Lightbulb moment -- Could I use LLfLOTR for 12th grade British Lit?

[Christy B]

So, I'm driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to fit Literary Lesson from Lord of the Rings *and* Starting Points in to one year . . . knowing I'll have to end up trimming a bit from both programs . . .

What if I waited to use LLfLOTR for 12th grade, when I intended to cover British Lit and ADDED to the units on Beowulf and Arthurian Romance, and ADDED some Shakespeare?

I think I would rather beef up the program for British Lit than trim it down.

OR I may end up dropping Starting Points and just using this for 9th, lol.

[Lori D.]

What if I waited to use LLfLOTR for 12th grade, when I intended to cover British Lit and ADDED to the units on Beowulf and Arthurian Romance, and ADDED some Shakespeare?


Yes, you can use LLftLotR along with other lit. and make a great British literature course. The only reservation I have in using it in 12th grade is that LLftLotR is a great, gentle INTRO to literary analysis -- ideal for grades 7-9 or 10th grade in my opinion. BUT... if you've done some pretty deep "Great Books" studies or Starting Points or other "heavy" lit. program already in high school, then LLftLotR will seem very "lite" and will probably be a "letdown" if you save it for 11th or 12 grade.

We used LLftLotR last year with our (then) 8th and 9th grade boys and it was perfect timing for them. First, the works were exactly at their reading and enjoyment level. And second, the previous year as 7th and 8th graders they had done Lightning Lit. 7 and 8, so they'd "gotten their feet wet" with very gentle basic literary analysis, and LLftLotR was a very gentle next step up.

Just to give you a feel for how much lit. you can cover in a school year, below is a breakdown credit-wise of what we did last year when we used LLftLotR. Time-wise, LLftLotR took us about 4 hours a week (2 hours a week to read aloud from Lord of the Rings -- we did it 1-2 nights a week as a family fun activity -- and then about 2 hours a week during school to read/discuss the chapter notes and discussion questions and additional 12 units of LLftLotR. We skipped the "fill-in-the-blank" comprehension and vocabulary worksheets entirely. Hope that is of help! Warmest regards, Lori D.


English (1 credit)
- literature = LLftLotR
- writing = (Jump In; Put That in Writing 1 -- both modified)
- grammar (Winston Advanced; various word usage/grammar mechanics practice)


Elective = The Great Books: Ancient Classics (1 credit)
Read, discuss, write about (anywhere from a paragraph to a 5-paragraph, to a 3-5 page paper) 8 classic works of literature:
- Gilgamesh (abridged version)
- The Iliad (Fagles translation)
- The Odyssey (Fagles translation)
- various Greek myths
- Oedipus the King (Fitzgerald translation)
- Antigone (Fitzgerald translation)
- The Aeneid (abridged version)
- Till We Have Faces (CS Lewis)


History = Ancient World (1 credit)
1. Spievogel World History: Human Odyssey (200 pages)
2. various supplemental resources (approximately 200 pages)
3. solo read 6-8 historical fiction works set in ancient times (most were out of Sonlight 6 booklist)
4. writing = answer questions from the Spievogel; 2 long reports during the year on various ancient cultures

[Christy B]

I do see what you're saying. The reason I had intended LLfLOTR for 9th grade was because of the fact that it was an "intro".

We don't intend to go into "great books" (I'll be happy if we get into "good books"). My plans for lit for World and American are to use Notgrass pretty much as-is. So, I think I would be content for this student to add some Shakespeare and Chaucer to LLfLOTR and call it British Lit and be done with it.

Do you think the literary analysis in Starting Points is significantly more challenging? I got the impression that it was also very introductory (geared for 7th - 10th). Should I just give up on the Starting Points and go with the LLfLOTR? If I had to choose just one, I'm pretty sure that's the way I would go.

I'm also trying to keep in mind that by 12th grade, dd will almost certainly be dual enrolled at CC, taking math and science, possibly taking some other prerequisites and/or Spanish at CC, and quite possibly doing volunteer work. It might be a very good thing for this math and science oriented student to have a "light" literature course that year.

As always, thanks so much for your thoughtful and valuable insight!

[Lori D.]

I do see what you're saying. The reason I had intended LLfLOTR for 9th grade was because of the fact that it was an "intro".

We don't intend to go into "great books" (I'll be happy if we get into "good books"). My plans for lit for World and American are to use Notgrass pretty much as-is. So, I think I would be content for this student to add some Shakespeare and Chaucer to LLfLOTR and call it British Lit and be done with it.

Do you think the literary analysis in Starting Points is significantly more challenging? I got the impression that it was also very introductory (geared for 7th - 10th). Should I just give up on the Starting Points and go with the LLfLOTR? If I had to choose just one, I'm pretty sure that's the way I would go.

I'm also trying to keep in mind that by 12th grade, dd will almost certainly be dual enrolled at CC, taking math and science, possibly taking some other prerequisites and/or Spanish at CC, and quite possibly doing volunteer work. It might be a very good thing for this math and science oriented student to have a "light" literature course that year.

As always, thanks so much for your thoughtful and valuable insight!

I'm really not at all familiar with Starting Points, so I don't know what its focus is or how rigorous or gentle it is... But, we found it pretty easy to do additional literature along with LLftLotR. Perhaps give it a try of doing both, and if need be, slow one program down and take more than a year. Or, if Starting Points is scheduled as "units", just insert some units as you can into your school year, and continue where you left off the following year. That's what we're doing this year with IEW's short story annotating/analysis program, Windows on the World.

Bear in mind that neither boy here plans on math or science careers -- both are probably headed towards working in media fields, so doing a lot of literature, plus getting exposure to lots of tech equipment and programs makes more sense for us. :)

I will say that LLftLotR has been a highlight of schooling, probably because we have loved and read the books a number of times before doing LLftLotR, and it was great fun going more in depth for literature with it. BEST of luck as you continue to think through your plans! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Christy B]

. . . Or, if Starting Points is scheduled as "units", just insert some units as you can into your school year, and continue where you left off the following year. . . .

. . . I will say that LLftLotR has been a highlight of schooling, probably because we have loved and read the books a number of times before doing LLftLotR, and it was great fun going more in depth for literature with it. . . .

AHA!!!! This is what I'm going to do. I just don't want to give up using LLftLotR this year. I love that one of the objectives listed is "examine important issues such as war, ecology, and the cooperation between cultures and races in order tod develop his own ideas on these topics". I think I can ADD some of the Starting Points units, add a Comparative Religion unit, and give two credits; one for "Humanities" and one for Literature. I'd rather make LLfLotR my main program, and schedule some bits and pieces in to it.

Especially if it's been a highlight of schooling, I don't want to miss out. I've waited for the "perfect" year for some other programs I wanted to use (Calvert's CHOW, for example) and ended up missing my window.

THANKS, Lori!