What are some independent, thorough English/lit programs for high schoolers?

[6packofun]

We can't afford to sign our kids up for k12 international academy or any other online class, so I'd like a program that our high schoolers can mainly do on their own. We've used Lightning Lit. in the past, but during middle school. Any suggestions? I'm mainly looking for something that covers some literary analysis, reading and writing assignments, with a guide or text that teaches TO the student.

 

Anyone know if the Smarr reading guides are meaty enough and have writing assignments? I'm looking for a program to take some of the work off my hands so that I can concentrate on my younger ones this fall.

 

Thanks!

[Kates]

Have you looked at the different programs from Stobaugh? They're comprehensive, yet written to the student. They do require discussion and grading/editing by the parent, but are pretty self-inclusive.

[dkholland]

My ds used the Smarr Ancients English course. It is one of the chronological courses. It is what you described. My ds has done it mostly on his own. We brainstorm over the papers together and review some of the grammar exercises too. It has lit analysis, writing and grammar lessons, vocabulary, and 7 papers are required throughout the course.

 

It was just what we needed this year, so ds could be more independent. But, its not too much that he felt overwhelmed.

[Brigid in NC]

We loved the Tapestry of Grace literature selections and pacing. There is far more to TOG than literature, but you can zoom in on just that part. It has activities and discussion questions that are directed to the student. It is fast paced -- lots of reading! So don't be deterred if it is too ambitious. Just eliminate a book or two . . . or three. :)

 

Best of luck!

[Julie of KY]

Excellence in Literature might suit your needs.

[Lori D.]

Just my opinion, but the Literature and Writing portions of the English credit seems are the two areas of high school that really require more parent involvement for the discussion, analysis, and at least the grading of writing. I would suggest that math, science, foreign language, history (somewhat -- still need discussion, analysis and grading of papers here), government/economics, and some fine arts as more readily done independently/solo by a student. Perhaps consider moving towards independent working in some of those others areas *first* before the literature. Or outsource to a homeschool co-op with a good teacher and class discussion. Just a thought! :)

 

That being said, below are some options that might at least help with some independent working. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

Excellence in Literature = http://www.everyday-education.com/literature/index.shtml

gr. 8-12 Five one-year programs, self-directed, covers complete works, includes teaching of literary analysis and writing instruction, optional "honors" track, and a grading rubric for the parent. While this will still require some parent input, this program will probably allow most independent working and most coverage of literary analysis.

 

See Cathy Duffy review: http://cathyduffyreviews.com/phonics_reading/excellence-in-literature.htm

 

 

Windows to the World

Somewhat independent, but will definitely require some parent input. Excellent program; teaches annotation to help the student then have specific examples for discussion and analysis and essays; very specific instruction in how to write a literary analysis essay; and then chapters on looking for specific literary elements (theme, irony, plot, characterization, etc.). Author Jill Pike has also posted additional material on the Yahoo Groups site to expand this 1 semester course into a 1 year course.

 

See table of contents and sample pages: http://www.christianbook.com'>http://www.christianbook.com

See Cathy Duffy review: http://cathyduffyreviews.com/phonics_reading/windows-to-the-world.htm

 

 

Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Gold

Can be done pretty independently. There are two high school level programs, each 1 semester long: American Lit. (10 short stories; 10 poets; 3 novellas) and British Lit. (3 novels; 3 novellas; 7 poets). Each is a very "lite" program, with some background info on the author/times; questions (mostly comprehension, not discussion or analysis type), and writing assignment ideas. The teaching text on poetry was helpful in the British Lit. program, and the exposure to short stories was helpful in the American Lit. program. No writing instruction. No teaching text on literary analysis.

 

See table of contents and sample pages: http://www.christianbook.com

 

 

Lightning Literature = http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/book/blight.asp

gr. 9-12 The High school LL programs are different from the two middle school programs. Each is one semester long. Each program focuses on a specific time period and area, such as early 19th century American authors; Shakespeare comedies and sonnets; Medieval British literature; etc. Written to the student but will definitely require some parent input. Emphasis on writing assignments -- but no writing/composition instruction.

 

See Cathy Duffy review: http://cathyduffyreviews.com/phonics_reading/lightning-lit.htm

 

There is a very helpful post in this thread on actually using LL: Question about Lightning Literature (good review of actually trying to use LL) = http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92020&highlight=lightning+lit

 

To see sample lessons for individual programs, click on the "sample lesson" link on the Hewitt website; to see the course scope and sequence, click on the link "additional information".

 

 

SMARR = http://www.smarrpublishers.com/products.php?catid=23&category=Complete%20Courses

gr. 9-12 We used only one individual guide (Epic of Gilgamesh) rather than the English program which *'hopefully* is more in-depth. We were very disappointed with the individual guide: very skimpy for the price; the focus was vocabulary words and comprehension questions; only a very few discussion questions, and only one or two sentences explaining a literary term.

 

Many of the SMARR full English programs are keyed to history, and so cover some works that you may consider to be historical documents rather than classic literature; there are 3 literature survey courses: American Lit., British Lit., World Lit. The actual, full SMARR English programs include writing instruction -- hopefully they also contain instruction in literary analysis; the individual guide did not. I have no information as to whether this program could be used independently/solo by a student or not.

 

There is a very helpful post on using SMARR in this thread: SMARR literature guides and Lightning Lit = http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160341&highlight=lightning+lit

 

 

Alpha-Omega LifePacs = http://www.aophomeschooling.com/lifepac/

gr. 9-12 Can be done pretty independently. Extremely "lite" in content and teaching; one person on this board who used several of these commented that the amount of content could be found free online with a quick google search. Another person used them only as supplement to their literature. Some "lite" literary analysis, and writing assignment ideas; no writing instruction.

 

See Cathy Duffy review: http://cathyduffyreviews.com/phonics_reading/american-british-lifepacs.htm

 

 

EMC Publishing: Mirrors & Windows series

gr. 9-12 These look to be more teacher-involved, and may use excerpts rather than complete works (I couldn't quite tell from the table of contents). However, it looks like they cover literary elements and analysis with lots of helpful instruction, and have guided writing sections, which looks like writing/composition instruction and specific assignments.

 

- Level IV (grade 9) = http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/index.php?GroupID=2885

- Level V (grade 10) = http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/index.php?GroupID=2886

- American Tradition (American Lit) (grade 11) = http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/index.php?GroupID=2887

- British Tradition (British Lit.) = http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/index.php?GroupID=215

 

 

Bob Jones University Press high school literature programs, Omnibus, and Tapestry of Grace are all excellent and teach literary analysis, BUT require quite a bit of parent involvement. From the Cathy Duffy review, plus comments by families who have used the James Stobaugh programs, they require large amounts of parent involvement, including reading the works along with the student; one family on this board also mentioned that the questions are deep -- and often Stobaugh provides no answers, so that, even as an adult, the parent felt at a loss as to how to go about answering the questions.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Lori D.

[MGK]

Thank you LoriD for taking the time to post all of those options. What an incredible resource!

[love2read]

Seton Home Study's English 9, 10, 11 and 12 are very complete. They include literary analysis and writing in the lesson plans. Tests and composition evaluations are included in the price which is $150 for a single course and includes all material. The lesson plans are written to the student, tutors are available during business hours to help the student, and discussion guides are provided so that the parent can be involved. The questions are designed to encourage the student to think ahead. We've used other programs in the past and this is the one we keep returning to. While it is Catholic, it's not heavy on doctrine but more Catholic thinking in terms of character traits and evaluating characters ability to think and act logically.

[Brigid in NC]

Thank you LoriD for taking the time to post all of those options. What an incredible resource!

 

I agree! Wow! I never cease to be amazed by the generosity of those on this forum. It takes quite a bit of time to synthesize this kind of information! What a huge help this is LoriD!

Edited May 18, 2011 by Brigid in NC

[Lori D.]

Hey Love2Read -- the Cathy Duffy review on Seton program only says "suitable for independent work"; realistically, what would you say your time involvement as a parent has been in using this one? Thanks in advance! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Lori D.
fixed typos

[TechWife]

Have you looked at The Well Educated Mind? It is great and is definitely designed to be independent. I think a thoughtful high school junior or senior could manage it.

[Martha in GA]

Love2read, I looked at the sample from Seton and it looked interesting. I use an umbrella school for accreditation which requires tests, including mid-terms and finals -- can you tell me what kinds of tests and approximately how many are included? Does it include grammar tests and literature tests? Thanks in advance.

 

Martha

[Guest]

How about Lit Lessons from The Lord of the Rings? it seems like it could be done rather independently.

 

Also, has anyone else considered making a book from Lori D's comments. I mean WOW! every time.

[love2read]

Seton is Nationally Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and their program is recognized as rigorous by colleges and universities. It's not a true classical program, but rather textbook based although that's not the case for English. It's a challenging program, more so than LLLOTR. The lesson plans are written to the child and explain, step by step, what they have to do. Hopefully you can see the charts below that I pasted from our account for 9th grade English. Some things are parent graded, but that is simple and only takes 5 minutes a week. Discussion questions and answers are available for all books. Your dc could just read the questions and answers, but they are excellent for Socratic style discussions with mom or dad. If a child is not a strong writer, they would need your help in the beginning, but if you've been using IEW or some other consistent approach to writing, there will be no problem carrying out the directions. After the papers are uploaded and graded, your dc can make changes based on the grader's comments and resubmit it one time for a new grade. The new grade is an average of the original and new grade. I should add, there is a very specific way the assignments need to be done which will give your dc a chance to conform to someone else's expectations. If your dc doesn't understand an assignment, they call the school and are usually able to speak to a teacher immediately. Be aware that they run the program like a private prep-school and expect the children to be polite. This works for us and we have found it is exactly the kind of succinct, logical, thesis based writing they are expected to produce in college. While this does include a good deal of writing, grammar and composition are taught in a separate class in 9th grade. We only use the English classes and something else for grammar.

Edited to add: The tests are short answer, usually just a sentence or two and no longer than a paragraph.

 

 

 

Quarter 1 Assignment

 

 

 

 

 

Graded by

 

 

 

 

 

%

 

 

 

Weekly Spelling Tests Qtr 1

Parent

5.00%

Weekly Vocabulary Tests Qtr 1

Parent

5.00%

Complete Sentences Test

Parent

5.00%

Capital Letters Test

Parent

5.00%

Lilies Quizzes

Parent

5.00%

 

Lilies of the Field Test

Seton

22.50%

Lilies of the Field Composition

Seton

18.75%

A Secret for Two Test

Seton

15.00%

First Quarter Book Analysis

Seton

15.00%

Thesis for Research Report

Seton

3.75%

 

 

Quarter 2 Assignment

 

 

 

 

 

Graded by

 

 

 

 

 

%

 

 

 

Weekly Spelling Tests

Parent

4.16%

Weekly Vocabulary Tests

Parent

4.16%

Sentence Variety Test

Parent

4.17%

End Marks and Commas Test

Parent

4.17%

Note Cards for Report

Parent

4.17%

Red Fern Quizzes

Parent

4.17%

 

Where the Red Fern Grows Test

Seton

22.50%

Red Fern Composition with Outline

Seton

15.00%

Lottery Ticket Test

Seton

15.00%

Second Quarter Book Analysis

Seton

15.00%

Working Draft Outline of Research Report

Seton

3.75%

Working Bibliography

Seton

3.75%

 

 

 

Quarter 3 Assignment

 

 

 

 

 

Graded by

 

 

 

 

 

%

 

 

 

Weekly Spelling Tests Qtr 3

Parent

6.25%

Weekly Vocabulary Tests Qtr 3

Parent

6.25%

Semicolons and Colons Test

Parent

6.25%

Composition Exercises

Parent

6.25%

 

Research Report

Seton

56.25%

The Donkey Test

Seton

18.75%

 

 

 

Quarter 4 Assignment

 

 

 

 

 

Graded by

 

 

 

 

 

%

 

 

 

Weekly Spelling Tests Qtr 4

Parent

6.25%

Weekly Vocabulary Tests Qtr 4

Parent

6.25%

Mechanics Test

Parent

6.25%

Sentence Structure Test

Parent

6.25%

 

Merchant of Venice Test

Seton

30.00%

Merchant of Venice Essay (including outline)

Seton

22.50%

Fourth Quarter Book Analysis

Seton

22.50%

 

Edited May 19, 2011 by love2read

[6packofun]

Dropping jaw at your generous post. LOL!! Thanks, Lori!!

 

Yes, yes, I definitely agree about parental involvement, and plan to BE involved. However, I've always tried to piece together our English courses and at this level it's difficult for me with everything else on my plate. I'm mostly looking for something that is written to the student, will have assignments and a little writing instruction (not total/complete, but helping the student along a bit) so that I'm not teaching EVERY. single. aspect. of English and literature! Kwim? Thank you again!

Edited May 19, 2011 by 6packofun
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