Juliegmom Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 I'd love to hear what others are doing for their student's senior year. My original thought was to cover British literature, but I'm wondering if that would be the best path for my dd. Here is a bit of history: She received some great writing instrucction her 7th grade year at a private school. I've seen her writing and although essay writing may not be her strength, she is creative and capable. 8th year was a flop 9th grade year she was enrolled in an online charter school where I believe they covered some literary analysis and essay writing for which she received an "A". (So I assumed she was solid in her writing abilities.) 10th grade year we decided to ditch the online charter since my dd did not enjoy it. We took the leap into homeschool independently. I did not start out with a writing curriculum and my plan was to use the composition assignments aligned to world history using a writer's handbook as our guide for instruction and grading. It turned out to be a very difficult year as we moved in with my mom for 8 months to help care for her while she battled cancer. A battle she lost in June. Mid year I purchased Essentials in Writing after noticing her writing abilities were not up to par and I knew I didn't have the skill set myself and was overwhelmed with juggling life. (being honest here-please don't judge me). We did see some progress and she knows the basics of how to outline and draft an essay. 11th grade - current yeaar - I've decided to back up and we are covering Teaching the Classics and Windows to the World. I'm feeling confident that we are going to make great progress this year. My husband is also pitching in to help as he has more experience with writing. So...why am I already thinking about next year? We live overseas and have an opportunitiy to have a group of people bring us some curriculum in the near future. My original thought was to cover British literature. What would you recommend based on the above info. My dd is interested in attending college and I want her to be a well prepared and confident writer. I'm looking at IEW College-Bound student package. I'd like something to cover literature, composition and some grammar review. Any suggestions. If you are still with me, thank you for taking the time to read this. I'm very thankful for this group! Blessings, Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Blind suggestion here, as it's something I've bought but not used... Have you thought about Lightning Lit? Might be just the structure you're looking for. Compare their online samples to the Excellence in Lit guides and see if either do it for you. :) http://www.everyday-education.com/literature/eng4.shtml Bonus: EiL is available as downloads, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Alternate approaches? (We're planning on doing brit lit our senior year, btw.) -search the boards for one of LoriD's lists and just copy it, carte blanche :D What she does really well is having a *blend* of things, which can be very appealing. -see if Harriet Vane has a brit lit list yet :D -make your own list and use BookRags, Pink Money, and sites like that to find guides and thesis/essay prompts (not as hard to find as you think, also totally doable) -spend the year watching movie and book versions and comparing them :thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 It turned out to be a very difficult year as we moved in with my mom for 8 months to help care for her while she battled cancer. A battle she lost in June. No advice as I haven't BTDT, but I did want to send my condolences on the loss of your mother. I'm so sorry! :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 First semester is another composition course to review and solidify all of the various types of essay writing (not just literary analysis) and to work on a college-length research paper. Second semester will be British lit since 1600. ETA: I think your dd will be well-served by using Windows to the World this year, particularly if you supplement it with some novels. However, it is geared strictly for learning literary analysis and writing literary analysis essays. She will need skill in writing other types of essays, too, and you should be sure to cover those during her senior year or even later this year, if it seems you have time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbeym Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 We're doing Brit Lit this year in 11th. My plan (for now anyway) is to send DS to CC to take Eng Comp I as a DE course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 First semester is another composition course to review and solidify all of the various types of essay writing (not just literary analysis) and to work on a college-length research paper. Second semester will be British lit since 1600. ETA: I think your dd will be well-served by using Windows to the World this year, particularly if you supplement it with some novels. However, it is geared strictly for learning literary analysis and writing literary analysis essays. She will need skill in writing other types of essays, too, and you should be sure to cover those during her senior year or even later this year, if it seems you have time. Thank you! Any recommendations for what you would use for a semester of composition? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 No advice as I haven't BTDT, but I did want to send my condolences on the loss of your mother. I'm so sorry! :grouphug: Thank you so much RootAnn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 Alternate approaches? (We're planning on doing brit lit our senior year, btw.) -search the boards for one of LoriD's lists and just copy it, carte blanche :D What she does really well is having a *blend* of things, which can be very appealing. -see if Harriet Vane has a brit lit list yet :D -make your own list and use BookRags, Pink Money, and sites like that to find guides and thesis/essay prompts (not as hard to find as you think, also totally doable) -spend the year watching movie and book versions and comparing them :thumbup: This is very helpful. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Btw, I suggested EiL (the thing I linked) because it already has essay prompts for each book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 We really like Excellence in Lit. I think the writing assignments are very good. I only used Lightning Lit in 7th-8th grade, but the writing prompts were pitiful in comparison. EIL has enough writing that an addition writing course is not necessary. Additional benefits are the price tag and if you like pdfs (we do) it is downloadable. We took a year off EIL for online English classes this year for different reasons with each of my kids, but dd will return to it next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 I'd love to hear what others are doing for their student's senior year. When my daughter was a senior in high school she took many of her classes at the local community college which operates on a quarter (rather than semester) system. She took the following three courses: Latino/a Literature Folklore and Mythology Writing the Research Paper The first two courses were Literature classes while the Research Paper was the third class in a series of composition classes. (In 11th grade, she took one Literature class and two composition classes at the community college.) Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Thank you! Any recommendations for what you would use for a semester of composition? My senior is a good writer of history and literary analysis essays, but has written very few personal essays, doesn't like to write from a prompt, and needs to learn to write longer research papers. I'm having dc use The Norton Sampler: Essays for Composition. Read an essay of a particular type, discuss, write own essay of that type. The text has discussion questions and writing prompts; I'll be adding in others of my own. That will take care of personal essays and writing from prompts while practicing a variety of different essay types. It won't help much with research papers, but the issue there is more length than it is content/style. Let your dd's remaining weaknesses at the end of this year guide you in your decision of what to use next year. Keep an eye out for what she does well and where her struggles lie, and ask here again at the end of the year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 My dd mentioned that she would prefer to have something that offers video instruction. Does anyone have any experience with Switched on Schoolhouse English IV? Thoughts . . . ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliums Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Son is a senior this year. He is currently working on Lightening Lit American Lit (he took Brit Lit last year at the public school), participating in an online lit discussion group and working on college application essays. We have been looking into other resources for next semester. He most likely will take an online class through coursera or edX. Here are a few we are looking into: https://www.edx.org/course/tennessee-board-regents-high-school/tennessee-board-regents-high-school-3456#.VC1bFUupqxw https://www.coursera.org/course/sciwrite https://www.coursera.org/course/writing2 https://www.coursera.org/course/modernpostmodern (no courses available at the moment though) Standard Deviants (offered the free 6 month trial) has an online composition course, but we haven't looked into it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveswife Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 My dd mentioned that she would prefer to have something that offers video instruction. Does anyone have any experience with Switched on Schoolhouse English IV? Thoughts . . . ? I'm wondering if one of the Shmoop courses might fit the bill. I don't have any experience with them, but I believe a few of the posters here do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 I haven't heard of shmoop. I'm off to check it out. Thank you for the suggestion. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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