If high schoolers need 4 english units for graduation, what exactly is "English"? Would that be grammar, literature and composition every year from 9th to 12th grade? My ds and dd are 8th grade this year. We are focusing heavy on math this year, but I am thinking ahead to high school. They both have plans to attend college.
I think it depends on each state's definition of standards. PA requires that they have 4 full credits in "English" but comprehensive grammar only needs to be taught ONE of those years and reinforced in the others. Literature (American, General & British) & Composition taught each year. You might want to see if you AR lists what they mean by a credit on the DOE site.
No. You can divide those up. Maybe grammar one year, British Lit one year, American Lit another, composition, research, possibly speech, creative writing. My oldest that just graduated had one credit of World Lit, American Lit, Grammar, and Research. Each was a seperate class (though the two lit classes were part of her history curriculum!) But really you can do what you want...like a whole year on Shakespeare, or evluating childrens' picture books. Now, THAT would make an intersting study! You evaluate the art work, and give a half credit of art, too.
Jackie, evaluating children's picture books, my dd would love that. How would you go about doing that and assign a grade?
Sorry, I don't know! Just threw out the idea! You could compare very simply books, such as JUMP, FROG, JUMP to more complicated stories. What is the purpose for each? What is the target audience? Is rhyme used? How does rhyming effect the overall story? Take a familiar folk story, such as The Little Red Hen, and cmpare different viersions of it. What do you like, and why? Check out a Children's Lit book from the library. Ask your children's librarian for some ideas. Perhaps she could volunteer helping during the library's preschool reading time (or, if they don't have one, can plan one!). What about books without words (or very few, such as Donald Crew's TRUCK)? How effective is the story without the words?
In ps here, "English" for high school consists of half a year of grammar/composition and half a year of literature, every year for 4 years. 9th - General literature... and grammar/composition 10th - World literature ... and grammar/composition 11th - American literature ... and grammar/composition 12th - Brit Lit ... and writing a research paper that takes most of the semester Or at least it was that way for years upon years. I don't know anymore - I'm out of touch.
Lindina, when I was in high school, I had all kinds of FUN English classes...journalism, American Folklore, Creative Writing.... We had one class I didn't take called "The Nature of Language", taught by Mr. Langham. Everyone called it "The Nature of Langham". It really was a fun, creative class that included "everything". Assignments included finding a one-syllable word starting with each letter of the alphabet, then two-syllable, then three, etc. We would sit around the journalism office doing it together.
Jackie, you may be on to something here. My DS would love that, too! I would love to be able to pull something like that together, but my brain doesn't think outside the box at all. But thanks for the idea!
It depends on how you look at things. The "normal" accepted school English is probably a combination of grammar, literature, and composition. The homeschool variety can be as varied as other people have suggested: 1. grammar/composition/literature every year. 2. grammar one year/literature and composition one year and alternate 3. Or whatever you decide to do that is related to reading, writing, and grammar We have great freedom here in Texas, so I don't know about other states. We are required to teach English, but there are no specifics. With my son, I spend a lot of time on grammar and very little on literature. We don't write a whole lot, but I think he does pretty well with what he does.
Something to keep in mind is if your child/ren want to attend a university. If they do, they will have to complete the requires courses at home or later attend a Jr. college. As of now Ems wants to attend a university so we are covering the English courses required for admission. These will also cover high school courses.
At the community college Rachael attended last year, they really didn't care what English classes she took. But she (and all the other new students) had to take a placement test to determine where she should start. Needless to say, she did exceptionally well on it! The college she's at now really doesn't tell us which English classes she needed, either. But she doesn't have to take English because of the class she took last year the the community college.
Our community college is the same. However, CA universities require specific courses from the "a-g" requirement list for admission. I think it is stupid. But that is me. I do not see how 2-3 years of labratory sciences is going to benefit her if she isn't aiming for the sciences. But if Ems wants to get into a USC or UC university, she has to take them for admission acceptance. Most CA private universities do not require courses from the list but they recomment them. So far, it seems that it will be easy enough to get most, if not all the recommended courses in. There is a list for each category to choose from so she does have options. The only thing is that some courses can't be used for two different categories, others can.
I hear you, Patty! Same with advanced math. Rachael's taken through Calculus, which is fine because she's going into engineering. But Faythe surely doesn't need any beyond Geometry! I want her to take a Consumer Math class instead; figures it'd be much more practical for her!
There's a website called Writing Fix which provides some lessons using picture books from grades 3 through 12. You could check it out for a jumping off point! http://writingfix.com/picture_book_prompts.htm
Another course you might want to check out for high school is Movies as Literature. It makes a great english course (especially if you do the writing and read some of the books/short stories). For us we did grammar one year, intense writing one year, vocabulary 3 years, literature in one form or another for four years.
