The Good and The Beautiful High School LA

[desertflower]

Hello,

Has anyone here done TGTB LA?  I was wondering if it went into a deep literature analysis.  We are looking for something that gets past spotting the literary elements.  Any input is greatly appreciated.

[Green Bean]

I found this on youtube. I'm looking at it, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIAAhPugzqs&t=0s

 

[BusyMom5]

Me, too.  Hoping for some reviews!

[Green Bean]

I wish they had a Level 4. From I what I learned, that plan was canned. 

[Lori D.]

From looking at the scope & sequence, overview statement, and booklist, TG&TB does not look to be high school level. 
Problems I see with TG&TB high school "LA" program:

1. The focus of the program
The program appears to be  designed to shield teens from worldviews which were deemed by the program creators to have "questionable moral foundations" (their phrase). However, from my experience, the high school years are actually the perfect time to be discussing and analyzing the range of thoughts and ideas found in variety of works of the Great Conversation that is Classic Literature through the ages. So the extremely narrow focus of the TG&TB program misses a huge opportunity.

2. The Lit. selection
A light amount of works covered each year. Some full works, and some excerpts. No traditional, classic novels, epics, plays or short stories appear to be covered as complete works. Some fiction is at a middle school level. Also a number of biographies, some of little-known people. The poets covered are nice, but limited to 19th century British with a few American poets. Overall, it looks like in an effort to only use safe or tame literature, the program throws away the opportunity for exposure to incredible quality, beauty, depth, and richness of writing.

3. The Grammar/Writing section
Nothing wrong with having light grammar review in high school, esp. in context of writing (for revising and proof-editing)-- However, I would be concerned that there would be such a heavy focus on Grammar (from the scope & sequence) that is usually learned by 8th grade, that it would be at the expense of spending the time on actually writing. There is a good variety of writing assignments, but the total amount of 4-5 assignments per year seems light -- typically high school students are doing that amount of assignments per semester (unless, perhaps, they are all longer, multi-page papers).

4. It is a "unit study" rather than an English credit
From the sample pages, the LA portion has a lot of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure practice / work pages, plus art and geography assignments. I am not seeing much instruction, information, or guidance for the writing, or for the literary analysis / discussion... But perhaps that is in the videos...?

 

From the samples and the scope & sequence, I personally would find this program to be too light and too narrow (as well as too "diffuse" by including extraneous topics) -- all to the detriment of a meaty, deep, and meaningful study of literature. JMO.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Lori D.

[desertflower]

2 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

From looking at the scope & sequence, overview statement, and booklist, TG&TB does not look to be high school level. 
Problems I see with TG&TB high school "LA" program:

1. The focus of the program
The program appears to be  designed to shield teens from worldviews which were deemed by the program creators to have "questionable moral foundations" (their phrase). [However, from my experience, the high school years are actually the perfect time to be discussing and analyzing the range of thoughts and ideas found in variety of works of the Great Conversation that is Classic Literature through the ages. So the extremely narrow focus of the TG&TB program misses a huge opportunity.]

2. The Lit. selection
A light amount of works covered each year. Some full works, and some excerpts. No traditional, classic novels, epics, plays or short stories appear to be covered as complete works. Some fiction is at a middle school level. Also a number of biographies, some of little-known people. The poets covered are nice, but limited to 19th century British with a few American poets. Overall, it looks like in an effort to only use safe or tame literature, the program throws away the opportunity for exposure to incredible quality, beauty, depth, and richness of writing.

3. The Grammar/Writing section
Nothing wrong with having light grammar review in high school, esp. in context of writing (for revising and proof-editing). I would be concerned that there would be such a heavy focus on Grammar (from the scope & sequence) that is usually learned by 8th grade, that it would be at the expensive of spending the time on actually writing. There is a good variety of writing assignments, but the amount of 4-5 assignments per year seems light -- typically high school students are doing that amount of assignments per semester (unless, perhaps, they are all longer, multi-page papers).

4. It is a "unit study" rather than an English credit
From the sample pages, the LA portion has a lot of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure practice / work pages, plus art and geography assignments. I am not seeing much instruction, information, or guidance for the writing, or for the literary analysis / discussion... But perhaps that is in the videos...?

 

From the samples and the scope & sequence, I personally would find this program to be too light and too narrow (as well as too "diffuse" by including extraneous topics) -- all to the detriment of a meaty, deep, and meaningful study of literature. JMO.

Thanks Lori.  I thought it was light too. I think I was hoping it wasn't. 

[BusyMom5]

Bumping this back up, hoping someone has used it and will reply! 

I really want something all laid out for me, but has room for me to add in books I want. I'm not looking for something that does EVERYTHING, I'd just like a good chunk done for me, so when I'm busy they can work on their own.  These kids do not like LA, so I'm happy with a minimal amount, but they do need to focus on writing! 

Things I'm seeing that I like:

Light reading selection, which leaves room for me to add 3-5 more books of my choice and just do oral discussions on those.  I still do Read Alouds, too.  I actually like that this program doesn't have them all chosen.  

I think my kids will like or tolerate the book choices- especially compared to other choices I've looked at.

I like the dictation section, and that it's accessible online!  

Questions and concerns I have:

Writing instruction seems light, but I'm not sure if I can add more in, or if that would be too much?  

How Christian is this?  I use Writing and Rhetoric,  so I'm not against Christian content, but don't like proselytizing or preachy stuff in school.

How long does this take per day, assuming a 4 day week?

Is this easy enough for a kid to figure out what to do each day, or will I need to go in and write Start and Stop? 

Are the instructions clear enough that I won't need to explain or write notes in the book?  

Thanks for any reviews!  

[Green Bean]

Try pm'ing seemesew. She has 2 who have done nothing but TGTB and are doing great in university classes. Look at the bottom of this thread I started, too. I'm planning on taking my 3 middles through this path with LOTS of Memoria Press upper level books.

https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/716687-tgtb-lang-arts/

 

[desertflower]

Good questions Busymom5!

Thanks Green Bean!

[MamaSprout]

5 hours ago, Green Bean said:

Try pm'ing seemesew. She has 2 who have done nothing but TGTB and are doing great in university classes. Look at the bottom of this thread I started, too. I'm planning on taking my 3 middles through this path with LOTS of Memoria Press upper level books.

https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/716687-tgtb-lang-arts/

 

If you do that start at the Wind in the Willows level and guides. The upper level guides assume student know the content/ lit analysis, ect, taught in those.