Ways to Teach Literature

[alisha]

My oldest will be going into 6th grade next year. We've been doing read alouds of good books, he reads fun books on his own, so I'm trying to decide what direction to go with a Literature aspect for school now that he's in Middle School.

From the board searches I've done, and looking at different literature courses, I'm now more confused than ever. Apparently there's Literature guides-a unit on each book-you pick the book (Progeny Press,Memoria Press, etc); There are Literature Anthologies where a large textbook has a bunch of usually exerpts from literature (Mosdos?) OR their own made up stories (BJU?, ABEKA?). And any various combination of the two (Lightning Lit from what I understand has the study guides for certain books all in one book, you just add the entire book to read). 

What are the pros and cons of each-or HOW do I know which way will work with us? 

And how is this different, other than comprehension questions-which he has never had trouble with-, than reading on his own or reading the books aloud? And then there's the option of just giving him a list of books to read-no study guide needed.

Oh, and then add in the Literary Analysis subject--luckily, I think that's more of a High School subject, but I'm not really sure.

Like i said--Confused! Thoughts, comments, suggestions of things to research, articles to read on the subject, would be appreciated. Thanks!

(Other info that might be needed-He likes reading, but doesn't love it, he prefers nonfiction or graphic novels, but does enjoy adventure, fantasy, biographical, etc. He's behind in writing and spelling-so would want something with minimal writing or that can be done mostly orally.)

[Susan in TX]

I don't have much advice because I'm struggling with the same thing except I'm trying to figure out what literature course to use for my high schooler. For elementary and middle school I have used Christian Light reading. It does a great job of teaching literary elements and vocabulary. Fourth grade and up is just a half-year course so it leaves time for reading other books. It is a solid program that gets the job done even though the reading selections could be better and it gets a bit preachy at times. 

I used Lightning Lit 7th grade. It was ok. Sonlight was better. I've never had much luck with using lit guides. Over the years we have tried different things and usually fall back to just having the kid just read the books. This works especially well with a kid who is a good reader and likes reading. Christian Light was very helpful with my struggling, reluctant readers.

Susan in TX

[Miss Tick]

I'm a literature failure for my middle schoolers - but next year will be different!! (Hahaha)

I was just introduced to commonlit.org which us a really nice free resource. I plan to use that to supplement a few books and discussion next year, probably in co-op. I imagine the related articles will help facilitate targeted discussion and elicit comprehension and oral analysis.

Gosh, I love planning time, when everything is well-trained and on schedule. So much prettier than real-life!

[HomeAgain]

We break it down into three groups:

Elementary - reading good books.  That's it.  If we get around to discussing them, great.  If not, still good.  I'm more worried about the exposure to different styles and good writing than I am about anything else.

Middle school - learning literary elements, learning to think about books as a whole and what the author is trying to get across.  We use Deconstructing Penguins as a discussion aid and units from Moving Beyond The Page because projects are woven in.

High school - my oldest got a lot out of anthologies and annotated texts.  He was able to compare across genres and had fantastic teachers who helped him dive deeper into the 2-3 full books he read a year.  If my youngest doesn't go to school, he'll do Excellence In Literature until he switches to the community college (where they use anthologies to pack more into the shorter classes).

I'm not going to stress above that.  I am sure that he'll get something out of each level, even if it's not some magic system of perfection.

Edited because it wasn't 203 books each year. LOL  Just a few.

[Ellie]

Generally, below seventh grade or so (IOW, 12 years old, as "grade level" doesn't mean that much for homeschoolers in any practical way), the emphasis is on comprehension skills and learning things such as reading for details, following sequence, skimming, making assumptions, and so on. After that there's more analysis: writer's purpose, characters, mood, imagery; and analyzing different genres (e.g., poetry, short stories, biography, autobiography), and so on. Often in the composition part of an English credit the children are learning to write different kinds of things--IOW, not just essays--that correlate with what their literature is covering. Some products combine both the literature and the composition; I kind of like to keep them separate.

[hollyhock2]

How do you know what will work for you? You pick a method that you like (and you think will work for your student) and try it out for a year.

Literary terms and analysis can be left until high school, although many programs and families begin these things in middle school.

I've done what SWB talks about in her literary analysis audio lecture. I just let my kids read good books, then in 5th-8th grade, once a week we talk about a book they've been reading and answer some of the basic analysis questions (they are in WTM, too) like "Who is the main character? What do they want?" They can write a paragraph or two answering some of the questions. That's it. I really don't want to kill their love of reading by doing too much analysis, so I keep it to a minimum.

I leave literary terms for high school (or sometimes 8th grade) except for the ones they encounter in English. Our English program has some in there.

[angelmama1209]

following. I am in the same boat- trying to understand exactly what lit study is and how to go about it. My oldest will be in 8th next year and is a voracious reader. She currently reads 1 assigned book, 2-5 books for history, and numerous "fun" books every week. I looked at lightening lit 8th this morning and liked it. I'll have to look at 7th and see how it may be different. My friend suggested teaching the classics. She is using build your library.

[Momto6inIN]

I think anthologies are a waste of time and paper :)

Up until 8th grade we just read, read, read, and discuss books of increasing complexity and maybe write some summaries/evaluations. Some go along with our history studies and some are just really good books that I pull from about a bazillion different book lists. I do throw in a few lit guides from Progeny Press in there during the middle school years just so that they know that there is something valuable about getting someone else's reaction to a book other than themselves and their mom ;) and also to get exposed to some very basic literary terms and analysis. But only about 1/year.

In 8th grade they continue to read and I have them go through the Figuratively Speaking workbook to learn the literary analysis terms they need to know for high school. Once their basic essay writing skills are in place we move on to Windows to the World in 9th/10th grade-ish which teaches them step by step how to read a work of literature, annotate it, and write a literary analysis paper on it. After that they just read classic literature and write responses to it using Excellence in Literature units.

[nixpix5]

I would probably just use Teaching the Classics seminar and workbook for the year and hand pick the books I most wanted to cover. It is easy to use, a solid program and much more fun and flexible I feel. :)

[Trilliumlady]

I’m also planning on using Teachiing the Classics with my fifth grader next year, and using that knowledge to guide third grader as he reads as well.  I hope it works as well as I am hoping it will!

[TracyP]

I like the "just giving him a list of books to read" method. Do you have The Well Trained Mind? There is a handy list of discussion questions in there. Read and discuss is all we do until 7th/8th grade.

You could also check out Reader's Odyssey. It suggests giving the student a huge pile of books to choose from. It includes worksheets that guide the student to think about the literary elements being used in each book. The worksheets increase in difficulty, and then transition to essay writing. I started using this when my oldest was in 8th, but I think you'd enjoy reading it now.

 

[Kuovonne]

I’ve been using the “Lost Tools of Writing” program with my 6th grade DD and calling it literature. LToW is officially a writing program, but I figure that it has her reading a book and writing about it, so it counts.

Because DD dislikes reading, literature has been a struggle in the past. Simply having her read a book and discuss with me didn’t work; she needed more structure. Unfortunately literature guides were too rigid and neither of us liked them.

Next year I am going to try to layering “Teaching the Classics” with LToW. I tried using TtC when she was younger, but while she could get the surface level of the story chart, she wasn’t ready for the deeper discussions. Hopefully next year she will be.

[Targhee]

In middle I think comprehension, discussion, and beginning to understand literary terms and devices is appropriate. Analysis is a rhetoric stage task, IMO.

For middle my favorite individual guides were MBtP - the We’re much more than comprehension, and the activities/projects varied and were interesting. We also used Figuratively Speaking prior to using any guides.

However DS’s favorite was LLftLotR. Probably because of the book, but the projects were great too.  It does not do much analysis but it does have discussion questions which are begging to think analytically.  It’s well organized and takes up a complete year.

Lori D is the lit guru, so when she chimes in I’d listen ;-)

[Farrar]

Agreed with others that in my mind, it basically breaks down into

Elementaryish - read good books, discuss to whatever level works for your kids, but don't worry about anything deeper than decoding (aka, sounding out the words or basic phonics) followed by comprehension skills

Middle schoolish - teach more literary analysis terms, start introducing more discussion and even more deeper thinking questions and reflection questions about reading, read a few classic authors, even if just through short stories... basically lay the groundwork for being able to do literary analysis writing in high school

High school - learn to write lit analysis papers, up the level of understanding of those analysis terms, read a lot more classic authors to whatever level your student is able - for a solid language arts student, I think this can be a read through the canon and really deep dive into the "great conversation" sort of time with literature, but for some students who struggle with language arts skills or are just way more STEM focused, it's going to be doing this on a much lighter level, focusing on going deeper in analysis but with YA and more recent novels or even films or using things like short stories and shorter works over longer ones for classics

For middle school, since no one mentioned it yet, I really like Figuratively Speaking, which is a workbook that covers literary terms and elements. Each section is one element. It gives examples from well-known and classic literature, followed by a couple of exercises for students to identify the element in context, then a couple of exercises for the student to try the element out, followed by an assignment outside the workbook for students to try the element out in more depth. I don't have it at hand, but basically, if the element was "metaphors" then it would have a page of introduction with metaphors from books and explanations. Then an exercise where students circle the metaphor in some things. Then an exercise where students complete an open ended metaphor. Then an exercise where students revise a weak metaphor. Then an assignment where students write a short poem with at least three metaphors. Or something like that.

I also am a huge fan of using short stories for middle school literature. We do one per month. I pick them ahead of time, print or photocopy them, then bind them at the start of the year. Helps keep us on track. We read and then discuss each one at a poetry tea. This lets us read a lot of classic authors (as well as some lesser known ones). Some things we've read have included...
"Thank You, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes
"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe
"To Build a Fire" by Jack London
"A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Just to give you a sense. We've also done a bunch of short stories by YA authors. I try to get a greater diversity than that off the top of my head list reflects, but you get the idea. My kids aren't really ready to read long classics for the most part yet, but they get a lot out of short stories. These lists are some good ones to get started with:
https://www.rethinkela.com/2014/05/40-excellent-short-stories-for-middle-school/
https://www.weareteachers.com/best-short-stories-for-middle-schoolers/

For lit guides for novels, I'm partial to the Glencoe Lit Library, just because they're very well done and they're free. I like that they have a variety of things, and you can use what you like.

[Farrar]

On 4/19/2018 at 8:03 PM, Momto5inIN said:

I think anthologies are a waste of time and paper :)

I strongly disagree with that. I think a lot of anthologies that are school textbooks are a waste of time and paper, just because they often have a weird variety of texts and rely a lot on altered texts, texts that were written just for the anthology, and excerpts. Excerpts are especially not awesome for younger students and I almost never use them before high school.

However, a really good anthology of short stories or poetry is a great tool for teaching literature. Novels are not the only thing that students can get something out of. Especially for students who are not voracious readers, short stories are an excellent tool. Anthologies are part of how you find them. Poetry is an important part of literature as well and while complete collections by an author are also good, anthologies are the perfect way to introduce students to reading poems on a theme or to reading a variety of works from different authors and time periods.

For high school, anthologies can be an important tool for diving deep into particular time periods and getting wide exposure to different authors and styles. I still have my beat up Nortons from high school, and I can't imagine a better way to have gotten my exposure to early British lit than through a selection of complete texts alongside that thick Norton anthology.

[Momto6inIN]

2 minutes ago, Farrar said:

I strongly disagree with that. I think a lot of anthologies that are school textbooks are a waste of time and paper, just because they often have a weird variety of texts and rely a lot on altered texts, texts that were written just for the anthology, and excerpts. Excerpts are especially not awesome for younger students and I almost never use them before high school.

However, a really good anthology of short stories or poetry is a great tool for teaching literature. Novels are not the only thing that students can get something out of. Especially for students who are not voracious readers, short stories are an excellent tool. Anthologies are part of how you find them. Poetry is an important part of literature as well and while complete collections by an author are also good, anthologies are the perfect way to introduce students to reading poems on a theme or to reading a variety of works from different authors and time periods.

For high school, anthologies can be an important tool for diving deep into particular time periods and getting wide exposure to different authors and styles. I still have my beat up Nortons from high school, and I can't imagine a better way to have gotten my exposure to early British lit than through a selection of complete texts alongside that thick Norton anthology.

In my comment I was using "anthology" to mean a textbook collection of excerpts common in elementary school, and it sounds like we agree on those :)

I never actually encountered an anthology of short stories or poems or novels or anything else (like Norton) until college. And while I acknowledge they serve a purpose in collecting a wide variety of works all together in one place, they were extremely unappealing to me and I never would have chosen to read something from one if it hadn't been assigned. They're very intimidating even to a voracious reader, or at least they were to me. And you don't even get to see what the individual covers of the books look like! Lol I can see the appeal for a serious student of literature, but so far my kids aren't :)

[Farrar]

12 minutes ago, Momto5inIN said:

In my comment I was using "anthology" to mean a textbook collection of excerpts common in elementary school, and it sounds like we agree on those :)

I never actually encountered an anthology of short stories or poems or novels or anything else (like Norton) until college. And while I acknowledge they serve a purpose in collecting a wide variety of works all together in one place, they were extremely unappealing to me and I never would have chosen to read something from one if it hadn't been assigned. They're very intimidating even to a voracious reader, or at least they were to me. And you don't even get to see what the individual covers of the books look like! Lol I can see the appeal for a serious student of literature, but so far my kids aren't :)

Just to expand people's sense of anthologies... Some that would be appealing to us in teaching literature might include:

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Worlds-Collection-Stories-Middle/dp/1877653527/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524329740&sr=8-1&keywords=little+worlds+short+stories
https://www.amazon.com/Shelf-Life-Stories-Gary-Paulsen/dp/0689841809/ref=pd_sim_14_27?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0689841809&pd_rd_r=WE4VMF6S2RVP6MZ0M8XN&pd_rd_w=BgXMo&pd_rd_wg=XZIQk&psc=1&refRID=WE4VMF6S2RVP6MZ0M8XN
https://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Mars-Other-Delectable-Essays/dp/1250044464/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524329906&sr=1-1&keywords=breakfast+on+mars
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Shorts-Favorite-Stories-Sharing/dp/0618476032/ref=pd_sim_14_57?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0618476032&pd_rd_r=0TP7PS4YTX8YEW27YTA1&pd_rd_w=tKhnn&pd_rd_wg=qZmuR&psc=1&refRID=0TP7PS4YTX8YEW27YTA1
 

Some that might appeal to middle schoolers as just pick up reading or could be useful for drawing short works or structuring a curriculum around shorter works might include:

https://www.amazon.com/13-Thirteen-Stories-Capture-Ecstasy/dp/1416926844/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1416926844&pd_rd_r=P0RE3TER3T9846JMJ4BE&pd_rd_w=rfy1m&pd_rd_wg=4xo60&psc=1&refRID=P0RE3TER3T9846JMJ4BE
https://www.amazon.com/Guys-Read-Thriller-Jon-Scieszka/dp/0061963755/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524329828&sr=1-3&keywords=guys+read
https://www.amazon.com/Guys-Read-Stories-Jon-Scieszka/dp/006196381X/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=006196381X&pd_rd_r=HW09DCAKQY2YW6S7N996&pd_rd_w=hKeKv&pd_rd_wg=CCBsQ&psc=1&refRID=HW09DCAKQY2YW6S7N996
https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Lessons-Other-Stories-Ellen/dp/110193459X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524330096&sr=1-1&keywords=flying+lessons+%26+other+stories+by+ellen+oh+editor
 

I also think we're too hard on some of the "school" style textbooks. Some of them are really fine. Like, here's a good example of the TOC from a basic middle school lit textbook. No excerpts, lots of great short stories - we read "Charles," "The Circuit", and "The Tell-Tale Heart" all this year and those are all in there, along with authors like Anna Quindlen for non-fiction. And some great poetry authors - Nikki Giovanni to Emily Dickinson... I mean, this is not a bad anthology. And while there are some bad anthologies out there... I think they get a bit of a bad rap.
https://www.perfectionlearning.com/media/pdfs/mv/tocs/mv_themes_toc.pdf

We need to encourage kids to read whole books, which schools are just crap at and anthologies don't do. But short works are a great way to explore deeper questions. Especially when you're tackling things like finding quotes and textual support, shorter works are a much better starting point.

[CAtoVA]

I totally agree with Farrar about using short stories—for middle school (and high school) short stories are a wonderful way to introduce and reinforce literature concepts, terms, etc.! This is one of my new favorite resources from teacherspayteachers. She has curriculum for 6th and 7th grade and is working on 8th grade. You can buy the whole year all together or just a story here and there:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Short-Story-Units-for-Middle-School-Short-Story-of-the-Month-Club-Grade-6-3306471

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Short-Story-Units-for-Middle-School-Short-Story-of-the-Month-Club-Grade-7-3337982

I also second Farrar's mention of the resource Figuratively Speaking. It's a really easy to implement, excellent way to discuss literary terms, etc. There is a really stellar curriculum plan on this website (maybe from Lori D.?) that has topics from that book directly matched with short stories and other activities. Try a Google search for it.

For specific books, I recently found this resource which looks promising. Many units are free or at least there are generous samples:

http://www.bookunitsteacher.com/bookunits.htm

 

 

[Earthmerlin]

On April 21, 2018 at 12:20 PM, Farrar said:

I strongly disagree with that. I think a lot of anthologies that are school textbooks are a waste of time and paper, just because they often have a weird variety of texts and rely a lot on altered texts, texts that were written just for the anthology, and excerpts. Excerpts are especially not awesome for younger students and I almost never use them before high school.

However, a really good anthology of short stories or poetry is a great tool for teaching literature. Novels are not the only thing that students can get something out of. Especially for students who are not voracious readers, short stories are an excellent tool. Anthologies are part of how you find them. Poetry is an important part of literature as well and while complete collections by an author are also good, anthologies are the perfect way to introduce students to reading poems on a theme or to reading a variety of works from different authors and time periods.

For high school, anthologies can be an important tool for diving deep into particular time periods and getting wide exposure to different authors and styles. I still have my beat up Nortons from high school, and I can't imagine a better way to have gotten my exposure to early British lit than through a selection of complete texts alongside that thick Norton anthology.

Now that you mention short stories, I realize we haven't really hit that with my 3rd grader. Any titles you suggest for elementary? 

[PeterPan]

On April 19, 2018 at 11:20 AM, alisha said:

 OR their own made up stories (BJU?, ABEKA?).

Just want to point out that BJU switches to literature in 7th. So you could jump to the lit 7 and be done with it. That's what we did around that age, and we enjoyed the diversity of the selections in the lit 7. 

[Farrar]

2 hours ago, Earthmerlin said:

Now that you mention short stories, I realize we haven't really hit that with my 3rd grader. Any titles you suggest for elementary? 

We didn't start this until my kids were at the very end of fourth grade. There's just not as much out there in terms of short stories for younger kids. I think folk tales and longer form picture books are really the "short stories" of the 2nd-4th grade ish crowd. I'll bet you've been doing those already. So, really, anything in the 390's at your library. There are so many good retellings of fairy tales and different stories from other cultures. Also, longer picture book stories like those by William Steig, Patricia Polacco, and Eve Bunting are a good place to draw from for "short stories." Any search of "picture books for older students" will turn up some lists along these lines. Somes of the themes of stories like these are great and they touch on things that younger kids should be exposed to - racism, poverty, bullying, etc. - but which sensitive kids may not want to hear a nuanced, entire novel about. Also, folk tales and long form picture books often have a higher vocabulary level than the early novels and chapter books that kids read independently, so they're a good way to push a slower reader or expand a good reader's ability to read a slightly trickier text.

There are some exceptions for more traditional short stories though. Some of the Isaac Bashevis Singer stories could be good ones. Natalie Babbitt's The Devil's Storybook could be good ones to draw from. 

[Miss Tick]

2 hours ago, Earthmerlin said:

Now that you mention short stories, I realize we haven't really hit that with my 3rd grader. Any titles you suggest for elementary? 

I agree with Farrar, it can be tricky to find traditional short stories aimed at the elementary crowd. In addition to her list, I've used the Avi book, Best Shorts.

[PeterPan]

The BJU lit 7 hits short stories, essays, a variety of genres. Sometimes it uses excerpts, and sometimes it's selecting something that is maybe an appropriate piece where the larger anthology doesn't work. We took their bibliography and went through it to track down the larger collections. It was a really fun thing for us, because we got to try new authors and genres. That was how we ended up discovering McManus. :)  https://www.amazon.com/Grasshopper-Trap-Patrick-F-McManus/dp/0805001115/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524492002&sr=8-1&keywords=grasshopper+trap&dpID=51ivRryJhwL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

[Earthmerlin]

Thanks for the suggestions for younger kids. I will definitely look into them all. We have also read Wilde's fairy tales, which I suppose can count.

[PeterPan]

It's also a good age to read opera stories. We had a book by Fiery that we really enjoyed and a couple volumes by Clyde Bulla of Gilbert & Sullivan (lite opera). You can read the stories and then watch them on youtube.

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Gilbert-Sullivan-Operas-Bulla/dp/0690776365/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524511512&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=clyde+bulla+gilbert+sullivan

https://www.amazon.com/At-Opera-Ann-Fiery/dp/0811827747/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1524511458&sr=8-3&keywords=fiery+opera&dpID=31FBW0S7ANL&preST=_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

[EKS]

The first thing you need to do is really think about why you want to have your kids study literature.  There are lots of reasons to study literature, and until you know what *your* purpose is, you won't be able to choose resources that appropriately support your goals.

Here are some things to keep in mind about the relationship between English as a school subject and literature study.  English majors are traditionally the ones who teach high school (and middle school) English courses.  Because of this, the reading lists consist almost entirely of fiction, drama, and poetry, and the major writing assignments are almost exclusively of the literary analysis variety.  The thing is that the overwhelming majority of academic writing assignments in college do *not* require literary analysis nor do they even have anything to do with literature at all.  Instead, college instructors expect students to produce genre specific writing, which changes depending on the class, and the only instructors that expect literary analysis are *literature* instructors (and most students will never take a literature class in college).  To prepare students for this eventuality, middle and high school English teachers would do better to focus on having students research and write on questions from a wide variety of disciplines.  The great thing is that as homeschoolers, we have the advantage that we can incorporate writing instruction and practice across the curriculum and call it "English."  It doesn't need to be stuffed into the literature box.

So, with the above in mind, why is literature study important?  I'll give you the reasons I think it's important, and these reasons may differ from yours.  In our homeschool, we study literature for primarily two reasons.  The first is that when you have read a wide variety of classic literature, it serves as a cornerstone of cultural literacy--it allows you to engage intelligently in literate discourse.  And the second is that good literature explores the enduring questions and concerns of humanity and as such it helps students learn more about themselves and connects them to the world.

Because cultural literacy and the enduring questions of humanity are my primary motivations for studying literature in our homeschool, I no longer force my current student (as I did with the older one) to write literary analysis essays.  I don't use a literature program or guides.  I don't ask comprehension questions.  And I situate the literature we read in the context of larger questions (for example, we are currently reading Frankenstein as part of a larger study of the question "What are the social implications of technology?")  We just read and discuss and move on, and he writes his essays on aspects of the questions we are exploring, but he is not required to analyze the literary texts we read.

My point here isn't to try to convince you to abandon the systematic study of literature.  It is to encourage you to take a step back from the minutiae of resource selection and take a bit of time to consider your larger homeschooling goals.  I wish I had done this sooner in my homeschooling career.

 

 

[Earthmerlin]

3 hours ago, PeterPan said:

It's also a good age to read opera stories. We had a book by Fiery that we really enjoyed and a couple volumes by Clyde Bulla of Gilbert & Sullivan (lite opera). You can read the stories and then watch them on youtube.

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Gilbert-Sullivan-Operas-Bulla/dp/0690776365/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524511512&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=clyde+bulla+gilbert+sullivan

https://www.amazon.com/At-Opera-Ann-Fiery/dp/0811827747/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1524511458&sr=8-3&keywords=fiery+opera&dpID=31FBW0S7ANL&preST=_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Yeah, opera's good stuff. Thanks for the reminder to pull out our good ol' standby (see below). We shall also revisit our correspnding CDs. 

https://www.amazon.com/Random-House-Book-Opera-Stories/dp/0679893156/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524523018&sr=1-1&keywords=Random+house+book+of+opera

[Another Lynn]

EKS, thank you for saying SO well what I've been trying to work out in my own mind all year.  It is so helpful!  

[mlktwins]

On 4/22/2018 at 4:10 PM, CAtoVA said:

I also second Farrar's mention of the resource Figuratively Speaking. It's a really easy to implement, excellent way to discuss literary terms, etc. There is a really stellar curriculum plan on this website (maybe from Lori D.?) that has topics from that book directly matched with short stories and other activities. Try a Google search for it.

 

 

 

 I've been searching for that thread since you mentioned this -- LOL.  I knew I had it saved somewhere.  Here it is for anyone that is interested.