Best Literature Suggestions

[Haiku]

Hit me up with your best lit suggestions for a boy with 8th-grade interests and a 5th-6th grade reading level. If he listens to the books on audio, then he can handle 8th-grade reading level. (He has dyslexia.)

 

I'm looking for a full lit program or a series of good yet inexpensive lit guides.

 

Thanks!

[Haiku]

No one does lit with their kids and has a program they like?  :huh:  :lol:

[Clear Creek]

Sorry, we just read and discuss here. My oldest also does the occasional writing about what she reads (write an alternate ending, write how the book would have been different if it were set in a modern time period, etc.), but we aren't doing a lit program. I have used the lower level MP lit guides (mostly orally) with my kids in the past, and if I felt a lit guide was necessary those are what I would use. The upper level MP lit guides look very good, but I haven't used any of them. I looked at several of the VP lit guides for the middle grades in person and did not like them...you could get the same kinds of comprehension questions for free online, and they weren't deep at all. Oh, and I almost forgot the Blackbird & Co. lit guides...I have used the lower levels of them, as well, but not the upper levels.

[almondbutterandjelly]

We don't do an official lit program either.  We read books that correlate with history.  This year, we are studying ancients, so we're doing D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, Coolidge's Trojan War, and some other stuff thrown in there.  I bought Memoria Press guides for them and coloring books.  My dd is a vsl, not dyslexic, though, and I read the books aloud while she colors.  Then we go over the Guide.  Although it was rather painful so we have basically dropped all the reading comprehension questions and only pay attention to the vocab and characters.  My dd is in 9th grade, by the way.

 

Next year, and I'm excited about this, I'm going to order the wonderfully illustrated Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Robin Hood, and King Arthur from Usborne.  I also found a Classics Illustrated (graphic novel) version of Ivanhoe that I will be using (not from Usborne).  I found quizzes on Cliffs Notes website which I will make a study guide for.  Plus I used Cliffs Notes to find a couple literary elements to discuss in each book.  

 

We will also use Figuratively Speaking at some point.

 

My lit goals include having my dd familiar with a large variety of classic literature, but not necessarily have read the actual original or difficult translation thereof.  We use easier versions.  I also like to go through the literary elements occasionally.  We do kind of a lapbook style thing with those when we apply them to books.

 

Hope this helps!

[Lori D.]

Hit me up with your best lit suggestions for a boy with 8th-grade interests and a 5th-6th grade reading level. If he listens to the books on audio, then he can handle 8th-grade reading level. (He has dyslexia.)

 

I'm looking for a full lit program or a series of good yet inexpensive lit guides.

 

Thanks!

 

A little more background on what your specific goals are, and DS's interests in books, will help us back up books and guides or a program that also works with the dyslexia. :)

 

What are your goals with a lit. program or guides --

- exposure to classic Lit.?

- exposure to a wide variety of types of Literature? (novels, short stories, poetry, plays, essays)

- explore some themes and ideas of specific interest

- books that a majority middle school/high school

- learning literary elements and about Literature topics?

- integrated History and Lit. studies? 

 

What has Literature looked like up to this point for DS --

- the "work" of learning to read and overcoming dyslexia?

- just reading/enjoying good books of interest?

- books connected with a "boxed" curriculum or in support of a History program?

- exposure to any literary elements?

- any Lit. discussions that were moving towards a deeper, or more formal, discussion? 

 

What do YOU need or want in a Lit. program --

- for it to be independent work for DS?

- for it to be something you can do together with DS?

- lots/little of handholding?

- comprehension/recall questions, or, discussion questions?

- writing assignment ideas or extension activity ideas?

 

And, does DS *enjoy* books (and perhaps talking about them), or is reading not of interest? Starting about 7th-9th grade the student's interests really do come into play. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yeah, I mostly use lit guides I find for free on the web - Penguin guides are good, we're working through one on The Time Machine right now.  I always just do a search for "book title lit guide" and look at a few and find the best one of the bunch.

 

For purchased guides, Garlic Press has some pretty thorough, yet inexpensive lit guides to books your ds might enjoy.  I bought the one for The Giver and The Hobbit, and they were good, but  frankly I found them a bit of overkill - I did pick and choose from them rather than using the whole things. But they are good, and secular, and cover modern books.

 

http://www.garlicpress.com/literature

 

For more classic-y books, I like the Memoria Press guides. Not the older ones, which are mostly vocab and comprehension questions, but the newer ones that break the activities and questions down into Pre-Grammar, Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric stage activities, culminating in an essay assignment.  I think these are really good.  You  have to look at the TOC sample to tell which ones these are.  The American Lit (short stories and poetry) is in this format, as is Beowulf, Sir Gawain, and some of the others in the Upper Grade series:

 

http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/literature-and-poetry/ninth-grade-literature

 

 

[Haiku]

A little more background on what your specific goals are, and DS's interests in books, will help us back up books and guides or a program that also works with the dyslexia. :)

 

What are your goals with a lit. program or guides --

 

- exposure to a wide variety of types of Literature? (novels, short stories, poetry, plays, essays) [Mostly novels and short stories, maybe some poetry]

 

 

- learning literary elements and about Literature topics? [This is my primary interest.]

 

 

What has Literature looked like up to this point for DS --

- the "work" of learning to read and overcoming dyslexia? [Yes.]

- just reading/enjoying good books of interest? [Yes. He listens to tons of books, and we are always listening to books in the car.]

* He's working through an AGS book this year, Exploring Literature, so he will have some exposure to literary terms and ideas by next year.

 

What do YOU need or want in a Lit. program --

 

- for it to be something you can do together with DS? [Yes. He is just beginning to work independently on things he has been doing for years; working independently on something new would be too difficult for him.]

- lots/little of handholding? [LOTS]

- comprehension/recall questions, or, discussion questions? [bOTH]

- writing assignment ideas or extension activity ideas? [bOTH; ds likes and learns from activities more than from reading pages of information or doing worksheets]

 

And, does DS *enjoy* books (and perhaps talking about them), or is reading not of interest? Starting about 7th-9th grade the student's interests really do come into play. :)

 

I left my answers in the quote and deleted the things that did not apply. My primary interest is that my son learn about literary terms and ideas through books and short stories. My secondary interest is that he have writing assignments connected to this learning. A lot of any literature program will be done orally due to my son's difficulties with writing. (He is still learning to write paragraphs effectively, but his ability to discuss is superior to his ability to write.) I want the lit program ONLY to be a lit program; I don't want grammar included.

 

My son LOVES books. He doesn't enjoy reading, per se, because it is hard for him, but he listens to 3-4 books a week on audio, and he reads approximately one novel per month. He reads a lot of cartoon and comic books, as well, and he also likes nonfiction books from the children's section that have lots of information in short chunks so that he doesn't become fatigued by reading. He mostly enjoys adventure-type novels, but he is currently reading Rufus M. (a Moffats book) and enjoying it. His listening ability is higher than his reading ability. I don't think he will particularly enjoy talking about literature, but he will tolerate it. He's pretty good-natured.

 

My dd used Lightning Lit 7 last year and is using 8 this year. I like Lightning Lit, but when I asked dd whether she thought it would work for ds, she said NO. She said that it would be too much writing for him (although if we did most of it orally, there would be much less writing) and that she thought it would be too hard for him. I'm not sure how I feel about that. There would definitely be too much writing if I had him write it all, but I'm not certain it would be too hard. Possibly it would be.

 

I also want a lit program that we wouldn't have to work on every day. I don't mind my son having to read for it every day, but I want it to be an introduction to literature, not a full-on every day subject.

 

Thank you!

 

ETA: I will probably do Figuratively Speaking with him at the beginning of next year.

[Lori D.]

… My dd used Lightning Lit 7 last year and is using 8 this year. I like Lightning Lit, but when I asked dd whether she thought it would work for ds, she said NO. She said that it would be too much writing for him (although if we did most of it orally, there would be much less writing) and that she thought it would be too hard for him. I'm not sure how I feel about that...

 

...I will probably do Figuratively Speaking with him at the beginning of next year...

 

Hmmmm…. well, we did LL7 (and then LL8 in a following year) without troubles with DS#2 who has mild LDs ("stealth" dyslexia), esp. in spelling and writing. As I recall, a lot of the pages don't require more than a few sentences of writing. We skipped the work pages with the word search and crossword, and I would have him do 1 work page a day for the remaining 8-10 pages -- sometimes taking 2-3 days on the more writing intensive ones, OR, I would scribe for him and we'd do some of them orally.

 

LL7 and LL8 have no grammar instruction (I do recall just a very few -- no more than 4-5 (?) work pages out of the entire program that had something to do with grammar, and you can easily skip those. We used Figuratively Speaking at the same time as LL7, doing 1-2 literary terms a week, and then looking for them in the literature we were reading. We were using a separate Writing program, so we were only using the Lit. portion; we did read the writing "mini-lesson" at the end of each unit, more as a supplement or "second hearing" of writing topics, and some times we would set aside the Writing program and do one of the writing assignment ideas at the end of a LL7 for a change of pace, and other times we didn't do any of  them. But you could easily choose to take a week to do an assignment related to the literature at the end of each unit, while getting started on reading the next novel.

 

I personally think LL7 is one of the *gentlest* intro to Lit. programs around, so esp. if you are planning on doing some of the work together, and esp. do audio books or read-aloud together for the books, JMO without really knowing your DS, but I don't think this would be at all beyond your DS's ability. :)

 

I think what would also contribute to success with any program is enjoying the books -- and it sounds like your DS does enjoy books. DS here really enjoyed the works in LL7 and 8 -- and he's one who doesn't have much patience for books he doesn't like. ;) The only work in LL7 that DS did NOT like was Story of My Life by Helen Keller. He wasn't very fond of the poetry units, but he just doesn't care for poetry. So we moved quickly through those units and he survived ;) . We did the poetry units in 2-3 weeks, taking the first week to read the teaching info in the guide and then read and discussed the poems that week -- so all the reading of poems was over in a week -- and then the next 1-2 weeks working on the work pages (skipped some of them), but also got started reading the next novel. Similarly in LL8, the only 2 works he did not like were 2 of the 3 short stories ("A Crazy Tale", and, "Wakefield").

 

Again, JMO, but since you already own LL7 and LL8, I'd give one of them a test drive and see how it fits (or not) with your DS. :)

 

 

I also want a lit program that we wouldn't have to work on every day. I don't mind my son having to read for it every day, but I want it to be an introduction to literature, not a full-on every day subject.

 

We spent 40-50 minutes a day, 4x/week on LL7, and finished it in under 30 weeks. That was with doing all the reading out loud together, doing all 8 units, and doing all of the work pages (except for the 2 "busy work"/puzzle pages in each unit), mostly hand-written by DS. That would give you lots of extra time in a 36-week school year to spread out the lit. And it will take less time if you decide to do many of the work pages orally, or skip those that feel like busy-work to you, or you don't have time for them.

 

Picking your own Lit. list and using individual guides would give you even more control over your schedule.

 

 

 I don't think he will particularly enjoy talking about literature, but he will tolerate it. 

 

For talking about Literature, I recommend starting now and talking about movies and TV shows. Often it is easier to *see* the visual cinematic element and discuss what it's doing there. For example, the Star Wars movies have a very clear/obvious theme of the good and evil described in very visual terms -- the jedi/light side and the "dark side". Might the fact that those who have embraced the "dark side" are dressed in black be significant? What about a shot in which half the character's face is lit, and the other half is in shadow? Might that suggest something about the character's state of mind and inner conflict between the light/dark sides?

 

You might check out Movies as Literature as a fun stepping stone program into discussing and writing about literature. :)

 

Another idea: Any way that you can include older DD or other siblings in discussing? Or discuss at the dinner table to also include dad or whoever else is there? I was fortunate to have 2 DSs close in age, and that helped a LOT take the burden off of one student feeling like they have to have all the answers to questions, or feel like it was a real discussion, rather than "like school work". Other moms on this board have de-emphasized the "teacher quizzing the student" feel to discussion questions by either putting the question out there and also musing and answering (so the guide is the "bad guy" and both of you are on the same team together, both coming up with answers and sharing thoughts). Or, one mom hands the guide over to the student, and starts off having the student ask the questions and mom tries to answer, and then moves to both answering...

 

 

I'm out of time for continuing this response at the moment, and since I didn't get to your specific replies to all my questions, I'll come back at a later time and see what I can come up with as other options for you to look into. :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Movies as Lit is pretty great.  We did the first several movies last year and will get back to it at some point probably.  We read the book, play, or story (if one existed), watched the movie at least twice, did all the discussion questions (orally) and then she wrote an essay.  So it was a lot of thinking, discussion, analysis etc., with some reading, and some writing, but just one written piece for each "unit" so not too intensive.  

 

 

[Haiku]

Movies as Lit is pretty great.

 

That sounds great! My son has always love classic and black-and-white horror films. I think he would get a kick out of pairing books and movies.

 

Although I really like Lightning Lit, I'm not sure I want to invest quite that much time into literature for 8th grade.

 

I've also looked at a few literature units on the Teachers Pay Teachers site. I'm considering one about the elements of short story and/or one about gothic literature.

[Lori D.]

That sounds great! My son has always love classic and black-and-white horror films. I think he would get a kick out of pairing books and movies.

 

Although I really like Lightning Lit, I'm not sure I want to invest quite that much time into literature for 8th grade.

 

I've also looked at a few literature units on the Teachers Pay Teachers site. I'm considering one about the elements of short story and/or one about gothic literature.

 

That would be a great way of doing it. :)

 

Sounds like you are moving towards a good workable plan, that gives you the flexibility to schedule as much or as little Lit. as works for your family:

- Figuratively Speaking

- choice of works and individual lit. guides

- unit on short stories

- possibly units from Movies as Literature

 

If you go with selecting individual books of interest, some guides we found useful:

- Garlic Press Discovering Literature Challenger level -- very meaty for a low price

- Glencoe Literature Library -- free

- Penguin Teacher Guides -- free

 

General ideas for activities (instead of writing about everything):

- create a powerpoint presentation about the book, or on an aspect of the book

- design a movie poster for the book, capturing a key theme and mood

- use a Venn diagram or other graphic organizer to compare/contrast with other works, or think about what's going on in the work

- do an online search for activity ideas specific to the book -- something like "___(name of book)___ high school activities"

 

If you go with a movie/literature idea, check out the Teach With Movies website. And here are ideas for pairing books and B&W movies -- the first 5 fall in the horror genre! :)  (BTW: LitCharts is a visual way of seeing themes in a work, and is connected with the Sparknotes guides for these books. Sparknotes is a free online guide with chapter summaries/analysis, background info, and key themes, motifs, etc).

 

- Frankenstein (Shelley) -- and the 1932 film  -- Penguin guide; Glencoe Lit. Library guide; LitCharts

- Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson) -- and the 1931 OR 1941 film  -- Penguin guide; Glencoe Lit. Library guide; LitCharts

- Dracula (Stoker) -- and the 1931 film -- LitCharts; list of resources from Web English Teacher

- The Invisible Man (Wells) --  and the 1933 film -- Penguin guide; 7 Sisters Homeschool guide; The Best Notes guide

- Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) -- and the 1945 film -- LitCharts; Lit Lovers guide; resource list from Web English Teacher

- A Christmas Carol (Dickens) -- and the 1951 film -- 7 Sisters Homeschool guide; LitCharts; Teach With Movies

- Oliver Twist (Dickens) -- and the 1948 film -- LitCharts

- Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain) -- and the 1930 film -- Glencoe Lit. Library guide; LitCharts; resource list from Web English Teacher

- To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) -- and the 1962 film -- Garlic Press guide; Glencoe Lit. Library guide; Teach With Movies

- Friendly Persuasion (West) -- and the 1956 film -- Movies as Literature guide

 

 

And finally, in response to your initial post, a few titles that are at an easier to read level, but yield some good discussion -- several of these titles have guides from Garlic Press, Glencoe, Penguin, or Sparknotes:

 

- Tuck Everlasting

- A Wrinkle in Time

- Below the Root

- The Giver

- The Hunger Games

- Animal Farm

- Cry of the Wild (or, White Fang)

- The Outsiders

[Haiku]

Thank you, Lori D., for your extensive suggestions and and everyone else who contributed ideas. They are most appreciated!