How many books do you read/analyze each year in your homeschool, ?...

[twoblessings]

I am trying to put together my High School plans. DD starts 9th next year. So for literature, how many books do you read for your homeschool each year and, of those, how many do you analyze? I am thinking it depends on the size of the book but, I need some kind of guidelines or something. Any thoughts you have will be helpful, this will be my first time through highschool.

Have a great day!
Busy

[Linda in NM]

and we read one of their recommended books every week--next year, in 9th grade, I believe we'll be reading one book every two weeks. We also do a monthly read aloud--currently, Robinson Crusoe, that we discuss...I'm probably going to use the IEW reading analysis program (can't think of the name of it right now--Reading the Classics, or some such thing) for discussion next year.

[Martha in NM]

A lot depends on the workload. For example, my son is doing physics this year and has more time for history and literature than when he was doing chemistry.

The difficulty level of the books needs to be taken into consideration. We try to group loosely around a chronological plan, and the usual book lists for general time periods vary somewhat. Some semesters we read a lot of books, others we read only a few but work more intensively on them.

Some students read faster than others. I try to make a list of three books that I put on our "must read" list for each semester and concentrate on them. The criteria vary from semester to semester, but I usually focus on the one book that best lends itself to whatever type of analysis that I want to do at that particular time. My plan works like this:

1. One book which gets a lot of discussion and analysis.
2. Two other books which we discuss and analyze informally.
3. As many more books from our list that we have time to read. We discuss them only occasionally; usually when something catches my son's interest.

If you have a child who wants to attend a private liberal arts college the above plan would probably not be adequate. However, I have found that over time, my son has begun to read more, and read more thoughtfully each year. If you take the time to analyze a few books in a systematic way, over time, students internalize good reading habits. IMO the goal is to encourage regular, thoughtful reading even when you don't explicitly analyze every aspect of every book.

Two things which I think help the process are tying composition assignments to the reading list, and using some kind of literature textbook, especially in 9th to practice analysis skills. I know that textbooks and excerpts are bad words to some folks, but they can help bridge the gap that some people run into between 8th grade and great books.

This isn't an exact recipe, but some of the ideas I pieced together when my original plan didn't seem to be working.

[Jan P.]

Martha,

What literature textbook do you suggest that a 9th grader use? Most 9th grade texts use questions that are too feely/gushy type questions, or the Christian textbooks use questions that are content based but not literature analysis based.

Thanks,

[Jan P.]

I have done different things for different years, but I like doing about one book per month. This would give the student 9 books that have been thoroughly covered. Now fast readers could do more, or you could do less if you want to do units on short stories or poetry. However, short stories and poetry can also be integrated into book studies if you study particular books by an author of short stories or poetry. I hope that made sense! I guess what I'm trying to say is that most literature books (English Literature) cover almost all English poets and a few of their poems. One could choose instead to do a few poets and use something like the Dover books.

HTH,

[Martha in NM]

Hi Jan,

For some reason I've been having trouble posting...I've used Abeka texts but tend to treat them more as collections of models to use alongside Classical Writing than a full curriculum. I also throw in ideas from TWEM, HTRAB, Omnibus etc. For 9th with my son, I had to take small steps.

[FloridaLisa]

Jan,

Completely OT, but is that your house pictured on your blog header? It's gorgeous! ::drool:: Love, love that old Southern charm of the built-in bookcases and china cabinets. What a beautiful place!

Just had to comment after popping over to your blog for a look. :)

Lisa

[Cynde]

I think we're about middle of the road. I generally plan 30 pages of reading per day in literature which is part of our English class. I know some people are able to read more, but we can't handle that with our other courses. Some people do less. There are many acceptable ways.

I usually allow 1-2 books to be read just for fun without any analysis or discussion. Our dc complete analysis on the remaining books, some more in-depth than other, and I require 5-6 essays on literature (this is in addition to their outside composition course). The number of books varies depending on length and difficulty. For American literature this year, dd will read 11 novels and plays, about 10 short stories, and about a 1.5 weeks of poetry. For British literature this year, ds will read 13 novels and plays, about 6 short stories, and about 1 week of poetry.

Like I said, I play for reading about 30 pages per day. Into the schedule, I also have to plan days for essay writing, some text reading to support analysis, etc. And, I don't schedule 30 pages per day for poetry. For poetry, it's usually 2-6 poems per day depending on length, difficulty, and type of analysis.

Doing this amount of literature in addition to grammar, outside composition, and vocabulary (through grade 11 here) is time consuming for us. I could easily give our dc 2 credits for English, however, I do only award one. The literature portion alone could be a 1 credit class if you were counting hours and awarding that way. I mention this only to give you an idea of how much time that amount of reading combined with the other parts of our English class involve in case you're wondering. Probably more info than you wanted. :)

Hope that helps you some.

[Nan in Mass]

TWTM says do at least 8 works per year, 10 is better, 12 is best. We are very slow because we are doing them aloud together and discussing loosely, as the children or I notice something. The discussions aren't at a very high level; lots of comparisons to Star Trek and gymnastics and peacewalking and myths going on. Then at the end, we do a more proper discussions using TWEM questions. For the literary vocab like "alliteration", I try to keep in mind the list from Reading Strands (nice and concise with definitions) and occasionally mention them. I resolve to do this at the beginning of every year, remember to do it occasionally, and then forget. Even doing it this casually, we've managed to cover about half the list, not bad. We are not interested in nittily grittily pulling our books apart, so doing the literary analysis loosely like this suits us. I'm really, really pleased with how much my children have grown doing it this way. TWEM lets me choose which works I think my children would like and benefit from. We manage to read one larger book in depth each semester (like The Republic), and about 2 smaller works (like a Shakespeare play). I try to do some poems from The Harp and the Laurel Wreath (which also contains a list of terms and has a few questions for some of the poems). And then in the summer, I have my son read a speech or two and another longer book, and we do a fun-but-still-counts-as-great-books read aloud or two. One summer we all took parts and did The Birds. Between all these, his reading list will look ok, not spectacular, but we aren't a spectacularly literate family. We read a lot, but we like to enjoy what we are reading. So far, everyone has happily read some classics, so I think we're doing well. I try not to push too hard and spoil literature for them. If they read faster and more easily, I'm sure we'd cover more.
HTH
-Nan

[DollyM]

We did about one per month very thoroughly with a follow up essay that cited from the text.

For DS that was IT (that IS it - he's only 9th this year)

For DD she far exceeded this. On her own she'd read another 1-2 books every month. We would not discuss those, nor have assignmetns on them - just "pleasure reading" but her choice of books was very meaty.

When I didn't have time to discuss those with h er, she started her own peer lead book club. So kids are different.

But I could not let DS get away will less than nine decent pieces of literature each school year.

Here's what DD read in high school as REQUIRED reading (her own list is longer ...)
How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler
Saint Augustine’s Confessions translated by H. Chadwick;
Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney;
Dante’s Inferno translated by Elio Zappulla;
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales translated by Hleatt;
Oxford Shakespeare Series Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night; Also Perecles, Macbeth, Henry IV
Brightest Heaven of Invention by Leithart
Pride & Prejudice by J. Austen;
Jane Eyre by C. Bronte;
The Man in the Iron Mask & The Count of Monte Cristo by A. Dumas;
Frankenstein by M. Shelley;
Robinson Crusoe by Dafoe;
Pilgrim's Progess by Bunyan;
A Modest Proposal by J. Swift.
Autobiography by B. Franklin;
Scarlet Letter by N. Hawthorne;
Huckleberry Finn by M. Twain;
The Red Badge of Courage by S. Crane;
Ethan Fromme by E. Wharton;
My Antonia by W. Cather;
A Separate Peace by Knowles;
To Kill a Mockingbird by H. Lee.
Pretty much everything by CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien

[MelodyInTx]

We will be reading 10 books and plays this year. We will generally spend around 2-4 weeks per book. Depending on the author or the focus of the book I will add in some short stories and poetry. We will also spend a week or two just studying poetry.

As to how much reading per day I generally assign that would be around 10-30 pages depending on what we I have assigned them to do with the reading.

Like right now we are reading Huck Finn. For most books we have journal activities, some are only over certain portions of the book but others span the whole book.
For Huck the activity spans the whole book. They need to find a character trait of Huck in each chapter, note that trait, find a quote that supports it and put it into context for me.

Yesterday I assigned them chapters 7-8, which is only about 15 pages. But they will need to do the journal activity above and tease out the moral issues that Huck is facing in these 2 chapters and write me a 1 page paper on that topic. The paper is due today.

So really it depends.

[Lori D.]

This has been extremely helpful (and relieving!!) to me! We're right about there with those who say 6-9 books a year for *really* getting in depth doing them together, plus they each read 6-8 books on their own (lighter, with not much discussion).

Love your "Star Trek" comparisons, Nan -- that's a lot of our discussion, too. : ) New to this high school thing, and still trying to figure it all out! (lol) Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Mad Jenny Flint]

Linda,

Using Trisms, is there a list of recommended literature books aside from the excerpts that are included in the program for literature? Do the students actually read whole books, is my question. One of the things that I hesitate about when considering TRISMS is that the literature offerings seem a bit piecemeal from what I could gather is included in their materials. If there are whole book suggestions outside of their included literature excerpts, that opens a whole new world for me... could you point me to a listing of these suggestions somewhere? I appreciate your help!

[Nan in Mass]

A relief to me, too. I thought we were the only ones doing so few books each year. Thanks.

[Michelle in MO]

so this is our plan for this year:

The Church History*
Confessions of St. Augustine*
On the Incarnation of Our Lord*
The Creeds*
The Rule of St. Benedict*
Beowulf*
The Song of Roland*
The History of the Kings of Britain*
Macbeth
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Divine Comedy: Inferno
The Canterbury Tales
Here I Stand (substituting for The Bondage of the Will)
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Henry V
Richard III

The asterisks indicate the ones we've finished. Even a pared-down list seems like quite a bit. Sometimes I think that less is more; still, I need the hand-holding Omnibus provides, so it's working well for us.

[Linda in NM]

Linda,

Using Trisms, is there a list of recommended literature books aside from the excerpts that are included in the program for literature? Do the students actually read whole books, is my question. One of the things that I hesitate about when considering TRISMS is that the literature offerings seem a bit piecemeal from what I could gather is included in their materials. If there are whole book suggestions outside of their included literature excerpts, that opens a whole new world for me... could you point me to a listing of these suggestions somewhere? I appreciate your help!

Although we haven't used the highschool stuff yet, I've discovered that there is a list of recommended readings for each unit...and students are expected to select one and complete a book report...

[Quiver0f10]

It depends on te child. My oldest read through all the books I assigned her and then some. My 12th grader and my 9th grader don't enjoy reading so I have to force them to read a book a week or every 2 weeks :eek:. My 11th grader will plow through a book a day and I find myself telling him, as much as I dislike it, to stop reading and get back to school.

[twoblessings]

Thanks Ladies for answering. You have given me lots to think about. You guys are great.

Many Blessings!
Busy

[mama25angels]

for letting me know, i'm doing ok with my plans.

[Jan P.]

Jan,

Completely OT, but is that your house pictured on your blog header? It's gorgeous! ::drool:: Love, love that old Southern charm of the built-in bookcases and china cabinets. What a beautiful place!

Just had to comment after popping over to your blog for a look. :)

Lisa

Lisa,

I just saw your post. Thank you so much about your comments. The pictures didn't show the huge stacks of books and papers that I had on the dining room table! LOL!! We are in a constant state of remodeling and painting. Somedays it seems as if it will never end. We haven't even begun to work on the grounds yet!

Jan