Catching up on literary terms/analysis/literature

[ktgrok]

Honestly, I'm not sure "catching up" is the right phrase, as I'm not sure I think these are things that need to be taught before highschool anyway. I kind of think I'm of a mind that literature before highschool is best as just reading and talking about it and developing a love of reading. (I'm not really doing great at that though...so what do I know?)

BUT, at some point some basic knowledge of literary terms and such need to be taught. I'm pretty sure some terms have already been absorbed either through discussion or grammar or whatever and I can't see how they wouldn't know what plot means, or setting, or characters, but beyond that I haven't done much. I don't want to hit this super heavy, because DD is dyslexic and enjoys reading but it isn't as easy for her as for some and I hate to make it MORE difficult. Plus frankly, I find a LOT of modern LA curricula to have questions that are boring or obvious or that feel like busy work for lit, if that makes sense. 

And I really think literature is better discussed than written about, at least to start. And I want 9th grade to be when she gets some confidence in writing (that is delayed due to the dyslexia - she just wrote first 5 paragraph essay in 8th) and feel that expository writing should be our focus there. She will be likely using Essentials in Writing 9, but that's not set in stone yet.  Basically, don't want to introduce more formal lit analysis AND have her writing a lot about it in the same year, when she is just starting to get confident with writing in general. Want to keep the writing instruction and the lit instruction separate until she has a better handle on them before combining together. So NOT looking for a lit curricula that has them writing papers about the lit - not this year. 

I'm looking at either using:

1. Catholic Heritage Curricula's A Treasure Trove of Literature 4 (need to dive in more before I know what I think)

2. Brave Writer or other Lit guides for various novels we pick (favorites, anyone?)

3. Reading Deconstructing Penguins together, and just reading and discussing books the rest of the year using what we learned

4. Windows to the World - but this may be too much

something else?

Edited July 2 by ktgrok

[A.M.]

Perhaps you could also consider IEW's Teaching the Classics, which uses short stories and DVDs. They may suit your student. I think some people watch the DVDs together with their student, although it is meant to teach the teacher.

[ktgrok]

26 minutes ago, A.M. said:

Perhaps you could also consider IEW's Teaching the Classics, which uses short stories and DVDs. They may suit your student. I think some people watch the DVDs together with their student, although it is meant to teach the teacher.

Oh, forgot that one. I have seen some clips...sort of dry looking, but I know it would be good information. Why on earth though haven't they gone to streaming?? I don't even know where a DVD player IS in this house, lol. I'm sure DH has one somewhere though. 

[A.M.]

There is a digital option, I think.

Centre for lit's website mentions a streaming option.

[SilverMoon]

Maybe the How to Read Literature Like a Professor for kids instead of Penguins. It's short and unintimidating. Even the adult version has short chapters if you're reading along and discussing it. Neither of them require you to read the novel first, but you could read ahead and pick some to do as audiobooks. 

Or even the little workbook Figuratively Speaking is just lit terms with plenty of examples included. I would make my own booklist to read alongside it though. 

 

Bravewriter does not work with my kids. It's too loosy goosy feeling. My boys need direct and explicit. 

Edited July 2 by SilverMoon

[freesia]

Get the teaching the classics manual. The videos are for parents who don’t know the terms. The manual has the questions. 
 

You have all my favorites listed. Deconstructing Penguins is wonderful for you. It will absolutely help you have better conversations with your dd. It wouldn’t really work to read it with her. That book and the Teaching the classics manual served as the basis for lit discussion groups I did for years with my kids and their friends. 
 

If you want to read something with her, I also like the How to Read literature like a professor. For ninth grade, I prefer the “with kids” version. I have done this with a couple of my kids and it was good.

[freesia]

Just now, freesia said:

Get the teaching the classics manual. The videos are for parents who don’t know the terms. The manual has the questions. 
 

You have all my favorites listed. Deconstructing Penguins is wonderful for you. It will absolutely help you have better conversations with your dd. It wouldn’t really work to read it with her. That book and the Teaching the classics manual served as the basis for lit discussion groups I did for years with my kids and their friends. 
 

If you want to read something with her, I also like the How to Read literature like a professor. For ninth grade, I prefer the “with kids” version. I have done this with a couple of my kids and it was good

Quoting myself to add that I also love Windows to the World. I’ve always done it in eighth or ninth grade but my kids have had the background of what I listed above. It is good, really good. You could use it next year with no problem though. It’s more academic and the short stories have more mature themes. I think it’s more fun to start light

[ScoutTN]

I loved Figuratively Speaking as a very gentle intro.

[historically accurate]

1 hour ago, SilverMoon said:

Maybe the How to Read Literature Like a Professor for kids instead of Penguins. It's short and unintimidating. Even the adult version has short chapters if you're reading along and discussing it. Neither of them require you to read the novel first, but you could read ahead and pick some to do as audiobooks. 

Or even the little workbook Figuratively Speaking is just lit terms with plenty of examples included. I would make my own booklist to read alongside it though. 

 

Bravewriter does not work with my kids. It's too loosy goosy feeling. My boys need direct and explicit. 

I did HTRLLaP with Figuratively Speaking for my oldest child. She has dysgraphia and although she was an excellent reader, we didn't push LA prior to high school due to the reading. I found a list (somewhere online) of works that went with Figuratively Speaking; I can send it to you if you're interested as it's saved in my google docs.

It worked so well that I ended up using it for the younger two as well.

[ktgrok]

9 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

I did HTRLLaP with Figuratively Speaking for my oldest child. She has dysgraphia and although she was an excellent reader, we didn't push LA prior to high school due to the reading. I found a list (somewhere online) of works that went with Figuratively Speaking; I can send it to you if you're interested as it's saved in my google docs.

It worked so well that I ended up using it for the younger two as well.

That would be excellent, thank you!!!

[regentrude]

For lit terms, I liked Essential Literary Terms, a brief Norton Guide with exercises, by Sharon Hamilton.

[SilverMoon]

I just ran across these for How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids. Typing that out earlier reminded me to pull it out for my bonus kid. There's loads more for the adult book there too. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-to-Read-Literature-Like-a-Professor-For-Kids-Boot-Camp-9345974?st=4a601a308602100d7c864919b9f7df66

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-To-Read-Literature-Like-a-Professor-for-Kids-3886594

 

[historically accurate]

2 hours ago, ktgrok said:

That would be excellent, thank you!!!

I sent you a pm.

[ktgrok]

2 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

I sent you a pm.

got it, thank you!

[cintinative]

On 7/2/2024 at 1:49 PM, ktgrok said:

That would be excellent, thank you!!!

I have one also. I think in 8th grade we did Figuratively Speaking with short stories and novels, but you could do it later I think.

 

 

[happypamama]

On 7/2/2024 at 4:47 PM, SilverMoon said:

I just ran across these for How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids. Typing that out earlier reminded me to pull it out for my bonus kid. There's loads more for the adult book there too. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-to-Read-Literature-Like-a-Professor-For-Kids-Boot-Camp-9345974?st=4a601a308602100d7c864919b9f7df66

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-To-Read-Literature-Like-a-Professor-for-Kids-3886594

 

I'm glad to hear someone else interested in these. I saw them pop up in suggestions a little while ago and thought they might be good for my rising 8th grader at some point.

 

Seconding, thirding, whatever, the suggestion for Figuratively Speaking. I've used it with four kids now, usually about seventh grade, but it could be done later too. We do it orally and don't do the extended writing. (Beware: one of the last chapters is about surprise endings, and it definitely has spoilers for something -- Gift of the Magi, maybe, or maybe The Necklace, can't remember, maybe both, so maybe preview that first and skip if your kid hasn't read that story yet. The other chapters all seemed to be okay, I think; if you hadn't read the story, it wouldn't spoil anything, or at least not anything major like a big plot twist.)

Edited July 4 by happypamama