Which literature program for avid reader?

[Guest Blessedmamax5]

Hi, I am needing help deciding on a literature program for my junior. She has read many classics on her own so we are hoping for no repeats. We have used only textbooks and are so sick of them. We are looking at biblioplan, sonlight British lit, lightning literature. We also have a freshman who may or may not be in the same lit. Please give me your advice/opinions on these and others you know of.

[Arch at Home]

Check Bravewriter Boomerang. You put her in the Bookclub when she hasn't read the book and select from back issues when she has. Your Freshman can do the same program.

[Liza Q]

If she has read a lot on her own and understands the basics of literary analysis (which I am assuming was covered in the Literature texts?), I would recommend that you do it on your own and just choose the books that best line up with your History studies. TWTM has so much to help you with this!

 

My oldest girls used Lightning Literature in the 9th grade and then after that we were able to read pretty much anything. They would read, we would discuss, they would write. I used Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings last year with my 9th grader and now we are using what he learned with everything he reads. He claims that he hates literary analysis, but we were talking about Victor Frankenstein (his current book) and why he is so "stupid" and he brought up D'Artagnan and Achilles (we read those last year) and now we have a great plan for a paper on how arrogance leads to, well, stupidity.

 

From what you said, your daughter is likely ready to make connections on her own and read, discuss, and write without being bound to a curriculum.

[regentrude]

Why a program? Just make up your own, with your own literature selections.

[Laura Corin]

I just chose the books that looked good and then used various guides to study them with Calvin.

[Guest Blessedmamax5]

Thanks for all the responses! I guess I dont really feel confident in creating a course. I just want to make sure she is ready for college.:)

[TheApprentice]

My son used Excellence in Literature. No tests, lots of writing opportunities, lots of context resources. It was a great fit for him.

[brookspr]

We also use Excellence in Literature and my daughter enjoys the variety of writing assignments and that the lessons don't just ask you to read a book and then write a paper.  For each book there is background information to read, research to do on the time period, suggested videos to watch, and much more. We have the entire 4+ year curriculum, so we pick and choose which lessons to do each year based on what history she is studying or what might interest her. 

[Jaz]

Another vote for Excellence in Literature. We have 4 of the volumes and my ds chooses what he wants to read from the book selections.

[madteaparty]

I just chose the books that looked good and then used various guides to study them with Calvin.

Do you have any you recall and can recomend? I find looking for study guides a bit overwhelming, now that things like "teachers pay teachers" and the like exist.

Ideally, I would pre read everything and compile something myself, but he reads much faster than I do.

We've already exhausted Lightning Lit 7 and 8; I was a fan.

[Laura Corin]

DP

[Laura Corin]

Do you have any you recall and can recomend? I find looking for study guides a bit overwhelming, now that things like "teachers pay teachers" and the like exist.

Ideally, I would pre read everything and compile something myself, but he reads much faster than I do.

We've already exhausted Lightning Lit 7 and 8; I was a fan.

 

It was a while back now, Madtea.  I know that we did The Merchant of Venice.  We watched the BBC puppet version, then the Jeremy Irons film version.  Calvin then read the play independently and we used a couple of guides to study it.  

 

I just picked up the guides second hand at a local book shop, as far as I recall, but they were standard names.  I looked over each guide and decided on a few passages and a few themes.  For the passages, we just took the recommended passages and questions straight from the guides, discussed them, then Calvin wrote answers to the questions.  For the themes, we looked at the materials in the guides on those themes, referred back to the play, discussed them, then wrote a couple of essays suggested by the guides.

 

Sorry not to be much help:  I do know that I spent some time in advance of teaching, working out which parts of which guides to use, but I'm pretty confident in teaching literature, so there wasn't a lot of method to it that I can pass on.

 

Your comment about him reading much faster than you do: yes, Calvin does too.  I tended to cheat and study books with him that I already knew, so that I had a bit of background before we began.  He carried on reading lots of books that we didn't study formally - I carried on handing him books that I had heard about but hadn't necessarily read, and reading others that I wanted to check before handing them to him.

[Guest Blessedmamax5]

Well, we have decides to go with excellence in literature. Thanks for all the replies! We will be doing British lit to go with medieval history. They seem to overlap a bit. Any ideas for extra for fun reading in the medieval era? 15 books for a year doesn't seem like enough.