Early Modern reading list

[LNC]

These are are from Omnibus 3 and 6. I will use their exacts schedules for the readings to be sure I don't overplan for ONCE!

 

It added up to 38 weeks. I am determined not to overplan this year, so I will schedule exactly the same. I use a textbook for history, so some of this "could" be cut.

 

What would you cut?

What would you add instead?

 

Paradise Lost // 1,2

Enlightenment Thinkers / 2

Pensees, Paschal / 4

Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes / 5

Social Contract. Rousseau // 6,7

Robinson Crusoe / 8

Of Plymouth Plantation /// 9,10

{Scarlet Letter??? Leland Ryken guide}

Founding American Documents // 11,12

Common Sense /

Federalist and Anti Federalist Papers // 13,14

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin //// 15,16,17,18

Legend of Sleepy Hollow / 19

Tale of Two Cities /// 20,21,22

Self Reliance, Emerson / 23

Civil Disobedience, Thoreau / 24

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman / 25

Uncle Tom's Cabin // 26,27

Lincoln's Speeches / 28

Slave Narratives / 29

Red Badge of Courage // 30,31

Huckleberry Finn // 32,33

Old Man and the Sea, Herman Melville / 34

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley // 35,36

Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde // 37,38

[LNC]

This is for 9th and 7th. I'm leaving out books/authors they have read and works included in Belhaven High Scholars reading list...

 

Omnibus schedules 2 weeks for Uncle Tom's Cabin. Isn't it really long?

[8filltheheart]

I'm not sure how you came up with your time allotments. Unless you are only reading selections from some of these works, I don't believe that you have given yourself enough time. Some of them are pretty heavy reading and you have only given 2 weeks and others are pretty easy and you have given them the same amt of time. For example, we have read Paradise Lost and Pascal's Pensees this yr and there is no way we could have covered them both in 3 weeks total. I think ds took 3 weeks to read Pensees and we took 6 weeks for Paradise Lost (we moved during this one, so that may have skewed my perspective on this one)

 

My 8th grader read Dr. J/Mr H in less than a wk and Tale of 2 Cities in 2.

 

Old Man and the Sea (by Hemmingway) is a very easy read.

 

FWIW, I wouldn't assign time for books by length, but by difficulty. Uncle Tom's Cabin might be longer than others, but its reading difficulty is only "difficult" b/c of the slang language, whereas the concepts in Pensees need to be processed.....it can't be read like a novel.

 

If it were me, I would narrow down the list and delve into some of the works more slowly and speed up some of them. I would combine Legend of Sleepy Hollow with some poetry of the time period (lots to choose from), etc.

 

ETA: I just read your 2nd post in this thread. This list is for 7th and 9th? I think it is overly ambitious based on that. Paradise Lost and Pensees are not really appropriate for 7th grade. My 8th grader did do Paradise Lost with us this yr, but she reads really difficult poetry for pleasure and we are reading it along with an audio. I'm personally don't think Pensees is appropriate for a 9th grader unless that 9th grader has a strong theological/philosophical background.

[LNC]

I'm not sure how you came up with your time allotments. Unless you are only reading selections from some of these works, I don't believe that you have given yourself enough time. Some of them are pretty heavy reading and you have only given 2 weeks and others are pretty easy and you have given them the same amt of time. For example, we have read Paradise Lost and Pascal's Pensees this yr and there is no way we could have covered them both in 3 weeks total. I think ds took 3 weeks to read Pensees and we took 6 weeks for Paradise Lost (we moved during this one, so that may have skewed my perspective on this one)

 

My 8th grader read Dr. J/Mr H in less than a wk and Tale of 2 Cities in 2.

 

Old Man and the Sea (by Hemmingway) is a very easy read.

 

FWIW, I wouldn't assign time for books by length, but by difficulty. Uncle Tom's Cabin might be longer than others, but its reading difficulty is only "difficult" b/c of the slang language, whereas the concepts in Pensees need to be processed.....it can't be read like a novel.

 

If it were me, I would narrow down the list and delve into some of the works more slowly and speed up some of them. I would combine Legend of Sleepy Hollow with some poetry of the time period (lots to choose from), etc.

 

Thanks, the time allotments are from the Omnibus teacher manual. I will follow their reading schedule and assignments. I may cut the list down, just don't know what to cut.

[8filltheheart]

 

Thanks, the time allotments are from the Omnibus teacher manual. I will follow their reading schedule and assignments. I may cut the list down, just don't know what to cut.

 

 

If these are in a TM, are they just covering selections? For example, I have a TM for Paradise Lost that leaves out books 7 and 8. Or the one I have for Inferno leaves out huge sections. Seriously, reading the entire Pensees in 1 wk at the ages of your kids means that they will be reading lists of thoughts and have not time to actually even process Pascal's arguments. (and we probably cross posted, b/c I edited my OP while you were posting.....so I don't know if you saw my ETA on that post.)

[LNC]

I think I should cut Pensees totally then. I will probably cut Ben Franklin autobiography too. Add more poetry and short stories....

[LNC]

Paradise Lost // 1,2

Enlightenment Thinkers / 3

Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes / 4

Social Contract. Rousseau // 5, 6

Robinson Crusoe / 7

Mayflower Compact /8

{Scarlet Letter??? Leland Ryken guide} 9, 10

Founding American Documents // 11, 12

Common Sense / 13

Federalist and Anti Federalist Papers // 14, 15

Legend of Sleepy Hollow / 16

Tale of Two Cities /// 17, 18, 19

Self Reliance, Emerson / 20

Civil Disobedience, Thoreau / 21

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman / 22

Uncle Tom's Cabin // 23, 24

Lincoln's Speeches / 25

Slave Narratives / 26

Red Badge of Courage // 27, 28

Huckleberry Finn //29, 30

Old Man and the Sea, Herman Melville / 31

Edgar Allen Poe / 32

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley // 33, 34

Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde // 35, 36

 

Edited list with cuts:

[Candid]

Personally, instead of cutting, I'd shorten the use of some works, do more in less time. I think you have a lot of candidates that could be done in less time than what I am seeing. (Each number behind the work is a week, right?)

 

Ones that I think could be easily done in less weeks.

 

 

Common Sense / Combine this with the founding documents

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin //// 15,16,17,18 I think this could be done in one week, certainly two.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow / 19 Combine with something else.

Tale of Two Cities /// 20,21,22 Two weeks

Self Reliance, Emerson / 23

Civil Disobedience, Thoreau / 24 Combine Emerson and Thoreau

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman / 25 Combine with something else.

Red Badge of Courage // 30,31

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley // 35,36

Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde // 37,38 All three of these last works can be done in one week.

[LNC]

Thanks so much for your input. I'm listening and modifying. Would you add anything?

My 7th grader will want to read lots of Messner inventor/scientist/doctor bios when they come up in the time period. My daughter may want to read more light classics that she hasn't read yet. I added a few readers we didn't get to the last cycle that they want to read. I also went through and added units from our Tq book collections to be sure they read some of our high qualiy nonfiction, like my Tunis books.

 

Explorers Unit

Don Quixote, Holt World Literature excerpt

Enlightenment Thinkers /

Robinson Crusoe /

Mayflower Compact /

Crown and Covenant series, Douglas Bond

Scarlet Letter, Leland Ryken guide

Colonial Unit, Tunis and other books

Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare

Great Awakening Unit, Tq 49

Founding American Documents //

Common Sense /

Federalist and Anti Federalist Papers //

Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens ///

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving /

Self Reliance, Emerson /

Civil Disobedience, Thoreau /

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman /

Pioneer, Westward Expansion unit

Uncle Tom's Cabin //

Lincoln's Speeches /

Slave Narratives /

Red Badge of Courage //

Huckleberry Finn //

Old Man and the Sea, Herman Melville /

Edgar Allen Poe /

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley //

Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde //

[Kendall]

My kids(3 so far) really liked Pascal Pensees, but we used Christianity for Modern Pagans by Peter Kreeft which has what Kreeft says are the more important and interesting and great pensees and he claims that the majority of scholars would agree that these are the great and interesting ones.

[Heather in VA]

I really wouldn't recommend doing Omnibus this way. First of all you have children at the younger end of the spectrum. Omnibus III is for 9th grade - written with the idea that you are at the tail end of the logic stage and transitioning into Rhetoric. So you could use if for both a 9th and 7th as long as you expect different process from the 7th grader than the 9th. But taking books from Omnibus 6 wouldn't be appropriate for either age. That is the last book in the series and written with the expectation that it is being done by seniors in high school with three years of full Rhetoric studies under their belt and getting ready to head off to college. Omnibus isn't just a list of books done in two cycles. The related work steps up each year. It's not interchangeable the way you have it set here.

 

If you want to use Omnibus for the modern time period with these ages, use Omnibus III. Leave Omnibus VI for late high school.

[MommyThrice]

I think it's fine to combine Omnibus 3 & 6. Both contain some obscure works, or works that I don't want to cover, and I like to pick and choose within a time period. Having said that, however, I think the Omnibus reading schedule is really ambitious! My kids are over-achievers, but we could never keep up with the Omni schedule. Partly because some works need more time to process, and partly because we just couldn't maintain that pace all year long. I schedule a few breaks for fun reading or outside activities. Mine all compete in debate and we go out of town alot.

 

Concerning specific books...

Many people say UTC is boring, but that was one of my favorites.

If you're going to read Frankenstein and Dr.Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, you should add Jeff Baldwin's The Deadliest Monster. I know many disagree with his ideas, and you may too, but it will at least get you thinking about the differences in worldviews. That's a discussion worth having.

 

I'm saving Emerson/Thoreau/Whitman until later high school. I want my kids to understand what led up to these ideas before they read them.

 

****

Now I see that this is for 7th & 9th. I think it is way too ambitious for 7th - both reading and the rhetorical questions in O6. I would just stay with O3 and, even at that, I would cut out some works for the 7th grader. Now that my kids are all in high school, I have changed my philosophy. We read less, discuss more and make more time for current events discussions.

[LNC]

I really wouldn't recommend doing Omnibus this way. First of all you have children at the younger end of the spectrum. Omnibus III is for 9th grade - written with the idea that you are at the tail end of the logic stage and transitioning into Rhetoric. So you could use if for both a 9th and 7th as long as you expect different process from the 7th grader than the 9th. But taking books from Omnibus 6 wouldn't be appropriate for either age. That is the last book in the series and written with the expectation that it is being done by seniors in high school with three years of full Rhetoric studies under their belt and getting ready to head off to college. Omnibus isn't just a list of books done in two cycles. The related work steps up each year. It's not interchangeable the way you have it set here.

 

If you want to use Omnibus for the modern time period with these ages, use Omnibus III. Leave Omnibus VI for late high school.

I understand your point. We just use Omnibus for individual book studies/worldview. It has worked well for ancients and middle ages. I anticipate it will continue to work well.