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HS English for student with Asperger's?


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DS is currently in 8th grade. I've always had him in literature-based programs (WTM, Ambleside, TOG, Sonlight) and he enjoys them. He's a strong reader, but very, very weak in comprehension skills. He can give you facts, but cannot read between the lines or see any type of foreshadowing, symbolism, themes, etc.

 

I can't decide what to do for high school. It doesn't help that English was always my weakness, although I did fine in HS. Would it be better to just go with a textbook approach to English? Maybe BJU with the DVDs? I could add in whole books for free reading. Or should I stick with the lit-based programs? I'm very drawn to MFW for high school, but I'm just not sure he can handle the literature expectations.

 

Argh. I can't decide what to do.

 

Oh, and BTW, my DD is the complete opposite. She's great with English and I wouldn't hesitate to put her in MFW. So, if I put DS in textbooks, they'll be doing completely different things.

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Try literary lessons from lord of the rings (at least for one year). It very subtly interjects all of the literary terminology (I was impressed!). It also has extra units on Shakespeare, Beowulf, etc. Check it out here and also do a search for it on the board - there are some great discussions (some are under LLotR).

 

I'm sticking with individual things such as LLotR with my Aspie and doing "side stuff" along with them. He is continuing to keep up his grammar skills using Analytical Grammar's high school reinforcement books, for example. Right now, we're doing the Elegant Essay Writing Lessons from IEW, which is great as it ties in with both whatever he is reading AND history stuff (I have him write for both). I also got a semester long Narnia unit from the Center for Learning that we are getting ready to start that is actually High School level (as opposed to Further In or whatever that one is called that is middle school). Stuff like that.

 

 

a

Edited by asta
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This sounds like a good idea. I've looked at the LOTR study before, but not in depth. I don't think he'd do well with literature overkill, but just hate to give up studying whole books.

 

We also love IEW, so I'll check that out as well. Question: Do you use the writing assignments from the LOTR study?

 

We're using R&S for grammar and he actually likes it. We tried something different this year and he asked to go back to R&S. We're taking it slow, though. We're only on year 6. I'm hoping to get through year 8 eventually, but we'll see. That's a lot of grammar!

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

Edited by Rhonda in TX
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I've honestly only done 2 or 3 of the writing assignments in the entire thing! And even then, I've tweaked them. I had him write on Beowulf, because it interested him so much (he went from reading the excerpt to watching the movie, to buying the book, to going on a rampage on how WRONG the movie was, to writing a paper about it), and I just had him write an opinion paper on war.

 

That one was p.a.i.n.f.u.l. Facts and figures? No problem. Opinion papers? Can you see me running screaming from the room? LOL. It took him less time to write an 8 page college level paper on Frederick the Great of Prussia for History then it did for a page and a half of opinion on war (one of the LotR prompts). Luckily, dad stepped in and restated absolutely everything I had *already* said about how the two types of papers really weren't structured differently (blah blah - you're still utilizing information, but for an opinion paper, you're giving your slant on the facts instead of someone else's, blah blah), and that kid WAS capable of accomplishing such a feat.

 

Ah, Asperger's.

 

 

a

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I would avoid the text book approach myself, probably because I despise it so much for literature, but also because I know it would have been a huge turn off to my Aspie.

 

My aspie would have hated the Literary Lessons from LotR as he hates fantasy, but I do want to give it a plug as I used it with my other ds. You don't need to use the writing prompts, you can use the comprehension questions as part of your discussion. There are vocabulary sheets too, which I skipped. What I personally loved was the analysis of each chapter that is in the teacher's manual (I only bought the teacher's manual, in fact.) That is where the literary terms are discussed in a conversational, non-threatening, user-friendly manner. The extra unit studies are really good, too. I personally had a better appreciation for the LotR after studying Beowulf and Sir Gawain.

 

My aspie made it through some standard high school works such as Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I also had him read non-standard works such as Maus, a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the artist's father's experience during the Holocaust. My ds is wired to think visually, so we watched movies versions of the books he read and compared them, discussed the choices made in telling the story -- both the plot elements the writers chose and the cinematic choices made in setting the mood. Since he is a theater guy I had him read plays and some biographies. The kinds of writing assignments I gave him included him discussing how he would light a scene from a book, if that scene were to be staged. Instead of literary analysis he wrote cinematic analysis papers on the lighting and camera angle choices made by the director. He also made several videos for a variety of classes, including science, health and history.

 

He figured out how to write an essay, and resigned himself to the necessity of having to cope with a general English literature course in college.

 

Hope that gives you some ideas. If you can tweak whatever you choose to fit your son's strengths and interests it will work out just fine.

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My 14-year-old Aspie and I are doing Literary Lessons From Lord of the Rings this year, and she adores it (we also skip the vocabulary and comprehension questions). Dd knows the books by heart, and that is what makes it work, I think; she knows them well enough to easily pick up on repeated imagery and motifs (rings, trees, dark/light, etc.). LLLotR is also wonderful because it gives kids an idea of how to talk about literary precedents and influences on a book.

 

I also think Jenn's suggestion of using movies as one step in the path toward analysis is a great one for visually-oriented Aspies. It may be easier for them to literally see how mood is set through props, lighting, soundtracks, etc. and then begin to work on transferring that knowledge to books. In fact, taking a book they love that has been made into a movie is a good starting point too. Take apart the opening: what would you use as a first camera shot (not necessarily the opening scene in the book; why or why not?), what kind of scenery or setting are you going to design, what kind of music would you use to set viewers up for the impact of the book, etc. Then look at the movie and see what choices the director made, and why.

 

Sometimes two or more versions of a book have been filmed, and you can do an extended comparison.

 

Added: By the way, socially realistic fiction and lyric poetry of the sort that usually makes up a huge proportion of literature curriculums (things like The Old Man and the Sea, Tennyson's poetry, etc.) are some of the most difficult things for an Aspie to understand. You can cover exactly the same elements of literary analysis using just about any other genre that appeals to your child, from drama to fantasy and science fiction to manga to non-fiction essays. Dd enjoys satire, for example, so her reading includes things like Gulliver's Travels, Letters From the Earth, Tristram Shandy, and Virginia Woolf's Orlando while skipping authors like Melville, Wharton, and Faulkner -- at least for the time being.

Edited by Guest
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I would avoid the text book approach myself, probably because I despise it so much for literature, but also because I know it would have been a huge turn off to my Aspie.

 

My aspie would have hated the Literary Lessons from LotR as he hates fantasy, but I do want to give it a plug as I used it with my other ds. You don't need to use the writing prompts, you can use the comprehension questions as part of your discussion. There are vocabulary sheets too, which I skipped. What I personally loved was the analysis of each chapter that is in the teacher's manual (I only bought the teacher's manual, in fact.) That is where the literary terms are discussed in a conversational, non-threatening, user-friendly manner. The extra unit studies are really good, too. I personally had a better appreciation for the LotR after studying Beowulf and Sir Gawain.

 

My aspie made it through some standard high school works such as Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I also had him read non-standard works such as Maus, a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the artist's father's experience during the Holocaust. My ds is wired to think visually, so we watched movies versions of the books he read and compared them, discussed the choices made in telling the story -- both the plot elements the writers chose and the cinematic choices made in setting the mood. Since he is a theater guy I had him read plays and some biographies. The kinds of writing assignments I gave him included him discussing how he would light a scene from a book, if that scene were to be staged. Instead of literary analysis he wrote cinematic analysis papers on the lighting and camera angle choices made by the director. He also made several videos for a variety of classes, including science, health and history.

 

He figured out how to write an essay, and resigned himself to the necessity of having to cope with a general English literature course in college.

 

Hope that gives you some ideas. If you can tweak whatever you choose to fit your son's strengths and interests it will work out just fine.

 

This is very helpful. DS is also very visual. I think he'll like LOTR because he does like fantasy. He's read The Hobbit and liked that. He also loves the LOTR movies.

 

Thank you for the information and the encouragement. :)

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My 14-year-old Aspie and I are doing Literary Lessons From Lord of the Rings this year, and she adores it (we also skip the vocabulary and comprehension questions). Dd knows the books by heart, and that is what makes it work, I think; she knows them well enough to easily pick up on repeated imagery and motifs (rings, trees, dark/light, etc.). LLLotR is also wonderful because it gives kids an idea of how to talk about literary precedents and influences on a book.

 

I also think Jenn's suggestion of using movies as one step in the path toward analysis is a great one for visually-oriented Aspies. It may be easier for them to literally see how mood is set through props, lighting, soundtracks, etc. and then begin to work on transferring that knowledge to books. In fact, taking a book they love that has been made into a movie is a good starting point too. Take apart the opening: what would you use as a first camera shot (not necessarily the opening scene in the book; why or why not?), what kind of scenery or setting are you going to design, what kind of music would you use to set viewers up for the impact of the book, etc. Then look at the movie and see what choices the director made, and why.

 

Sometimes two or more versions of a book have been filmed, and you can do an extended comparison.

 

Added: By the way, socially realistic fiction and lyric poetry of the sort that usually makes up a huge proportion of literature curriculums (things like The Old Man and the Sea, Tennyson's poetry, etc.) are some of the most difficult things for an Aspie to understand. You can cover exactly the same elements of literary analysis using just about any other genre that appeals to your child, from drama to fantasy and science fiction to manga to non-fiction essays. Dd enjoys satire, for example, so her reading includes things like Gulliver's Travels, Letters From the Earth, Tristram Shandy, and Virginia Woolf's Orlando while skipping authors like Melville, Wharton, and Faulkner -- at least for the time being.

 

Good input and ideas! Thanks!

 

I really like what you say about doing literary analysis with the types of books that will appeal to him. That will definitely make things less painful.

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I never thought about using the camera angle/staging thing. I think that might work.

 

I know that he absolutely loved Lawrence of Arabia; he was able to 'see' the time period in history as well as draw parallels to the whole "the more things change, the more things stay the same".

 

Hmm. I have some thinking to do regarding how to approach new stuff.

 

 

a

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