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I am assuming that the ds do written narrations for the literature box in the WH guide. I was wondering how often that is scheduled. It isn't scheduled in the sample week so I am guessing it isn't weekly.

Also how many pages of literature reading a day, on average, is scheduled? Just thinking ahead to next year and trying to figure out if my ds will be able to do this box as written. For the WG guide I cut some of the lit books so that he is only reading around 15-20 pages a day. I think he will be up to a little more challenge next year, but not sure how much of a challenge so I am trying to get a feel for how that box is scheduled.

Just me, tagging along and listening in...

Hi, Lynn! Your son is going to love the WH guide! I love the way Lit is scheduled in this one. Actual written narrations are not scheduled very often, however, they do write almost daily about the Lit reading. There are notes in the box before each reading which are very helpful to give some background. Then the student reads and annotates. I asked my dd and she said she feels that the readings are not as long as they were last year. I don't know the number of pages per day and the font size and page sizes are so different in every book, that the numbers probably don't matter. It is a good amount, but the nice thing is that many of the books are classics are so are easy to find on CD if that helps your son. I plan to use CDs for Les Mis since that is a hard one to get through, in my opinion. After the reading, they may copy something in their common place book - this is scheduled pretty regularly. Then, almost every day, they also do the "Reflect" portion in their literature journal which has a small writing assignment. A question is asked and the student responds in writing to the question(s) about the reading, so it is different than a narration. This could usually be done in a small paragraph unless otherwise specified. Occasionally, only an oral narration is scheduled, but in general, there is a writing assignment daily. Hope this helps a little bit. This way of doing Literature makes a lot of sense to me.

I'm glad to hear this.

We're in World Geography right now and have found the readings for Pride and Prejudice, Papa's Wife, and Screwtape Letters to be unmanageably long. I am sharing the reading with my daughter b/c it takes her even longer to read it to herself than for me to read it out loud. It has not been uncommon for a daily reading to be about an hour, and then there is the "assignment" on top of that. The books are great, so I don't want to miss them, but I do wish the daily chunks were a little shorter.

I'm not sure what I'll do for future children that aren't as strong of students as my current 9th grader.

Tiffini that is very helpful. He actually doesn't mind small writing assignments such as the reflect ones you are talking about. Written narrations are what take so long. I cut 3 of the lit books this year, but I would like to have him do lit as written next year, it at all possible. From what you are describing I think he can do it. I guess we will just start it and see how it goes. The only thing about the audio books is that finding them for the specific abridged versions could prove difficult. He does do better if he reads and listens at the same time. Many of those books also have movies that have been made and I have found that if he watches the movie first he does much better. Hopefully with all these different adaptations he will be fine. Sometimes it is so hard to find the balance between pushing him to his limits and having unrealistic expectations.

We are enjoying the WH Literature box this year at our house, so I am glad to hear it is going well for others too! I know it is hard to tell from the first week of plans online how the literature in the WH Guide is set up, simply because the first week is a training week for the varying components in the literature box.

On Days 1, 3, and 4 the pattern is quite similar with the literature box broken up into "Introduce," "Read and Annotate," "Select," and "Reflect." "Introduce" gives a little background or something to watch for or think about in the day's reading. "Read and Annotate" assigns pages to be read and expects the students to annotate as they read. Often one annotation is given to the kiddos to help them learn to annotate better and to key them into important nuances within the narrative. "Select" requires students to select a passage to copy in their Common Place Book. "Reflect" is a written Literature Journal style reflection based on the day's reading with topics ranging from Biblical/life applications to literary themes/elements to character motives/descriptors to Scripture connections/Godly character traits, etc. There is quite a bit of flexibility built into the length of the students' responses to the "Reflect" part of the plans.

On Day 2 students also have either an oral narration or a written narration. These narration types alternate by week and include some given topics from the reading on which to reflect as a part of the narration.

Typically, we plan for the Literature box to take students around 45 min.- 1 hour a day. Of course, faster readers may be done sooner, and slower readers will take longer. Rod and Staff Grammar/Essentials in Writing alternate daily, taking an additional 30 min. daily. Together these comprise the "English" credit and take about 1 hr. 15 min. (up to 1 hr. 30 min.) daily.

The times for Literature in the World Geography Guide were planned to be similar to the times I've outlined above. Again, variances in reading speed will effect the actual time literature takes daily. We have worked to make sure that the the design and daily assignments of our literature plans meet college preparatory requirements, encompass needed literary skills, include classic works that are worthy of being read, and challenge students appropriately for the high school level.

When thinking how much time literature is taking daily in your high school student's schedule, it helps to remember that students in the public school sector spend 50 min. in literature class 5 days a week and often have additional reading in the evening. Many high schools also have a required summer reading list of classics from which students are required to read "x" number prior to school beginning. With these things in mind, along with the fact that students are doing school 4 days a week rather than 5 with Heart of Dakota, you can see how much time literature is expected to take daily from a typical high school perspective. We try to keep these things in mind as we write.

I pray that the literature in our high school guides may be a blessing to your families! It has been very challenging and rewarding for me to write the literature portion of the World History Guide's plans, as it is a very time consuming type of reading/writing/planning. Yet, my son who is doing the WH guide this year says he really loves the literature part of his day, and I love the morals, values, thematic and Scriptural application, and just plain old great classics that this year of plans contains! So, happy reading to you and your kiddos!

Blessings,
Carrie

Joel and I really love the WH literature.

Carrie thank you so much for your detailed response. I think the balance of the lit box in the WH guide sounds great. That really helps me to see the big picture. I really like all the books. I am planning on Noah doing it as written, it's just sometimes his memory issues and the fact he has to type everything interferes with my plans. This year he has handled the BJU reading fine, I just had to cut some of the others due to the fact that English would have taken him about 2 hours or more a day otherwise. It truly is just unique to him and his CP. My daughter would have had no issues doing it as written. He is making gains with his understanding of harder vocabulary this year and he and I are learning little tricks to help him understand the readings so I think he will be ready next year. I am reading "The Pearl Maiden" right now and really enjoying it.

Diane,

I am so glad to hear that you and your son are enjoying the WH Literature plans this year. That makes my heart sing!

Thanks for sharing!

Blessings,
Carrie

Lynn,

I am continually amazed at what Noah has been able/and is able to do on each step of his homeschool journey. Each year with HOD, he rises to the challenge. You do an amazing job of knowing when to prod and when to pull back. Noah could ask for no better teacher and mother than you!

I should have clarified that I was just sharing in general about the design of the Literature plans for those who are doing the World History guide (and a bit more about my thinking in the selection of materials and time allotments for literature overall in the high school guides).

Blessings,
Carrie