Worldview Academy Great Books Study Guides

[April in WA]

I am interested in using these for high school literature. Does anyone know where I can see a sample of Worldview Academy's Great Books study guides? Has anyone used these that would offer an opinion? Can you give me an idea of the format?

 

Thanks,

April in WA

[Julieofsardis]

I was coming here to ask if anyone has used this, when I saw your question.

 

I found one guide here:

 

http://www.thegreatbooks.com/freeguide.html

 

HTH

 

Julie

[Miss Marple]

Yes, I have used quite a few. However, I do use them in conjunction with other resources - I don't rely only on these (although one could).

 

They are all laid out the same. There is a biographical section (which is very handy), there is a timeline sort of thing in which other events around the time period are put into context, then the actual analysis begins. After the analysis, there is a "Central Theme" section which helps to summarize the work. This is followed by "The Big Picture" in which the guide's author focuses on the main worldview topic one should be seeing in the work - i.e., Gnosticism, Integrity, Secularism, etc. This is followed by "Key Quotes" from the work, and "Key Scripture" which gives references to the various worldview topics found throughout the book.

 

I find these very helpful to get a basic overview of what we need to look for in the work. One frustration I have, though, is that the guides are not tied to a particular edition of the work so often one has to thumb through the work to get to the spot he is discussing. The flip-side of this, though, is that one needs only purchase the guide and you can utilize a library or any edition you might have on hand.

 

There have been times when I felt aspects of a work were not covered in the guide. But, like I said, I do use other resources, too. I think these guides are a good deal for the price and I find them very helpful.

[April in WA]

Thank you Julie and Cynthia. I could not find a sample guide anywhere on that website. It pays to ask.

 

Blessings,

April in WA

[Julieofsardis]

What's funny is that I couldn't either. When I came here and saw your post, I googled Worldview Academy to make sure it was the same thing and it took me straight to the one with the sample. So, you helped me, too.

 

Thanks for the additional input CynthiaOK.

 

Julie

[Kathie in VA]

This looks really interesting! Thanks for posting about it.

 

There are some really good articles in there as well ... like the one on Why the socratic method matters so much ... http://www.thegreatbooks.com/essays/iron.html

[Kathie in VA]

I thought this would be helpful for me to use along side a WTM/WEM approach (and it still might be) but I'm noticing that sometimes they only have you read a part of a book, not the whole thing (ex. Epic of Gilgamesh). I guess they are just jumping you to the part that they need to make their point, it just makes me wonder if I'd want to do that. Of course we might just read all of it and shift the schedule accordingly anyway ... it just caused me to pause and I wondered what you thought of it....

 

It's hard to tell about how much time to schedule each day for something like this. Also, I don't see a basic history spine, though I gather Western Civ would work. The sample socratic discussion seems to expect that the student gather the same type of information that the WTM suggests: timeline and historic info on the author and the work. I haven't gotten this far but I'm guessing that the guidence in WEM would also be great for the student to follow. Only change, I guess, would be to add into the schedule time for the student to read thru the WTM and WEM guideslines in the beginning and then time in the WEM for each new type of genre. It almost seems like a way to combine WTM and Omnibus level of instruction into one?

 

ETA: Okay just noticed that it only covers about 3 of the Great Books on the WTM list for 9th grade.... well that's what happens with a focus on World view instead of history... ug, back to what to use ....

Edited April 9, 2009 by Kathie in VA

[Jane Elliot]

ETA: Okay just noticed that it only covers about 3 of the Great Books on the WTM list for 9th grade.... well that's what happens with a focus on World view instead of history... ug, back to what to use ....

 

I count at least six (Aeneid, On the Incarnation, Oedipus Rex, Iliad, Odyssey, Republic), seven if you count Epic of Gilgamesh. And one could count Shakespeare's Julius Caesar which shows up on WTM's medieval list. You can certainly choose to use only the guides which cover works listed in WTM.

 

We are finishing up our third year with these study guides and have found they help us implement the WTM/WEM approach and make our study of the great books more meaningful and purposeful. The discussions we have with them are great.

Edited April 9, 2009 by Luann in ID

[Kathie in VA]

oh, I don't know how I messed that up :confused:

Thanks, Luann for clearing that up!

 

So, can you share how to implement this with the ideas for the WTM/WEM? :bigear:

 

At first I thought we could still follow the WTM/WEM and use them for myself as we got to the books they covered. That's one idea. Now I'm thinking maybe I could have my kids start with this and stop to follow the WTM/WEM ideas for reading each 'Great Book' on the list (which includes the chapters from Western Civ for historic background, keeping a timeline, etc). Sounds like it would be great prep for the socratic discussion. Biggest worry then is fitting all this into a busy schedule. Is this still doable within say, 2 hours a day?

 

TIA

[Jane Elliot]

oh, I don't know how I messed that up :confused:

Thanks, Luann for clearing that up!

 

So, can you share how to implement this with the ideas for the WTM/WEM? :bigear:

 

At first I thought we could still follow the WTM/WEM and use them for myself as we got to the books they covered. That's one idea. Now I'm thinking maybe I could have my kids start with this and stop to follow the WTM/WEM ideas for reading each 'Great Book' on the list (which includes the chapters from Western Civ for historic background, keeping a timeline, etc). Sounds like it would be great prep for the socratic discussion. Biggest worry then is fitting all this into a busy schedule. Is this still doable within say, 2 hours a day?

 

TIA

 

Quick answer (because I'm in the middle of playing spell-the-word-get-a-raisin with 5yos) -- When we are following the schedule as written (and we don't always do that), the dc are spending about 2 hours a day. I'll come back to this question later. Somewhere around here (and also in some pm's) I have posted answers to questions about how we use this program. I'll see if I can find those messages later today.

[Jane Elliot]

I found this while ds was obsessing over having all the letters on his board in alphabetical order :001_smile:

 

I hope the person to whom I originally pm-ed this doesn't mind that I'm copying it here. If I ever finish this reading lesson, I'm going to want to go outside. The sun is calling me!

 

Lately we've spent about two hours a week on discussions. I'm down to two students using this right now. The twins have a heavy schedule taking two Apologia courses each and trying to CLEP as much as they can before heading off to LeTourneau next fall, so they only join us for a few of the books. When we've followed the schedule as it's written, it takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day (more for my slower reader, less for my faster readers) plus discussion time. You can certainly speed that up or slow it down (as we have this year) by adjusting the schedule.

 

I have them complete a worksheet as described in #7 here: http://www.thegreatbooks.com/essays/index.php?p=5

 

For history, I have them do historical and author background papers on each work using a shelf of reference books, which has on it a couple Spielvogels, Short History of Western Civilization (my old college text :)), Timetables, Robert's World History, and a few others. Except for Short History, which I already had, I bought all these very cheap used. I think most of the dc prefer Short History and wikipedia :tongue_smilie:. These papers are super informal, sometimes just a page of notes, and often I don't even look at them, just have them give me the information verbally at the beginning of discussion.

 

I also have them spend a few weeks studying for the Western Civ and Analyzing Literature CLEPs, and use their scores on those to back up my grades on their transcripts. This gives me peace of mind that we don't have any huge gaps and that grades and credits on the transcripts can be justified. As an added bonus, they get college credits.

 

I included the worksheet and historical background in my time estimates above, but I didn't include writing because it varies so much. Occasionally we do a 45 minute essay using one of the discussion questions in the guide. Mainly though we use IEW and try to tie their IEW writing assignments to whatever they're studying in great books or science.

 

I think your best bet with thegreatbooks.com is to get one of the guides and try it (or even just use the free one). If you don't like it, you're only out $7 plus shipping and the cost of the book.

 

I do have a few complaints about thegreatbooks.com (you didn't ask, but I want to give you the heads up :)). Sometimes he chooses books that are insanely expensive and then only has the student read a chapter or two. Our library system stinks, and I like each of the kids to have their own copy so they can mark it up. We're used to spending a lot on curricula and generally don't mind, but this just seemed so crazy. I finally this year decided to pare down the list to exclude the more expensive works that aren't also on TWTM lists. My other complaint is that the discussion guides refer to page numbers and you have to have a specific edition or you can't find the passage he's referring to. Obviously these peeves aren't deal breakers for me. For our purposes, I still think his discussion guides are the best