Excellence in Literature Intro vs Oak Meadow The Hero's Journey (x-post)

[Alte Veste Academy]

Does anyone have experience with both? Either? Comments or reviews are very welcome. I'm trying to decide between these two for DS's 8th grade year. I love the price of EiL but have always loved the vibe of Oak Meadow. The book lists are both interesting, although I think I tend toward EiL's more, and I love that there is an honors option.

 

I am especially interested if anyone has used multiple levels of either EiL or OM high school English/Lit.

 

Thoughts?

Edited January 10, 2016 by Alte Veste Academy

[Peaceful Isle]

Extremely interested to hear about oak meadow lit - hero's journey as well.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I got some good feedback about EiL on the other thread. I know I asked about The Hero's Journey specifically, but I do like the idea of picking a path and following it, so I spent time comparing all the levels. I'm kind of surprised by how few books are read in 10-12 with OM. Hero's Journey looks good and I've seen lots of positive comments about it. I have got 8th Grade OM English arriving tomorrow for DS for the rest of this year, and that book list is going to be fantastic for him! And the HJ books look good. So then I'm left wondering what happens in 10-12. 

[Haiku]

I have not used either, but I am strongly leaning toward using Oak Meadow English 9 next year with my dd. I, too, wondered about the drop off in the number of books after 9th grade. I thought about it a lot, and here are my thoughts.

 

I think that TWTM focuses on literary analysis much more than typical schools do (which is not surprising, as SWB is an English/writing instructor). When I was in high school, we read 3-4 books each year. We did not read 8 or more as I sometimes see other curricula scheduling. My oldest dd, now in college, went to an intensive college-prep high school, and they read 2-3 books per year in English. Personally, I would rather study fewer books in depth than tons of books more quickly. I don't want my children's high school English education to be solely, or even primarily, literary analysis. There's simply too much other good stuff to get to in English. Oak Meadow appears to cover a great variety of topics, and I find that attractive. If I feel my child isn't reading enough literature, I can always assign more as either extra reading just to read it, or we can go over extra books with the literary analysis guidance given in TWTM.

 

My dd does not want to do OM English next year simply because she wants to stick with what we're already doing (separate writing, grammar, and lit), but I think, in the interest of efficiency and less work for me, we are going to go with OM anyway. Plus, the curriculum looks excellent.

 

Anyway, take my thoughts for what they are: musings from someone who's not there yet. ;)

[Alte Veste Academy]

When I was in high school, we read 3-4 books each year. We did not read 8 or more as I sometimes see other curricula scheduling. My oldest dd, now in college, went to an intensive college-prep high school, and they read 2-3 books per year in English. Personally, I would rather study fewer books in depth than tons of books more quickly. 

 

That is interesting! I graduated in 1990, and we read way more books than 2-4 a year, plus lots of poetry and short stories. We read at least a book a month, which was a fine pace (maybe even a little slow for me as an insatiable reader, LOL).  So when I saw that EiL grades 8-12 each cover 9 books, that struck me as typical, and then I was surprised that OM grades 10-12 only cover from 3-5 books (especially shocked by 3!). Specifically looking at their World Literature Course, I just don't get taking a course in World Lit and covering only 4 books. That's not covering much of the world, let alone much literature. :tongue_smilie:

 

We do not analyze every book we read (although my kids actually love to discuss and analyze, we just don't have the time for every book they read, LOL), but I don't have a problem requiring a book a month specifically for English Lit class. Everyone's sweet spot is different, so I hear you. I think 2-3 months per book would be too dragged, whereas one book a month would probably be just right. 

 

I agree OM 9th grade looks good. 

Edited January 11, 2016 by Alte Veste Academy

[Momto6inIN]

We've used several units from different levels of EiL last year and this year and have enjoyed all of them so far and I felt like the writing assignments have really made my DS think about the books he reads. He complains about having to go through all the context resources each time, but they really do help him put his reading into a certain time and place and culture and philosophy. We don't do anything near 9 books per year though. More like 5-6. Usually I look up discussion questions on Cliff's or Sparks notes after he reads before he writes.

 

I don't know if this makes any difference to you, but I'm glad he did WttW first because there is no writing instruction in EiL at all - it assumes they know how to write a literary analysis essay already. My DS definitely wouldn't have been able to write a good literary analysis essay for EiL without that explicit writing instruction, and he didn't have that in 8th grade. But YMMV.

[Alte Veste Academy]

We've used several units from different levels of EiL last year and this year and have enjoyed all of them so far and I felt like the writing assignments have really made my DS think about the books he reads. He complains about having to go through all the context resources each time, but they really do help him put his reading into a certain time and place and culture and philosophy. We don't do anything near 9 books per year though. More like 5-6. Usually I look up discussion questions on Cliff's or Sparks notes after he reads before he writes.

 

I don't know if this makes any difference to you, but I'm glad he did WttW first because there is no writing instruction in EiL at all - it assumes they know how to write a literary analysis essay already. My DS definitely wouldn't have been able to write a good literary analysis essay for EiL without that explicit writing instruction, and he didn't have that in 8th grade. But YMMV.

 

Thanks for this! I was ordering Elegant Essay and Speech Bootcamp tonight anyway, so I just tacked that one on. I already have Teaching the Classics, which we have loved, and WttW apparently comes with a syllabus to turn the two into a one year course in literary essays, so I will get that done in advance...in our spare time... LOL 

[Guest]

What is WttW, please?

[ondreeuh]

OM has been revising their high school courses. The 9th grade level is new and has a lot more books than it used to. I would expect them to keep updating the English courses and keep adding more content. The covers are different in the updated courses and the samples show color.

 

WttW is Windows to the World: Introduction to Literary Analysis from IEW

[Alte Veste Academy]

OM has been revising their high school courses. The 9th grade level is new and has a lot more books than it used to. I would expect them to keep updating the English courses and keep adding more content. The covers are different in the updated courses and the samples show color.

Ooooohhhhh, I see. This is very helpful...and very conflict inducing. LOL

[Slache]

What is WttW, please?

Windows to The World

http://iew.com/shop/products/windows-world-introduction-literary-analysis-teacherstudent-combo

[mom2koh]

I've been looking at OM for high school levels as well. I like that they also assign reading from other sources. Some of the high school English courses have a limited number of novels (which I can assign more if needed), but they also assign short stories, poems, interviews, research articles, historical essays, etc. 

 

Ah. It's a lot of work choosing curriculum as the kids approach high school.  :huh:

[Soror]

Listening for the future, both looked good to me for future studies.