TPS English 1 - feedback?

[yvonne]

Hi,

I'll be homeschooling my rising 7th grade niece this coming year. My own children took several high school level TPS Eng courses and I was happy with all of them. I'm bummed that they don't have the Journey into Narnia class that my dd did in 7th, but perhaps one of the other Eng. 1 courses would work. I already do Rod & Staff grammar with my niece, and will be doing R&S 7 this year with her, so I'm looking for minimal grammar in a TPS Eng course.

If anyone has had a student take the TPS English 1 Lit & Comp Journeys & Quests or Unlikely Heroes courses, or if anyone's student has had Pamela Holben as a teacher at TPS, I would very much appreciate any feedback on the classes/teachers.

Thank you!

[cintinative]

Hi. They just reworked everything this past year so it's going to be tough to get specific feedback on the English 1 classes. They changed them, as well as English 2 and English 3. It used to be English 2 was high school level, and now it is not.  I have several friends that have taken classes from TPS before, and now everything is different than it was.

My youngest is taking English 1 in the fall (he is in 8th). He just completed Writing Fundamentals 6.  I thought about having him test into English 2 (since it is no longer high school level) but he was so stressed out at it that I dropped that idea. So he will be in the journeys & quests class with Mrs. Holben.  We don't have any specific experience with her, though. His teacher last year was Mrs. Lilly and my oldest's teacher was Mrs. Shearon.  

I expect the grammar in TPS to be easy and simple based on what we had with WF6 and English 2.  English 2 grammar had a lot of focus on MLA formatting and some other concepts that seemed higher level.  WF6 grammar was super simple and I supplemented at home with Grammar for the Well Trained Mind (it's his second time through it).  For English 1, I have not purchased the grammar book yet, but if it would be helpful, I could do that and let you know what is in it.  I am not sure if I will supplement this year for grammar or not--my guess is I will need to.  

For English 2 (even high school level) I felt it was light on literature. YMMV. I did supplement that as well. But my kids have both really benefitted from the writing instruction. My oldest is taking a writing only class this fall (English 3 Confident Composition).

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by cintinative

[yvonne]

Thank you so much! That is very helpful! I do plan to supplement with additional lit, just because I love lit and my niece is a big reader. I'm going to have her do the placement test and see how it goes.