Progeny Press Guides: 2= 1/2 credit?

[kilo90]

I'm looking into PP guides for American Lit for my 9th grader. I had planned to do a semester of American Lit and assumed we'd get though a book a month. Now I see that each guide takes 8-12 weeks. Their website says  "As for high school credits, most Christian high schools to whom we have spoken have assigned a value of one-fourth credit to each study guide, and this also seems to be acceptable to colleges assessing homeschool transcripts."  Hum...that's only 2 books for a semester!? Half of what I had imagined. Two questions...

 

1. I had wanted to do 1 semester of English/Grammer (BJU) and 1 semester of Amer Lit.  Should I up it to a a full year of Amer Lit? That's a little more work that I had planned on dd doing for one of the semesters?

 

2. Can anyone recommend a good text that we could supplement the 2 PP guides with for the semester?  Even if the guides are very good, 2 novels doesn't seem to be enough for a semester of American Lit. 

 

Thanks for the help!

[Lori D.]

Totally agree.

 

If you were to do absolutely every bit of the PP guide, I would guess one high school guide would take about 2-4 weeks at MOST -- and that's assuming you do every single writing assignment suggestion. In good conscience, (JMO!) we would have needed to do at least 4 guides per semester to equal 1/2 credit.

 

We only used parts of the PP guides -- we skipped the vocab & comprehension questions, and did the "before reading" paragraph; page of background info; discussion questions; pick one writing assignment idea -- and they would last about 1-2 weeks (with one week for just the writing assignment).

 

The only reason it would take longer is because the reading of the work of Literature might take more than 1-2 weeks. For example, we made our own American lit., doing it WTM/WEM style, using a variety of guides and resources. We covered: 10 poets (3 weeks); 20 short stories (7 weeks); 3 plays (watched/discussed, not read); excerpts: essay and autobiography (1 week); 5 novellas (10 weeks); 4 novels -- 2 were shorter novels (15 weeks)

 

I also tried to use 2-3 *additional* guides/resources for each work we read, because the PP guides are limited to a single viewpoint (comparison with Biblical scriptures), and have next to no teaching info on literary elements, literary analysis, and info on how to write about literature.

 

 

A quick aside: do you really NEED grammar at this stage? Or does the BJU English/Grammar focus on writing? Because typically, students have finished all of their grammar by 9th grade, and now the grammar comes into play through actually writing and proof-editing their writing. If the program is writing-based, then you are all set for that half of your English credit. :)

 

Since you're doing BJUP English/Grammar, what about also doing parts of BJUP's American Literature program? I know they use excerpts, BUT… instead of the excerpts, you could choose to read full works, and just pick and choose your way through the program. That way you'd also get a good selection of poetry and short stories, and you'd get some excellent instruction in literary devices, literary analysis, and other literature topics.

 

More options for American Lit:

Excellence in Literature: American Lit (1 year) (Christian author / can be used secularly)

Lightning Lit: Early to Mid-19th Century American Lit (1 semester) (Christian author / can be used secularly)

Lightning Lit: Mid- to Late-19th Century American Lit (1 semester) (Christian author / can be used secularly)

SMARR American Lit scope & sequence (1 year) (Christian)

Oak Meadow American Literature syllabus (1 year) (secular)

 

 

BEST of luck in finding what works best for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Corraleno]

I don't see how reading two books could possibly count as a full semester of American Lit. Not to mention the fact that most of the American novels that PP has guides for are really short — Old Man and the Sea and Red Badge of Courage are a little over 100 pages, Gatsby is under 200, and Huck Finn, Scarlett Letter, & Fahrenheit 451 are in the low-200-pages range. Mockingbird and Uncle Tom's Cabin are the only ones that are more than 300 pages.  I could see giving a semester's credit for all of those books, or for 3-4 of the books in addition to 6-8 short stories and some poetry, plus composition. But I don't see how anyone — even my very dyslexic slow reader — could possibly spend a full semester (i.e. 60-80 hours) on just two of those books.  :confused1:

[Excelsior! Academy]

I agree.  We used the PP guides as is, meaning we did every assignment, however that was not our full English study.  They round out English nicely, but I wouldn't use them alone and award a 1/4 credit.

[kilo90]

Thank you so much for the opinions! Since I have not flipped through any of the PP guides, I really have no idea how they arrived at their 8-12 week estimate. My dd is a very strong reader so I can't imagine spending that much time on one book!?! :confused1:   Lori D, I love the components of your Amer Lit. That breakdown is very much what I am aiming for!   As far as doing a semester of grammar, my dd is solid BUT, we took this year off because of that. Instead of doing Grammar in 8th, she has been doing a daily lesson in the Easy Grammar workbook so she wouldn't get rusty. I guess I'm nervous to skip another year of Grammar as she inches closer to the PSAT. From what I can tell, BJU Grammar doesn't do much with writing in 9th. We were going to go to revisit IEW-B along with the BJU Grammar. I actually haven't been too impressed with the BJU Lit from what I've seen. I guess the excepts chosen were a little random to me and I didn't dig her not doing whole books. I will look at it again and see if I can tweak it to suit our needs. Look forward to checking out your other recommendations!

If I can get past my concern of dd being 2-3 years removed from having a course in Grammar when she starts with the PSAT, SAT, etc. would it be a good idea to do a full year or Amer Lit as opposed to just a semester? 

 

Thanks!

[Lori D.]

Since I have not flipped through any of the PP guides, I really have no idea how they arrived at their 8-12 week estimate. 

 

Christian Book website tends to have the most amount of sample pages, plus table of contents, for checking out the guides out online. And, here's a link to see most of the Frankenstein PP guide, to be able to see what the PP guides are like. Frankenstein is one of the better guides; others of the high school guides are not as good.

 

 

I guess I'm nervous to skip another year of Grammar as she inches closer to the PSAT… If I can get past my concern of dd being 2-3 years removed from having a course in Grammar when she starts with the PSAT, SAT, etc...

 

If the goal with grammar is review in order to score well on the Critical Reading sections of standardized tests is not to do a Grammar program, you might find that doing some test prep for about 2 months before testing will yield the best results. :)

 

The rest of grammar is practiced in the writing and proof-editing done in high school, or in the study of a foreign language. So, DD very likely doesn't need more than a bit of light review to keep from getting rusty. :)

 

 

would it be a good idea to do a full year or Amer Lit as opposed to just a semester? 

 

Most Lit programs are set up so that a 1-year program is the amount of Literature that is reasonable and expected to be covered for 1 credit of English, while simultaneously doing the amount of work needed for the writing portion of that English credit.

 

So, unless you are planning to do something a little unusual, such as have DD take an outsourced, heavy-duty composition course for 1 semester, or you want to cover Amer. Lit for for half of the Lit. portion of the English credit, and some other Lit. topic for the the other Lit. portion of the English credit, you'll be fine with going with a full-year program, such as those I linked above. :)

[kilo90]

Thank you so much, Lori D for sharing your thoughts/experience. You have given me much to mull over! I would love not to spend a semester on grammar. Even though the ITBS isn't on the same level as the SAT, I'll see how she fares on that next month after going the year without formal grammar. That will help reassure me. My guess is she will do well.

She'll continue with Latin next year and add in Spanish so there's the foreign language elements for her to keep fresh. 

Thank you for the link. Very helpful!

 

I'm loving the idea of a full year of American Lit next year and I think she would love it. She's worn a trail between our house and the library and keeps her nose in a book even when unloading the dishwasher.  :tongue_smilie: 

 

Can't thank you enough for the help!