Approach papers?

[swimmermom3]

Approach papers are a new concept for me and not something I ever utilized in my academic career. Do any of you have your children write an approach paper and then do an essay for the same literary work? Is this a valuable tool or a redundant assignment?

[Luckymama]

Ummm, what's an approach paper? (...she says while opening another tab for google....)

[Luckymama]

Ha! Thanks google :D

 

With the exception of the "discussion/essay questions" portion, that's EXACTLY what I had my two highschoolers do with their summer reading books this year! And to think I thought I was being original :lol:

 

I should think it would be redundant if you were planning on an in-depth treatment. I just wanted them to remember fully what they had read------dd is notorious for reading her books in June, then needing to reread in late August... This fall she can read what she had written as a review of the book (Great Gatsby) she disliked. She doesn't have any difficulty remembering details of the books she enjoyed, however!

[swimmermom3]

Luckymama, thanks for responding. They are discussed in the Excellence in Literature program and that looks very much like what is on this website. The idea is to prepare you for writing an essay, but I think my kids would stage a rebellion. It makes perfect sense for how you used it. I suppose if I were to have a student read Catch 22 and All's Quiet on the Western Front and wanted to have the student answer a question that pertained to both, the approach papers would give them something to refer to, but so would notes.:tongue_smilie:

[LunaLee]

Dd will be using the IEW American Lit, and I decided that the approach papers were just a more formal way of what we were already doing with the novels ala WTM. So that's what we will continue to do, unless she wants to do the approach paper instead, but I doubt she will.