TOG Y1 Trimming Literature

[Pamela in VA]

I would like advice on trimming some of the literature from Units 3 and 4 of Year 1.  Although I have looked at the chart on the loom, sometimes more specific explanation is helpful.

 

For example, there are 4 weeks of Bible (poetry, proverbs, and psalms) mixed with Akkadian poetry.  I'd love to hear how that could be trimmed and cut to about 2-3 weeks of work.

 

Also, there are 6 weeks of Greek dramas (a different play each week).  The chart recommends cutting 1/2 of these and I am not familiar with any of them, so it's hard to judge the worthiness of the content.  It says KEEP Trojan Women, Agamemnon, and Oedipus Rex and DROP Libation Bearers, Eumenides, and The Frogs.  Any thoughts here?

 

I know I will keep The Aeneid.

 

Are any of the Gospels scheduled for the last 4 weeks easily combined?

 

Thanks in advance for your comments and advice,

Pamela F.

[Candid]

Pamela, I'm sorry to be coming at this late, I am only on the board today checking any threads I have previously posted in due to an emergency with my dad. I doubt I will be back any time soon, so I"ll go ahead and post about this now since no one else helped you.

 

I would not trim the Bible stuff because it relies on the The Words of Delight book which Tapestry uses through out their four years. Your student will need to know their poetry analysis information well for the next years so keep that. I'd axe all the Akkadian poetry, let's face it Tapestry is the only program I know of that covers this in high school, as long as you have covered Gilgamesh earlier in the year you will be fine skipping this. 

 

Personally I'd drop Libation Bears and Eumenides, the main point of keeping them is keeping intact the only Greek trilogy that was written as a trilogy. Trojan Women is middling to me, but I'd have to know what they are having you axe. 

[Renaissance Mom]

We did yr 1 again last year ... but that was before they updated the R lit. So take what I say with a grain if salt. We did:

Gilgamesh

Egyptian poetry

Iliad

Odyssey

Agamemnon

Libation Bearers

Eumenides

Oedipus Rex

Antigone

Aeneid

 

You can see that we agreed with Candid and axed the Mesopotamian poetry. We had started the Words of Delight and loved it, but it was too much for my dd as a young 9th grader on top of everything else. One caveat though, we also completed IEW's Windows to the World last year, too, so it's no wonder we didn't do all of Tapestry lit.

 

I have additional thoughts. First, I understand that the reorganizing they have done in lit has better balanced the work load. Second, my dd is in 10th grade this year and is easily handling (and loving) yr 2 R lit with only a very few of the works trimmed from the whole list. An additional year of maturity has made a significant difference.

 

My opinion on the Greek plays is sort of washy washy. Dd really enjoyed reading the ones she did. She would have liked to have read a comedy and did read part of The Frogs for fun. I would absolutely keep Agamemnon and Oedipus Rex though. You could read a quick internet summary of The Trojan Women and The Frogs to help you choose. I would also take a look at the discussion notes for each to see which may appeal to you more.

 

Enjoy!

Monica