anyone have a good experience with Stobaugh?

[teeterbunch]

If you had a good experience with Stobaugh, could you tell me how you used it and what you liked?  It got a great review from Cathy Duffy, but not positive reviews on this website??  Thanks.

 

Ashley

[purplelily]

The older versions with the DVD, the book portions I did not like, although I liked e DVD part of it. The newest version is much more user friendly. It is broken down to daily chunks of what to do. It teaches literature for a distinctly Christian worldview.

If you student has an understanding of worldviews, it makes the world and it's religions make so much more sense. It helps you under the why so many things in history happened, and why people still do the things that they do today.

[purplelily]

http://www.nlpg.com/skills-for-literary-analysis-lessons-in-assessing-writing-structures

 

Above is a link to one with the new format.

[Julie in MN]

I have only used his materials through MFW (year 3), but I have some things I like.  Mostly that he is familiar with a wide range of literature, and pulls in a LOT of original works, especially in early American history.  He sometimes reminds me of "the purple book" that Notgrass uses, with just tons of original works to read.  I must say I'm glad MFW scheduled it out for me. 

 

From attending his seminar, I think Stobaugh wants homeschoolers to be well read, and feels that through reading they will absorb ideas that they can quote from, or understand when others quote from them, and I think that's a worthy goal.  That alone might be enough for me as a student, though my ds needs to be drawn into a work a little more sometimes, often needs a little bit more in-depth look at the piece, and some self-processing (through defending meatier essays), but I'm happy to do that with him myself (even if he's not!).  I'm not one that thinks anything is perfect, and I can't say that my kids have either, so Stobaugh has some good points, like most things I've tried.

 

Does that count?

Julie

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

The new materials are much better than the older ones.

I'm using World History and World Literature this year. My son is reading and we are picking / choosing the assignments. We are doing most assignments orally at this point.

As with any program, you can always tweak it to fit your needs!

[Hunter]

Is there an order the texts are supposed to be used in? Is it mandatory?

 

Has anyone used all eBooks for this curriculum?

 

Is MFW the only full curriculum to use these books?

[cbollin]

Is MFW the only full curriculum to use these books?

 

 

points of clarification:

 

I don't know if other programs use any Stobaugh. 

 

MFW has a booklet called American Literature Supplement in one year of high school (US1).  It is not the only thing MFW uses for literature that year.   The content of this MFW American Literature Supplement says of itself "Some of the content is adapted from the following publications:  American Literature by Stobaugh 2005, Skills for Literary Analysis, Stobaugh 2005. Skills for Rhetoric, Stobaugh, 2005"

 

so, even mfw doesn't really use his stuff completely. Stobaugh granted mfw license to adapt and publish to better fit mfw style.  MFW's book doesn't look similar to the current content of the samples of stobaugh's American Lit course.    The table of contents looks familar, but the samples of American Lit by Stobaugh do not really remind me a lot of the same titled lesson in the MFW booklet, parts are there, but it's not the same stuff.    

 

hmmm..  ????

[Hunter]

I'm finding it convenient to use mostly eBooks right now.

 

I think AO will serve my needs to grades 1-6, but I don't like 7-12 as much.

 

I'm thinking maybe I could spread out the 3 years of Stobaugh for 7-12. These courses with all the "summer reading" and 3 credits for just 2 subjects, seems a bit overkill for 1 year each. I don't worry about traditional transcripts. Any students I'm interacting with are looking at junior colleges that won't even look at transcripts, even if they are provided.

 

It looks to me like all books on the reading lists are available as Kindle books and most of them for free. It looks like a nice complete package, with quite affordable prices for the digital copies.

[Hunter]

I'm not ready to give up on this series yet, but, Ugh! I'm going to really have to work to use this, and I'll be using it more as a resource than "as is".

 

I only have the Kindle version, but the "read ahead" portions are sometimes not listed. I don't know what's up with "A Separate Peace", by John Knowles. It's obviously a must read, but not listed in "read ahead" or "summer reading".

 

The writing assignments are hard and awkward. I don't know if the student is supposed to infer or research.

 

I can't believe the reviews say this is "open and go" and that the student can work independently. Yes, it PRETENDS to be that way, with daily lessons and bullets and all that. But there is too much missing for that to be possible. When it looks short enough to be completed in a day, there isn't the support necessary to complete the assignments.

 

I'm realising that a LOT of the required books are not available as public domain books as I had previously thought. Some aren't even available to purchase as Kindle books.

 

I don't see anything I like better for a mostly Kindle course, so I will try sticking with this a bit longer, but...I just wanted to caution people that this is not something to hand a teen and walk away.

 

And it's really, really, really preachy! And when students are asked their opinions they really are only given the support to agree with the author, not really form a real opinion.

 

If I stick with this I'll try to keep giving updates. And maybe create a list of what books/stories need to be read when with links to the cheapest copies.

[cbollin]

 

And it's really, really, really preachy! And when students are asked their opinions they really are only given the support to agree with the author, not really form a real opinion.

 

 

that was our experience as well.  on another thread (where it was why don't like his stuff)  I mentioned this...  we got to the point that our out loud default snarky answer to everything was "well according to stobaugh, the answer is......  "   so we took it as a time of "maybe in college to learn how to get an A you have to learn to give the answer the instructor wants".  We really got tired of his opinion and point of view - even if we agreed somewhat with it. 

 

Just so glad it wasn't the only thing in our mfw year.  

[mumto2]

Stobaugh was very hard going for dd and I also. As a kindle person for as many books as possible I knew sourcing was going to be a problem. My independent worker, who has never been completely defeated by a text before, begged to quit. Too much is missing.

 

Hunter, Have you downloaded a sample of EIW? Approximately half the books seem to be free on the kindle. Dd has not been defeated yet-- the required "helps" seem to all be there. Halfway through book 2 and loving it. The units stand on their own so you can skip what you cannot source inexpensively. So far everything has been easy to find at our library, on kindle, or already owned as a hard copy. She has been doing the "Honor's " track because loves to read. The reality is 9 books can do this course. Dd needs closer to 20 for her chosen track.

 

I'm not ready to give up on this series yet, but, Ugh! I'm going to really have to work to use this, and I'll be using it more as a resource than "as is".

 

I only have the Kindle version, but the "read ahead" portions are sometimes not listed. I don't know what's up with "A Separate Peace", by John Knowles. It's obviously a must read, but not listed in "read ahead" or "summer reading".

 

The writing assignments are hard and awkward. I don't know if the student is supposed to infer or research.

 

I can't believe the reviews say this is "open and go" and that the student can work independently. Yes, it PRETENDS to be that way, with daily lessons and bullets and all that. But there is too much missing for that to be possible. When it looks short enough to be completed in a day, there isn't the support necessary to complete the assignments.

 

I'm realising that a LOT of the required books are not available as public domain books as I had previously thought. Some aren't even available to purchase as Kindle books.

 

I don't see anything I like better for a mostly Kindle course, so I will try sticking with this a bit longer, but...I just wanted to caution people that this is not something to hand a teen and walk away.

 

And it's really, really, really preachy! And when students are asked their opinions they really are only given the support to agree with the author, not really form a real opinion.

 

If I stick with this I'll try to keep giving updates. And maybe create a list of what books/stories need to be read when with links to the cheapest copies.

[Hunter]

Stobaugh was very hard going for dd and I also. As a kindle person for as many books as possible I knew sourcing was going to be a problem. My independent worker, who has never been completely defeated by a text before, begged to quit. Too much is missing.

 

Hunter, Have you downloaded a sample of EIW? Approximately half the books seem to be free on the kindle. Dd has not been defeated yet-- the required "helps" seem to all be there. Halfway through book 2 and loving it. The units stand on their own so you can skip what you cannot source inexpensively. So far everything has been easy to find at our library, on kindle, or already owned as a hard copy. She has been doing the "Honor's " track because loves to read. The reality is 9 books can do this course. Dd needs closer to 20 for her chosen track.

 

 

I'm looking for a history/literature course, not a writing course. Is this primarily a writing course based off of a formulatic essay writing course?

[HollyDay]

I have an IRL gf who is using Stobaugh for history.  She is pleased with it.  I've not seen any of Stobaugh in person or used it so I can't give first hand info

[Hunter]

I didn't know the Excellence in Literature series comes in eBook form. There are 3 books-- American, British, and World as well as 2 earlier books.

 

American Literature

http://www.everyday-education.com/literature/eng3.shtml

 

The complete booklist

http://www.everyday-education.com/downloadables-pdfs/eil-info-sheet-w-booklist-2011.pdf

 

EIL looks like it contains a lot less than Stobaugh, but that what it does include is better. I'm thinking maybe I need both, but that's more money than I really want to spend. If I just focus on American though, and not the rest, I can afford the EIL American eBook next month. I just hate to commit to one level before seeing the bigger picture. And I think the eBook is meant to be printed and not read on a device. And that there are bits of content in levels 1 and 2 that would best be read before starting the American book.

 

Just UGH!

[mumto2]

 

I'm looking for a history/literature course, not a writing course. Is this primarily a writing course based off of a formulatic essay writing course?

Yes, sorry. My brain locked onto something said about poor examples and explanations and all I could think of was how much better EIL was for our literature. Forgot all about the history part.

[mumto2]

Hunter -- Are you using a kindle reader now or a fire? We have used some of these materials as a pdf on fires but never exclusively. I print some too. Since we have used them on fires some I thought might work for you since I remember you using one in past posts. I would email them and ask. I have heard great stories about their customer service.

[Hunter]

I'm using an iPad Mini and also have a Photon Q Android cell phone. On the iPad, I have the Kindle App, and for the pdfs I use GoodReader. In general pdfs work quite well in the iPad Mini. But....

 

It says the EiL pdfs are set for 2 sided printing. Does that mean all the even pages are in one section of the pdf, and then the odds in another?

 

I had a Kindle Fire first generation a couple years ago, but gave that away. Before that I had an IPad 1st gen. IPads have come a LONG way in acting as stand alone devices since the iPad 1st generations! I swore I'd never get another iPad, until the salesperson demonstrated the mini and I was hooked. I had intended to get a regular 10 inch android tablet, for pdfs, but...got surprised. Paying off this iPad this fall is kicking my butt! It's worth it though.

 

Maybe I'll call tomorrow. I forget I can do that.

[Hunter]

History suggestions for EiL.

http://excellence-in-literature.com/resources-for-teaching/history-suggestions-for-excellence-in-literature

 

Stobaugh is one of the suggestions.

[AmyontheFarm]

I found some of his teacher textbooks and student books on sale at CBD.com.  They have changed the cover.  My son won't be ready for this for two years yet but I've been able to find all the books either on Kindle or for very cheap.  3 of the books I bought for 1 cent on Amazon the shipping cost more than the books!  I figured I would slowly take my time and purchase the books as I found them on sale.  I plan to go through this course myself before I send my kids through it.  I decided that if I used it just to expose them to some literature, then it was worth the sale price I paid for it through CBD.com.   I'm watching for the American Lit. teacher book and Student books to come on sale also.

[Hunter]

Amy, that's what I'm trying to do. To do the lessons myself first. I'm using AO for the younger grades, and I also need to plan AO to prepare students for what comes next. So I need to do some high-school stuff, before I can even fully settle on the grade 1 AO books.

 

There are 2 editions of both Stobaugh and EiL, so be careful about matching up collections and the correct TMs to the student books.

[Hunter]

I just realized I bought these books as Kindle books and all Kindle books can be returned. Hmm.

 

I've read several more chapters in both the American lit and history books. The formatting of these books is bad. I often don't know when a quote starts or ends. I don't know always know what Stobaugh wrote and what is quoted from another author. There are typos that make the activites even more difficult that they already are.

 

I don't know of anything better, but I'm not entirely happy with these books at all. I feel like I'm going to spend a LOT of my time, for not enough back for the student.

 

EDIT: Ugh! I guess it's been over a week since I bought these and I don't have the option to return them. I guess I'll have to work harder at using them. Maybe that's a good thing. I don't know.