Help me pick a LA Comp for 10th grade

[BusyMom5]

DD is a very good student, but her writing still needs a lot of help.  I'e used various things for 7th and 8th grades, including the following :

Essentials in Writing- it was okay, but I felt thd examples weren' the best.  DD did okay, form improved, but it just felt... blank 

Killgallon workbooks for Middle School- grammar, sentences, paragraphs.   I really think these,books helped her sentence structure, particularly with fun writing.  With technical writing we still have issues organizing,  staying on topic and getting depth. 

IAK Meadow 8th grade- okay, but not a lot of structure taught.  I tried, and we worked on the lit analysis. 

 

Oak Meadow Hero' Journey- we are finishing this up.  Overall I can see improvement in her writing.  I can also clearly wee which books she liked and which ones she dI'd not.  All bigger papers were B or C, but she did great on the short answer and currently has an 89.  She has 6 weeks of lessons left, and I'm hoping she pulls it above 90 percent!  

 

Whice brings us to now.  She likes OM and I find it easy to use and,grade, but I don' think it has enough structure for the writing assignments.  I' looking at lit and comp 2, but I don' think she will like the books used, and I'm worried I will waste time on a program that isn' meeting her needs.   She' a STEM kid, she says this whole lit thing is not her thing.  I am considering buying the British Lit instead (this is,her top pick, she loves all things British ), and then doing a separate writing program that will focus on essay organization across history and science rather than always being lit analysis.   Which programs do you suggest that will not be full programs, but will teach better essay writing?   And research paper writing?  She's good with most gramnar,  but we'l be doing an ACT grammar book to prep for that.  

 

I think my past years I've sort of let her find a voice and writing style, which is good!  But now I need to work on details, organization and getting stuff onto the paper quickly and efficiently. 

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Lori D.]

Since Writing is the weaker area, and since "Lit is not her thing", there's nothing wrong with spending a year focusing on Writing, with just a few classics you want her to be familiar with as the English credit. 10th grade is often the year in which Composition is the heavy focus, so that would not be odd or unbalanced at all.

For example: what about outsourcing writing to two Bravewriter classes per semester (or one 8-week Write At Home high school workshop per semester) next year, and just use the Lit. portion of Oak Meadow since it's working well for you all. However, I totally agree with you about the book selections in Oak Meadow Lit. & Comp. II (A Separate Peace, Huck Finn, and Anthem), and Oak Meadow American History (he Great Gatsby, The Red Badge of Courage, and To Be A Slave) If I had a student who was not "into" Lit., those would NOT be my choices for them, LOL.

What about doing the year-long Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings study for the Literature, and outsourcing the Writing to online classes? The Lord of the Rings trilogy is by a British author (JRR Tolkien), and if DD also enjoys fantasy books, that could be a good match. The program would also give you excerpt overviews of Beowulf, and, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Medieval British works), which you could also do in full if DD was enjoying them. The program is a very gentle step into literary analysis with detailed chapter notes and a few discussion questions after the notes (you can skip the busy work of fill-in-the-blank comprehension questions and vocabulary quizzes for each chapter). The meat of the program, in addition to the chapter notes, are the 12 units on related Literature topics. It is written in an informal tone and can be done largely solo by the student, although it might be enjoyable to do it together, or if you have another student (gr. 7 or up), then the 3 of you could enjoy reading and discussing together.
- program overview
- sample chapter study

If you did LLftLotR + outsourced writing in 10th grade, you could then follow up in 11th grade with Oak Meadow British Lit  (Beowulf, The Once and Future King, A Midsummer Night's Dream, David Copperfield, and some short stories) and use both the Lit and Writing portions of Oak Meadow, as DD would have had a year of writing under a teacher to help her polish her skills, so she'd be ready to move back to a more solo program and be able to enjoy doing the entirety of Oak Meadow's program.

More options:

Outsource the Writing, and for Literature, pick 4 novels of high interest to DD, and do one per quarter using an individual lit. guide or two to work your way through each book together. For example, cover 4 British works together and also watch 4 well-done film versions of 4 additional British works, for exposure to additional classics.

Or, out the Writing, and for the Lit., if you want a program rather than individual lit. guides, while it is a very scanty guide for helping with info on literary analysis or discussion questions for digging deeper, if you need inexpensive, the Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Gold: British Literature covers about 10 poets, 3 novels (Frankenstein, Emma, and Tale of Two Cities, and 2 novellas (The Time Machine, and Animal Farm). If DD is a strong reader or enjoys reading, but isn't so interested in spending a lot of time digging into the works with analysis, this might be the way to go. LLATL is also designed to be largely done solo, with the student researching the books/author/times for most of the depth. See samples, and the Cathy Duffy review.

Or, outsource the Writing, and enjoy using Movies as Literature for the Lit. portion of the English credit, as it is often easier for students to develop analysis skills with visual films first, and then more easily see how to dig deeper into written Literature. See , and the Cathy Duffy review.

ETA:
If just needing a composition program that can largely be done solo by the student, then I recommend focusing on the Writing program and just pick a few works of high interest to DD for the Literature (or do the Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings), and save Oak Meadow: British Lit for the following year (11th grade). These are are solid high school Writing programs that have a high degree of independence to them:
- The Power in your Hands (Watson) -- 1 year program; covers a wide variety of types of writing
- The Elegant Essay (Myers) -- 1 semester program
- Writing the Research Paper: The Essential Tools (Myers) -- 1 semester program
- The Lively Art of Writing (Payne) + FREE work pages created by WTMers (student workbook, and, teacher guide)

BEST of luck in deciding what is the best fit! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[BusyMom5]

I think she might like the LOTR study!  I'l show her that.  She is a high level reader, just doesn' like the analysis side.  I think she' an INTJ personality.  Trying yo figure out why charters di what they do feels pointless yo her.  She' a sci-fi geek!  She' love a series like this about the entire Harry Potter series.

[Lori D.]

20 minutes ago, BusyMom5 said:

I think she might like the LOTR study!  I'l show her that.  She is a high level reader, just doesn' like the analysis side.  I think she' an INTJ personality.  Trying yo figure out why charters di what they do feels pointless yo her.  She' a sci-fi geek!  She' love a series like this about the entire Harry Potter series.

The analysis for LLftLotR is gentle -- just the right amount of depth without "killing the book" (lol). The author of the program has a clear, deep love of the trilogy and the world of Middle Earth, and that really comes through all of the program. : )

re: Sci-Fi geek -- the year after DSs and I did LLftLotR, we made our own Lit program with a classic works of Sci-Fi focus -- one of DSs' all time favorites, along with the LLftLotR study. : )

PS -- I am an INFJ and love digging deeply into Literature; DS#1 is an ISTJ, and while literary analysis came slower to him (he is a very black and white STEM sort of thinker), the more we dug deeper into Lit., the more he enjoyed it, esp. discussing the worldviews, philosophy, and technology/ethics aspects of sci-fi. : )