10th grade english

[Only me]

What do you include in a 10th grade english class? DD is a bit behind so she is doing a writing class through Home2teach. She is also doing Wordly Wise Vocabulary and a grammar review. I was having her go through some Alpha Omega lifepacs for literature but so far we are not very pleased. The material seems vague and difficult to follow. She also spends time reading every day but isn't really doing a literature study. I know that this is very light for 10th grade so what could I add so that it would be worth a credit and also bring her up to speed with what a sophomore should be doing?

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

High school English at my house is mostly literature. I try to discuss a lot of short stories paying special attention to the literary terms that are in the story. Several full length novels will be read. In the past I've assigned several papers per year. This year I plan to quiz on literary terms. We'll also do some grammar, some vocabulary, and some spelling.

[lagirl]

For our first semester of 10th gr. English we are using "50 Great Short Stories". The workbook that goes with it is great. I pick & choose what I want dd to do from the workbook -good resource. Also DD is reading some of the books that are listed on sparknotes.com. I really like the quizes they provide and they can be taken online where they are automatically scored. Hope this helps a little.

[Only me]

Which publisher do you use for the 50 Short Stories. I see that Amazon offers a few different ones. I also want to get the workbook.

[JennW in SoCal]

Well, why not start at what a sophmore should be doing?

 

My 10th grader, who is strong in English, last year read about 10 literary works and did a unit on poetry using MCT high school poetry material. He wrote at least 10 literary essays, sometimes on topics we'd find in SparkNotes, or on topics we'd come up with on our own. He also did some background research on authors or the time period in which works were written. I picked out the material, I found either Teaching Company lectures to accompany the material or used Spark Notes or the Well Educated Mind questions to spark discussion. He also did a grammar review, and used the classical roots section of Vocabulary for the College Student. It was more than enough for a full English 10 credit.

 

If you are uncomfortable organizing your own literature study, I've heard good things about Lightening Literature. At some point your dd is going to have to write in response to what she is reading and studying -- a writing class is only going to take her so far.

 

You should review the WTM rhetoric section in order to cement in your mind what is necessary for high school English. There are some good lectures available to purchase and download at the Peace Hill Press site, or the Well Educated Mind is a great resource. Don't hesitate to use Pink Monkey or Sparknotes for discussion questions and essay topics and a bit of background reading. But ultimately you want your student to be able to form opinions about what she has read and be able to articulate and defend them well in discussions and writing. Consider that to be the goal for 12th grade, and start working towards that.

[lagirl]

"50 Great Short Stories" - edited by Milton Crane

Workbook - "Teaching with 50 Great Short Stories, (edited by Milton Crane) by Mary M. Nyman

Walch publisher

[Love2Smile]

we are using a writing curriculum, Progeny Press guides, Life Pacs 10th grade Language Arts and Wordly Wise.

[mschickie]

I would suggest getting a couple of progeny press guides or if you want secular try Novel Units (they actually have more choices than progeny press). We did about of those a year for English with sd. They worked out very nice.