Which Literary Analysis curr for 9th grade?

[balletmommy]

Hello!

Some help needed here....my rising 9th grade DD has completed Classical Conversations challenge programs and used LToW.  We are not doing CC this coming school year (9th grade) and I'm having a hard time sorting through the pros/cons of various programs for the English credit.  She's a strong student, writer, reader, strong grammar skills, and scored the highest score on the National Latin Exam.  She is my oldest, so the HS curriculum is a new one for me!

I had a senior homeschool mom recommend Skills for Literary Analysis/Stobaugh - however after reading through the teacher's guide, this does not actually help in "how" to write the essay. So we definitely need to add on a solid writing program to accompany it.  However, since we have never really done any literary analysis, I'm not sure this is the best choice for us.  It seems rather confusing in the exercises and they don't tie into the literary readings exclusively.   Can someone break down some pros/cons for me on some other Literary programs? 

Some to consider:   Lightening Literature/Composition 8, Windows to World, Excellence in Literature/Intro to Literature and Skills for Literary Analysis --does anyone have any experience with these?  

I'm also considering going through the CAP writing/rhetoric or WWS guides to help solidify her writing skills.  I wasn't super crazy about LTOW - so I'm not continuing with that.  We did do some IEW through CC and WWE in elementary years.  

The way I understand HS English I, we need to do composition AND literature.  I'm assuming I need to get a specific curriculum for both.  Do some of these overlap the literature/writing?  Do I need separate ones to allow me to have the appropriate credit hours?  I also plan on adding a monthly or bi-monthly grammar rules type of review and vocab. work maybe 2-3x per month to add to the HS English I credit.  I've read through many of these posts and realize this isn't a new question...I just wanted some specific literary analysis input primarily!  

MANY THANKS!!

[klmama]

I have used Windows to the World twice.  I don't use Teaching the Classics - I am very comfortable discussing lit and don't need the videos.  I add in longer works of literature and other composition assignments, as well as grammar and a few oral presentations, to make a full credit.  

[balletmommy]

Thanks kand & Klmama!

 

Klmama - where do you obtain the composition assignments to tie in with the literature?  Do you create your own? 

Thanks!

 

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, balletmommy said:

The way I understand HS English I, we need to do composition AND literature.  I'm assuming I need to get a specific curriculum for both. 

No, you don't. You can homeschool literature and composition without using any specific curricula. You can just read books, discuss books, write about books, edit what was written about books. You can award credit for English without ever having used any curriculum besides real books.

Worked fine for both of mine. They chose their own writing topics. It is much easier to write about something you're interested in. Once they are good at writing about things they care about, the skills will then transfer to topics they don't care about.

[klmama]

Like regentrude, we don't use specific curriculum for composition.  There are many books I could use, but I've found simply explaining general structure needed and having the dc pick their own topics works better here.

[stacyh270]

13 hours ago, regentrude said:

No, you don't. You can homeschool literature and composition without using any specific curricula. You can just read books, discuss books, write about books, edit what was written about books. You can award credit for English without ever having used any curriculum besides real books.

Worked fine for both of mine. They chose their own writing topics. It is much easier to write about something you're interested in. Once they are good at writing about things they care about, the skills will then transfer to topics they don't care about.

Trying not to hijack this thread but I have a similar scenario with my rising 9th grade son ?  How many books read and compositions do you believe is sufficient to award a high school English credit?  And how much lit analysis and composition as a minimum?  I don't necessarily want my son to have to write about/analyze to death every single book he's assigned as I'd like him to be able to savor many of the books, KWIM? Some programs seem to require too little and some not enough ? Since he's doing American History, I plan for him to read American Lit but may spread out the plethora of American Lit "must reads" over 2 years since he's doing US Gov't/Civics in 10th grade (World Civ and Lit in 11th and British Lit/Shakespeare in 12th).

 

[regentrude]

54 minutes ago, stacyh270 said:

Trying not to hijack this thread but I have a similar scenario with my rising 9th grade son ?  How many books read and compositions do you believe is sufficient to award a high school English credit?  And how much lit analysis and composition as a minimum? 

Hard to give a blanket rule. I always had a more extensive reading list that we got through. I made my kids put in time on task. To me, it makes no sense to set the same goals for a super fast reader and a slow reader - in a homeschool, you can tailor the level to your student's abilities. You can use time spent as a guideline.

My kids read a ton, but did not write about each work. I prefer quality over quantity; a handful of essays with thorough revisions is more valuable than copious writing exercises of little depth and quality.

[stacyh270]

26 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I prefer quality over quantity; a handful of essays with thorough revisions is more valuable than copious writing exercises of little depth and quality.

Yes, I agree.  I'm thinking 4 major essays (one each quarter).

[Momto6inIN]

We love Windows to the World! After that, we use Excellence in Literature and pick and choose different units for books to read, discuss, and write about. Sometimes the units we choose correlate to the time periods in history we are studying, sometimes we choose units just because we like the works. I like EiL because it gives me a little bit of structure to start with, which I need because I don't feel comfortable just starting completely from scratch. And it provides context resources to help put the works in their historical context, which I need because I'm not a literature expert ? Like others have said, I tailor the number of works assigned to the individual's reading speed. I'd rather get through 4 or 5 works and have them covered well with meaningful discussion than rush through to get through 10+ books per year. EiL schedules 9 books/year starting a new one each month, but sometimes we only take 2-3 weeks/book (Shakespeare usually goes quickly, also The Old Man and the Sea) and some (like The Odyssey or Dante or Don Quixote) take 6 weeks or more to really feel like we have a grasp on them.

We do lit/comp as described above 4 days/week and Analytical Grammar and Vocab from Classical Roots exercises on the 5th day/week. We aim to spend an hour each day.

[balletmommy]

Thanks everyone for the insight and clarifying the requirements/approaches for me!  Very helpful!!