What do you love for reading in 6-8th?

[Meadowlark]

We are doing the lit guides from Memoria Press this year, and while I like some aspects of them, it's getting pretty rinse and repeat. I'm looking for something deeper-somewhat varied/creative activities instead of just answered 5-8 questions every day. Nothing too crazy-but just something that introduces literary elements and gets them ready for high school. I've considered CLE but the reviews there seem to be mixed. What gem is there out there that I haven't found yet?

[8filltheheart]

It can be as simple as reading allusion heavy books.  My 4th grader and I have delved in deep into the Chronicles of Narnia this yr.  We have had such wonderful conversations. (and nothing else.  Just talking.)  My 8th grader and I have done the 1st 1/2 of a LOTR study, only 1/2 b/c we have spent so much time reading other stories (Norse mythology, the Iliad, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, etc).   Depending on the student and the ones selected, short stories are a quick and easy way to cover a lot of ideas (some short stories are quite dark, though, so I would be very selective for younger students).

Reading Journeys through Bookland for 5th-7th grades (online for free if you want to look through some of the volumes.  Volumes 3-6 or 7 have been what my kids have tended to do) for my kids has been strong support for reading more complex literature.

But, you don't need much for middle school in terms of literary elements.  Really, reading complex writing is more important.  Learning to read sentence structures and vocabulary beyond pleasure type reading will reap benefits.

[Lori D.]

Mostly, we went with discussion as we read, so I don't know as though that is the "something deeper-somewhat varied/creative activities" that you are looking for. 😉

However, during the middle school years, we went through Figuratively Speaking: Using Classic Literature to Teach 40 Literary Elements, (and then Walch Toolbox Series: Prose and Poetry), learning about 1, maybe 2, lit. elements per week, and once we learned about it, we would actively look for it in whatever literature we were reading. Figuratively Speaking does have a few activities for each literary element -- not sure they are "varied/creative," since I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that...?? While this thread happened long after both of our DSs graduated, you might find this helpful: "Figuratively Speaking paired with short stories" -- in my post in that thread, I link a lot of ideas of poems and short stories (even a few novels) to go with each literary device covered in Figuratively Speaking.

We also used Lightning Lit 7 and 8, which, for each unit (and a unit covers either a novel, a short story, or about 8 poems) had teaching info for a "literature lesson", and then about 8-10 work pages to go along with that literature lesson and to practice using it -- esp. the last half of Lightning Lit. 8, there was more additional excerpts of literature to practice analysis. Again, not sure that's what you mean by "varied/creative activities"....

Are you looking for activities that are more hands-on, like creating clothing or food from the time period of the work of literature, or mapping activity if the story takes place in many locations? Or did you mean more creative writing types of assignments, like suggested activities such as writing diary entries from the perspective of one of the characters, or writing your own ending to the story? Or...??

You might look at individual lit. guides to go with specific titles. Glencoe Literature Library free guides often have graphic organizer types of activities for seeing connections between characters/events or to chart the flow of events. Also, the Garlic Press Discovering literature guides are meaty, with a LOT of material in them -- background info, discussion questions, teaching info on numerous literature topics, suggested writing assignments, suggested additional activities, additional resources...

PS -- and in answer to your heading title: "What do you love for reading in gr. 6-8?" ... real books!
- poetry -- sound devices, metaphor, themes/"big ideas", beautiful langauage
- short stories -- every word counts, so they are often easier as a beginning work to "dig into"
- YA books -- often easier to read, but with highly discussion-able, meaty/difficult topics
- beginning/easier to read classic novellas/novels -- beautiful language, more difficult sentence structure/vocabulary, deeper themes -- and often they either allude to other classics, or they are works that are themselves referenced, so building up a stock of "literature literacy", LOL

Edited April 6, 2020 by Lori D.

[Meadowlark]

5 hours ago, Servant4Christ said:

I have very little to offer here but am loving the wealth of information being recommended. I will say that CLE has a wonderful reading program but we abandoned it after four years because the higher the grade level, the more their nonresistant views showed in the stories and were discussed in the light units.

I'd actually like to hear more about this. What do you mean when you say "their nonresistant views"? That is one thing I'm concerned about and I'd like to know just how it presents itself. We are Christian, but not of the same beliefs as them so I have wondered how much that would filter into the reading. I'd love to hear you elaborate on that if you have the time!

[Meadowlark]

14 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

Mosdos Press 3rd-8th- https://mosdospress.com/

Lightning Literature7th on up-  https://hewittlearning.org/

MP guides do cover literary terms at as you progress.

And agreeing with 8.

Interesting. We have only done up until grade 6 and I wondered if 7th and 8th started with the literary elements a bit more. But, I also want my kids to really delve into reading all of those classics, and with the slow pace of MP (and I get why the slow pace), it seems they're pretty limited to just the 4 books a year. Mostly because my kids just aren't going to pick up Sir Gawain and the Green Night or something like that, and understand it without my involvement. And being that I have 6 kids, it's hard to find the time for that you know? That's why I considered CLE (and Mosdos actually) because if it just gets done, than that's better than nothing I guess?

[serendipitous journey]

I used MP literature guides to get my elder up to speed (he had an extreme regression across the board after his grandfather died several years ago) and now, in late middle school, we are using WTM booklists.  Some books we pair-read (Gawain was one), others I assign, and ones that he detests I let him sub out -- there aren't many of those, he doesn't esp. love literature but he is willing to try.  The WTM work is much more demanding than what he'd have done in MP, even though it is essentially read-and-discuss for us right now; we're just beginning to add in the written summaries/analyses. 

I find that the high school reading lists are where one sees the payoff for the WTM earlier years.  MP schedules several impressive classics, but I think the reading and the analysis in WTM's rhetoric years dramatically outstrips what MP is doing; you can look over the WTM rhetoric stage reading & writing and see if you agree.  OTOH, WTM has none of the often-helpful hand-holding of programs like MP, Mosdos, CLE, etc.

We are also using, occasionally, Figuratively Speaking: ideally we'd be more regular with that.  Some of the concepts and nuances are tricky for my elder, who is a much more STEM guy by nature, so for him the explicit training in literary terms seems valuable.

ETA: my elder still gets a bedtime story -- he's 14 years old -- Tuesday through Thursday nights.  At the moment we're doing "Wizard of Earthsea"; before that, a chain of alternating Asimov's Robot & Foundation novels with Pratchett's Tiffany Aching, Mort & Granny Weatherwax books.  I think this helps immensely with his reading comprehension and is great for general knowledge and good discussions, though I'm not sure I could swing it if our family were much larger. 

Edited April 6, 2020 by serendipitous journey

[2_girls_mommy]

In middle school, I loved the free materials and booklists from the then active blog, The Classical House of Learning. I bought all of the books for the first two years of it (she was creating the program to coincide with the four year chronological history,) and printed the materials. The last time I looked the blog was still up, and I could print most of the materials. In the end, I at least have my already printed sheets that I can reuse with my last upcoming homeschooler, even if some are filled in. 

[serendipitous journey]

21 hours ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

In middle school, I loved the free materials and booklists from the then active blog, The Classical House of Learning. I bought all of the books for the first two years of it (she was creating the program to coincide with the four year chronological history,) and printed the materials. The last time I looked the blog was still up, and I could print most of the materials. In the end, I at least have my already printed sheets that I can reuse with my last upcoming homeschooler, even if some are filled in. 

CHOLL is wonderful.  The selections didn't work well for my boys for some reason -- they just didn't enjoy the novels at all -- but she has done such a good job, the titles are excellent, AND it is free: a labor of love.

Edited April 8, 2020 by serendipitous journey

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Below, I am pasting a list that I saved from another discussion on the board.  It is a list of literary elements with a linked short story or poem to illustrate the element.  I think it would be pretty easy to simply work through the list with students, having students title a notebook page with the element, look up its definition in the dictionary or Norton's Essential Literary Terms, then read the short story, highlight relevant passages, copy some onto the notebook page, etc.  

My heartfelt thanks to the boardie who compiled this, I wish I could remember who it was!  

 

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

1. DENOTATION / CONNOTATION

poems:
- Autumn Within by Longfellow
- The Rainy Day by Longfellow
- Home by Edgar A. Guest

short stories:
- Something by Hans Christian Andersen
- [Mrs. Slifer's Website: Denotation/Connotation lesson on The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne]
_______

2. HYPERBOLE

short stories:
- Johnny Appleseed
- Pecos Bill Rides a Tornado retold by S.E. Scholosser
- The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
- Birth of Paul Bunyan retold
- [American Folklore: Tall Tales]

articles:
- Flying Fish and other Dave Barry articles
_______

3. IDIOM

short stories:
- A Story Without an End by Mark Twain

resources:
- Free Dictionary: online idioms resource
- [short story for practice in finding idioms: English Idioms Daily Blog: "Eager Beavers and Mr. Oldkool"]
_______

4. IMAGERY

poems:
- The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore
- a nature poem (example: The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy)

paintings: 
- use a painting to describe/show imagery

short stories:
- [The Golden Key by George MacDonald]
- [bright Hub Education: short stories for teaching imagery in:
-  The Scarlet Ibis (James Hurst)
- Catch the Moon (Judith Ortiz Cofer)
- A Child's Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas) 
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (James Thurber)]
_______

5. METAPHOR / SIMILE

poems:
- Taking Leave of a Friend by Li Po
- Jazz Fantasia by Carl Sandburg
- She Sweeps With Many-Colored Brooms by Emily Dickinson
- A Forest Hymn by William Cullen Bryant
- Song of the Sky Loom (a Tewa traditional poem)
- Thirty-Five by Sarah Josepha Hale

short stories:
- Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald
_______

6. OXYMORON / PARADOX
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study

resources (oxymoron):
- [Thought Co.: "100 Awfully Good Examples of Oxymorons"]

short stories (paradox):
- [The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson]
- [a detective/mystery short story from G.K. Chesterton's collection The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond]
_______

7. PERSONIFICATION

poems:
- The Grass So Little Has To Do by Emily Dickinson

short stories:
- The Mice in Council by Aesop
- Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- [There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury]
_______

8. SYMBOL

resources:
- Rose Symbolism (Wikipedia)

poems:
- Mending Wall by Robert Frost

short stories:
- Beauty and the Beast
- [A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner]
- [Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe
- [The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne]
- [A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett]
- [A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell]

______________________

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

9. ALLITERATION

poems:
- [Bright Hub Education lesson plan on alliteration in the poems:
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Clooney the Clown by Shel Silverstein
- Much Madness Is Divinest Sense by Emily Dickinson
- Birches by Robert Frost
- Death Be Not Proud by John Donne]

short stories:
- [Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien]

epic:
- [Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translation -- listen to excerpts read by Heaney]
_______

10. ASSONANCE / CONSONANCE

poems:
- The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe
- The Hayloft by Robert Louis Stevenson
- I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing by Walt Whitman
- The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes
- The Arsenal at Springfield by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Ode on the Confederate Dead by Henry Timrod
- Beat! Beat! Drums by Walt Whitman
- There is a Solitude of Space by Emily Dickinson
- Hampton Beach by John Greenleaf Whittier
- The First Snowfall by James Russell Lowell
- The Marshes of Glynn by Sidney Lanier
- War is Kind by Stephen Crane
- Upon the Burning of Our House by Anne Bradstreet
- Preface to God's Determinations by Edward Taylor

short stories:
- The Outcast of Poker Flats by Bret Harte
_______

11. FORM (POETIC FORMS)
- [K12 Open Ed: Types of Poetry]
- haiku poems by Matsuo Basho
- cinquains explained
- limericks by Edward Lear
- Skeltonic verse
- catalog poetry
- picture poems
- free verse -- [Literary Devices: Free Verse/]
_______

12. ONOMATOPOEIA

poems:
- The Princess by Lord Alfred Tennyson
- Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton
- The Congo by Vachel Lindsay
- The Sound of the Sea by William Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canto First by Percy Shelley Bysshe
_______

13. PARALLELISM

poems:
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

short stories:
[short story: "In Another Country" by Ernest Hemingway]

plays/novels:
[John of Gaunt's Act 2 Scene 1 speech from Shakespeare's Richard II: "This royal throne of kings"]
[opening paragraph of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"]
_______

14. REPETITION / REFRAIN

poems:
- Do Not Weep Maiden, for War is Kind by Stephen Crane
- Good Night Irene by Joseph Anderson
- [Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas]
- [The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe]

short stories:
- The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
- [fairy tales in which actions/choices are repeated three times]
_______

15. RHYME

poems:
- The Duel by Eugene Field
- The Blessed Damozel by Dante Rossetti
- An Alphabet of Famous Goops by Gelett Burgess
_______

16. RHYTHM

poems:
- Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
- Sea Fever by John Masefield
- Recessional by Rudyard Kipling
- There Is No Frigate Like a Book by Emily Dickinson
- Preludes by T.S. Eliot
- Song of the Redwood Tree by Walt Whitman
_______

17. RUN-ON / END-STOPPED LINES

poems:
- The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson
_______

18. STANZA

poems:
- Trees by Joyce Kilmer
- Be Strong by Maltbie Davenport Babcock
- My Kate by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Ode to the West Wind by Percy Shelley

______________________

LITERARY TECHNIQUES

19. ALLUSION
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study

resources:
[Your Dictionary: Examples of Allusion]

short stories:
- [The Luck of Roaring Camp by Bret Harte]

novels:
[Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is chock-full of allusions]
_______

20. CHARACTERS / CHARACTERIZATION
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study
_______

21. CONFLICT
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study

short stories:
- [character vs. character = Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling ]
- [character vs. character = The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell]
- [character vs. nature = To Build a Fire by Jack London]
- [character vs. supernatural = The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs]
- [character vs. society = Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut]
- [character vs. fate = Greek myths]
- [character vs. technology = The Legend of John Henry
- [character vs. self (internal conflict) = Initiation by Sylvia Plath

plays:
- [character vs. self (internal conflict) = Hamlet by Shakespeare]
- [character vs. fate = Macbeth by Shakespeare]
- [character vs. fate = Oedipus Rex by Sophocles]

novels:
- [character vs. society = To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee]
_______

22. DIALECT

poems/songs:
- A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
- On Top of Spaghetti

novels:
- [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain]
- [All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot]
_______

23. DIALOGUE

poems:
- At Last by James Whitcomb Riley

short stories:
- A Telephonic Conversation by Mark Twain
_______

24. FLASHBACK
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study
- [several of the Arabian Night tales: The Three Apples; Sinbad the Sailor; The City of Brass]
_______

25. FORESHADOWING

short stories:
- Beauty and the Beast
- Little Red Riding Hood
- Goldilocks and The Three Bears
- The Three Little Pigs
- Cinderella
- [The Lottery by Shirley Jackson]
- [A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury]
- [All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury]
_______

26. GENRE
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study
_______

27. IRONY
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study

short stories:
[The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry]
[Desiree's Baby, by Kate Chopin]
[The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant]
[The Open Window by Saki]
_______

28. LOCAL COLOR

short stories:
- [A Day in the Country by Anton Chekov]
- [The Blue Carbuncle by Arthur Conan Doyle]
- [The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane]
- [The Luck of Roaring Camp by Bret Harte]
- [The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving]

novels:
- [A Day of Pleasure by Isaac Singer]
- [My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell]
_______

29. MOOD / TONE

poems:
- The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

short stories:
- [Christmas Every Day by William Dean Howells]
_______

30. MORAL / THEME

short stories:
The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by Aesop
_______

31. NARRATOR/ POINT OF VIEW
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study
_______

32. PLOT

short stories:
- The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton
- The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
- [Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling]
_______

33. POETIC LICENSE

poems:
- Mannahatta by Walt Whitman
- poems by e.e. cummings
- [Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll]
_______

34. PUN

poems:
- Hymn to God the Father by John Donne

literature:
- [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll]
_______

35. RHETORICAL QUESTION
the excerpts in the workbook will be sufficient for our study
- [Literary Devices.net: Rhetorical Question: examples from literature]
- [Literary Devices.com: Rhetorical Question: examples from literature]
_______

36. SATIRE / PARODY / FARCE

poems/songs:
- L'Art by Ezra Pound
- Jurassic Park by Weird Al [parody of Jimmy Webb's song MacArthur Park]

TV:
- [satire/parody = Bullwinkle: Fractured Fairytales]

literature:
- [satire = Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift]
- [satire = A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift]
- [farce = The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde]
- [farce = The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare]
_______

37. STORY WITHIN A STORY

short stories:
- The Storyteller by Saki
- The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
- A Story Without an End by Mark Twain
_______

38. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

poems:
- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

short stories:
- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
_______

39. SURPRISE ENDING

short stories:
- The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
- The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
- Hearts and Hands by O. Henry
- An Inhabitant of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce
- The Third Level and The Face in the Photo by Jack Finney
- [The Catbird Seat -- James Thurber]
_______

40. SUSPENSE

short stories:
- The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacob
- Moxon's Master by Ambrose Bierce
- [The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell]
- [The Signalman by Charles Dickens]
- [most stories by Edgar Allen Poe]

[Miss Tick]

45 minutes ago, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

My heartfelt thanks to the boardie who compiled this, I wish I could remember who it was!

That is some strong @Lori D. love there!

The numbers are sections from Figuratively Thinking and the links are all put together by Lori D. I have the same list saved on my computer, along with @Alte Vested Academy's list (very similar). Next fall I'm planning to work through it with my 6th grader and perhaps a few friends. Great stuff!

[alisoncooks]

We use CLE Reading for middle school. I love that it's all laid out and it covers so many things (vocabulary, word roots, literary elements, etc). 

I agree with the above re: the pacifist views. It's something I'm willing to work around because I like the rest. Also, their usage of KJV -- we skip the memorization segments and sometimes read the Bible story (1/LU) in our preferred Bible translation. 

[KrissiK]

I used Novel Ties study guides.  I think they are fairly solid. As the name implies, they are study guides for novels, and they cover the entire grade span. They have vocabulary studies, comprehension questions, discussion questions, literary elements, writing prompts.  They are completely open-and-go, which I like. I also like that they are novels.  We have used CLE literature before, and I would stay from a strictly rigor standpoint, they are very good. They dig deep. That’s one thing I don’t like about Novel Ties is that they don’t dig deep. But, I don’t like the “reader” aspect of CLE. I also struggled with it because I was teaching 4 kids at the same time, each doing a different literature level with CLE and I just didn’t feel like I was doing it justice. About mid year last year I started Novel Ties with my two oldest and did literature together.  It really worked well for us and they enjoyed it much more.This year my two oldest are at brick-and-mortar school and I just have my youngest two, but we are doing literature together as well. We read the novels. Discuss them, do the novel ties worksheets and it’s worked out really really well for us.

Edited April 12, 2020 by KrissiK