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If anyone used LL courses for high school, could you give me some advice? I would like dd to use British Medieval next year and possibly one of the Shakespeare packs. We have no prior experience with LL and the website states these are more difficult courses. Dd attended a literature class last year with a retired English teacher. He did cover some literary analysis and writing. She has gone through Teaching the Classics 6 week syllabus this year and is going through Figuratively Speaking on literary terms. Should I consider doing LL's Speech pack this year or even some of LL8 in order to make next year easier?

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I used the LL Medieval Lit a couple years ago with my high schoolers. I was a doing a survey course of British lit so I didn't do everything in their program. We did Beowulf, some Canterbury Tales (I had my two kids plus 4 other high schoolers and they each picked a tale, read it then reported on it to the class), and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I did not find the course difficult. I did change the recommended Canterbury Tales to a modern up dated version (LL wants you to use the original). The writing assignments do assume that the students have some writing experience under their belt; they are not teaching the rudiments of writing, but all my students did quite well, except for one young man who only needed a little extra help (he was the youngest and hadn't had much writing before). I did not assign every writing exercise, though. I let the kids pick one a week more or less. We did Medieval in the Fall semester and then used the same approach for the mid-late Brit Lit and Christian Writers as well (we skipped Shakespeare because the kids take a year long Shakespeare course given by another homeschooling mom.)

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My ds did the British Medieval in 10th grade with no problems (and with no prior LL experience.) The only thing that comes to mind when they say it's a more difficult course, is that maybe it's because of some of the reading. It has The Gest of Robyn Hode (printed in the text), in middle English (kind of fun!) and I think they recommend reading The Canterbury Tales in middle English (which we did not do--ds used a more modern version--the one used by Omnibus, which he was doing at the same time.) Could be also that the translation of Beowulf they use is less accessible?? Ds used the Seamus Heaney translation, which was great.

 

Dd used a Shakespeare pack last year in 10th, and I don't recall anything particularly difficult about that... She had done LL7 & 8 earlier, but I wouldn't say those were vital (other than that's how we covered introducing literary analysis for her.)

 

Anyway, with your dd's background, I see don't see a need to back up to LL8. I think you could jump right in to the courses you want to do.

 

That said, here are a couple of things to note about LL, since you haven't used it before:

 

1) The questions on the books tend to be more comprehension-type questions, rather than discussion questions, and

 

2) The writing assignments tend to be more on the creative/imaginative side, less on the expository/analytical side.

 

That wasn't quite what I was looking for, so I tended not to use the comprehension questions, and very few of the writing assignments (I was using a separate writing curriculum and also weaving in Omnibus II and Smarr Medieval Lit at the same time...:tongue_smilie:)

 

The main reason I used LL was it did cover SOME literary analysis (something I hadn't really been able to find anywhere else--this was before I found the WTM forums). The literary analysis is in piecemeal (rather than systematic) fashion, though, exploring a concept that happens to be exemplified by the work being studied (e.g. the study of Beowulf covers foreshadowing), so it's not going to be anything comprehensive. Just so you know. You may want to be sure your dd applies what she's learned this year and last from TTC, etc.

 

Hope this helps!

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Do the high school levels have a parent guide with discussion questions in there, like LL7 and LL8? Just curious.

 

Julie

There is no parent guide for the high school levels--I think it's meant to be more independent. My British Medieval is packed away in a box somewhere, but I just pulled my Early-Mid 19th Century American Lit book off the shelf to have a closer look, and...

 

I found there ARE discussion questions! Hidden away in Appendix B (along with project suggestions)!! Sigh. Why did they put them there :confused: and not in the main part of the text?? I think we totally missed them as a result. Guess I should read appendices a lot more carefully! :glare:

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If anyone used LL courses for high school, could you give me some advice? I would like dd to use British Medieval next year and possibly one of the Shakespeare packs. We have no prior experience with LL and the website states these are more difficult courses. Dd attended a literature class last year with a retired English teacher. He did cover some literary analysis and writing. She has gone through Teaching the Classics 6 week syllabus this year and is going through Figuratively Speaking on literary terms. Should I consider doing LL's Speech pack this year or even some of LL8 in order to make next year easier?

 

My dd first used LL in 8th grade. We used something different for 9th (history tied with lit), and she asked to go back to LL for 10th grade. She chose Shakespeare Tragedies and World Lit. While they may be described as "difficult," it sounds like your dd easily has her bases covered and would have no troubles with LL.

 

It can be a fair amount of reading, if you use it as scheduled. The writing can be as demanding as you'd like it to be. LL gives a choice of 4-5 writing assignments, and your dd (or you) can choose which one to do. (Actually, I'm thinking they might assign any two, I am not sure.) I like the discussion questions because then I can get an idea of what my dd thinks about what she's read. Otherwise, it's like pulling teeth to hear anything!

 

I think LL Speech Pack of LL8 is entirely unnecessary to prepare her for next year.

 

LL has been a surprise great fit for our family. Because of my dd's definite preference, I started my younger son out in LL7 (now doing LL8).

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