Need more advice: DITHOR or Brit Lit (WG/WH) for HS Lit

[Tabitha]

Ladies, I need to make sure I am not reinventing the wheel. I always make things harder than they need to be. I need help knowing what is the best/most efficient way to tackle a problem area we currently have here.

My dd isn't going to get through the 4th HS guide. We need a 4th Literature program. Several things from MTMM are being used for her HS credit for her 9th grade year. In that year she did not do DITHOR or any other literature program. So, she is missing a year of literature for high school. I mulled over some things on the boards and received great advice. I now need a bit more before she moves too far in any direction just to make sure we do things right without messing something up.

Which is the better route for adding in an additional high school literature credit? Using DITHOR with high school level books/plays/short stories/poetry, or using the British Lit option Carrie has mentioned by combining the 5 Brit Lit books from each of the WG and WH packages? With the creation of a Brit Lit course, to me you are making 3 lit courses out of 2 since you are taking/borrowing books out of the two guides to make a new course. Would it be best, if going the Brit Lit route, to add in a few more novels to round out literature in both the WG and WH guides so those literature portions are not being short changed/weakened? I worry about the weakening part. If it's not necessary to add in more books to compensate for the Brit Lit option, do I need to rename her course descriptions for English/Literature in the other two guides?

I hope all this makes sense. At first I thought I'd have dd go with the Brit Lit course. Then I felt it was somehow cheating by creating a new course, taking away from the lit in WG and WH. So, we started picking out books to work her way through DITHOR (still working on the first novel - Jane Eyre, have two more lined up...buying as we go). I thought we'd do DITHOR over the summer in addition to all her WG work, but there is no way she will have DITHOR completed by this fall (she is getting tired). In one of my previous posts seeking help on this, one person mentioned that my dd could possible complete DITHOR this summer or even work it over a couple years alongside her other work. If it took her a couple years to complete DITHOR, then I was confused as to what grade it would count for. I technically need a lit course for 9th grade. What dates do I put down (or do I) for reading that is done through 11th-12th grade? Is it okay to just have DITHOR written in with her 9th grade English credit and not worry about the actual date of it's completion?

I started re-evaluating everything this weekend when I saw how tired, and stressed, dd was getting doing all her work and try to 'cram' in more reading. I wondered if possibly the Brit Lit course would be more time effective for her, pending how many more titles (if any) would be sufficient to add in to make up for borrowing these books from the two guides. If additional books are needed, it seems like it would be easy enough to add in a couple more titles to both her WG and WH literature since this is where we are now. We'd be 'golden' if nothing needed to be done other than shifting the books around and possibly renaming/revamping the course titles/descriptions. We will be ending WG at the end of September. However, If dd needed to add in 5 additional books to each guide, it may end up being a mute point since that is about how many genres DITHOR contains. This is where I may be overthinking things.

Yes, my mind goes in circles over this. I just wanna make sure I do this right. The timing of things stump me in regards to recording it correctly. I over think, as you can tell, and make things harder on myself and my children. It's a hard habit to unlearn. I certainly would appreciate advice from those more experienced than myself with all this.

For the record, our state requirements do not require a Brit Lit course. Dd just 4 years of a literature program in with her English credit.

Thank you for putting up with yet another post on my literature issues and I work on solidifying what dd is doing before we get too far along on one path when another may make more sense.

[Tabitha]

Here is Carrie's post on how to combine part of the literature from WG and WH to make a Brit Lit course:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15016

Rereading with fresh eyes, it is still two courses/credits with how she suggests moving things around.

Since I need an extra course...the DITHOR path we started might just be the best. My concern is how to record that literature portion since it is spanning over a longer period of time. Am I being too fretful over this?

[LynnH]

You could maybe pull a book or 2 from the WG guide and still have enough lit in the WG guide for a credit, but pulling from the WH guide would be a little trickier due to the fact it doesn't have the BJU lit scheduled in. If you did DITHOR and stretched it out over a period of time what I have always heard is that you give them the credit the year that they finish it. You just list it on the transcript then and also just list the books in the course description, I don't see any need to state that you did it over more than one year. They just care that she did it.

[Tabitha]

Thanks, Lynn.

So then for transcript purposes, I would just award .5 credit in 9th grade for English grammar/composition. Then in another year, say 11th grade, she would get another .5 credit for literature in addition to her English credit that year? It'll just look like she completed 2 lit programs the 11th grade year?

I kept thinking how to award full credit in 9th grade. I hadn't stopped to think about leaving it as .5 credit with the other .5 showing up in a different year. If that is okay to do, then that certainly takes a load off my mind.

It's stressful falling outside the ideal situation, but that is where we are. I am thankful for the hive mind here. Things like this I don't easily conclude to on my own.

[LynnH]

That is exactly what I would do. I have seen transcripts that include English as a full credit and Journalism as a half credit, all in the same year.

[Tabitha]

Thank you again, Lynn. You are a breath of fresh air!

[Carrie]

Tabitha,

The ladies are doing a terrific job of helping you talk through the counting of credits. As I am trying to wrap my mind around what your duaghter has done thus far, I have varying thoughts running through my mind. One thought is that we want to take care at this point not to overload your daughter with too much "catch up" in one area that may add undue pressure to all other areas of study. So, in looking at literature I think we need to take an approach that will allow her to go forward steadily earning credit, without moving or shifting things around.

So, my first advice would be that going into the World History Guide, she should do the literature as written if she is able. If she is not able, then she should instead do the literature in the World Geography guide as written. This will forego any tweaking and allow her to earn solid credit in literature. She should also do the composition and grammar as scheduled in whichever guide's literature you choose for her to follow. This will simplify the path in these subjects for her final two years of high school. Since she doesn't have to earn credit in Brit. Lit. for your state, I wouldn't worry about that and just list her English credits as English I, English II, English III, and English IV on your transcript.

Next, in looking at your daughter's freshman year, since it sounds like she has the composition and grammar covered, I am wondering whether your daughter read the storytime books and did the follow-up activities and/or whether she did the extension books in MTMM? The reason I ask is that although we would prefer for her to have read more classic type literature for her 9th grade credit, it is possible that we could count the storytime and/or extension reading from MTMM as part of her English credit. This is because there are enough books there for a 9th grader to potentially count this as part of an English credit if need be. While this would not be how we would normally like to earn credit in literature, it does fall into the realm of literature and the follow-up activities do make it possible to award credit if needed. So, if she did the storytime and/or extension books, I would combine those with her composition and grammar to award a full credit in 9th grade English I for MTMM.

Next, in looking at her sophomore year, we could combine her work in DITHR (reading Jane Eyre etc.) along with the living library readings, composition, and grammar to earn a full credit on her transcript in English II. I would stop DITHR at the point that she finishes World Geography. Then, this coming year she would follow the plans for literature, composition, and grammar in either World Geography or World History (depending on which you feel is a better fit) to earn her next full credit in English, which you would list as English III. Her final year, she would follow either the World History or the first American History Guide's plans as written for literature and composition/grammar to earn her final English credit, listed as English IV on her transcript. She will need to do all that is in your chosen guide's literature/comp./grammar plans to award credit, as her last two years of high school need to be more rigorous in this area for credit. This will do away with any tweaking and keep her solidly moving forward in these areas. It will also relieve her of the pressure of needing to extend her high school years and will give her credit for work that she already has done.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Tabitha]

Carrie,

I just sat down with dd to refresh both our minds. She did read the Storytime books. She remembered them all, except for Candy Bomber. War Horse was her favorite, and even up to today she still talks about how it's been her favorite 'school' book (she even had me buy her a copy of the movie script). She remembers doing bookmarks, but is not 100% certain she completed them for every title. I need to dig through our bins of work and old folders to see. If this can count towards a literature portion for her, that certainly would be great!

As far as what she is currently doing for DITHOR, Jane Eyre is in the works. She has Silas Marner and Sherlock Holmes set aside to take on our upcoming trip. The Sherlock book is a collection containing short stories and a novel. I think she was leaning towards reading between 10-20 of the short stories. Are there other titles you would feel are better read instead Silas Marner and Sherlock Holmes (she likes mystery which is why this was a pick for her)? If they are fine, are there other titles that would be better for her to add to her DITHOR reading list in light of the MTMM storytime books being used for literature? We leave Saturday for vacation, and I can run out tomorrow and pick up other titles if her current picks so far need to be changed.

Our target is to end WG by the beginning of October. She has been doing everything in the WG guide, and will do everything for the next two guides. Her years after 9th grade are indeed better and more rigorous. I am keeping English in mind. I will have dd starting an extra day of grammar to ensure she gets through the end of R&S 8 by the end of her senior year. We've been keeping a great pace and are looking over the WH materials slowly now to prep for it's start in October. Her last year will be with the AH1 guide. My biggest hurdle with her is the annotation. I like the tip another mom gave in a different thread about using the little sticky tabs. I need to try those with my dd and see if that will ease her into annotating better. Being an artist she is very meticulous about things looking just perfect. Writing in a book, outside of underlining verses in her Bible, is very hard for her to do.

Thank you again for all of your help. It is greatly appreciated.