Help planning for Lit class with limited/no internet and needs to be independent??

[Um_2_4]

Hi all, you have helped me in the past help a couple good friends with older kids, so I have a new dilemma now.

 

I am looking at helping to prep a HS curriculum for a couple students who will be hsing HS on the road (lots of international travel) part of the time and will not have consistent internet access and/or there will be limits to any streaming ability. So no online classes or online components. So most is set, except for Lit materials.

 

Is there a program similar to EiW but for Lit?? Like a dvd, assigned reading books and study guide with like 1 writing assignment per book???

 

I have looked at Excellence in Literature and it seems to fit, but no DVD component. Should I look at that and then are there some free youtube videos(that could be maybe downloaded for later viewing) or is there a series of dvds that someone could recommend? They will have access to technology (computers, tablets).

 

Would some lit guides (any preferred company for High School?) and then assign papers be enough??? That would allow us to pick and choose the literature.

 

These 2 students will be studying on their own, emailing papers to grade to someone but no daily discussion, hence why I was kind of hoping to find some DVD based curriculum that they could read, then watch a teacher discuss some aspects of the book. They will have no parent help as these parents are not native English speakers, so although they speak well now, analyzing Eng lit will be quite a bit outside of their comfort zone. Some of these kids have attended overseas schools for a few years where English was a second language, so they need heavy reinforcement, even if they speak English at home.

 

Reading these parameters are there any other programs that might work for those requirements??

 

Right now for English we are looking at: EiW and Easy Grammar as a review. Or are those 2 programs overkill or do they conflict in any way? I used Easy Grammar plus with a nephew who graduated from a high school in France and he said he finally really "got it" after studying English for 7 years in school there. So I wanted to add that in.

 

Thanks for any help!

(PS I searched this board for "independent" and "Literature" and "DVD course" and multiple combos thereof and well got lots of results, but not the info I was looking for, so if anyone knows of a link to an old thread, please let me know.)

 

[Melissa B]

Teaching Company has lots of DVD literature courses: American Literature, English Literature, Short Fiction, Great Books, etc.

 

I would not do Excellence in Lit without internet access. There are bunches of links in each unit that really add to the fullness of the class.

[Um_2_4]

Teaching Company has lots of DVD literature courses: American Literature, English Literature, Short Fiction, Great Books, etc.

 

I would not do Excellence in Lit without internet access. There are bunches of links in each unit that really add to the fullness of the class.

Thank you for telling me about EiL... I just saw 1 sample lesson and did not see the links...are they things that could be downloaded when they had internet and then saved for later??? Or is it more like videos/website/interactive???

 

And I will check Teaching Company Thanks!

[JanetC]

You could use a program like Any Video Converter to download YouTube videos and burn them to a disc.

[Mom22ns]

I would not do Excellence in Lit without internet access. There are bunches of links in each unit that really add to the fullness of the class.

 

I'm a big fan of EIL, but it just wouldn't work without internet. I don't think you could successfully download the resources in advance.

 

What about Lightning Lit instead? I like the writing assignments better in EIL, but LL is much more self contained. I think if you have their materials and the books, you are set. No internet necessary. You might double check to make sure that if there is an occasional internet references that you could print before you go. However, it is definitely not the bulk of their material, the bulk is in the guides. 

[Lori D.]

ETA: I just re-read your original post, and noted you were looking for a DVD component. None of these have a video-lecture component or DVD tutorials. Just wanted to clarify. ;)

 

 

Lightning Literature

They are 1 semester programs, with each program focused on a time period/location (ex: early 19th century Amer. Lit, or, medieval British).

 

The "pros" are that they are self-contained and no internet is needed, and each program covers a good mix of types of works (novel, short story, poetry, essay, play). A bonus is that Hewitt Homeschooling, the publisher of LL, offers an additional for-a-fee grading service.

 

The "cons" are that they are a bit "lite" in the literary analysis and discussion aspects, and while their is a choice of writing assignments at the end of each book, there is no writing instruction or rubric and the assignments themselves are a bit "lite". However, that might be perfect for schooling on the road. 

 

 

Windows to the World

From IEW. Christian; 1 semester program. Self-cotained. Focus is on 6 short stories; teaches annotation, how to write a literary analysis using your annotations as supporting examples and then covers 8-10 literary elements.

 

Pros: written to to the student, self-contained (no internet needed), a very solid course for teaching literary analysis. Bonus: can purchase/add the Jill Pike syllabus, which adds a second semester by looking at 4 longer works. Teacher book contains additional helps on explaining things and discussion.

 

Cons: it is Christian; if you need secular, there are some on the Board who find they could not use it in a secular way, but others who did not have trouble adapting to make it secular -- so, YMMV.

 

 

Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Gold

Two programs: British Lit, and American Lit.

 

Pros: written to the student and can be done very independently; self-contained (no internet needed); covers a nice variety of works: novels, short stories, poetry. 

 

Cons: very "lite" on the discussion and analysis; very little teaching info on the literary analysis or literary elements. (On the other hand, that might make it a good fit for road schooling.) Not much in the way of teacher helps if your students need more depth or help.

 

 

Alpha-Omega LifePacs

Christian. Can be done pretty independently. Extremely "lite" in content and teaching; one person on this board who used several of these commented that the amount of content could be found free online with a quick google search. Another person used them only as supplement to their literature. Some "lite" literary analysis, and writing assignment ideas; no writing instruction. See Cathy Duffy's review.

 

 

EMC Publishing: Mirrors & Windows series

Secular. These look to be more teacher-involved, and may use excerpts rather than complete works (I couldn't quite tell from the table of contents). However, it looks like they cover literary elements and analysis with lots of helpful instruction, and have guided writing sections, which looks like writing/composition instruction and specific assignments.

- Level IV (grade 9)
- Level V (grade 10)
- American Tradition (American Lit) (grade 11)
- British Tradition (British Lit.) (grade 12)

[kiwik]

There is an Essentials in writing coming to match essentials in writing but not yet.

[Guest]

Essentials in Literature to match Essentials in Writing. But only 8th and 9th MIGHT be ready next summer. The rest won't be ready until summer 2016.