrs. Mungo, gecause we do so much additional literature, we count 1.0 credit for English (literature, grammar, composition, vocabulary/spelling), and 0.5 to 1.0 credit toward an elective as "The Great Books: Classic ______ Literature". (So far, we have filled in that blank as 1.0 credit of Ancient Lit., and 1.0 credit of 20th century lit.) Best of luck in determining credits for transcritps! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited April 28, 2010 by Lori D.
fixed typo

[charlotteb]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I will most likely go with the separate credit choice, because it looks like he will be doing at least an hour of reading a day.

 

Also, I apologize for not doing a search of recent posts first. If I had, I might have noticed that someone had just asked the same question a few days ago! My bad :D

[Storm Bay]

Here is a recent thread on that same topic: Literature and Transcripts.

 

Like Mrs. Mungo, gecause we do so much additional literature, we count 1.0 credit for English (literature, grammar, composition, vocabulary/spelling), and 0.5 to 1.0 credit toward an elective as "The Great Books: Classic ______ Literature". (So far, we have filled in that blank as 1.0 credit of Ancient Lit., and 1.0 credit of 20th century lit.) Best of luck in determining credits for transcritps! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

Since time is a poor way of determining dd's credits due to procrastination, how many books are you using for that 1/2 credit? How many papers? Dd is only reading 3 classics at the moment, but is doing 2 12 lecture courses on The Illiad and The Odyssey. I'll have to check the hours needed, but perhaps dd could get 1/4-1/2 credit if I add up all the h hours of reading/listening to theos two on tape, listening to the lectures, answering questions (not papers, for the most part, so I am leaning to 1/4 credit), etc. She is doing a full English program on the side along with a writing program, and it definitely makes up a full credit without the lit. I"ll also read that linked thread, but I was wondering how much you're counting.

[Lori D.]

Dd is only reading 3 classics at the moment, but is doing 2 12 lecture courses on The Illiad and The Odyssey. I'll have to check the hours needed, but perhaps dd could get 1/4-1/2 credit if I add up all the h hours of reading/listening to theos two on tape, listening to the lectures, answering questions (not papers, for the most part...

 

JMO, of course, but that sounds like 0.33 to 0.5 credit to me: 24 hours of lectures alone, and if she's reading full versions of The Illiad and the Odyssey -- those are meaty classics for 2 of the 3 classics!

 

 

 

Since time is a poor way of determining dd's credits due to procrastination, how many books are you using for that 1/2 credit? How many papers? ... She is doing a full English program on the side along with a writing program, and it definitely makes up a full credit without the lit.

 

 

Like you, because we were doing the writing in the English credit, we are not also heavily doing writing for our Great Books credit. And, it really depends on what types of works we were reading, and what grade they were in. For gr. 9, we did the ancients, and were new at it, so it was heavy on the reading and discussion/analyzing rather than writing. But, on the other hand, we also spent time quite a bit of time going over a variety of lit. guides for each work, so we were also learning a lot of literary terms and learning how to use them to analyze the works. Here is what I counted as 1 credit for a Great Books course -- others may say this so not nearly enough, but it was substantial for us:

 

- Epic of Gilgamesh & Babylonian myths (abridged retelling) -- compare/contrast paper

- The Iliad (Fagles full translation) -- narration summary of each book; charted the characters; short response to specific question

- The Odyssey (Fagles full translation) -- two 1-page papers

- 8-10 Greek myths (about 120 pages) -- no writing

- Oedipus the King (Fitzgerald full translation) -- no writing

- Antigone (Fitzgerald full translation) -- no writing

- The Aeneid (abridged prose retelling) -- one 1-page paper

- Till We Have Faces -- no writing

 

Hope that helps! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Mad Jenny Flint]

Your posts are always so helpful. Seeing what work you did for the lit. course and how you counted the credits was extremely beneficial to me.

 

Thanks!

[Storm Bay]

JMO, of course, but that sounds like 0.33 to 0.5 credit to me: 24 hours of lectures alone, and if she's reading full versions of The Illiad and the Odyssey -- those are meaty classics for 2 of the 3 classics!

 

Like you, because we were doing the writing in the English credit, we are not also heavily doing writing for our Great Books credit. And, it really depends on what types of works we were reading, and what grade they were in. For gr. 9, we did the ancients, and were new at it, so it was heavy on the reading and discussion/analyzing rather than writing. But, on the other hand, we also spent time quite a bit of time going over a variety of lit. guides for each work, so we were also learning a lot of literary terms and learning how to use them to analyze the works. Here is what I counted as 1 credit for a Great Books course -- others may say this so not nearly enough, but it was substantial for us:

 

- Epic of Gilgamesh & Babylonian myths (abridged retelling) -- compare/contrast paper

- The Iliad (Fagles full translation) -- narration summary of each book; charted the characters; short response to specific question

- The Odyssey (Fagles full translation) -- two 1-page papers

- 8-10 Greek myths (about 120 pages) -- no writing

- Oedipus the King (Fitzgerald full translation) -- no writing

- Antigone (Fitzgerald full translation) -- no writing

- The Aeneid (abridged prose retelling) -- one 1-page paper

- Till We Have Faces -- no writing

 

Hope that helps! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Thanks! This helps a lot. Dd has done other reading this semester. Some with writing and some without. In addition to the three classics she's read:

 

The Good Earth (answered some questions on setting)

The Hunger Games

Fahrenheit 451 (answered some lit questions)

 

Darn, I'm going to have to check my list, but there are a few more. Some with no writing and some with writing. I think she has enough for a credit, because there are at least four more.

 

Then the question becomes her English. She's doing the entire R&S Gr 8 book, minus the reviews (she really doesn't need them, so I don't make her do them. My other two do the reviews.) She's doing Wordsmith Apprentice and Jensen's Vocabulary. Is that too light for a full credit? She hates writing anything assigned and sometimes takes days to finally write some of the ones in R&S. I'd say it's like pulling teeth, but having had a few teeth pulled to make space in my mouth, I'd say it's harder than pulling teeth ;).