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Literature & Reading & Confusion


Wildiris
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I thought I had our literature & reading together, but now I'm not sure.

 

DD#1 is 11 and a voracious reader (She reads up to 10 books a week.) of Nancy Drew, The Sisters Grim and other such series. OK, this is mostly fluff and way below her reading level, but she loves it, and it is summer. She is keenly aware of the hero's journey as a theme for most of the books and movies aimed at her age group.

 

I looked at Hewitt's Lightning Literature......but her grasp of literary elements may be beyond their grade 7 and she has already read several of their book selections in depth.

 

Mosdos Press looks equal as good if only because it appears to teach literary elements beyond the Level of Lightning Lit.

 

I am in a quandary: Should I pursue a more traditional study of literature by choosing Mosdos , Lightning Lit, and study guides and think that I am preparing her well for high school. Or should I just let her read and keep a note book on her reading, and then have her write about her readings in literature, poetry, drama and non-fiction. We could use How to Read Like a Professor as a loose guide and similar books on poetry and drama. To choose this later path, would I be doing her a disservice by not preparing her for more rigorous course work in the future.

 

Thanks for your insight,

Wildiris

 

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Well, If it were me... and I don't have any kids that old yet, but I did teach seventh grade...

 

I would use a booklist and choose some classics from that list and them decide what you think she needs to understand better about literary elements (ie. plot develpoment, characterization, first person narrators, climax of the story, foreshadowing, etc...) and I would read along with her and then discuss, maybe with a cliff notes guide.

 

She could write about each of the books that she reads in depth and NOT write about other books that she is reading for fun. If she read six literature books this year and did the discussion and writing, I think she would be far better prepared than if she did a traditional lit. course. (but I have no experience with the ones you mentioned.)

 

I would have loved to do this type of in-depth reading with my seventh graders, but it just didn't work with 29 kids all of different reading levels.

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