"Must Read's" for 10th grade Medieval Literature Year

[momtofive]

I'm currently trying to design a literature list for my rising 10th grader next year. We're going to be using BiblioPlan for history. He'll also be doing IEW for writing. BP offers suggestions to choose from, or simply choose your own. This is my first high schooler, and I'm fairly new to the classical method, so I thought I'd ask the hive for some help in choosing some great lit choices for my ds's medieval history year. ;)

 

As a side note, he's a good reader, but not the fastest reader, so I'm trying to pick the best "don't miss" titles for him.

 

I'm kind of at a loss in how to put this together, and would SO appreciate your help and advice! :)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

These are some good older threads. I remember one that described memorizing the Prologue to Canterbury Tales while using an art coloring book illustrated with medieval art. I'm still looking for that one.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/137311-wtm-reading-list-middle-ages/?fromsearch=1

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/113997-high-school-literature-list-feedback-needed/?fromsearch=1

 

This one has one of Lori D's lists of good links. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/488310-middle-ages-for-highschool-suggestions/

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/413777-what-is-to-use-when-studying-renaissancemedieval-for-litworldview/?fromsearch=1

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/361914-medieval-epic-literature-and-adding-some-history/?fromsearch=1

[Faithr]

Last time I did Medieval lit with a 10th grader, we read Beowulf, some Medieval poetry from an anthology, St. Francis of Assisi by Chesterton, The Quiet Light (a novel about St. Thomas Aquinas), a couple of Canterbury Tales, Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot and Dante's Inferno, Henry V by Shakespeare.

 

And Joan of Arc by Mark Twain.  I don't remember the order!  This was 4 years ago.  

[Momling]

These are some good older threads. I remember one that described memorizing the Prologue to Canterbury Tales while using an art coloring book illustrated with medieval art. I'm still looking for that one.

 

We used that Chaucer coloring book - it's published by Bellerophon. I think we first used Ellen McHenrys Excavating English to teach a little historical linguistics before tackling the middle English.

 

Besides Beowulf and Chaucer, don't forget getting in something like Anglo-Saxon riddles or The dream of the rood.

[momtofive]

Thanks so much, everyone! :)

[tuesdayschild]

Adding my comment belatedly....  :)

We're not Classical purists, but knowing how helpful it is when others idea share I figured I'd post a good chunk of what our ds read during his Medieval Lit year.

I included some of his lighter reading/listening options too, as it helped to break up the heavier reading pace a bit.  

(We also used some of BP's items for history and had a really great year!)

 

Hoping you hit on a mix that works for you and your ds!

                            

Medieval Literature Study 400 - c.1600AD 

• Augustine  (selections) 
• Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People     We found this really doable using Greenleaf’s Guide.
• The Song of Roland (selections) ~ Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers
• King Arthur (various)
• Beowulf   ~ translated by Seamus, illustrated edition
• 1066: The Year of Conquest    
• Gawain and the Green Knight
• Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (selections)
• Writings of Luther (selections) Martin Luther 

Plays:

• Saint Joan ~ George Bernard Shaw (audio production)

Shakespeare Unit (5 plays)

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Tempest
• Hamlet
• Henry VIII
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ~ Tom Stoppard

Book Basket Optional Choices/ Audios   (just for enjoyment factor)

• The Hound of Ulster ~ Sutcliff (opt)
• Hunchback of Notre Dame Hugo
• Luther in His Own Words ~ Martin Luther (selections)
• The Trumpeter of Krakow ~ Kelly
• Girl in a Cage ~ Yolen    Robert the Bruce (Scotland)
• etc...  If your Ds hasn’t been through Howard Pyle’s Robin Hood, that could make for a good, light, extra read too.  We used Robin Hood ~ J.C. Holt (selections) to delve deeper into Robin Hood :) 

Scheduled  (no guides,  just read and discussed)

• Idylls of the King ~ Tennyson (audio)
• Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ~ Twain J
• Tales for the Arabian Nights ~ edited by Lang
• Dante Aligihieri: The Divine Comedy  ~ Longfellow (inferno selections)      
• Martin Luther’s “Here I Stand† (Narrator Max McLean)
• Hero Myths and Legends of Britain and Ireland ~ Ebbutt (selections)

 

[momtofive]

Tuesdayschild,  THANK YOU! ;)  You included many of the selections that I've been thinking on.  Your list looks great!

 

With BP, they recommend you do a study guide once a unit.  I know that's not a hard and fast rule or anything, though.  I've thought about doing them (PP guides) for some of the Shakespeare plays. . . what do you think?  I know I've read a lot that it's not necessary.  That's one thing I'm kicking back and forth.  As well as how many, if we do. 

 

I'm trying to find a way to get everything I want to get without breaking the bank, too. ;)  My ds really prefers to read a book, rather than read from the tablet or computer.  How did you approach this? 

 

Thanks much! ;)

[HS Mom in NC]

Greenleaf Press has a study guide or you can get the whole package for Medieval Lit. http://www.greenleafpress.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=56&zenid=51dd2863844d521df71efa325447d15c

[momtofive]

Greenleaf Press has a study guide or you can get the whole package for Medieval Lit. http://www.greenleafpress.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=56&zenid=51dd2863844d521df71efa325447d15c

 

I was actually just looking up Tuesdayschild's recommended Greenleaf guide, and just stumbled on this.  It looks great!  Are these the same versions/translations that others recommend using?  I was planning on using Heany's translation of Beowulf, so I was wondering...

 

Does anyone have experience to share with using the Greenleaf guide?  Pros....cons....what you'd do differently next time?  Would it be better to use something like this, and fill in with other books we could just read and discuss?

 

I appreciate all your help, ladies!  You're lifesavers! ;)

[clementine]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers the Ploughman,  Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales 

 

These are the ones my daughter has read/is reading now in Medieval Lit.  We will also watch the BBC production of The Canterbury Tales when she finishes that this month.  Our Beowulf translation was by Raffel.

[HS Mom in NC]

I've used the Ancient Lit. guide but I used the Mitchell Translation of Gilgamesh instead of the one recommended for a variety of reasons.  The Medieval guide wasn't  available the last time I was there with my older two.

My oldest and I liked the Ancient Lit. guide because they covered things at a doable pace and she was ready to be working on her own. I do the 36 week hanging file folder system for my kids and the Greenleaf Guides are compatible with that the way the lessons are divided up.  The study guides are designed for discussion but work just as easily as writing assignments.  The worldview elements with the comparative literature for two version of  Antigone it covered is a very important thing for kids to do so they can gain a broader sense of the world.  The lit. guide also worked with SWB's adult history books, but I would only recommend that for a kid who has already done Ancients in depth at least once before.  Since SWB's adult history books are strictly chronological, they don't match perfectly to the lit. assignments (by region and people group) all the way through. The lit. guides have a lot of Greek lit. in them.  A kid already with a strong sense of Ancient History will be fine without history and lit.  matching.  A kid without much background in history might find it disorienting.

 

On translations. I have a few translations of Beowulf.  I've recently read Heany's and Tolkien's competitively for myself. Before then my kids have had the Crossly (?) picture book and another telling for younger kids (they're on loan to a friend right now so I can't be specific) in the previous history rotation (we do history and lit. together.) My advice would be to decide based on your child.  My oldest probably would've liked the Tolkien translation over Heany because of the dense use of poetic, high language, but middle would've probably liked Heany's more for the readability.  Trust your gut on which your child would most respond to.  The purpose of lit. is to love lit. If a translation that just doesn't work for your kid is a stumbling block, choose the other translation without apology.

[tuesdayschild]

Greenleaf Press has a study guide or you can get the whole package for Medieval Lit. http://www.greenleafpress.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=56&zenid=51dd2863844d521df71efa325447d15c

 

That is what we used! (Here is a list of the books, and an inside view of the guide.) 

The main attraction, other than the literature selection, was that my son asked to use another Greenleaf Guide.  We've used Ancients, Medieval, and are now using the draft copy for Early Modern.  Cyndy writes directly to the student, and injects her teaching text with humour  :)

From memory we had a bit of a hiccough with one of the links in lesson 1 for Bede?  Easily fixed, just required an engine search for the item ds was supposed to be reading.

I was actually just looking up Tuesdayschild's recommended Greenleaf guide, and just stumbled on this.  It looks great!  Are these the same versions/translations that others recommend using?  I was planning on using Heany's translation of Beowulf, so I was wondering...

 

Does anyone have experience to share with using the Greenleaf guide?  Pros....cons....what you'd do differently next time?  Would it be better to use something like this, and fill in with other books we could just read and discuss?

 

I appreciate all your help, ladies!  You're lifesavers! ;)

With each Greenleaf Guide we've used so far, we find it's good to have other titles and guides to read and study through, as it gives the year a bit more variety.

And we didn't always strictly adhere to each lesson set - sometimes we'd switch that lesson to discussion only, or I'd set a written piece to be completed in place of Greenleaf's lesson.

 

Happy planning :)