searching for a high school literature curriculum

[Shelydon]

I am searching for ( an out-of-country friend) a literature curriculum that covers literary terminology (with examples) and the basics of writing literary analysis.  It does not necessarily need to include questions and info on specific novels and stories, there are lots of literature guides for that.  A video course, teachers pay teachers or regular curricula would all work.    Ideally this would be a full year class that could be implemented at home.  All I am finding is very worksheet heavy with lots of fill-in-the-blank.  Any ideas?  Trying to narrow down to 2 or 3 so when friend arrives in the U.S., she can purchase.

[silver]

If your friend is okay with christian content/viewpoint, Windows to the World could work. It covers all of that using short stories, which are all included in the student book. It's more of a semester course, but there is a syllabus that adds a few novels to stretch it to a year. As of a few years ago, the year long syllabus was included as a free download after purchase. 

[Shelydon]

3 hours ago, silver said:

If your friend is okay with christian content/viewpoint, Windows to the World could work. It covers all of that using short stories, which are all included in the student book. It's more of a semester course, but there is a syllabus that adds a few novels to stretch it to a year. As of a few years ago, the year long syllabus was included as a free download after purchase. 

Thank you!  Yes, Christian content would be fine.

[Penelope]

I don’t know what level you are wanting this to be for. Ninth grade vs twelfth can be a big difference.

But the book Essential Literary Terms by Sharon Hamilton, recommended in one of the Well-Trained Mind editions, is excellent. You can get the answers by writing to the publisher. 

I don’t have an answer for a specific curriculum for literary analysis. Some like the book How to Read Literature Like a Professor as a general introduction to some ideas about how to think and write about literature.
 

 

[Shelydon]

On 6/26/2023 at 4:24 PM, Penelope said:

I don’t know what level you are wanting this to be for. Ninth grade vs twelfth can be a big difference.

But the book Essential Literary Terms by Sharon Hamilton, recommended in one of the Well-Trained Mind editions, is excellent. You can get the answers by writing to the publisher. 

I don’t have an answer for a specific curriculum for literary analysis. Some like the book How to Read Literature Like a Professor as a general introduction to some ideas about how to think and write about literature.
 

 

Thanks!  I'll take a look.  I feel like literary analysis is hard.  I wish there was a video series available. This family lives overseas and cannot access live classes.

[freesia]

1 minute ago, Shelydon said:

Thanks!  I'll take a look.  I feel like literary analysis is hard.  I wish there was a video series available. This family lives overseas and cannot access live classes.

What about Teaching the Classics?  It has videos teaching about the different areas of lit analysis ( really for the parent but could be watched together.) Then there is a list of wonderful questions for discussions on any book. The above mentioned Windows to the World is also great. It teaches using short stories. Windows for a semester followed by Teaching the Classics. 
 

[Shelydon]

16 minutes ago, freesia said:

What about Teaching the Classics?  It has videos teaching about the different areas of lit analysis ( really for the parent but could be watched together.) Then there is a list of wonderful questions for discussions on any book. The above mentioned Windows to the World is also great. It teaches using short stories. Windows for a semester followed by Teaching the Classics. 
 

Thanks!  I actually own that, I just haven't used it.  I no longer have a DVD player, but they do.  I'll can add that one to her list. 

[Penelope]

Another suggestion that is more of an overview than a curriculum is Susan Wise Bauer’s audio lectures on writing during high school. Far from the full curriculum you want, but they are $4 each and I found them helpful.
 

On teaching literary analysis:

https://welltrainedmind.com/p/what-is-literary-analysis-when-why-and-how-should-i-teach-it-mp3/

Even the link to the notes page might be helpful in seeing a simplified version of what the goals should be.

On writing in high school: https://welltrainedmind.com/p/a-plan-for-teaching-writing-focus-on-the-high-school-years-mp3/ 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by Penelope

[royspeed]

19 hours ago, Shelydon said:

I feel like literary analysis is hard.  I wish there was a video series available. This family lives overseas and cannot access live classes.

Just a word of dissent...

All this discussion of literary analysis and essential literary terms makes me uneasy, and I thought I should stop biting my tongue and say something.

A couple of points:

• How important is it that our students learn to write essays of literary analysis? Once they complete their academic careers, 99.9% of our students will never again write an essay of literary analysis. Granted, in their professional lives they may write reports, journal articles, proposals, etc., but none of those things remotely resembles an essay of literary analysis. — The fact is, literary analysis is a peculiar form of writing, and as @Shelydon suggests above, it's not easy to do it well. Most of the literary analysis produced under the guidance of English teachers has about the same purpose as a quiz: its purpose is to demonstrate to the teacher that the student wrestled with the novel or poem or whatever — but no one in their right minds would read all those students' essays for pleasure; they're mostly drivel. In fact, most of the literary analysis published each year in academic journals is drivel. A really good essay on literature is a rare gem; again, see @Shelydon's remark above. (For my own literature courses, when doing preliminary research on a writer or period, I wade through reams of bad — and badly written! — introductions, journal articles, & essays.) So here's the point: Our emphasis on writing literary analysis in English class is misplaced. It's not the best way to teach writing. This kind of writing, moreover, doesn't even help our students prepare for a real-world writing challenge that's just around the corner: the college-application essay.
• How important is "literary terminology"? How important is it that our students' thoughts on literature comprise a cocktail of terms like protagonist, antagonist, foreshadowing, conflict, paradox, personification, and the like? Great literature, in many English classes, seems to be about technique, and analyzing great literature means spotting techniques and labeling them with proper terms. But is all this terminology really essential to reading, understanding, and appreciating great literature? — I think not. I actually think it clouds students' intuitions; it impairs their ability to perceive the writer's purpose and the work's design. A great work of literature is first and foremost an experience in the reader's mind and heart, and I think it's the job of the English teacher to enable students to have the experience the writer designed. The problem is that performing that service requires of the teacher a deal of hard work, refined thinking, and keen intuition. Teaching students to identify the antagonist, on the other hand, is a pretty straightforward business, and who knows? It may show up on the AP exam, or on the SAT...

Thanks for allowing me to speak my mind.

Edited June 28, 2023 by royspeed
clarity

[Zoo Keeper]

18 minutes ago, royspeed said:

Just a word of dissent...

All this discussion of literary analysis and essential literary terms makes me uneasy, and I thought I should stop biting my tongue and say something.

A couple of points:

• How important is it that our students learn to write essays of literary analysis? Once they complete their academic careers, 99.9% of our students will never again write an essay of literary analysis. Granted, in their professional lives they may write reports, journal articles, proposals, etc., but none of those things remotely resembles an essay of literary analysis. — The fact is, literary analysis is a peculiar form of writing, and as @Shelydon suggests above, it's not easy to do it well. Most of the literary analysis produced under the guidance of English teachers has about the same purpose as a quiz: its purpose is to demonstrate to the teacher that the student wrestled with the novel or poem or whatever — but no one in their right minds would read all those students essays for pleasure; they're mostly drivel. In fact, most of the literary analysis published each year in academic journals is drivel. A really good essay on literature is a rare gem; again, see @Shelydon's remark above. (For my own literature courses, when doing preliminary research on a writer or period, I wade through reams of bad — and badly written! — introductions, journal articles, & essays.) So here's the point: Our emphasis on writing literary analysis in English class is misplaced. It's the best way to teach writing. This kind of writing, moreover, doesn't even help our students prepare for a real-world writing challenge that's just around the corner: the college-application essay.
• How important is "literary terminology"? How important is it that our students' thoughts on literature comprise a cocktail of terms like protagonist, antagonist, foreshadowing, conflict, paradox, personification, and the like? Great literature, in many English classes, seems to be about technique, and analyzing great literature means spotting techniques and labeling them with proper terms. But is all this terminology really essential to reading, understanding, and appreciating great literature? — I think not. I actually think it clouds students' intuitions, impairs their ability to perceive the writer's purpose and the work's design. A great work of literature is first and foremost an experience in the reader's mind and heart, and I think it's the job of the English teacher to enable students to have the experience the writer designed. The problem is that performing that service requires of the teacher a deal of hard work, refined thinking, and keen intuition. Teaching students to identify the antagonist, on the other hand, is a pretty straightforward business, and who knows? It may show up on the AP exam, or on the SAT...

Thanks for allowing me to speak my mind.

Roy (and others),

you may enjoy reading through this thread from eons ago... full of conflicting and interesting opinions on lit analysis.

 

[Shelydon]

On 6/28/2023 at 2:41 PM, royspeed said:

Just a word of dissent...

All this discussion of literary analysis and essential literary terms makes me uneasy, and I thought I should stop biting my tongue and say something.

A couple of points:

• How important is it that our students learn to write essays of literary analysis? Once they complete their academic careers, 99.9% of our students will never again write an essay of literary analysis. Granted, in their professional lives they may write reports, journal articles, proposals, etc., but none of those things remotely resembles an essay of literary analysis. — The fact is, literary analysis is a peculiar form of writing, and as @Shelydon suggests above, it's not easy to do it well. Most of the literary analysis produced under the guidance of English teachers has about the same purpose as a quiz: its purpose is to demonstrate to the teacher that the student wrestled with the novel or poem or whatever — but no one in their right minds would read all those students' essays for pleasure; they're mostly drivel. In fact, most of the literary analysis published each year in academic journals is drivel. A really good essay on literature is a rare gem; again, see @Shelydon's remark above. (For my own literature courses, when doing preliminary research on a writer or period, I wade through reams of bad — and badly written! — introductions, journal articles, & essays.) So here's the point: Our emphasis on writing literary analysis in English class is misplaced. It's not the best way to teach writing. This kind of writing, moreover, doesn't even help our students prepare for a real-world writing challenge that's just around the corner: the college-application essay.
• How important is "literary terminology"? How important is it that our students' thoughts on literature comprise a cocktail of terms like protagonist, antagonist, foreshadowing, conflict, paradox, personification, and the like? Great literature, in many English classes, seems to be about technique, and analyzing great literature means spotting techniques and labeling them with proper terms. But is all this terminology really essential to reading, understanding, and appreciating great literature? — I think not. I actually think it clouds students' intuitions; it impairs their ability to perceive the writer's purpose and the work's design. A great work of literature is first and foremost an experience in the reader's mind and heart, and I think it's the job of the English teacher to enable students to have the experience the writer designed. The problem is that performing that service requires of the teacher a deal of hard work, refined thinking, and keen intuition. Teaching students to identify the antagonist, on the other hand, is a pretty straightforward business, and who knows? It may show up on the AP exam, or on the SAT...

Thanks for allowing me to speak my mind.

I missed this when you posted it.  I agree with you.  For my personal children, we focus on the ability to develop clear paragraphs and how to put together an essay that makes sense and covers what is assigned.  I do teach literary analysis at some point and have them write 2-3 papers over novels.  I also teach specific terminology and how to do close reading/annotating etc at some point in their high school career.  While I totally agree that just reading a book for the joy of reading is very important, I also think learning how to think about writing is necessary.  Since I now have two college students, I can see what kind of writing is required for their literature classes (both have had to take 2) and they greatly benefited from learning literary analysis in high school so it is easy for them to produce papers in college.  So yes, in a perfect world, literary analysis wouldn't be needed, but in the world of college, it is. 

[Shelydon]

On 6/28/2023 at 1:45 PM, Penelope said:

Another suggestion that is more of an overview than a curriculum is Susan Wise Bauer’s audio lectures on writing during high school. Far from the full curriculum you want, but they are $4 each and I found them helpful.
 

On teaching literary analysis:

https://welltrainedmind.com/p/what-is-literary-analysis-when-why-and-how-should-i-teach-it-mp3/

Even the link to the notes page might be helpful in seeing a simplified version of what the goals should be.

On writing in high school: https://welltrainedmind.com/p/a-plan-for-teaching-writing-focus-on-the-high-school-years-mp3/ 

 

 

 

Thank you!  I ordered a copy of the Essential Literary Terms just to have on hand

[Green Bean]

Essentials in Literature would cover all her bases. The digital version is a lot to print, but no shipping costs. Literature pieces are located as collections on the FaceBook group or she can call and ask for them to be emailed to her.

https://essentialsinwriting.com/essentials-in-literature/

 

This is might be more than she needs, but another option.

http://www.textword.com/implications.html

 

Personally, we love Memoria Press guides, but those probably aren't what your friend has in mind.

https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/literature-and-poetry/

 

For just straight lit terms, Figuratively Speaking is a simple choice.

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Works-Speaking-Book-Grades/dp/0881603171

 

 

Edited September 12, 2023 by Green Bean