What is considered an English credit?

[salinda]

I'm looking ahead to 9th grade and am wondering what is considered to be a complete English credit? It's been quite a few years since I was in high school! Do you use a mixture of literature, composition, vocabulary, etc? What curriculums have you used to give an English credit? What have you liked the most? I appreciate any feedback.

[Lori D.]

Short answer: yes ; )

 

Longer answer:

A high school English course is composed of literature (reading/analyzing) and composition (writing/synthesizing). Vocabulary is addressed from the reading of literature, while grammar and possibly spelling come into play to assist the composition.

 

There are a very wide range of programs you can use for your English (Language Arts) credit:

- formal curriculum (ex: Bob Jones)

- online course (ex: Potters School = http://www.pottersschool.org/)

- integrated language arts program (ex: Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Gold Book)

- individual program for each topic (literature, writing, grammar, vocabulary, spelling)

 

 

For ideas of what types of topics are typically covered in a subject such as English, I like to look at lists and table of contents from textbooks, and then structure our own study. Below are three resources for 9th grade English topics:

 

World Book Encyclopedia -- 9th grade Language Arts curriculum guidelines

http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/grade9

 

Bob Jones Writing and Grammar gr. 9 -- Table of Contents

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=236836&event=1016BJU|1153142|60219

 

Bob Jones Literature gr. 9 -- Table of Contents

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=196436&event=1016BJU|1153142|60219#curr

 

 

Below is what we did specifically for high school English last year (older son was 9th grade), and then for this year (younger son now 9th, older son now 10th). Because we're doing so much Literature, I'm counting the below as 1 credit for English, plus .5 credit for "Great Books" study. Hope something here is of help! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

9th grade English last year

 

GRAMMAR

1. Winston Advanced -- first half (grammar instruction and parsing)

2. ----- (tried Analytical Grammar for final comprehensive view, but it didn't fit us)

 

WRITING

1. Put That In Writing (for instruction; VERY modified to make this work for us!)

2. writing on works listed in the literature below; from lit. guides; and other school subjects

3. timed essays from prompts (bi-weekly practice for SAT/ACT testing in 11/12 gr.)

 

SPELLING = individualized

 

VOCABULARY

1. from reading

2. English From the Roots Up 2 (Greek/Latin roots, with some English derivations)

 

LITERATURE

1. Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings (full year literature guide)

(Fellowship of the Rings; The Two Towers; Return of the King)

2. classic ancient works, selected from the Well Trained Mind list, with a variety of lit. guides

(Epic of Gilgamesh (abridged); The Iliad; The Odyssey; Greek myths; Oedipus the King; Antigone; The Aeneid (abridged))

3. solo reading of historical fiction to go with ancient history

 

 

 

9th grade English this year

 

GRAMMAR

1. Winston Advanced -- first half (grammar instruction and parsing)

2. The Chortling Bard (grammar mechanics practice)

 

WRITING

1. Wordsmith (instruction and assignments)

2. writing from lit. guides and other school subjects (additional assignments)

3. timed essays from prompts (bi-weekly practice for SAT/ACT testing in 11/12 gr.)

 

SPELLING

1. individualized

2. Megawords

 

VOCABULARY

1. ------- (just isn't happening this year)

 

LITERATURE

1. Lightning Literature & Composition 8

(3 poetry units; 3 short stories; Treasure Island; A Day of Pleasure; A Christmas Carol; The Hobbit; My Family and Other Animals)

2. classic works, selected from the Well Trained Mind lists, with a variety of lit. guides

(Beowulf; MacBeth; a unit on short stories with IEW's new Windows on the World program; All's Quiet on the Western Front; Diary of Anne Frank; To Kill a Mockingbird; a poetry unit from a Progeny Press lit. guide; Much Ado About Nothing)

3. solo reading of historical fiction to go with 20th century history

 

 

 

10th grade English this year

 

GRAMMAR

1. Winston Advanced -- second half (grammar instruction and parsing)

2. The Chortling Bard (grammar mechanics practice)

 

WRITING

1. ------ (Wordsmith Craftsman didn't fit us, so a program for instruction fell through)

2. writing from lit. guides and other school subjects (additional assignments)

3. timed essays from prompts (bi-weekly practice for SAT/ACT testing in 11/12 gr.)

 

SPELLING

1. individualized

 

VOCABULARY

1. ------- (just isn't happening this year)

 

LITERATURE

1. Worldviews in Sci-Fi & Horror

(made our own lit program, choosing classic lit. and using lit. guides: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; Frankenstein; The Giver; Farenheit 451; Brave New World; Animal Farm; short stories from CosmiComics; A Canticle for Leibowitz; Portrait of Dorian Gray; Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

2. classic works, selected from the Well Trained Mind lists, with a variety of lit. guides

(Beowulf; MacBeth; a unit on short stories with IEW's new Windows on the World program; All's Quiet on the Western Front; Diary of Anne Frank; To Kill a Mockingbird; a poetry unit from a Progeny Press lit. guide; Much Ado About Nothing)

3. solo reading of historical fiction to go with 20th century history

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you can pretty much do what you want.

 

My oldest is a 9th grader this year and I lumped everything together. I'm calling it English 9.

 

We are using: Abeka Grammar & Composition III (mostly the grammar part of the book), Jensen's Format Writing (the essay part of the book, we did paragraphs last year), Jensen's Vocabulary, and Lightning Literature 8. I will also be adding a few extra books to read as she will be done with the Lightning Lit before the end of the school year. My original plan is to do the grammar, format writing (essays), and lightning lit in the first 27 weeks which will leave the last 9 weeks of the school year for a short research paper. She has never done one before and I would like a trial run before she has to do a larger one.

 

Hope this helps a little.

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Lori D. .........what do you use for your timed essay prompts?

[Lori D.]

I must credit Momof7 with the idea of doing timed essays for practice. She also is the source of this big list of college level essay prompts (so some of these essay topics are not really very do-able for high school students, but there are SO many prompts on this list, I found it worthwhile to print out and keep it handy):

 

The Approved regents Test Essay Topics:

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwrtp/topics.htm

 

 

 

And here's a website (Traci's Lists of Ten) with several lists of different types of writing prompts:

 

- Traci's 18th List of Ten: Ten Persuasive Prompts: Persuasive-Descriptive: http://tengrrl.com/tens/018.shtml

- Traci's 19th List of Ten: Ten Narrative Writing Prompts: : http://tengrrl.com/tens/019.shtml

- Traci's 20th List of Ten: Ten Novel Essay Prompts: http://tengrrl.com/tens/020.shtml

- Traci's 44th List of Ten: Ten Unusual Five Paragraph Theme Assignments: http://tengrrl.com/tens/044.shtml

- Traci's 46th List of Ten: Informative Writing Prompts: http://tengrrl.com/tens/046.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

For actual SAT and ACT essay prompt questions:

 

Actual SAT test practice questions:

http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/sat-test-prep.html

 

For actual past SAT writing prompt questions, go the that same website just above and scroll down to about 3/4ths of the way down the page; there you'll find the heading: SAT Essay Prompts, and then you'll find a list of clickable links with the dates of actual past SAT essay prompt questions dating back to March 2005. I've only printed the 2007 and 2008 questions so far and have over 45 questions.

 

 

- The ACT Writing Test -- actual questions and sample essays:

http://www.act.org/aap/writing/sample/index.html

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