Reading and discussing literature/books and writing/analyzing them

[Kfamily]

I know this would be a rough estimate but how many books would you say a typical high school student should only read their books (for literature, history, philosophy,etc.) and discuss them with you? How many should be used for writing essays and studying more intently? Or a little of both for all of them? Also, would you vary this for each grade or keep the standard the same?

 

From the WTM I read that the student does mainly this with each work for literature:

Book Context

Book Notes (which is mostly studying what type of work it is-genre-and how to read that type)

Read the book

Conversation with you

Writing assignment

 

Would you do this with every book in each grade or vary this?

Also, for history would you do all the work for it plus have writing assignments on speeches and documents?

 

I'm trying to get an idea of how much reading, writing and study of a book is needed. I know that some of this has to vary according to the student and family, but just some ideas of what others are doing would be very helpful.

My dd will be in 8th next year and while I am raising the bar for her again, I want to do so gradually and fairly and based on where we need to be in 12th. I can then adjust this down with the end goal in mind. (Hope that makes sense...:lol: Hope any of this makes sense...)

[stephanier.1765]

Good question because right now I have 18 on our "want to do" list which I think is less than listed in the WTM. Some of them are easier or shorter works than others but still that seems like a lot of work.

[Chris in VA]

I think SWB says between 8 and 12 per year.

 

We did very light writing, and I wish we'd done more. However, we did a good amt of reading--and now ds has had exposure and some experience dissecting/analysing. He can do more in college, so I'm ok with what he accomplished. We could have discussed more deeply, also--he's borderline Aspie, so discussion/rhetoric level analysis was more difficult. I can post our reading list if you want.

[Kfamily]

Thank you Chris, your booklist would help me too.

 

If we do 8-10 books with all of the work required, and some poetry, speeches and documents studied (but not all of them), would this be a good balance? I could then leave a remaining 4-6 books for just reading and discussion. Does that sound okay?

Edited July 17, 2010 by Kfamily

[JennW in SoCal]

This last school year my 10th grader read 11 works of literature, did a month long unit on poetry, and read 3 other books related to history. He also read a great deal for pleasure.

 

We discuss everything, both assigned books and books for fun, because it is just what we do. Most of the works were assigned with some background reading or Teaching Company lectures, but I didn't assign a context page for each and every work. I also didn't expect an essay on each and every work. Some decisions were based on the time of year such as last December when his robotics team started the competition season and I was busy with holiday obligations (I'm a musician and December is a busy time.) I assign less output during those busy times, but the input -- the reading and the discussions never stop.

 

Overall I expected 2 essays a month, on science, literature, or history.

 

His reading list for a year long World history and literature course (meeting the UC-bound high school requirements):

 

• History of the World in 6 Glasses
  
• Story of Philosophy
  
• Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire
  
• Bible: Genesis and Exodus, Psalms
  
• Walking the Bible (selections)
  
• The Illiad (by popular demand...)
  
• Poetry and Beauty, Poetry and Truth (Michael Clay Thompson)
  
• The Tempest
  
• Candide
  
• Kim
  
• Heart of Darkness
  
• Lost City of Z
  
• Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle)
  
• All Quiet on the Western Front
  
• The Things They Carried
  

 

 

His unassigned reading wasn't fluff by any means and lead to lots of great discussions as we share many books. Occasionally one of these books winds up as a starting point for an essay -- I try to be flexible and respond to his interests.

[Kfamily]

This helps a lot! Thank you JennW! I will take some time to study this more.

[Chris in VA]

Thank you Chris, your booklist would help me too.

 

So if we do 8-10 books with all of the work required and some poetry and some study of some of it. If we did some speeches and essays studied but not all of them. Would this be a good balance? I could then leave a remaining 4-6 books for just reading and discussion. Does that sound okay?

 

16 books all together would be too much, imo.

 

Some of the context pages will practically be repeats of each other--don't make these "real" papers, just a few paragraphs that give the gist of major developments happening at the same time as the Great Book you are reading was written. (Now THAT's a poorly written sentence! lol)

 

Booklist for Ancients (this is from memory, so it may not be highly accurate)

 

Bible in One Year (this was part of devotions; Genesis and Exodus were studied as literature and theologically)

Genesis

Exodus

Gilgamesh

Hittite Warrior, Joanne Williamson

Cat of Bubastes, G.A. Henty

Greek Myths, D’Aulaire

The Odyssey, Homer

The Iliad, Homer

The Orestia, Aeschylus

Theban Trilogy, Sophocles

The Histories, Herodotus

12 Caesars, Suetonious

Greek and Roman Lives, Plutarch

Ben Hur, Lew Wallace

Quo Vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz

Know What You Believe, Paul Little

Know Who You Believe, Paul Little

It Couldn’t Just Happen, L. Richards

 

 

Med/RenMartyr of the Catacombs

Church History, Eusebius

Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede+

Confessions, Augustine

Song of Roland

Beowulf

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Once and Future King, T.H. White

Canterbury Tales (Selections), Chaucer

In Freedom’s Cause, G.A. Henty

The NineTailors, Dorothy Sayers

Inferno, Dante

Parcel of Patterns, Jill Paten Walsh

World Religions 101, Bruce Bikel

 

We added a couple of other books just for the theology.

 

The 3rd year, we did most of Sonlight 300, adding in guides from Sparknotes, and skipping some of the easy stuff. We also added in Scarlet Letter, b/c I thought he should read it and I didn't know if we'd get around to the EArly Mod period.

 

20th Cent

(The Scarlet Letter)

Heart of Darkness

Metamorphosis

The Jungle

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Great Gatsby

Cheaper By the Dozen

Grapes of Wrath

China’s Long March: 6000 Miles of Danger

Parallel Journeys

The Hiding Place

Alas, Babylon

The Old Man and the Sea

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton

Red Scarf Girl

 

Then the 4th year, which ds did as a summer semester and a fall semester, so he could graduate in 2008 (this was important to him as we held him back a year in 3rd grade, and he wanted to graduate the same year as some of his church friends). He did a poetry study and a short story study for a semester, using Progeny Press' poetry unit (very nicely done) and 50 Great Short Stories (may not be the exact title--it's edited by Martin Crane, and we did the workbook that comes with it). The second semester, we picked up a few Early Mod GB's, and he did Gov't as his "history" study. He got the Early Mod history from the context pages (I had him read in Spielvogel), and he had worked as a page in the state senate in 8th grade, so he knew the processes of gov't pretty well.

 

For Early Mod (some of it was just gap filling)

Frankenstein

Moby Dick

Huck Finn

Lord of the Flies

 

I know there are a few more, but I can't remember them, and neither can he! lol

[Kfamily]

Perfect! This is exactly what I needed to know...thank you Chris.

 

I'll bring the book total to 12 altogether roughly. Or at least this could be our main goal and just allow for give and take depending on the year.