Lori D. - Another ? re: Lit. Analysis

[Peggy in Va]

Thanks again for the info you provided. I've been looking it over (dh even brought me a mocha to help me concentrate :)) and I think I may have a plan, at least for right now.

 

The situation we have here is that we are bringing both dss back home next yr after being in school for a couple of yrs.(older from private/younger from public). It is becoming apparent that neither of them have been introduced to/taught much in the way of literary terms or analysis for that matter. I'm not so much concerned about younger ds at this point as I am the older one. I suppose mainly because I know older would be in an honors program if he were at a different school. This is not to say the school he's in isn't a good school, it is - their focus is more on math and he's the mathy kid.

 

Anyway, based on the above and comments you made in my cry for help, it seems like this:

 

The first year we did literature a little more formally, we went with LL7 (for the 7th grader) and LL8 (for the 8th grader), and also went over both Story Elements (gr. 5-6) and Story Elements (gr. 7-8), plus Figuratively Speaking for learning literary terms together.

 

might be the way to go. What with next yr. being our first yr. back home I really would like to teach them together. More for my sake than theirs.

 

Now to my question (thanks for bearing w/ me). Am I correct, based on other posts you have made regarding this subject, that (1) one could safely cover Story Elements (5-6) and (7-8), Figuratively Speaking, and LL7 in one year, plus have time for additional reading? And, that LL7 would not be too "beneath" older ds. (I hate using that word but it's the best I can come up w/ right now.) And (2), that you spent more time discussing vs doing the writing in Story Ele. & Fig. Speak. so that you were able to cover all three in one yr. Also, am I being overly enthusiastic in thinking covering both yrs. of Story Elem. is a good idea? Oh, and if you can remember, how often did you schedule these to get through them in a yr.?

 

Again, thanks so much.

 

Peggy

[Lori D.]

Hi Peggy,

SO sorry -- I've been out of the house most of the weekend, and this was my first chance to respond. :)

 

 

Am I correct, based on other posts you have made regarding this subject, that (1) one could safely cover Story Elements (5-6) and (7-8), Figuratively Speaking, and LL7 in one year, plus have time for additional reading?

 

 

Yes, we did do all that in one year. BUT!! We'd been homeschooling for years and were used to a certain load level -- If you are bringing your kids home from school, I would NOT plan for that much -- you will most likely find that your first year at home -- or at least the first semester -- will be "decompressing" from being at school AND learning how homeschooling for your family will work. I'd highly recommend starting with just the basics:

 

- math

- reading/literature

- grammar

- writing

- spelling

 

- history and science -- but I'd keep these subjects light and don't stress on trying to get through an entire program; in fact those might be subjects you could get input from your students -- and thus, more "buy-in" for schooling at home, especially if science and history include educational videos; hands-on projects; science experiment kits; field trips; etc.

 

- sports and/or music or art if you're already involved in one or both of these; otherwise, you can slowly fold these topics, as well as geography, into your school "mix" later in the school year or even wait until the following year so you don't overload yourselves your first year of homeschooling.

 

 

Soooo... that said, if you're going to do some literature, I'd say yes, you can do LL7 altogether as your literature, plus some additional solo reading for each student (we. But I would only plan to do *either* both Story Element books, *or* the Figuratively Speaking along with LL7, not both, so you don't overwhelm yourselves your first year. :)

 

 

 

And (2), that you spent more time discussing vs doing the writing in Story Ele. & Fig. Speak. so that you were able to cover all three in one yr. Also, am I being overly enthusiastic in thinking covering both yrs. of Story Elem. is a good idea? Oh, and if you can remember, how often did you schedule these to get through them in a yr.?

 

 

 

For Story Elements, we did 3-4 lessons a week (1-2 lessons per day that we did it), taking 10-15 minutes per lesson (usually 2 pages). We did the lesson out loud together. (Just us, but we're not big on workbooks or fill-in-the-blanks.) So, we buzzed through both levels of Story Elements in less than a semester. Each book is only 48 pages long, and each has about 30 "lessons".

 

For Figuratively Speaking, there are 40 lessons (each 3 pages long). Similarly, we did 2 per week (1 lesson per day we did it), out loud together, and so finished in about 20 weeks (just over a semester). Again, we did the exercises aloud together rather than write them out. Also, while there are ideas for additional writing assignments, we never used them -- but that's because we were "getting" all the concepts, and we had a pretty full plate literature and writing-wise, so I didn't feel the need to include those assignments -- though I think there were some good ideas in there.

 

For either Story Elements or Figuratively Speaking, I'd suggest starting at a bit slower pace and see how whatever resource you pick is working for you.

 

 

To give you a feel for using LL7, it took us about 40-50 min./day, using it 4 days/week:

- average 30 minutes to read aloud/discuss the literary work

- average 10-20 minutes for the student to do a worksheet page (we did worksheets 1 per day, 3-4x/week, and finished them all in 2 weeks) -- OR, work on the longer writing assignment (usually would take 1 week, working on it 5 days of the week for 20-30 min./day)

 

- 10 minutes/day for 2-3 total days to read through the instructional information on the literary element being discussed for that literary work

- 10-15 minutes for 1 day total to read/discuss the "mini writing lesson" instructional information

 

 

 

And, that LL7 would not be too "beneath" older ds. (I hate using that word but it's the best I can come up w/ right now.)

 

 

Depends on your older DS: has he been reading some of the classics already? (example of classic authors: Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, HG Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, etc.) What makes those a bit tougher is that many were written in a time in which authors used a much richer vocabulary, and sometimes wrote with a slightly different sentence structure than we commonly use today. You'll have to assess that by taking a look at the works covered:

 

2 poetry units, each with 6-8 poems from mostly the 1800s

Rikki Tikki Tavi (short story)

Bride Comes to Yellow Sky (short story)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (fantasy novel)

The Story of My Life (autobiography of Helen Keller)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (realistic novel)

All Creatures Great and Small (humorous novel)

 

 

Just to give you a slight comparison: When our younger DS did LL7 as an average-reader 7th grader, he enjoyed all the works except the Helen Keller autobiography. As far as level of reading, he was fine with the poems, Rikki Tikki Tavi and Alice in Wonderland. He struggled some with the sentence structure of Bride Comes to Yellow Sky. He *really* struggled with the overly ornate Victorian vocabulary and sentence structure of Story of My Life. He did alright with Tom Sawyer, but stumbled over a lot of the vernacular words and some of the unfamiliar vocabulary (of the 1850s). Similarly, he did fine with All Creatures, except with the medical jargon and the British accents/vernacular words.

 

Because we read the works aloud together "popcorn" style ("you read a page I read a page"), we could stop and I could explain vocabulary or the accents/vernacular in context, and during the course of the book, he would begin to "get" it and stumble less often by the end of the book. But he got a LOT more out of the books by us reading them together.

 

 

Hope that helps! Warmly, Lori D.

[Peggy in Va]

Hi Lori -

 

Not to worry - I'd almost forgotten that I'd posted these questions.

 

Thanks for laying this out for me; it's always helpful to see how someone else has scheduled something.

 

Also, thank you for reminding me not to over schedule. As I mentioned, we homeschooled before for several yrs, but they were younger then. And even then I tended to over commit (to the point of burn out), but it was usually to outside forces (teaching at coop, sports, music, etc.). My goal this time is for me to stay focused and not be distracted/lured away by all the wonderful options away from home.

 

Again, thanks for your words of wisdom.

 

Peggy

[Lori D.]

You're welcome! Having received so much wonderful advice and wisdom on this board and from local homeschooling friends, it's nice to "give a little back". Welcome *back* to homeschooling, Peggy -- and may it be a real joy and blessing to you all! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Myra]

Hi -

Here's the link for Hewitt's yahoo group - the ones that publish Lightning Literature. The moderator is the author and she's really great (and upfront) about answering questions pertaining to individual situations and their program.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hewitt_Homeschooling/

 

 

I was wondering about "Story Elements (gr. 5-6) and Story Elements (gr. 7-8), plus Figuratively Speaking" - could you tell me where I could find more information on those? I did an internet search, but came up with millions of links - none of them made sense!

 

Thanks,

Myra

[Lori D.]

Hi Myra,

Thanks for that link to Hewitt! :)

 

Story Elements and Figuratively Speaking are both available through both Rainbow Resource and Amazon. Here are the Rainbow links, because you can also see a sample page that way:

- Story Elements (by grade level) = http://www.rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1237820915-99590'>http://www.rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1237820915-99590'>http://www.rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1237820915-99590'>http://www.rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1237820915-99590

- Figuratively Speaking = http://www.rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1237820915-99590

Enjoy! Warmly, Lori D.

[Myra]

Thanks for the info on Story Elements, etc - it's just what I'm looking for!

 

Myra

[Peggy in Va]

Thanks for the link for the LL Yahoo group. I'll have to look into that.

 

Peggy