Help finding Literature Program

[BusyMom5]

We've tried MBtP, BW Arrows, and mainly just reading.  Here is what DD wants:

 

Read a chapter or two, answer comprehension questions, at the end of the book write a paper on something, go over the plot or literary themes or devices.  Maybe read something about the author before the book.  No worksheets, no busy work, and please do not make her wait to finish the book by reading a chapter a week, she will loose focus and get bored.  Don't use dull books, need to have energy in books, classics are fine but not necessary.  Secular if possible.  I'm looking for deeper critical thinking.  I *love* the look of Oak Meadow's HS level literature classes, and right now, I know it's 2 years away, that is what I am planning on for 9th grade.  That's the direction I want to go.  She is an advanced reader, and is capable of deeper thinking that she usually does ;)  I'd like something to help her get depth. 

[Heather in VA]

You didn't mention her age but have you looked at Hewitt Lightning Literature? It's secular and similar to what you describe.

[BusyMom5]

7th grade next year, thanks.  It looks promising!

[Heather in VA]

You might want to also check out Excellence in Literature. It doesn't have the comprehension questions so much but we use it and like it a lot. It's set up to start in the 8th grade but you could use it for an advanced 7th grader.

 

[Lori D.]

Well, JMO, but I think comprehension questions ARE busywork at the middle/high school level. ;)

 

I normally recommend Hewitt's Lightning Lit (LL) as a gentle first exposure towards more formal Literature, but from your wish list of what you want/don't want, the LL reading schedule is slow (although you could just toss that and let DD read at her own pace), and there are worksheets (although, you could just have her do a few of the pertinent ones after finishing the book, and skip the few that would be busywork to DD). The plus side is that the program can largely be done solo; and it includes poetry, short stories, and novels in different genres (realistic, fantasy, humor, and autobiography).

 

The great thing about homeschooling is that you can adapt any Literature program to fit your student, as long as it has the components in it that you're looking for. Sounds like your DD wouldn't mind a brief (1-2 pages) of background info of the author/work/times, and then would prefer to read several chapters or a section of the book, before then having a short discuss / analyze session. And then do some sort of written work when finished.

 

Based on that, I'd probably do something like this each week:

 

- day 1 = 10 minutes of Literature info (from a Lit. program or a Lit. guide -- background on author/times/work, or info on 1-2 literary elements and how they work -- esp. ones that will be showing up in the week's reading)

 

- days 1-4 = 45-60 min./day = DD reads

At the end of the day's reading (or in the midst, if really excited ;) ) she sees things that excite, interest, or are of note to DD -- she either jots it down in a notebook, or shares verbally with you and you note them in a notebook (some days/weeks there may be lots, other days/weeks there may be none) -- use those "annotations" at the end of the week as part of your discussion

 

- day 5 = 20 min. = discuss/analyze the section as a whole

Use a few questions from a Lit. program or a Lit. guide to "springboard" discussion. Don't dissect every detail of every chapter -- look for the big themes, or literary elements that are used several times in that section, or are picked up again from a previous section of the book. At the end of the book, let her pick a question from the Lit. program or Lit. guide to write about, or have her write up an essay with her observations about themes, literary elements, or other reactions to the book -- just a paragraph for most books; once a semester, have her compare/contrast two books or authors or short stories or themes or… with a multi-paragraph paper.

 

If she really HATES even stopping once a week, then watch a film version first so she'll know the story, OR, let her read the whole book first, and then take 1-2 weeks afterwards to discuss a section at a time and let her write about it. But I do encourage you to slowly, gently, move her towards being able to read AND discuss before she's finished the whole story, because most high school and college classes are run in that way, and if she ends up doing any online classes or dual enrollment, it's nice to at least have done Literature in that way a few times before… :)

 

Once a semester during 7th & 8th grades, I'd schedule 1 week to focus on a little formal poetry study, and another 1 week to cover some short stories. That comes out to 2 weeks of poetry, 2 weeks of short stories, and 32 weeks of good books/classics for each year of middle school. You've just expanded your student's Literature knowledge pretty painlessly without taking away too much time from "just reading."  :laugh:

 

Enjoy watching some plays during middle school -- esp. if you can get to some live performances. If not, then check out good video or film versions. Try a few works of Shakespeare (see some of the past threads on how to go about introducing Shakespeare at this age).

 

If you think one of the classic works is going to be a bit rough going, encourage DD to stick with it by reading it aloud together "popcorn-style" ("you read a page, I read a page"), or listen together to an audiobook version. Or together watch a film version (Dickens is great to do this), and get all of the characters and basic plot figured out by watching, and then take your time with the reading.

 

Something like this moves your DD closer to what will be required in high school and the Oak Meadow Literature programs, and is largely her reading 4 days a week, and then the 5th day of the week discussing, analyzing, or writing about with one day at the start of the week for learning some info about Literature topics and literary elements (in addition to just reading), 

 

Resources that might be of interest:

- Glencoe Literary Library -- free online guides; good background info on author/work; some questions for each section (several chapters); graphic organizers to help with analysis

- Garlic Press Discovering Literature CHALLENGER guides (The Giver, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hobbit, Redwall, The Odyssey, Lord of the Flies, the 3 books of the Hunger Games trilogy) -- chapter summaries (for you the parent if you don't have time to read the books); discussion questions for each

- Reader's Odyssey -- helps you in creating your own lit. program

 

For ideas for good books:

- 8th grade reading list (good selection of current YA works, classics, and non-fiction)

- 1000 Good Books: gr. 7-9 (big selection of quality classics, historical fiction, and Newberry YA works)

- curriculum vendors, by grade level (example: for a middle schooler, check out Sonlight booklists for gr. 6-9)

 

 

BEST of luck in your Literature adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[ondreeuh]

Moving Beyond the Page does all that you are asking for. Each day there is a bit of reading (maybe a half hour's worth) and then questions that we usually discuss rather than write out. It incorporates grammar and composition too. There are worksheets, but they are usually either for practicing grammar (rewriting sentences, editing, using conventions) or graphic organizers for interacting with the literature (keeping track of symbols used in the book, summarizing chapters, comparing two characters or events). There is a final project for each unit which usually involves an essay. I would look at the 10-12 or 11-13 levels for 7th grade. The book choices are excellent.

 

BTW, I also plan on using Oak Meadow lit for high school. :)

[basketcase]

Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus has a bunch of questions for specific books based on Bloom's taxonomy. The newer editions have a lot more books listed. They're through Royal Fireworks Press.

 

Also through RFWP, the Michael Clay Thompson literature guides are great. A bit of history and background, "quizzes" for each chapter (just dialogue quotes from the book, the kid tells you which character said it), and prompts for essays. I like that his books are selected in 3-book sets (of related books), so a lot of the discussion questions explore themes across the novels.

[Julie of KY]

I'd also suggest looking at Excellence in Literature.

[Mom22ns]

Lori already expressed most of my thoughts. Lightning Lit is a great choice, but you will have to throw out the slow schedule and pick and choose from the worksheets. I highly suggest both of those things anyway. LL8 moves at almost twice the pace of LL7 and might be a better fit.

 

I love Excellence in Lit. There are no comprehension questions. You read the books and write a paper at the end. The Introduction to Literature level is considerably gentler than the others and could work for a 7th grader, but is written to 8-9th.

 

With a good reader, my plan would be skip LL7, do LL8 this year and move to EIL Intro to Lit next year. We did LL 7 & 8 the moved to EIL. My advice is definitely what I would have done with my own kids in hindsight.

[Cottonwood]

Moving Beyond the Page does all that you are asking for. Each day there is a bit of reading (maybe a half hour's worth) and then questions that we usually discuss rather than write out. It incorporates grammar and composition too. There are worksheets, but they are usually either for practicing grammar (rewriting sentences, editing, using conventions) or graphic organizers for interacting with the literature (keeping track of symbols used in the book, summarizing chapters, comparing two characters or events). There is a final project for each unit which usually involves an essay. I would look at the 10-12 or 11-13 levels for 7th grade. The book choices are excellent.

 

BTW, I also plan on using Oak Meadow lit for high school. :)

this is what i was going to say.  Language arts is my fav part of mbtp and the 11-13 level is phenomenal.  just skip anything you dont want to do....there will still be PLENTY to keep her busy and yes, thinking critically.  my kids sometimes read ahead at their whim so sometimes as they work on a particular lesson they may be ahead in the reading, but they just revisit or reconsider it when necessary.

 

eta:  there are 10 units in a middle school level with mbtp but it is way more than is reasonable to expect a child to do in a school year, so she might even think its fun to pick 6 or 7 units that interest her the most from the level you choose for her.

[Momling]

We spent some time in 6th grade on literary terms with the Figuratively Speaking book. At the beginning of 7th, we read "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" together. After that, for every assigned reading, I'd just have my DD write a short literary analysis type essay, or if we didn't have the time, I'd have her write a paragraph-long summary or answer textbook type comprehension questions. We haven't needed a full literature curriculum... I just hand her a book and she gets to work.

[kathy_overman]

I was just looking at Learning Language Arts through Literature.  The Gold Box High School samples look interesting - in my case - we would consider using them for 7th & 8th grade.  I checked out the placement test and they seem on par with where my 7th/8th grader is in Language Arts.

 

Any thoughts on the high school program?  It looks like it primarily focuses on literature and some composition.

 

Here is the link to the main page, and you can go look at the Gold Box programs.  They look intriguing.

[Lori D.]

I was just looking at Learning Language Arts through Literature.  The Gold Box High School samples look interesting - in my case - we would consider using them for 7th & 8th grade.  I checked out the placement test and they seem on par with where my 7th/8th grader is in Language Arts.

 

Any thoughts on the high school program?  It looks like it primarily focuses on literature and some composition.

 

Here is the link to the main page, and you can go look at the Gold Box programs.  They look intriguing.

 

While the reading level of most of the Lit. in the American and British Gold LLATL levels could work for a strong 7th/8th grade reader, the programs are missing the teaching of literary analysis and gentle intro to formal Literature, which is what you normally are slowly and gently starting to introduce at the middle school level. The Lightning Lit. 7 & 8 programs incorporate more of that. Or, you could select works of interest and go with more in-depth individual Lit. guides such as Garlic Press Discovering Literature: Challenger level guides; Glencoe Literature Library guides (free online); Portals to Literature guides; Blackbird & Co. level 3 guides; Penguin teacher guides (free online); etc.

 

From our experience of using parts of the American & British guides with our high school Lit:

- questions are mostly comprehension rather than discussion or guided analysis questions

- very little instruction/teaching info on literary analysis and literature topics

- very little writing instruction -- mostly research and writing assignment ideas, but not the support teaching

 

They are set up to be done largely solo by the student, and I could see them working as a basic schedule and structure for a self-motivated student who already has a good handle on literary analysis and an interest in digging into Literature, to use the programs as a springboard into self-study on the authors and works.

 

I know LLATL Gold has been discussed more, but could only find these 2 past threads for you:

Do you think the Learning LA through Lit. Gold books equal high school credit -- differing views and experiences

For Lit. analysis: LLATL Gold American or Lightning Lit?

 

And here sample pages:

American Lit -- 10 short stories; 5 poets; 3 novellas (The Red Badge of Courage, The Pearl, Old Man and the Sea)

British Lit -- 12 poets; 2 novellas (The Time Machine; Animal Farm); 3 novels (Frankenstein, Emma, Tale of Two Cities); 

 World Lit -- 9 short stories; 4 longer works (The Odyssey, Romeo & Juliet; The Little Prince; Cry, the Beloved County); excerpts of 15-20 classic works from Ancient through 20th Century

 

BEST of luck, whatever you decide to go with! Warmest regards, Lori D.