Studying Literature/Great Books Question

[cin]

First, I must admit, that, while I am an avid reader, I am not an avid reader of 'Fine Literature. Teaching the stuff scares the beejeebies out of me. I can have the kids read the stuff, and I can read it myself (hopefully!) But what do I do after we read it? How do I make sure they get what they are suppose to get out of it? She loves to read, but she reads really fast, and sometimes she doesn't even get all the facts straight. (I do know how to check on that :)) But what about underlying themes, literary terms, lessons, and deeper thoughts. Are there guides we, as teachers can use? Cliff and Spark, but I mean actually TEACHER books, to help us TEACH what needs to be learned.

 

TIA

[Trish]

I like the Progeny Press Literature Guides, but we don't use these for every book, just certain ones I want to cover with them. Some people do 4-8 in a year.

[Hunter]

Have you seen "Shakespeare in Bits". It comes in an iPad app and other computerized formats. Way cool!

 

Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth are out now, with more to follow. I downloaded the R&J lite app and LOVED it despite usually having no interest in reading the play.

 

I think I will do Macbeth in the Spring. Right now I need to buckle down on some other stuff though. I'm actually excited at this! :-0

[*~Tina~*]

Have you ever looked at Teaching the Classics by Adam Andrews? I think this would be a great starting point. You can learn more at www.excellenceinwriting.com

[Skadi]

This might seem like a cop out answer, but I think for a seven year old, you really shouldn't go into that much literary analysis. I'm afraid that if you do, you'll find that not only is she too young to pick up on some of the abstract themes that literature guides talk about, but she'll also come to dread reading the classics.

 

I think the Grammar Stage is a great time to have your first run-thru with child-friendly classics, with books like Bruce Coville's retellings of Shakespeare, The Secret Garden and Peter Pan (I'm pretty sure SWB says this herself in The Well-Trained Mind). I think this is a time for "planting the seeds" that you can later harvest as they age and mature. IMHO, it isn't until the Logic Stage that you should start asking pointed questions about the symbolism of roses in The Secret Garden or the importance of gender roles in Peter Pan.

[mcconnellboys]

If you're talking about what to do for elementary ages, then I'd say just read and enjoy!

 

For logic stage, I begin to do some separate literary elements study and I pull in recent things we've read to use as examples when we're talking about various elements. I still tend not to want to make my child do vocab or answer a lot of questions in writing about the lit we're/he's reading as it makes it feel forced to me and takes the fun away....

 

There are tons of things online and also workbooks available for doing lit that way. I don't think I'd get into the depth of Cliff's Notes/ Spark Notes, etc. until high school....

[Hunter]

OOOh! I didn't see how little they are. I got confused and thought we were on the High school board :-0

 

Susan Hall's books on teaching literary devices are really good. There are 4 volumes.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Using-Picture-Storybooks-Literary-Devices/dp/1573563501

Edited February 6, 2011 by Hunter

[elegantlion]

I found this book to be helpful to me in gaining an overall picture literature/Great Books through the ages, Invitation to the Classics. Using this along with LCC, I formed a picture of what I wanted our GB study to look like. I also started reading from the LCC high school GB list. In the last two years I've made it through several selections. WEM is another good place to start for self-education.

 

As others have said you don't need a lot of analysis at that age, most of what I've done in the last two years in preparation for the down the road.

[Stacy in NJ]

You don't need to worry about indepth lit analysis until rhetoric stage. I enjoyed SWB's audio lecture on this topic:

 

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/what-is-literary-analysis-mp3.html

[cin]

thanks gals! I know I have a year or two, but as I'm preparing for the next few years, I started getting a literature list together, and getting nervous. She reads nonstop, and I don't want that to stop. BUT I want to make sure that we learn what we're suppose to learn. Underlying themes, lessons, literary formats and such. Oh, and I haven't even started worrying about teaching POETRY! :tongue_smilie:

 

More suggestions welcome! I'm writing it all down in my lit file.

Edited February 6, 2011 by cin

[Chris in VA]

When she gets to about 8th grade, check out Progeny Press' Poetry guide. It's inexpensive (you buy 3 books with it, and they are all under $5), and a great intro to the vocabulary of poetry. We used it in ds' Sr year, because he hadn't done any poetry except epics (Odyssey/Song of Roland, for example), and I'd say it would work well anytime after 8th.

 

For now, tho, let her read. Have her tell you a little of the plot, something about the characters--have her make some predictions, point out the obvious. Save the really digging deep stuff for high school.

[elegantlion]

Another option to consider is Figuratively Speaking. It's a great workbook that you could use orally to begin discussion with your dd.

[Hunter]

What has really helped me, is to classify literature as one of the arts. I didn't make this idea up. World Book enclyclopedia lists it that way in an outline somewhere.

 

I think of it as an elective, not an essential English course.

 

I believe that to be mentally healthy we need the arts, but not to be sufficiently educated.

 

So...now with that said, I can approach it in perspective and make some time for it, but not let it take over the curriculum. Any art can kind of take over. If your child is a prodigy in a certain art, maybe it's okay to let it kind of overtake the school day, because maybe he will be able to make his living from it. The rest of us though, are better learning enough of the arts to give up some tools to put in our self-soothing toolbox and call it a day.

 

So that is MY educational philosophy about literature :-) I'm sure some people think I'm crazy...and actually I am crazy :-0 But World Book Encyclopedia says I'm right, at least about this :-0

 

Good Luck! :-)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

thanks gals! I know I have a year or two, but as I'm preparing for the next few years, I started getting a literature list together, and getting nervous. She reads nonstop, and I don't want that to stop. BUT I want to make sure that we learn what we're suppose to learn. Underlying themes, lessons, literary formats and such. Oh, and I haven't even started worrying about teaching POETRY! :tongue_smilie:

 

More suggestions welcome! I'm writing it all down in my lit file.

 

I can't help but notice that during the eras when poetry was really thriving there was a populace that read, listened to and memorized poetry. Think of how often recitation shows up in accounts of school and small town life from the 19th and early 20th century.

 

Now we "teach" poetry, with lots of emphasis on kids writing their own, but with far less exposure to wonderful, moving, expressive, lyrical and long poetry of the past. Yet poetry (outside of musical lyrics) has largely fallen out of favor.

 

I love to read poetry to my kids. And believe it or not, they like to listen to it. When I read them Understood Betsy, there was a scene where she is asked to read aloud a piece to pass the time in the evening. It is a passage from The Lady of the Lake. When I finished the chapter, the kids asked about the poem, so I found the piece (it is a small portion of a long poem) and they loved listening to that too. My advice on poetry is to read, listen and memorize. But don't work it to death.

Favorite Poems Old and New is a great collection of varied pieces. If you watch thrift stores and library sales you can find lots more.

[kalphs]

The Progeny Press Guide are a top notch resource!

I use them in literary analysis/apologetics class on Tolkien and Lewis.