Those that are finishing/have finished 5th grade, please come hold my hand.

[mlbuchina]

I have been going over my plans for 5th grade next school year, and I think I have it well in hand except for one thing.

 

Literature. Goodness. I am so at a loss. I have read and reread the section in WTM, but I just can't seem to get my head around it.

 

What did you end up doing, and did you like it? What would you do different? What books did you assign to read? Any tips or hints, advice, and "this was a mistake, don't do it!"s would be greatly appreciated.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[ondreeuh]

I got Teaching the Classics, which gives a model for literary analysis. Then we have been using the guides in Ready Readers 2, which are great to use at the end of the book to plot out the literary elements and story arch.

[Crimson Wife]

Get yourself a copy of Figuratively Speaking and go through it one lesson per week. Easy-peasy!

[Mom0012]

My dd has been reading through the SL core G books and we are doing one lesson a week in Figuratively Speaking as well.

 

Lisa

[bcnlvr]

For 5th, we started with Figuratively Speaking, Mosdos Coral, and the MCT literature pack. We ended up dropping FS and DS11 finished the MCT lit by xmas. Now we just do Mosdos, which ds likes (he is a STEM kid).

[Susie in CA]

We basically read the WTM literature books and talked about them. Sometimes they wrote a summary or made a drawing. It was really simply and worked very well.

[Chrysalis Academy]

We've done a combination: books just above her reading level that I read aloud and we discuss (and then she may or may not write about), books that she reads and we discuss, and then books that she just reads for fun or enjoyment.

 

So, in the first category, I read aloud 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four, Huckleberry Finn, Alice & Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass, Rip Van Winkle & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and a couple of Lamb's Shakespeare (King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew). We've had literary analysis discussions a la WTM, and she wrote a paper about Huck Finn, and attended an adult book group discussion of Alice/TTLG and King Lear.

 

She is also participating in a kids's book group at the local library. The last selection was Our Only May Amelia.

 

She read and we discussed MCT's Mud trilogy. Really below her reading level, but she enjoyed them.

 

She's read about 30 historical fiction/Newberry type books so far this year, correlated to our history studies. We've had a pretty in-depth literary analysis discussion of probably half of them, and she's written about a handful of them - just really basic summary & analysis as taught in WWS.

 

She's read another 50 or so books for pleasure, but I don't really count that as "literature".

 

It's been great. I've been holding myself back from making it more intensive or formal - waiting till we learn the literary analysis writing models in WWS, etc. I'm planning on ramping it up some next year, because I can see that her reading abilities have grown and that she's ready to read more advanced books on her own. But I see it continuing to follow the WTM model: read, discuss, write (but not about every book). I'm very happy about the results so far.

[mlbuchina]

Thanks everyone!

[2_girls_mommy]

We are wrapping up 5th right now. We ended up using this: http://www.classicalhouseoflearning.com/logic-stage-literature.html , and it has been good. I printed out the guides which gave me discussion questions, project ideas, and dictation. It assigns summaries for me. And it goes along w/WTM history. It has been easy for me, and dd has enjoyed the books.

Other than that, tons of reading... Those were just her assigned books.

[Dolphin]

I have been going over my plans for 5th grade next school year, and I think I have it well in hand except for one thing.

 

Literature. Goodness. I am so at a loss. I have read and reread the section in WTM, but I just can't seem to get my head around it.

 

What did you end up doing, and did you like it? What would you do different? What books did you assign to read? Any tips or hints, advice, and "this was a mistake, don't do it!"s would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

I was lucky, I went to a conference last Spring and got to hear SWB give this lecture. WONDERFUL. It really explains TWTM way of doing Lit.

 

http://peacehillpress.com/what-is-literary-analysis-mp3.html

 

and it is only $3.99

 

Here are the handouts to take notes on while you listen.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/what-is-literary-analysis-and-when-to-teach-it/

[RootAnn]

I have been going over my plans for 5th grade next school year, and I think I have it well in hand except for one thing.

 

Literature. Goodness. I am so at a loss. I have read and reread the section in WTM, but I just can't seem to get my head around it.

 

What did you end up doing, and did you like it? What would you do different? What books did you assign to read? Any tips or hints, advice, and "this was a mistake, don't do it!"s would be greatly appreciated.

 

I can't believe I'm facing 5th grade again next year. My plan for #2 is the same as it was for #1. Assign some reading as part of History & then let her read as much as she likes of fluff on the side. I'll continue doing read alouds to the whole group. Since we do the 4-yr rotation, the books assigned for their 5th grade year are different for each kid (although with five kids, eventually someone will end up in the same history rotation in 5th as a previous sibling). I haven't added anything else for "literature" other than talking about some of the books (a la SWB's Literary Analysis talk that others have already linked).

 

We'll be adding Figuratively Speaking in 7th. (Since I haven't done that yet, I can't give you a been-there/done-that.)

[Mom in High Heels]

We're finishing up 5th this year and Indy was required to read 25 books. He's on book 19 right now and we have 9 weeks of school left. Most of the books I picked at or just below his reading level (dyslexic) that matched up with his history. We're studying Greece right now and he's reading Black Ships Before Troy (which is a bit hard for him), and next he'll read The One-Eyed Giant, Theseus and his Town, Galen and the Gateway to Medicine, then when we get to Rome, he will will read, Detectives in Togas, The Mystery of the Roman Ransom, and the Secrets of Vesuvius. We read more difficult non-fiction books together. After he reads a book, he has to fill out a form that I have where he lists the title, author, number of pages, setting, a few major characters, the basic plot, the climax and resolution, and what he liked about the book. At the beginning of the year, it was slightly more simplified, but I added more stuff as we moved along. I did allow him to pick some books that weren't exactly what I would have chosen, but he wanted to read them, so I wasn't going to tell him no. He loved The Red Pyramid (517 pages!), which was packed with adventure and Egyptian references. He's chomping at the bits to read book 2, but I told him he has to finish up Black Ships first. I have tried to pick books that will keep him interested and not bog him down with too much seriousness. Two of his favorite books this year have been Herodotus and the Road to History and Archimedes and the Door of Science. I would never have guessed. RIght now we don't really analyze books, but eventually we will look at themes. For the moment, I'm just happy to get him to read and be excited about it.

I'm actually looking at doing the Classical House of Learning books for next year and adding more.

[mlbuchina]

 

 

I was lucky, I went to a conference last Spring and got to hear SWB give this lecture. WONDERFUL. It really explains TWTM way of doing Lit.

 

http://peacehillpres...alysis-mp3.html

 

and it is only $3.99

 

Here are the handouts to take notes on while you listen.

http://www.welltrain...en-to-teach-it/

 

I have this lecture, and have listened to it before. I need to go back and listen to it again. I didn't have the handouts, though, so thanks for posting those. :)

 

We're finishing up 5th this year and Indy was required to read 25 books. He's on book 19 right now and we have 9 weeks of school left. Most of the books I picked at or just below his reading level (dyslexic) that matched up with his history. We're studying Greece right now and he's reading Black Ships Before Troy (which is a bit hard for him), and next he'll read The One-Eyed Giant, Theseus and his Town, Galen and the Gateway to Medicine, then when we get to Rome, he will will read, Detectives in Togas, The Mystery of the Roman Ransom, and the Secrets of Vesuvius. We read more difficult non-fiction books together. After he reads a book, he has to fill out a form that I have where he lists the title, author, number of pages, setting, a few major characters, the basic plot, the climax and resolution, and what he liked about the book. At the beginning of the year, it was slightly more simplified, but I added more stuff as we moved along. I did allow him to pick some books that weren't exactly what I would have chosen, but he wanted to read them, so I wasn't going to tell him no. He loved The Red Pyramid (517 pages!), which was packed with adventure and Egyptian references. He's chomping at the bits to read book 2, but I told him he has to finish up Black Ships first. I have tried to pick books that will keep him interested and not bog him down with too much seriousness. Two of his favorite books this year have been Herodotus and the Road to History and Archimedes and the Door of Science. I would never have guessed. RIght now we don't really analyze books, but eventually we will look at themes. For the moment, I'm just happy to get him to read and be excited about it.

I'm actually looking at doing the Classical House of Learning books for next year and adding more.

 

Where did you get the list of books that you picked? Those that you listed so far sound like books my dd9 would enjoy reading. Thanks for the link, I am going to have to dig around on that site!

 

 

I can't believe I'm facing 5th grade again next year. My plan for #2 is the same as it was for #1. Assign some reading as part of History & then let her read as much as she likes of fluff on the side. I'll continue doing read alouds to the whole group. Since we do the 4-yr rotation, the books assigned for their 5th grade year are different for each kid (although with five kids, eventually someone will end up in the same history rotation in 5th as a previous sibling). I haven't added anything else for "literature" other than talking about some of the books (a la SWB's Literary Analysis talk that others have already linked).

 

We'll be adding Figuratively Speaking in 7th. (Since I haven't done that yet, I can't give you a been-there/done-that.)

 

I have looked at the Figuratively Speaking, but wasn't sure when to use it, if I decided to. What made you decide to use it in 7th?

 

 

Thanks everyone! Your thoughts and plans are so helpful.

[...................]

What I would do different:

 

I wouldn't use a Progeny Guide. Or, I would do it together orally while reading the book WITH my child. My son now really dislikes "literature study." He loves literature and has read many classics even. We read as a family so I don't know why I didn't keep looking until I found something that would have worked for us to do literature together.

 

I also wouldn't use Apologia Elementary Science again. It has been fun in some ways and I think we enjoyed it (I love reading it to them), the pacing has been difficult and I feel he has missed some serious Science concepts.

 

[Mom in High Heels]

 

Where did you get the list of books that you picked? Those that you listed so far sound like books my dd9 would enjoy reading. Thanks for the link, I am going to have to dig around on that site.

 

 

Honestly, I just started looking around on Amazon based on the time/place we would be studying. I found a few books I thought he would like and then further down is the list of what other people who bought that certain book also bought and I just started clicking through them. Each new book had more at the bottom.

 

Indy started the Mary Pope Osborne Tales of the Odyssey, book 1 and is already 4 chapters in. He has begged me for the rest of the series (there are 6). BTW, if you look for those, there are 2 compilation volumes that are far less expensive than buying the books separately. Vol 1 contains books 1-3 and vol 2 contains books 4-6. They are $6 each! If you like, I can send you a list of all the books we have for the year.

[SunnyDays]

We love those Mary Pope Osborne versions! DS has both of the compilations that you mention, and he's read them a couple times. I think I'll dig them out for independent reading next year!

[mlbuchina]

Honestly, I just started looking around on Amazon based on the time/place we would be studying. I found a few books I thought he would like and then further down is the list of what other people who bought that certain book also bought and I just started clicking through them. Each new book had more at the bottom.

 

Indy started the Mary Pope Osborne Tales of the Odyssey, book 1 and is already 4 chapters in. He has begged me for the rest of the series (there are 6). BTW, if you look for those, there are 2 compilation volumes that are far less expensive than buying the books separately. Vol 1 contains books 1-3 and vol 2 contains books 4-6. They are $6 each! If you like, I can send you a list of all the books we have for the year.

 

What a great idea on how to use Amazon! I'm on it all the time, and often look at the "what other people who bought" section. When you say you looked based on the time/place you were studying, did you type that into the search bar? I am always searching for a specific thing, so I don't know if you can do such a general search. That would be awesome.

 

Yes, I would love the list of books y'all have used this year. Thank you! Thanks for the tip about the MPO Odyssey books, too. I will definitely be getting that.

[Mom in High Heels]

 

What a great idea on how to use Amazon! I'm on it all the time, and often look at the "what other people who bought" section. When you say you looked based on the time/place you were studying, did you type that into the search bar? I am always searching for a specific thing, so I don't know if you can do such a general search. That would be awesome.

 

Yes, I would love the list of books y'all have used this year. Thank you! Thanks for the tip about the MPO Odyssey books, too. I will definitely be getting that.

 

I would type in random things like Ancient Greece for Kids. It usually popped up a bunch of fact type books, but then I just surfed through the what other people bought and see what fiction books are listed. I click on one and it will have more suggestions and so forth, and usually if someone is buying a book on ancient Greece, they bought a book on ancient Rome and ancient Egypt, so I click those and it leads me to more books on those time periods and from other areas. Does that make sense?

 

I'll type up the book list tomorrow for you.

[5LittleMonkeys]

For 5th, we started with Figuratively Speaking, Mosdos Coral, and the MCT literature pack. We ended up dropping FS and DS11 finished the MCT lit by xmas. Now we just do Mosdos, which ds likes (he is a STEM kid).

 

 

Did you find much of FS redundant while doing the Mosdos? Or was there a different reason you dropped it?