mcconnellboys Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Forgive me, but the search engine seems to be on the blitz right now and I'm looking for info from those who have used or are using SWB's suggestions for great books for high school, perhaps along with her History of the Ancient World and/or other resources.... What are you using from her suggested list? Is it working well for you? Have you found things you wished you hadn't used? Things you've had to modify? Did you decide to include more non-western works, such as Book of the Dead, Rig-veda, etc.? If so, what did you include and how is that working for you? I'm finding that my library seems to have decent looking translations of most of the non-western things I'm looking for but am wondering how to edit some of the western works to allow time for other things.... Are you also using a text alongside your studies? I have a college level Duiker/Spielvogel World History text that looks like it would work for me. Only the first five chapters of it would be applicable to the ancients study, so there wouldn't be that much reading from it on a weekly basis (but it's dense text). Do you think that would be okay to use? Thanks for any direction you can give me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in IL Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I signed my son up for Great Books Academy/Angelicum Academy this year. It has been great having a classroom Socratic discussion for him, as I have a real shortfall in that area. It was expensive, but I plan to sign him up next year, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 I'm looking for info from those who have used or are using SWB's suggestions for great books for high school, perhaps along with her History of the Ancient World and/or other resources.... What are you using from her suggested list? Is it working well for you? Have you found things you wished you hadn't used? Things you've had to modify? I try modeling our Great books studies along the suggestions of TWTM. We are doing Ancients this year for DD. Great books she has studied: Iliad Odyssey Herodotus Histories Greek tragedies (Sophocles Oedipus Trilogy) The Aeneid Ovid Metamorphoses Plutarch (excerpts) She did not like Thukydides, so we skipped that one. We have been using the Short history of Western civilization text SWB recommends and like it very much. We have supplemented with the following lectures from the Teaching Company: The Iliad (12 lec.)/ The Odyssey(12)/ Greek tragedy (24 lectures- we used 12)/Classical Mythology(24)/ The Aeneid (12), all by Elizabeth Vandiver which i highly recommend Also currently using Roman Civilization - a visual exploration (or similar title - 36 video lectures from TC) Additional reading: A day in old Athens, A day in old Rome and a bunch of other books which are on a list on my other computer. Stuff about Troy, Schliemann, etc. For the rest of the semester, DD will read poetry by Catull, Horace and the Germania by Tacitus. We had more on our serious reading list, but did not manage to fit it all in because we decided to take the time for the lectures and studying the epics in detail. DD has developed an interest in classical architecture and will take some history time for a project comparing Greek and Roman architecture as her semester project. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Is that available to anyone? Do they grade their work, etc.? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Thanks! I'm trying to overplan great books in case some just don't appeal to him at all so that we can move on to something else instead. I'll look at the TC courses, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I am doing Great Books the WTM way. I am also using Omni I and IV. We write context papers, read the Omni essay, read the work taking notes a la WEM, use the discussions in Omni, then write a paper a la WTM. We also use Heros of the City of Man, Spielvogel, etc. and reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Here's our list for the year: Epic of Gilgamesh Odyssey (Homer) Theban Trilogy (Sophocles) The Oresteia (Aeschylus) The Histories (Herodotus) Medea, Bacchae (Euripides) Birds, Clouds (Aristophanes) Republic (Plato) Poetics (Aristotle) Archimedes Aeneid (Virgil) Lives (Plutarch) Metamorphoses (Ovid) Annals (Tacitus) We're using the TC courses Classical Archaeology of Greece and Rome and The Aeneid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 (edited) We opted for a very gentle intro into a WTM Great Books for DSs when they were 8th and 9th grades. We did Ancients. For the history spine, we used Spielvogel's Human Odyssey (only 200 pages), plus excerpts from a number of other resources. Each DS also solo read about 6 lighter/below reading level historical fiction (some from the SL6 list, plus a few others I had available from the library to choose from) for fun and flavor of the times, plus we watched a few history documentaries, and some fun feature films (Jason and the Argonauts; The Odyssey; Ben Hur, etc.) For the matching Lit., we did: - Gilgamesh (prose retelling by Jennifer Westwood: Gilgamesh and Other Babylonian Myths) - The Iliad (Fagles translation) - The Odyssey (Fagles translation) - about a dozen Greek myths - Oedipus the King (Fitzgerald translation) - Antigone (Fitzgerald translation) - The Aeneid (prose retelling by Alfred Church: The Aeneid for Boys & Girls) - Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis' novel which reimagines the Cupid & Psyche myth in an ancient Mesopotamian-like culture) Since we were just starting a Great Books style study, and both DSs were young (gr. 8 and 9), we opted for the more epic/adventure type works, and used 2 adaptations rather than all full translations. Some of the ancients really should be saved for college or even post-college reading when they would be more appreciated -- I also caution against doing too many hard ancient works and burning out your student. I was VERY glad by the end of the year I had opted for a shorter retelling of the Aeneid, after the lengthy full translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, plus all the other ancient works -- we were getting kind of tired of those pesky Greeks by the end of the school year! Also, we read most of the works aloud together so we could discuss "in the moment". Worked great, and was very enjoyable -- and made the first outing with heavy classics much easier for DSs, rather than having to slog through it solo. FWIW, also that same year (done separately for the literature portion of the English credit) we did Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. Being an epic, it fit in very well, but being set in a very different world made a nice break from strictly all ancients. While it's nice to match up some, or even a lot of the Literature with the History period you are studying, it's also VERY nice to have a few other works throughout the year as a BREAK from the genre, mindset, and time frame that all the other works are a part of. Just a suggestion! BEST of luck, whatever you go with, and enjoy your adventures in The Great Conversation with The Great Books! Warmest regards, Lori D. Edited February 25, 2011 by Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in IL Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 You can choose to sign up for one of two programs. One is college credit, which is ALOT more work, just more writing. The other is the one we signed up for which is high school. He has two papers a semester, hour long oral exam at end of semester, each week is two hour long Socratic discussion based on their assigned reading for the week. It has kept us on track, because I'm not sure I would have kept up the pressure to keep reading these things, and my son may have given me flack. He just does this because it is what he needs to do for the class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 I don't think I've ever looked at Omni. Thanks, I will check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Burning him out is what I fear most, so while I'm working on scheduling those sorts of works, I want to have other options waiting in the wings in case that approach is just not working for him.... If he loves it, we'll run with it. If he begins to loath it, I want to be able to pull back but keep our flow going. Thanks for the Lewis rec! I hadn't thought of including it but it would work beautifully and it's one of my favorite works! Like you, I'm also thinking about how heavy the list is in Greek and Roman works. That also why I've pulled some great books from other cultures that I think we might delve into. I am doing a lot more reading aloud with this child, but I also want to get him into reading more lengthy works on his own, too, so that he's prepared for the heavy reading he'll need to do for college (if that still exists by then, LOL)..... He's a fast reader, but he's not getting to put his skills into practice much this year. With all the language work he's doing this year, there just isn't enough time in a day for him to do a lot of heavy reading, too..... We've got to cut back on that and give him more reading time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Is this what you're talking about? I'm assuming it includes reading schedules, discussion questions, etc.? Did you think their writing assignments were well done? http://www.veritaspress.com/products.asp?dept=1071 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Does he do the oral exam via internet? And the weekly discussions are via Skype or something, too? Is this the website? http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/ So ninth grade year is Greek only? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in IL Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Looks like you have the site. They also operate Angelicum Academy which also hosts great books. Grade 9 is Greek, grade 10 is Roman and it goes up from there. He has read tons of impressive lit this year. He meets online with his class, taught by 1 professor and the director if the program. It is Socratic discussion based. There are approx 20 kids in his class. They discuss for 2 hours a week. Burning him out is what I fear most, so while I'm working on scheduling those sorts of works, I want to have other options waiting in the wings in case that approach is just not working for him.... If he loves it, we'll run with it. If he begins to loath it, I want to be able to pull back but keep our flow going. Thanks for the Lewis rec! I hadn't thought of including it but it would work beautifully and it's one of my favorite works! Like you, I'm also thinking about how heavy the list is in Greek and Roman works. That also why I've pulled some great books from other cultures that I think we might delve into. I am doing a lot more reading aloud with this child, but I also want to get him into reading more lengthy works on his own, too, so that he's prepared for the heavy reading he'll need to do for college (if that still exists by then, LOL)..... He's a fast reader, but he's not getting to put his skills into practice much this year. With all the language work he's doing this year, there just isn't enough time in a day for him to do a lot of heavy reading, too..... We've got to cut back on that and give him more reading time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Like you, I'm also thinking about how heavy the list is in Greek and Roman works. That also why I've pulled some great books from other cultures that I think we might delve into. Maybe it is a stupid question - but what other cultures in the Ancient time period did have a body of written works? (aside from Gilgamesh) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 http://www.docstoc.com/docs/40452604/Year-12-Reading-List This gets linked to occasionally on the hs board. If you search for Jenny in Florida's posts, she tends to be multi-cultural in her selections and has some for ancients. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=150140&highlight=gita#post150140 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'm looking at the Egyptian Book of the Dead; the Rig-veda, Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist scriptures for India; and the Analects of Confucius, Tao Te Ching, and Art of War (Sun Tzu) for China. There seem to be good translations of these readily available through my library, etc., too, although I still don't hear much about others studying these.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I'm looking at the Egyptian Book of the Dead; the Rig-veda, Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist scriptures for India; and the Analects of Confucius, Tao Te Ching, and Art of War (Sun Tzu) for China. There seem to be good translations of these readily available through my library, etc., too, although I still don't hear much about others studying these.... TOG includes some of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Jenny in Florida did all of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 (edited) I'm looking at the Egyptian Book of the Dead; the Rig-veda, Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist scriptures for India; and the Analects of Confucius, Tao Te Ching, and Art of War (Sun Tzu) for China. There seem to be good translations of these readily available through my library, etc., too, although I still don't hear much about others studying these.... Thanks! Edited March 2, 2011 by regentrude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 She didn't happen to post a scheduling list by chance, did she? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 Thanks so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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