JohnKhan Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Hi, I'm looking for recommendations for Christian minded (not necessarily limited to strictly Christian books) literature curriculum for middle school. What have your experiences been? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) Welcome! I see by your post count you are new. Literature curriculum would be a resource that teaches about literary devices, covers literature topics, and also provides background info on the author/times of each work, as well as discussion questions for each work, and possibly vocabulary. Usually, literature curricula covers a variety of types of literature -- novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, essays -- and covers novels in several genres -- realistic, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery / detective, etc. So, I assume you are looking for something like that, which digs into the literature, rather than just a list of books to read for literature. Christian publishers using traditional/classic lit. - Abeka -- 7th grade, 8th grade - Bob Jones -- comparison of older/newer editions of 7th grade lit. program; 8th grade Program created by a Christian, but not overtly Christian in presentation, using traditional/classic lit. - Lightning Literature -- 7th grade, 8th grade Christian programs using their own stories rather than traditional/classic literature: - Christian Light Education -- 7th grade, 8th grade - Mosdos Press -- 7th grade ("jade"), 8th grade ("gold") Our experience: We read and enjoyed a lot of well-written books geared for middle school. Some were just for reading, some we also discussed a little bit informally. We also used and enjoyed Lightning Lit. 7 & 8 as a very gentle first intro into beginning literary analysis, using traditional/classic novels, short stories, and poetry. If your student has done other "digging deeper" into literature, then Lightning Lit. will likely be too "lite." You may find this older thread helpful, with several different experiences with Lightning Lit (LL), as well as Mosdos and Christian Light Education (CLE): "Bought Lightning Lit. Disappointed. What Other Lit Programs Should I Consider?" Edited January 23 by Lori D. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caffeineandbooks Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 We love the Center for Lit approach. There are no workbooks, you just read good literature and discuss it using a list of Socratic questions they have curated which will work for any book. They have a variety of options: you can enrol in one of their online classes and have them teach it for you; you can purchase ad hoc recorded classes from previous years; you as the parent can complete their Teaching the Classics seminar to learn how to read a book and lead a discussion yourself; and you can purchase their "Ready Readers" (teaching notes) to help you lead a good Socratic discussion. They actually have mid-year registration open at the moment where you could enrol in their live classes for a significant discount, and you get access to the already recorded classes from the year too. In our family, my boys are part of a monthly junior high book club with several of their friends that I lead using the Teaching the Classics model. I love how the kids are generating a shared collection of stories that they all know and during book club I often hear them comparing the current read with a previous one, noting similarities and differences. I've also seen the skills they learn at book club spilling over into their other reading. When I ask about their free choice reading they're likely to answer in literary terms, telling me what they thought of the conflict, or why the protagonist was or was not admirable, and so on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 We also just read and discuss. I try to choose a mix of selections. Some are older lit selections to stretch vocabulary and comprehension with more complex sentence structures. Some are short stories which allow for great discussion without a huge time commitment. Some are newer lit selections with dystopian/sci-fi themes. I occasionally assign a writing assignment from a literary work. (My 8th grader just wrote one on The Necklace.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 We also did just read and discuss. We did work on writing literary analysis essays too. I read some curriculum, but didn’t actually work from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Bean Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Memoria Press Lit guides. Do orally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brittany1116 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 We really enjoy Progeny Press guides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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