mom2abunch Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Literature studies? I want to use the books we already have but I want to create study guides for some of them. What do you use as a resource? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise in Florida Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 What grades are you working with? I recommend Ruth Beechick's You Can Teach Your Child Successfully, Grades 4 -8 or her Three R's Set which contains math, reading and language arts for K-3. I used to write my own curriculum when the girls were pre-high school. I did not find any reason to use separate writing or grammar books, we just learned straight from the literature we were reading. Here are the basic steps. - Find a book or website that gives a basic scope and sequence for the grades you want to cover. - List your goals for the year (such as: 'Student will be able to identify nouns, verbs and adjectives.' or 'Student will be able to look up information in an encyclopedia and write a 5 paragraph essay.' Depends on grade level) - See which goals fit naturally with the books you already like to read and make a short lesson plan. (For example, the year we read the Narnia series, I choose a descriptive passage and read it slowly to them while they 'drew' the scene, we then discussed the adjectives chosen and the use of prepositions. I then had them write their own descriptive scene and ended with them trying to draw each others description.) Looking at real-life examples from books is the easiest way to show punctuation (such as quotation marks), dialogue and the importance of varied sentence length. - Move on to the next goal. It's okay if you don't do everything on your list. :001_smile: Note of warning: Don't do too much out of any one book. You want them to enjoy the story not just see it as another textbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise in Florida Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Ack, forgot to say, you can add in goals from other subject areas as well. Look up locations on a map. Read a short biography of any 'real' people mentioned in the story. Cook a meal or do a craft from a foreign county mentioned in the story. Perform experiments such as "could such a character really do x?" Most of our studies came naturally out of our reading. I bought a few study guides but they seldom matched up to our interests and I finally decided to just do it on my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nestof3 Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 No, because I can usually find free ones on the internet, or sometimes I've bought some. I have many free ones on my blog. One thing I do is search for the title of the book plus words like "teacher's guide" and sometimes I add "pdf" because often the good ones are in pdf file. Sometimes I search with "literature guide" and sometimes I add the word "free." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I think it would be very time consuming. I do read the same books as my kiddos and discuss with them. I also use literature guides from Progeny Press and other publishers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 All the time. I started with researching some great resources to teach me how to do this (Teaching the Classics, Critical Conditioning, a CD of a talk from Emily Fischer at the Veritas Teacher Training, etc.) Then I came up with a pattern, mostly based on the VP talk, that I use to write them. Basically, I read them twice and then make my plan based on a list of things I want to discuss or teach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhondabee Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I use the lists in WTM. I pre-read (most of) the books in the summer, and then I use the Well Educated Mind for *me* to analyze the book. When we discuss the books, I don't necessarily touch on everything I've found, but I do use the Grammar Stage questions (in WEM) and a few of the logic stage questions to help guide our discussions. I have given up trying to do vocabulary and trivia questions after each chapter as they seem to destroy the momentum of the book - though I do stop for vocabulary and such in our read-alouds. Actually, I do more stopping and teaching literary "stuff" in our read-alouds rather than in the books they read for "literature". We are pretty much still in the "dipping our toes in" stage when it comes to writing "Literary Analysis essays", as opposed to page-long narrations. My older ds has written maybe two this year? It took a long time to cross that bridge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2abunch Posted April 26, 2009 Author Share Posted April 26, 2009 Thank you! I am going to look into your suggestions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 No, because I can usually find free ones on the internet, or sometimes I've bought some. I have many free ones on my blog. One thing I do is search for the title of the book plus words like "teacher's guide" and sometimes I add "pdf" because often the good ones are in pdf file. Sometimes I search with "literature guide" and sometimes I add the word "free." Dawn, thanks for pointing to your blog for those free resources. Great lists! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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