Help me with this year's English credit, please!

[Hoot]

My head is spinning!
I always find English to be the hardest class to plan and carry out because there are so many choices and so many moving parts. DS16 is going into 11th grade this year and I feel like I need to teach all the things by next year and I'm getting completely overwhelmed.

 

Here is what I know:

• We are focusing on 20th and 21st century history and literature this year at DS16s request.
• He is doing an Irish history/literature self-study
• He doesn't love English, but he doesn't hate it either
• He did IEW at a co-op in 8th grade and hated the formulaic nature of it. I felt that he got worse rather than better as a writer with all the stuff he was forced to shove into every paragraph.
• In 9th grade we did some Oak Meadow and Write at Home. Oak Meadow was too easy (before they switched to the new lit.) and he enjoyed the research paper class from Write at Home.
• In 10th grade he did a full year Write at Home course, which included The Lively Art of Writing. It was lite, the assignments were pretty cheesy, and it wasn't terribly challenging. The only thing he liked was the research paper component again.  
• I would consider him to be on the low end of average in writing, but with very good comprehension
• He needs some focused instruction on literary analysis and meatier essay writing than he has gotten in the past

I have a few curriculum options at home, specifically the Excellence in Writing Literary Analysis course, The Elegant Essay, and Movies as Literature.

 

I'm also considering some Bravewriter classes:

• Boomerang Book Club - Just a couple of months to work on literary analysis with a group.
• Fall 2015 Movie Club - I think DS would LOVE this because this year is an Irish theme and will fit in well with his Irish history/lit. self-study. Am I right that this will also teach literary analysis?
• Expository Essay - To shore up some essay writing skills and give him a different format and perhaps some more structured feedback from Write at Home.

Are the Boomerang Book Club and Movie Club sufficient to teach literary analysis? It doesn't seem like they ever do any kind of structured writing in either of the classes. Is that correct?

 

And then we will likely add in the 6 week research paper class from Write at Home because this is the one WaH class that he has enjoyed.

 

Literature, for the most part, we will simply read, discuss, and write.

I'm also planning one or two of the Killgallon books. Sentence Composing for High School and Grammar for High School are the two I've purchased.

 

I have a history of planning entirely too much for English. What are your thoughts on this?

Does this seem like too much? Too piece meal? Am I neglecting anything important? If you have done any of these classes before, do they appear to be a good fit for our needs?

 

:willy_nilly: :willy_nilly: :willy_nilly:

[Arch at Home]

I highly recommend Expository Essay. It is a great way to introduce and shore up essay writing with outside guidance. It is definitely not formulaic and they work directly with the student and their interests.

 

I really like Boomerang Bookclub but might either combine a couple months of it with a BW literary analysis class or pick and choose from Boomerang's back issues from a more extensive literary program with a BW literary analysis class.

 

Sarah