Questions about Stobaugh Literature

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I picked up a couple Stobaugh books last week. I have both the teacher and student editions of British Lit and the teacher edition of Literary Analysis.

 

Has anyone used these, who can give me some feedback, tips, suggestions, even warnings?

 

For the Literary Analysis book, it seems like the texts are all outside texts (Call of the Wild, Uncle Tom's Cabin, etc). What is in the student book? Are there explanations of things like the literary terms that the student is supposed to write about (for example naturalism).

 

If I don't get the student book, are there other books that would be good companions? EX the Norton Essential Literary Terms book.

 

Has anyone used the Stobaugh lit books and then done AP exams?

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

:lurk5:

 

{bump}

[Julie in MN]

Since no one's biting, I'll chat. My qualifications are:

- I own several Stobaugh books

- I attended a 2-day Stobaugh workshop

- I plan to use an adjusted version of Stobaugh materials which is part of one of MFW's high school years

 

My feeling is that Stobaugh is very big on getting kids reading classics. He isn't so worried about analyzing them to death, he just wants them to be "literate" and understand all references to classics. He's fine with audio books or library books, but he just wants kids to dig in and know these cultural icons.

 

He also wants them to be able to use classics in their essays -- to make literary comparisons and examples and such. He wants kids to be able to write about classic lit with familiarity.

 

Again, I do not get the sense that Stobaugh does a ton of analysis. If you read through his Reading Companion to 50 Classics, you'll find just the bare bones of questions for comprehension/discussion. I really think that's what Stobaugh is about.

 

He's from a big Harvard family and is very big in getting kids to be competitive on SAT tests and in upper tier colleges. He wants homeschoolers to be movers & shakers in the world. But he doesn't seem to think that the details of literary analysis are especially key to reaching that goal. It's more "knowing" the material and being able to "write well" about it. He wants homeschoolers to be part of the conversations of our culture, which often reference icons of literature. Student books tend to have a few simple comprehension and/or thought questions, and fairly loose essays but always getting kids to use literature examples.

 

You have the teacher version of his Lit Analysis. Do you see something more there?

Julie

Edited September 12, 2011 by Julie in MN
clarify 2 things