High School...

[OneStepAtATime]

DD and I are working our way through what she insists is her 9th grade year (I would be happy to make this 8th grade but she is not).  For language arts we are still doing Barton/Fix-It Grammar and will be starting the IEW Middle Ages writing unit soon but none of that is really 9th grade level work.  She is doing the AGS High School World Literature textbook to add in High School level lit studies (her choice), which covers literature selections from all over the world.  So far it is going really well.  She can read and comprehend the passages and has enjoyed them so far (at a more basic reading level but content is High School level).  

 

My problem is I do not have access to all the teacher resources, although I do have access to things like the Vocabulary workbook, the student workbook (asks mainly T/F and multiple choice or very short answer questions) and obviously the textbook.  I don't have access to tests.  I can probably cobble something together from the Teacher Textbook but most teacher resources are on a disk that costs hundreds of dollars.  What does DD need for output for this to be a High School level lit class?  Also, what usually needs to show up on a transcript?  

 

She wants to go to college.  She will probably go to the local CC first, then transfer to local Uni but is entertaining the possibility of going elsewhere (local CC is not terribly supportive of learning challenges and the atmosphere is not very academic, more of a party school) .  She is dyslexic and has auditory processing issues and low working memory so we have focused mainly on remediation, not lit analysis over the past 3 years.

[Heathermomster]

For 9th grade lit, DS completed tons of grammar, completed Teaching the Classics, and wrote story sequence charts for the books and short stories that he read.  We watched 2 versions of one play and completed IEW's Middle Ages.  We also cherry picked some assignments from EIL's first book.  Sorry, but the title escapes me at the moment.

[FairProspects]

How is she with essays? For high school level, if she does not know the literary terms, I would run her through something like Figuratively Speaking, which is written for grades 5-8 so it shouldn't overwhelm her, and then start having literary discussions with her and assign essays if she is up to it. She should be starting to compare & contrast the works with other works and analyze characters, motivations, plot lines, etc. (I used to teach high school writing & social studies pre-kids.) Norton's Essential Literary Terms is another good book for high school English (but is a higher level) as is Writing with a Thesis. Depending on the lit list, she may start reading books with footnotes & annotations like Arden's Shakespeare.

[Guest2]

I am almost in the same boat. My daughter who I have thought of as seventh grade, became the more age appropriate 8th grade yesterday during a family discussion. At least I have a little experience with the 4 year and CC,but it is still throwing me for a loop.

 

I can't tell you what needs to be done for a high school level lit class. If she can narrate about the passages , then maybe start writing a bit? I think it is so indvidual. A certain type of output is not required. I think if you are meeting your student where they are, they get the basics and you can slowly ramp up. Ninth grade work will look very different than twelfth and she doesn't need to be doing twelfth now. I think your plan looks good.

 

I will tell you that when my son was accepted at UT Austin and A&M and the transcript said..."English I". They don't want a transcript legend with everything spelled out. I sent one, because I had already written it, but I don't think anyone wanted it, or read it. I'm pretty sure that ninth grade English looks very different in a small west Texas town vs. Downtown H town vs. more expensive suburbs, yet they are all English I or Language Arts I..you know?

 

The nice thing about local CC here is are that you can really research the professors and classes. You can even get the textbooks ahead of time and preteach the vocab if needed. Although it is not technically remediation, I think the option of taking fewer classes ( like one maybe two) to start is helpful for success. She is on a great path,good job!

Off the topic, but I think the state school in Hunstville..is supposed to have some great remediation... Not sure where I heard or read that, but it might be worth looking into.

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks everyone.  I really appreciate the responses.

[Cynful]

I'm going through this with my senior (he's 18, going to be 19 in April).  I don't expect him to "graduate" until December of next year.  He's ok with that and I think he needs longer, but he needs to be an adult too.  We are just doing what we're doing.  I'll call it English 9, 10, 11, 12 and let it be.  Especially for CC.  He'll have to pass the PERT (I think it's called) to get into CC and I'll help him just as much as he wants but it's his responsibility (once we get to that point) to make sure he's learned it.  I had to let go of what I "thought" high school level work should be for him.  It's not going to look the same as my daughter.  I'm ok with that.  He's a wonderful man and moving ahead.  I'm proud of him.  I just have to keep moving at his pace and not worry about the rest right now.  I've worried for years over high school; it's been very freeing to accept meeting him where he is and be happy he is still learning.  Not that you aren't meeting her where she needs to be, just giving my experience which has been so similar to yours.  :)

[Storygirl]

DD13 is using MFW Ancient History and Lit. It requires five 300-500 word essays over the course of the year. Just to give you a benchmark.

 

MFW focuses on the argumentative essay for this year (the topics are related to the books read), so the student has to decide on a position and write a five paragraph essay about it. There are some suggested topics for each essay, or the student can decide on one or their own. The student also has a list of questions to answer after each day's reading. These are mostly about the plot.

 

Literary analysis is not really included, but I consider it important, so we are adding Figuratively Speaking. MFW alternates between focusing on lit and focusing on writing, so both are not done at once. We're supplementing with some extra books that we discuss, and also working through the Writing Skills series by Diana Hanbury King. Occasionally I am also having her do some timed writing, where I give her a question and 15-20 minutes to answer it. DD is a very slow writer, and I want to help her develop this skill so that she can be prepared to answer essay questions on tests.

 

That probably sounds like a lot. We're not doing it all every day. We don't make as much progress daily as I think we should, but I'm happy with the plan. DD13 is on the bubble between 8th and 9th grade. She started K at age 4, so could be either, but her graduation date will be determined later, depending on how things go. We picked MFW, because we wanted to make sure that her curriculum could be considered high school level for her transcript, but we thought it was approachable for her skill level. It's working well.

 

I'm giving her double the time to write, revise, and type each essay (the program gives one week, but we're taking two). She's done two of the papers so far. On the first one, I had to sit shoulder to shoulder and help her figure out what to write, sentence by sentence. For the second one, she worked somewhat more independently, and I was happy with that progress. I'm evaluating her on her progress, not on perfection. Building the writing skills is a long haul, but we've got 4-5 years to get there.

 

DD13 is not dyslexic, but she struggles with writing.