English Credit - What do YOU include?

[*~Tina~*]

What's rolled up into your English credits for highschool? What resources, literature selections, etc. ? Do you combine writing, literature, grammar for this credit?

 

Very specific examples please! :001_smile:

[Miss Marple]

What's rolled up into your English credits for highschool? What resources, literature selections, etc. ? Do you combine writing, literature, grammar for this credit?

 

Very specific examples please! :001_smile:

 

For one year (usually 9th) we include grammar, vocabulary, writing instruction, as well as literature.

 

For 10th we mainly use literature with various helps (SparkNotes, study guides, Teaching Company dvds, etc.) and writing about the literature.

 

For 11th we do the same as 10th

 

For 12th we utilize concurrent enrollment in Freshman Composition 1 to meet the year's English requirement.

 

That's how it worked for son #1. Son #2 is having a change in the 12th grade. He will be getting English credit at home, but actually completing it through the 2 month Bible School experience he will have later this spring. Because of scheduling conflicts he was unable to enroll in Freshman Comp.

 

Hopefully we'll use the same schedule for the last 2 sons.

[Melanie]

My son is in 9th grade this year, so nothing is set in stone, but right now I'm thinking I'll award two English credits each year: composition and literature. The composition credit will include grammar, vocabulary, and rhetoric. The literature credit will include everything involved in our great books study.

 

Very specific examples please! :001_smile:

 

Ah. I see you want very specific examples. :D

 

Composition

 

Rod and Staff English

Vocabulary from Classical Roots

The Writer's Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing

A Rulebook for Arguments

The New Oxford Guide to Writing

 

Literature

 

Norton's Essential Literary Terms

The Well-Educated Mind

 

Epic of Gilgamesh

The Theban Plays; Sophocles

The Oresteia; Aeschylus

The Histories; Herodotus

Medea; Euripides

The Birds; Aristophanes

The History of the Peloponnesian War; Thucydides

On the Nature of Things; Lucretius

Metamorphoses; Ovid

Annals of Imperial Rome; Tacitus

Edited January 29, 2011 by Melanie
added info

[Susan C.]

I am only allowed to have one English credit, but have resigned myself that it takes 1-1/2 - 2 class periods. We do BJU Writing/Grammar, plus vocabulary and literature. I rotate it around a bit so there isn't a huge load. For vocabulary, we use SAT cartoons, and dd has a 10 minute limit. She does one chapter a week. We sometimes skip it for a period of time if the other English courses are heavy. She reads a literature book and we go over it orally. If she is reading a whole book, we don't do the lit. book. She does BJU Wr/Gr 2/3 of the time, that is about how long it takes to do the entire workbook. We skip about 1/3 of the writing assignments in BJU.

[J-rap]

We always count grammar, writing, vocabulary, and literature all as one class, and have one of these "classes" for each high school year. However, we do read many, many literature books apart from what a typical high school class would require for an English class, so I also give one additional credit for a high school literature course. In conclusion, we have four all-inclusive English classes plus one literature class.

[Tullia]

I did not put literature, grammar, and composition under the same heading. Instead, I used Language Arts for grammar/logic/rhetoric & composition, and put literature under a different heading called History, Literature & Aesthetics. Each year's courses had titles which briefly described the content. Some individual course titles included Classical Rhetoric, English Grammar I & Basic Essay Writing, and U.S. Studies which included history, literature, and art history. [We started the HL&A category in 8th grade using Spielvogel's Western Civ as a spine, continued it for grades 9-11, and then finished with U.S. Studies for 12th.]

 

We did so much work the year our co-op worked through Classical Rhetoric with Aristotle (extra progym writing assignments and field trips) that I gave ds 2 credits; one for Language Arts and one for Civics which was another of the seven transcript headings I used.

 

FWIW, when it became apparent that ds intended to apply only to in-state public colleges which looked primarily at test scores, I labeled headings and course titles using fairly general terms. Had he wanted to apply to LAC's I'd probably have described the categories and course names differently.

 

ETA: Ds' transcript had a total of 11 credits of what I'd loosely term Language Arts: 4 English grammar & composition; 2 literature, 1 civics, 3 foreign language, 1 elective. The elements of my HL&A category were so closely intertwined that it's hard to separate the different elements.

Edited January 29, 2011 by Martha in NM

[lionfamily1999]

Well, I can tell you what we're doing this year for 9th, but this is our first year of high school so I don't know if we're doing it "right" or not. :P

 

I have our English studies broken into two classes, one credit each.

 

"Composition" includes components in grammar, vocabulary, and rhetoric. We use Rod & Staff English 9/10 Book 1, Vocabulary from Classical Roots book C, and A Rulebook for Arguments, respectively. My kids are also taking a co-op writing class that uses IEW.

 

"Literature" includes the reading list from The Well-Trained Mind for the time period of late Renaissance to early modern. I use a variety of literature guides. For example, I used Progeny Press guides for two Shakespeare plays. I used comprehension questions out of Harp & Laurel Wreath for studying some Shakespeare sonnets. And I am currently using the Core Knowledge Series comprehension guide for Don Quixote. (Sidenote: I find this one to be a little below their abilities, but we're going with it for now anyway.)

This is the plan we're going to use too :D Are you planning on using the lit for history credit as well?

[Miss Marple]

The state "diploma" that is issued for the public/private schools in our state only allow one course to be of the "grammar" type. The other 3 courses are to be above the level of a "grammar/mechanics" study. Since these are the students we are competing with, we try to align our homeschool transcript to reflect the same courses (or better). Although we do work on grammar and vocabulary every year, I only list one course of the four as a "grammar" course.

[AnitaMcC]

What's rolled up into your English credits for highschool? What resources, literature selections, etc. ? Do you combine writing, literature, grammar for this credit?

 

Very specific examples please! :001_smile:

 

 

For 9th grade we did:

For 1 credit of English 10 Glencoe Writer’s Choice Grammar and Composition, Grade 10, 2001,

ISBN 0028181492

Glencoe Writer’s Choice Grammar Practice Workbook, Grade 10

Glencoe Writer’s Choice Composition Practice, Grade 10

Glencoe Language Arts Vocabulary Power Workbook, Grade 10

 

They basically just followed the composition and grammar sections in the text and completed the workbook exercises. They also wrote a composition essay for each composition unit (total of 7 if I remember correctly) and some additional short essays. The text included some short literature readings and had questions about the readings.

 

For 1/2 credit of World Literature to 1500 course where they read a minimum of 4 literature books and completed a minimum of two book reports.

The books they picked from TWTM list and what we already had for the history time period.

I think Ds did Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and I forget the other.... I think something about Ceasars (sp?).

Dd did Metamorphosis, Inferno, Oliver Twist, and Beowulf.

They read others but I don't recall other than what they used for their requirements of this course. I will need to have them make sure to complete a book list...

 

This year in 10th grade:

For 1 credit of Composition Essay and Research (I think I need to come up with a different course title)

Text: Writing Clear Essays (3rd Edition)

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th ed.

SAT Writing Essay Prompts

 

They are completing the Essay text (has 14 chapters) that have several exercises that cover writing, sentences, grammar, vocabulary.

They use the MLA handbooks for reference.

 

For 1/2 credit of Themed Literature (Dd is doing poetry, Ds is doing Science Fiction) they are to read a minimum of 5 books, complete a minimum of 3 reading logs, write a minimum of 3 literature analysis essays.

 

They may do or 1/2 credit of World Literature since 1500 they will basically do the same as Themed Literature.

 

I may need to tweak these some as we are moving to PA in next 3-5 months and for a PA endorsed diploma. There are specific requirements to be met. I think we are covered though.

Edited January 30, 2011 by AnitaMcC

[Karenciavo]

My oldest son usually earned an English credit and a literature credit.

 

English

Warriner's Grammar some years, Stewart English others

Vocabulary (various)

SAT prep

CAP Products (Art of Argument, Argument Builder)

Rhetoric

 

Literature

His high school literature list is extensive and he not only read he also wrote about what he read.

[Mama Lynx]

Hmmm. Our "English" is kind of weird.

 

My son has Great Books - Ancients. This combines history and literature, and he writes about what he reads.

 

He also has a humanities class, which includes some literature reading, and writing. In Great Books he does expository writing; in humanities the writing is varied, such as writing a sonnet, a pilgrimage story, etc.

 

On top of that he's reading A Rulebook For Arguments to study rhetoric.

 

I've been thinking about lumping the literature part of Great Books, the literature part of humanities, the writing for both classes, and the Rulebook together and calling it "English 9."

 

And then, his history is also split between GB and humanities - ancient Greek and Roman history, but then also a survey of European history from the early middle ages to the Reformation. So, er .... World History I?

[Kim in SouthGa]

This is our first year of high school so I'm not sure if we are doing it correctly (I will be going back and reading all these responses myself!) but my 9th grade son takes a SMARR Ancient Lit and Writing class through our homeschool association. It is the English program, not just the literature. I count that as 70% of his grade. He is also finishing up Easy Grammar Plus and Vocab from Classical Roots. They count as 15% each.

[Kareni]

It was a hodge podge here with my daughter.

 

In 9th grade:

 

World Literature from 1700 to 2000 (0.5 credits) -- a homemade course with plenty of reading and some writing with the assistance of a retired English teacher. She was doing history of that same period at home. As I recall, she did some work from Painless Grammar and a writing book whose name is eluding me. Edited to add that the writing book was The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan Payne.

 

Fantasy Literature (0.5 credits) -- an out of the home class that focused on fantasy literature

 

Greek Plays (0.25 credits) -- an out of the home class that focused on Greek plays

 

 

In 10th grade:

 

College Preparatory Essay Writing (0.5 credits) -- an out of the home class that was a prerequisite for an AP English course

 

Middle English Literature (0.25 credits) -- an out of the home class that focused on Chaucer's tales

 

 

In 11th grade:

 

Three community college classes: two were basic composition classes and one was a World Literature survey class. I assigned each of these one half of a high school credit; others I know would give each of these classes a full high school credit.

 

 

In 12th grade:

 

Three community college classes: one was a writing class whose sole focus was the writing of a research paper. (My daughter, now a college sophomore, recently thanked me for requiring that she take this course.) The other two classes were literature classes. One dealt with Latino/a Literature, the other focused on mythology and folktales. I assigned each of these one half of a high school credit.

 

Regards,

Kareni

Edited January 30, 2011 by Kareni

[angela in ohio]

Literature (this year, reading ancient literature) - I also use guides (Omnibus, Heroes of the City of Man, Well-Educated Mind, etc.)

 

Writing (context papers and essays based on the ancient literature, other essays for class I teach) -we use Lively Art of Writing, Art of Styling Sentences, MLA handbook, etc.

 

Grammar review - Moutoux diagramming materials, Warriner's, etc.

 

Vocaulary - Vocab from Classical Roots

 

It's waaaaayyyy more than 1 credit, but that's all I give. They are both going into science/math fields, so (1.) they will have a lot of those credits to count, and (2.) high school may be their last chance to get a lot of literature, grammar, and writing.

[TXMary2]

I give one English credit per year of high school and they all include: Grammar, some Spelling review, Writing/Comp, Vocabulary and Literature. Literature includes reading novels, shorts stories, poems, lit terms and literary analysis. Writing covers essays, poetry, book response papers, character analysis, narratives, persuasive, biographies, compare and contrast, journalism etc. Also, dialectic journals for 2 novels a year. I also assign research papers, but usually the grade goes to science or history.

 

Resources:

 

Wordly Wise

CLE LA and R&S

High School Lit texts (various that I find at used book stores like Half Price Books) - they are great for short stories and learning the lit terms etc.

Poetry books

Progeny Press lit guides

Spelling Power

Writing Aids (TOG)

Norton Literature Anthologies (also find at used book stores)

Handbook of Grammar & Composition (from Abeka- a great resource)

Dictionary

Thesaurus

[mcconnellboys]

Yes, I combined writing, literature and grammar for this credit!

[regentrude]

We do Great Books, combining history with literature with a heavy emphasis on original literature from the historical period. DD's writing assignments pertain to the Great Books and to her history studies. She will receive one credit for history and one credit for English (essentially literature with a composition component) per year.

We will, at some point, include a short grammar review. We do not formal vocabulary studies; she develops vocab from reading.