StaceyL in Canada
02-10-2008, 05:05 PM
This year, my gr 10 son has been going through some Shakespeare drama and the book Writing About Literature, which includes short stories, short plays, and poetry. Although he is a strong writer otherwise, lit analysis still seems to stymie him. Next year, he and my next younger son will be gr 11 and 9, and I intend to cover Canadian history and geography (de rigeur here in Ontario for high school). I'm having a hard time, though, deciding on what to cover for literature. There's not a huge amount of high quality, age-appropriate Canadian lit for high school, in my view; but Canadian history is intermingled with both British and American, so which to emphasize if I chose either of these? Would it be confusing to cover, say, British lit (post-Renaissance) for a year, then the year after, backtrack and cover American? Would it be awkward to do American and some Canadian lit before getting to their precursor, British? Or might it be better to cover a mixture in both years, along with some other world lit? I do have at hand Lori D's wonderful "literature smorgasbord" list for American, British, and World, but am uncertain whether to stick with one per year or mix them up.
Also, whenever (hah!) I do decide what to cover, which guides to use (yes, my background is in lit, but I've learned that we only make progress if I have some sort of guide at hand)? Hewitt's Lightning Lit guides take semester each but still don't cover 20th C material; Progeny Press guides, which I like, tend to be lengthy enough that the PP folk suggest covering no more than four a year. Glencoe guides online are shorter but--dang it--no answers, and not very in-depth, with few writing ideas. SparkNotes online provides analysis but few ongoing questions or writing suggestions either.
All this is in terms of the older son; the younger one is nowhere near able to get into lit analysis in any depth, so I would probably be working just with the older (leaving the question open of what to do with the younger....while the 9 yr old hums away in the background.....:confused:)
Also, whenever (hah!) I do decide what to cover, which guides to use (yes, my background is in lit, but I've learned that we only make progress if I have some sort of guide at hand)? Hewitt's Lightning Lit guides take semester each but still don't cover 20th C material; Progeny Press guides, which I like, tend to be lengthy enough that the PP folk suggest covering no more than four a year. Glencoe guides online are shorter but--dang it--no answers, and not very in-depth, with few writing ideas. SparkNotes online provides analysis but few ongoing questions or writing suggestions either.
All this is in terms of the older son; the younger one is nowhere near able to get into lit analysis in any depth, so I would probably be working just with the older (leaving the question open of what to do with the younger....while the 9 yr old hums away in the background.....:confused:)