Tell me about high school English and literature

[happypamama]

Did your high school student do a specific composition course in high school, or an elective in poetry/drama/short story, or a specific course in British literature/American literature/world literature? Did your student do a specific course in public speaking? I would love to hear what you've done to cover the scope of high school English.

[Lori D.]

A typical English credit in high school is composed of about half writing/composition and half literature.

Optional: a little grammar review thrown in.

Optional: a little vocabulary work -- often from the literature itself, but sometimes done as an additional roots study program.

 

Here, we used a few formal programs, and parts of programs. We did more of a do-it-yourself / WTM-style literature, with the first 2 years of high school having enough time to do a full second literature course as electives. I could never find a writing program that suited our needs. Our DSs were one grade apart, so we all did the Lit. together. For 3 years, we mostly matched up Literature and History period, but we also did works of personal interest "outside of the time period", and that worked well, too. Many families work from a "top high school works" list, or a "college-bound" recommended Literature list to select what works they want to cover, and that is great, too.

 

We did try for a variety of types of works (poetry, short stories, plays, novellas, novels, essays) when possible each year. We counted non-fiction such as biographies/autobiographies, speeches, and primary source documents as part of the History studies, not as Literature, as it is not read and analyzed in the same way as fiction, plays and poetry. (Many other families include those types of non-fiction as part of their Literature.)

 

re: literature programs helpful to us:

- Windows to the World

- Progeny Press: Introduction to Poetry

Other families have had a good match up with programs such as Excellence in Literature, Lightning Literature, SMARR, etc. Others find the History/Literature package programs work well to cover their English needs: Tapestry of Grace, Veritas Omnibus, My Father's World, etc. Another good option for many families is to outsource to an online class; I've heard good reviews about The Potter's School, Landry Academy, and others.

 

re: writing programs helpful to us:

We never did find any one writing program that did it all for us, but used bits and pieces from various resources. We did find the section in Windows to the World on how to write a literary analysis essay to be extremely helpful. We also used bits out of Put That In Writing, Jensen's Format Writing, and the Stack The Deck high school levels. Online resources such as the OWL at Purdue, and past SAT essay prompts for timed writing practice were very helpful. Again, outsourcing can be a good option -- dual enrollment at the local community college or university, or online classes at Laurel Tree Tutorials or others...

 

re: Public Speaking:

I ran a 10-week public speaking co-op class one year, so DSs got a good exposure this way. DSs each also participated for 3 years in the YMCA Youth & Gov't program, which involves a lot of public speaking through formal bill debate. Other ways of handling this could be through a Speech & Debate team/club, 4-H public speaking group, or involvement in a community public speaking group such as Toastmasters.

 

 

BEST of luck in deciding how the high school English credit will look in your homeschool! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Kareni]

Here is what my daughter did for English:

 

9th:
World Literature from 1700 to 2000 (0.5 credits)
Literature: Fantasy (0.5 credits)
Literature: Greek Plays (0.25 credits)

10th:
College Preparatory Essay Writing (0.5 credits)
Literature: Middle English (0.25 credits)

11th:
WR 121: Comp. - Intro. to Argument (0.5 credits)
WR 122: Comp. - Style and Argument (0.5 credits)
ENG 109: Survey of World Literature (0.5 credits)

12th:
ENG 215: Latino/a Literature (0.5 credits)
ENG 250: Intro. to Folklore & Mythology (0.5 credits)
WR 123: Composition - Research (0.5 credits)

 

 

Some of these were done at home, others at a homeschooling resource center and still others at the local community college.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Pegasus]

From memory so I hope I'm not leaving something out:

 

9th: Lightning Literature American Lit (both semesters), Jensen's Format Writing, SAT vocab book

 

10th: Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings, Jensen's Format Writing, online vocab site

 

11th: Lightning Literature Shakespeare (both semesters), Wordsmith Craftsman, online vocab site

 

12th (planned for next year): English composition (both semesters) dual enrollment at local community college - this is the basic Freshman comp

[Sunshine State Sue]

What we did:

9th - Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings

also read/discussed some American novels to coincide with American History

10th - Laurel Tree Tutorials HS Composition

11th - CC Composition 1 and CC American Literature

12th - CC Composition 2