Yet another TOG question--alternate books come with student pages?

[Chris in VA]

So, dd has read a lot of the regular TOG books--so I looked at the alternates and like a lot of them.

 

Do they also come with discussion questions and assignments, like the primary ones do? Or are they just for enrichment and backround reading?

 

IOW, if we sub in some books from that list, do we miss out on using them like the primary ones?

[shanvan]

There are no worksheets or assignments that are specifically for alternate books. We use many alternate selections, sometimes in addition to, and occasionally instead of the core reading. Most of the time DS has no problems answering history questions that are assigned for core readings even using the alternate choice--however I am not one to get all crazy if DS does not have an answer for every single question. Also, he knows he may need to look in other sources if he isn't able to find answers in an alternate selection. There have only been a handful of times that he has not had answers and I just provide them and we discuss. When we use the core sources he has no trouble finding answers at all, so I know if he can't find an answer, it probably wasn't in the alternate book. I like him to make an attempt to find it elsewhere.

 

For literature selections substitution is more difficult. The TOG worksheets are designed specifically for that book. Even so, I still sometimes substitute at the dialectic levels and lower. It's not that hard to look at the worksheet, get an idea what skill is being developed, and then switch it around to fit your selection. BUT, then you will have to read the book yourself too and decide what answers you are looking for-- and you will not have teachers notes to rely on. We have not used Rhetoric level yet, but I'm sure it would be extremely difficult and time consuming to use different literature selections--unless you were using parts of another curriculum (say Omnibus' assignments and materials) for a specific book you wanted to use. HTH

 

Shannon

[melmichigan]

To my knowledge the answer is no. There are assignments for the books listed in the book updates on the TOG websites, these are out of print but can be available at your library, you can download the pages depending on your license type. We add in a lot of our SL books or books from other sources. My DD discusses those with me, does an approach paper, or just enjoys a good book. :) I found it to be helpful transitioning to TOG and to D level work.

[mandymom]

Actually, once you have purchased the DE version (maybe you can even see it if you haven't purchased anything), you can go into the online Loom and see the section "book updates". There are all of the pages for the older out-of-print books as well as what they replace. Since many of the books on the alternate list are ones that have been replaced because they are out of print (not all, but several), you CAN get worksheets for those.

Edited February 15, 2011 by mandymom

[Renaissance Mom]

If your dd will be doing D level work, it is actually an advantage if she has already read the literature books. That way she can focus on building her literary analysis skills. I actually allow my D dd to read all the lit for the coming year for pleasure over the summer. Then when she has to do her worksheets, she isn't racing along to find out what happens but can concentrate on the analysis portion.

[Chris in VA]

If your dd will be doing D level work, it is actually an advantage if she has already read the literature books. That way she can focus on building her literary analysis skills. I actually allow my D dd to read all the lit for the coming year for pleasure over the summer. Then when she has to do her worksheets, she isn't racing along to find out what happens but can concentrate on the analysis portion.

 

That's an interesting idea. I think I might do that with some of the books. She'd be about halfway between UG and D--that is, there are some D books I know we would wait on, since we'd be doing Year 4 for her 6th grade year (and I could see how a person following TOG would probably be in 8th grade by then--so books like Our Town and such would be perfect, but old for my dd at 11yo).

 

Thanks, everyone.

[Tracy]

Actually, once you have purchased the DE version (maybe you can even see it if you haven't purchased anything), you can go into the online Loom and see the section "book updates". There are all of the pages for the older out-of-print books as well as what they replace. Since many of the books on the alternate list are ones that have been replaced because they are out of print (not all, but several), you CAN get worksheets for those.

 

This is the beauty of DE, especially if you are using the library. TOG endeavors to keep books that are currently in print in their reading assignments. But the library is more likely to have older titles than the newer ones. So if you can find the alternates but not the primaries, you can go online to find the student pages and teacher notes for those titles.