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Hyun Orth
A thorough study of Latin forms the foundation of a classical education, and the study of classical history and literature fosters a deep knowledge of Western civilization. Memoria Press also introduces your student to the greatest thinkers of the Western tradition through the classic books selected for our literature programs.
Dyslexia or no, Buck has always enjoyed a good story, so long as he didn't have to physically read the entire thing. Even the ancient Egyptian poetry, found in Yr1U1 is good stuff. He sees the commonalities shared amongst people, regardless of their time or place in history. It's no Tom Sawyer or anything, but it's still interesting enough to hang on to him.
The (accurate) argument can be made that he wasn't delving as deeply into it, but merely hitting the high spots, as well as the fact that if he wants more now, he CAN read (listen) to as many books as he wants on his own. TOG, for example, has alternate readings in every week if he wants to read more...
Everyone makes this big deal out of the Socratic discussions, but frankly, that's how I've always taught, even before I started teacher ed. classes many moons ago and was given a label for what I was doing, so I'm not seeing it as something for which I need a guide.
I've looked at multiple samples of all of the above and am now curious what the Hive thinks. For those who've used more than one of these, what are your opinions, so far as the literature analysis in particular? How about vocabulary? Who do you think handles this well?
In Omnibus, there is an essay written about the piece that the student reads. Often it is insightful, and it's a great example of what an essay can look like. (Often, I think students need to see good examples of academic writing when they themselves are just beginning to read.) There are questions at the end of the section which lead into deeper analysis. My complaint about many high school literature analysis questions is that many programs are still caught up in the "who did what where" and maybe delve a bit into the "why", but never really look at the broader themes. I think rhetoric level reading should be about ideas....big ideas....and Omnibus does a better job than most with this.
By contrast, my TOG1 rhetoric level materials seem to be an odd mix of "who did what where" with a bit of "here's where xyz character acted differently from what God has taught" or "look what this great missionary did". I think Omnibus allows a wider viewpoint of interpretations still within the framework of Christian worldview.....but if you need a very direct and open communication or are very providential in choosing your course material, TOG is for you. I also thought that TOG chose fewer "great books" and more historical fiction. If your child has a strong preference one way or the other, that is a distinguishing point. You can easily see the books used through Bookshelf Central. I do not like that such a large portion of the books are religious viewpoint based....promoting an evangelical viewpoint and encouraging witnessing to Muslims, Mormons, Catholics, etc. how their views are false teachings. I stopped buying TOG materials when she introduced "Mormonism Unmasked" into TOG Year 3. _page=resources&year=3&units=all&LR=on&subjects=all&type=BSC
For example, below are some ideas to flesh out your reading, with SOLO = lighter Sonlight style/historical fiction to enjoy on his own, and LIT = works to analyze and use a guide. Ideas for free online guides: Sparknotes, Cliff's Notes, Pink Monkey and Glencoe Literature Library. Once you get into Medieval Literature (and later), a number of works have individual guides to them from publishers such as Portals to Literature, Garlic Press Discovering Literature series, Progeny Press, etc. I've also found some great in-depth material by doing an online search for "guide for __(name of work)___" -- sometimes some meaty info and guidance from a college syllabus that is going over that work! :)
My other suggestion would be to add either individual works or a deep-digging Literature program SEPARATE from the TOG and that does not match up with the History period. The point would be deep analysis of additional works of Literature for more meat this year, AND to knock out a few works for future years when there are SO many works to choose from from all around the world (19th & 20th centuries, or, year 3 and 4 of TOG). One program option you and DS might enjoy doing this year is the 1-semester Windows to the World (you could easily spread it out over 1 year, fitting in units of it as it works with TOG); by focusing on 6 short stories, the program teaches annotation, literary analysis essay and using your annotations as support, and focuses on about 8-10 of the major literary elements and how they work in Literature. It is from a Christian perspective.
Lori's selections are great. I also HIGHLY recommend the Elizabeth Vandiver lectures from the Great Courses when you study the Odyssey, Illiad, and Aeneid. I also think you will be pleased with the subsequent years of TOG. I felt that Year 2 was especially challenging (in a good way!).
Are there any of the above that people prefer from an analysis standpoint? (Most of the classics have generic study-guide type questions, free for the taking, all over the web. I'm hunting for something a bit deeper, possibly including vocab.)
Short answer: No. I can't think of any Literature-based program or guide that goes deeper that what you are probably already doing. Your best bet for that would probably be to have DS take a class with a good Lit. teacher. Or, DIY, which is a lot of work, but it can be rewarding, doing all that research.
Ancients are the HARDEST to find guide materials of any depth that help with literary elements and literary analysis -- most of the material strongly connects the Literature to the History, instead of analyzing it AS literature. Part of the problem is that the ancient cultures which produced the ancient literature are SO very distant and different from our culture today, it makes it really tough to know for sure what ideas and themes were important to the people of the time -- and we, today, so often totally miss the cultural references, and the symbolism and imagery and why it was important to the ancients...
In case you decide to DIY, I just stumbled across this website that may of slight help with more in-depth background info, and some of his guides include themes and ideas to look for, and some even include literary elements to look for: Classics Technology Center: The Classical Origins of Western Culture by Roger Dunkle. (That whole website of Able One Education Network: Classics Technology Center is quite something!) He covers:
I found that to dig deeper, I ended up doing the Lit. WITH DSs, guiding the discussion, and using a LOT of resources for each work as I could find them. We were able to "springboard" from many of the free online resources and the purchased guides, but most of them were not as meaty as I was looking for. A few were more meaty than others:
MJBucks1 suggestion above about using the Vandiver lecture series from Teaching Company on The Iliad and The Odyssey is excellent -- you will get loads of depth and understanding of the culture going that route.
Omnibus is a great program and it IS one of the more rigorous options, BUT -- it is a Great Books integrated study, so it is focused on the "big picture", with Worldview focus -- not a Literature-based study that focuses on literary elements, techniques used by the author, topics in Literature, analysis/discussion, and themes and meaning/personal application. The literary works of the program progress through several stages:
I suggest looking at the samples for several of the Omnibus student and teacher texts to get a feel for how the material is covered -- it's great, and very detailed, but not Literature-based in the way you are describing what you want.
So my son is still young, but he is a bit of an ancients freak. Many of the books we are doing are avaliable on audio through YouTube, as are many lectures to supplement and use for later conversation. Here is what we are doing this year:
I have gone back and forth with Omnibus. Spent way too much time in the homeschool bookstore looking at Omnibus. Though at this point with my son, me putting things together seems to be working very well. I honestly thought it was going to take much more time to pull together, but it hasn't. Okay, the first month it took a whole lot of time. Now it flows much better as I have found series, college lectures for classes, and YouTube channels which focus on various time periods in history. Many of these works also have literary analysis and discussion questions posted in various college websites. This has made the upfront work from me so much slimmer!
#text-1393595678 font-size: 1.5rem; text-align: center;We are dedicated to providing a classical Christian curriculum to families and educators throughout the United Kingdom. Our curriculum offers comprehensive resources designed to encourage the development of wisdom and virtue through a pursuit of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, and through the study of the liberal arts and the Great Books. The liberal arts are the universal linguistic and mathematical skills pupils need to excel in every area of life.
A thorough study of Latin forms the foundation of a classical education, and the study of classical history and literature fosters a deep knowledge of Western civilisation. Memoria Press also introduces your pupil to the greatest thinkers of the Western tradition through the classic books selected for our literature programs.
Memoria Press is a family-run publishing company that produces classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. It was founded by Cheryl Lowe in 1994 and has developed a K-12 classical curriculum at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky, USA where its award-winning programs are written and field-tested.
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