Beth in SW WA Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 Brainstorming for next year. Dd 13/8th is requesting a Brit Lit year for 9th. She is an avid reader. I have Spielvogel's HO (text, TM, study guide & quizzes). I am personally very weak on my European history and will need the hand-holding from HO and some TTC lectures. If we needed more (and I have no idea if we will), I also have A History of World Societies with chapters 8, 13, 15, 17, 23 & 24 dealing with Europe . We could use these activities. I need a Brit Lit program with a strong TM -- and ideally from a Christian worldview (Smarr?). Dd likes the usual suspects (Austen, Bronte). How does this list look? Great Expectations and/or Tale of Two Cities P & P Sense & Sensibility Emma Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights Beowulf Sir Gawain Hamlet Much Adou Merchant of Venice Midsummer Night's Dream Animal Farm Canterbury 'Millers' Tale Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner I'm reading Tale of Two Cities now for the first time. If we tackle this list, I've got some serious pre-reading to do this year. I'd love feedback. Is this a ridiculous idea? Should I just stick with a basic world history survey? That would be super simple with HO. (This year we are doing LL Early American along with Potters School Jr. High US History and Jr. High English 2.) Thank you in advance! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 You should check out Lightning Lit, from Hewitt. I have been pleased with the American Lit curriculum for this year, and I know they have British Lit. Sonlight also has a Brit Lit focus for one of the upper grades, though I am not personally familiar with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in AL Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 I love your list. For Dickens I really like Great Expectations for that age group. It has a good bit of humor in it and is a coming of age story that they can relate to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 You should check out Lightning Lit, from Hewitt. I have been pleased with the American Lit curriculum for this year, and I know they have British Lit. We're using LL American now but it isn't deep enough. The author barely scratches the surface and I've done tons of research to supplement the section on Scarlet Letter (which we are studying now). I was hoping for something with a Christian world-view also -- in addition to excellent lit analysis. I will look at SL. Thanks! Anyone else??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Beth, My ds did A Beka English Lit. (11th) and BJU British Lit. (12th). The reason for the repeat was he had already done world and American, and A Beka's was very difficult for us to navigate w/o dvds or prior knowledge (we bumbled through and did finish it). We did BJU British Lit. w/dvds, and really enjoyed it. I would definitely look at the table of contents to the text and watch a sample on BJU's website to see if its your cup of tea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Hey, Beth! This year we are doing something very similar: using Spielvogel's H.O. (chap. 7-20) for Medieval to Enlightenment World History, and made our own British Lit. Since we have tons of history/social studies credits, we're not doing much for the history beyond the H.O. textbook and a few history research papers. For the British Lit., we're using a variety of guides (Progeny Press, The Great Books, Glencoe, Sparknotes, Schmoop, Wikipedia articles, etc.) -- but, since DSs are 11th and 12th grades this year, we are able to mostly do lit. without help. Are you only wanting lit. that goes up into the 19th century? I do see Animal Farm on the list (20th century)... Overall, it looks like you are going for 3 main "threads" of British Lit.: 1. Old English/Middle English periods = Beowulf/Sir Gawain/Canterbury Tales (3 works) 2. Renaissance period = Shakespeare (4 plays) 3. Romantic/Victorian period = Austen/Bronte (5 novels), Dickens (1 novel) Rime of the Ancient Mariner (poem) And then 1 misc. works: Animal Farm and Rime of the Ancient Mariner. That's an interesting approach to British Lit -- to go deep in just a few directions, rather than an overview of more variety of authors. In that case, I'd say Great Expectations fits into your "threads" better than Tale of Two Cities -- and it fits in with your Austen/Bronte thread thematically (a bit gothic/romanticism in tone), even though Dickens technically fits into the Victorian period of British Lit... If you go this route, I'd definitely look for a good, in-depth book comparing/analyzing the Bronte works, and another for comparing/analzying the Austen books. Or, maybe bump 2 of the Austen novels and 1 of the Bronte novels to fun extra reading for your voracious reader, and if you want a little more variety in authors to "go deep" with, but want to stay within those time frames or "threads", what about: - Frankenstein (Mary Shelley's gothic/romantic almost sci-fi work) - some of the romantic poets (Robert Burns, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats) - Silas Marner, by George Eliot (a woman writing under a pen name like the Bronte sisters -- and who was a contemporary of the Brontes)? - Or, perhaps Ivanhoe (Scott) -- set in the Old English period, but written during the Romantic period? Or, if you decide to open the door a little wider to include some late 19th century works to compare with Frankenstein: - The Invisible Man -- OR-- The Time Machine (Wells) - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson) - The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) And some gothic short stories: - The Monkey's Paw (Jacobs) - The Open Window (Saki) - The Bottle Imp (Stevenson) For analyzing Shakespeare from an in-depth Christian perspective I really like: Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide to Six Shakespeare Plays (Leithart); it covers Hamlet; Macbeth; Much Ado About Nothing; Taming of the Shrew; Henry V; and Julius Caesar. Another helpful resource is Parallel Text Shakespeare. It can have multiple components; Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet have: 1.) a book of the original play side by side with a modern translation (and footnotes) -- though, you can use the No Fear Shakespeare feature of Sparknotes for this if needed 2.) student workbook (very useful) 3.) TM/answer key to workbook 4.) Teacher Guide The other works (Hamlet, King Lear, Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, and Taming of the Shrew), just have the side-by-side text/translation and the Teacher Guide. You can skip the parallel text book and go with the free online No Fear Shakespeare side-by-side original/translation at Sparknotes, but the Teacher Guide and the student workbooks are good -- at least the material we used for Macbeth was all good. And finally, not familiar with it personally, but I have heard that the Lightning Lit. Shakespeare units are quite good -- that the Shakespeare and the Christian British authors units are the "meatiest" of the high school LL units. A few ideas about doing Shakespeare: - try spreading the plays out, and do one per quarter - read at least some scenes aloud, each of you reading several parts and have fun emoting and hearing the language spoken aloud - or, do 2 (a comedy and a tragedy) in depth -- read, discuss, analyze, watch a version. And then do the other 2 plays "in brief": take an hour in advance to read a little background info, then watch the play, then the next day discuss and move on. Other than Lightning Literature, the only British Lit. programs I can think of are: - Sonlight 530: British Lit. (great lit. list, but not much in the way of analysis or helps) - LLATL Gold: British Lit. (a very general overview, with little analysis or teacher helps) - Excellence in Literature IV: British Lit (geared for 11th/12th grade, so may be pretty rigorous for a 9th grader) I can DEFINITELY recommend The Great Books guide for Beowulf(interesting to come at this one from a "guided discussion in Christian worldview" point of view rather than a literary analysis point of view). Also, re: Canterbury Tales: Miller's Tale -- we did 4 of the Canterbury Tales, as they come in "groups" and it really helps to read at least 2 works from a "group" so you can compare/contrast the different perspective from the different segments of society. We did: Nun's Priest's Tale / Pardoner's Tale Knight's Tale / Miller's Tale We really enjoyed comparing the first two; and the boys really enjoyed The Knight's Tale -- it was very much like an ancient Greek epic. We were all rather underwhelmed by the Miller's Tale; it came off a little like Chaucer trying to seem "hip" by including a SNL style bawdy piece... But then, I guess that was to really contrast with the high, knightly/courtly view of love from the Knight's Tale... Anyways, if interested, I can list what we're doing for our British Lit. this year -- a very different list, but then, I have 2 boys... :) BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 Lori, You're my new bff! :) Thank you!! Yes, I would love to see your detailed list of what you're doing in both history and lit. This epiphany came to me over the last week or so. Why do world if I want to focus on Europe and the Brits? Thanks again!! You know I'll be stalking your prior posts on these subjects. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in VA Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Sonlight has a full British Lit course. I haven't used it but my dd is eyeing it for next year. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Hey there Beth-BFF! :D Here is the "master list" I put together to try and decide what British Lit. we wanted to do. Pre-1800s - Beowulf - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Spenser) - The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) - Macbeth; Hamlet; Othello; Romeo & Juliet; Much Ado About Nothing; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Tempest; Julius Caesar; Henry V (Shakespeare) - Paradise Lost (Milton) 1800s - novels - Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights (Bronte) - A Christmas Carol; David Copperfield; Tale of Two Cities; Great Expectations (Dickens) - Pride & Prejudice; Sense & Sensibility; Emma (Austen) - Treasure Island (Stevenson) - Silas Marner (Eliot) - Lord Jim (Conrad) - Heart of Darkness (Conrad) - Ivanhoe (Scott) - Gulliver's Travels (Swift) - Far from the Madding Crowd (Hardy) 1900s - novels - Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) - The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton) - The Screwtape Letters (Lewis) - Lord of the Flies (Golding) - A Passage to India (Forster) - Heart of Darkness (Conrad) - Lord Jim (Conrad) - Lord of the Flies (Golding) - Animal Farm (Orwell) - Till We Have Faces; Screwtape Letters; The Great Divorce (Lewis) Novels set in other than modern times - The Once and Future King (White) - Till We Have Faces (Lewis) Humor - Life With Jeeves (Wodehouse) - My Family and Other Animals (Durrell) - All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot) - Three Men in a Boat -- To Say Nothing of the Dog (Jerome) - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) Sci-Fi - Frankenstein (Shelley) - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson) - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) - The Time Machine; The Invisible Man; War of the Worlds (Wells) - Brave New World (Huxley) - 1984 (Orwell) - On The Beach (Shute) - trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength (Lewis) - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) Fantasy - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass Carroll) - Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) - Children of Hurin (Tolkien) - Watership Down (Adams) - Peter Pan (Barrie) - Lilith (MacDonald) Essays - A Modest Proposal (Swift) - A Piece of Chalk (Chesterton) Short Stories 1800s - Sherlock Holmes mysteries (Doyle) - The Open Window (Saki) - The Monkey's Paw (Jacobs) - The Golden Key; The Light Princess (MacDonald) - Farmer Giles of Ham; Leaf by Niggle; Smith of Wooten Major (Tolkien) 1900s - A Child's Christmas in Wales (Dylan) - Father Brown mysteries (Chesterton) - Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries (Sayers) - The Dead (Joyce) Plays - A Man For All Seasons (Bolt) - Waiting for Godot (Beckett) - Hamlet (Shakespeare) - Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead (Stoppard) - The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) - Pygmalion (Shaw) Poetry 1800s - William Blake - John Keats - Lord Byron - Percy Shelley - William Wordsworth - Elizabeth Browning - Christina Rossetti - Samuel Coleridge (Rime of the Ancient Mariner) - Alfred Tennyson 1900s - William Yeats - DH Lawrence - Dylan Thomas - T.S. Eliot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 (edited) BRITISH (15th Century through 20th Century) WEEK 1-2 = medieval / heroic - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien's translation) (Norton Anthology of English Lit.; Sparknotes; Cliff's Notes) - Farmer Giles of Ham (Tolkien) (we just read for enjoyment, but Bookrags has a study guide) WEEK 3-5 = medieval / prosaic - Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) (free online: Sparknotes; Glencoe; Shmoop; Wikipedia) (book: Understanding the Canterbury Tales (Swisher)) (Chaucer website = http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaubib.htm) (Chaucer biography = http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucerbio.htm) (Prologue recording = http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/gp-aloud.htm) (side-by-side original & modern translation = http://www.librarius.com/cantales.htm) - Prologue - Nun's Priest's Tale - Pardoner's Tale - Knight's Tale - Miller's Tale - Retraction WEEK 6 = 16th-17th century poetry / essay (Norton Anthology of English Lit.; Sparknotes; Shmoop; Wikipedia) (John Donne = http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/) (Shakespeare = http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/) (Thomas More = http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore.htm) - John Donne - William Shakespeare (sonnets) - excerpts from Utopia (More) -- in the Norton Anthology WEEKS 7-8 = play - Hamlet (Shakespeare) (Brightest Heaven of Invention; Sparknotes; Shmoop; Glencoe) - WATCH/DISCUSS: Cyrano de Bourgerac (Sparknotes; Shmoop; Glencoe) WEEK 9 = 18th century poetry (Norton Anthology of English Lit.; LLATL Gold; Shmoop; Wikipedia) (Christopher Smart = http://www.luminarium.org/eightlit/smart/) - William Blake - Christopher Smart - Robert Burns - William Wordsworth WEEK 10 = 19th century poetry (Norton Anth.; LLATL Gold; Sparknotes; Shmoop; Wikipedia) - Samuel Coleridge ("Rime of the Ancient Mariner") - John Keats - Lord Byron - Percy Shelley WEEKS 11-14 = gothic/romantic novel (Sparknotes; Shmoop; Glencoe; Wikipedia) - Wuthering Heights (Bronte) WEEK 15 = gothic short stories / essay-satire (Jonathon Swift = http://www.luminarium.org/eightlit/swift/) - The Monkey's Paw (Jacobs) - The Open Window (Saki) - A Modest Proposal (Swift) WEEK 16-19 = novel (LLATL Gold; Sparknotes; Shmoop; Glencoe; Wikipedia) - Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) WEEK 20-21 = novel - The Invisible Man (Wells) WEEK 22-23 = novel (Sparknotes; Shmoop; - Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) WEEK 24 = short stories (mystery) (Sparknotes; Shmoop; Wikipedia) - a Sherlock Holmes mystery (Doyle) - a Father Brown mystery (Chesterton) - a Peter Wimsey mystery (Sayers) WEEKS 25-26 = novel - Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton) WEEK 27 = short stories (Christian faerie) ("On Fairy Stories", essay by Tolkien; Bookrags; Wikipedia) (George MacDonald = http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/macdonald.html) (Tolkien online = http://www.tolkien-online.com/) (Tolkien Gateway = http://tolkiengateway.net/) - The Golden Key (MacDonald) - The Light Princess (MacDonald) - Leaf by Niggle (Tolkien) - Smith of Wooten Major (Tolkien) WEEK 28 = plays (Sparknotes; Shmoop; Wikipedia) - WATCH/DISCUSS = a Shakespeare comedy - WATCH/DISCUSS = Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) - WATCH/DISCUSS = Pygmalion (Shaw) WEEKS 29-31 = novel (Sparknotes; Shmoop; Wikipedia) - 1984 (Orwell) WEEKS 32-24 = novel (Progeny Press; Sparknotes: Shmoop; Wikipedia) - Lord of the Flies (Golding) WEEKS 35-36 = novel (Sparknotes; Wikipedia) - Cry the Beloved Country (Paton) FAMILY READ-ALOUD - space trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength (Lewis) SOLO READS weeks 1-6 = The Sword in the Stone (White) weeks 7-12 = choice of: - Ivanhoe (Scott) - Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas) - The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) - a Brother Cadfael mystery (Peters) weeks 13-18 = Peter Pan weeks 19-24 = The Good Earth weeks 25-30 = choice of: - Life With Jeeves (Wodehouse) - Three Men in a Boat (Jerome) - a further book in the All Creatures series by James Herriot weeks 31-36 = choice of: - Murder on the Orient Express (Christie) - other mystery by Christie - other mystery by Chesterton - other mystery by Sayers Edited October 9, 2010 by Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 These are works worth doing; they didn't end up on this year's list but only because we have previously read or watched them: Previously Read - Beowulf (unknown) - Macbeth (Shakespeare) - A Christmas Carol (Dickens) - Treasure Island (Stevenson) - Till We Have Faces; Screwtape Letters; The Great Divorce; Mere Christianity (Lewis) - Animal Farm (Orwell) - Life With Jeeves (Wodehouse) - My Family and Other Animals (Durrell) - All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot) - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams) - Frankenstein (Shelley) - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson) - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass (Carroll) - The Time Machine (Wells) - Brave New World (Huxley) - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy (Adams) - Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) - Watership Down (Adams) Previously Watched - Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare) - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare) - David Copperfield (Dickens) - A Man for All Seasons - all the Austen novels And I chose Tale of Two Cities rather than Great Expectations as our Dickens work for this year, because *I* would rather read a work with the theme of an ordinary -- even not so nice -- person who through selflessness and self-sacrifice becomes ennobled, rather than people who just roll over and say "because I made bad choices I'll now suffer the consequences for the rest of my life and never see my great expectations realized", rather than choosing to work for a second chance. But that's just me. ;) As far as the history, we're just using chap. 7-20 of Spielvogel's Human Odyssey, and we'll try to include the Sister Wendy videos and her big book o' art in the second semester to make it slightly more of a humanities course. DH also last year and this year has been going over History of Christianity and Turning Points with DSs, so they're getting a little church history included in there, too. BEST of luck as you make your your own history/lit. course. I'd love to see what you end up with! Warmest regards, your "BFF" (lol!) Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted October 10, 2010 Author Share Posted October 10, 2010 Thank you, Lori!! That's quite a library you have!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 11, 2010 Share Posted October 11, 2010 Thank you, Lori!! That's quite a library you have!! I forgot to mention -- I was just listing all the resources for each work I could FIND -- that doesn't mean I own them or will use them all. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted October 12, 2010 Author Share Posted October 12, 2010 I forgot to mention -- I was just listing all the resources for each work I could FIND -- that doesn't mean I own them or will use them all. ;) Gotcha! You're a gem, Lori. Have a blessed day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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