Teaching Literature to High School Boys

 You'd think that since I've been homeschooling for 21 years, I'd be an expert at most things.  You'd think that having taught four high school boys Literature for a total of 11 years, with 4 years more to go, that I'd have it down.  You'd think.

British Lit has been one of those hair-pulling experiences for my boys.  Of course, my daughter loved it.  She reads faster than I do, and by fourth grade I couldn't pre-read her anymore!  (Pre-read:  the act of reading a book so that you could determine whether or not the content was worthy of sticking into her brain!)  By the time we got to Brit Lit, she was raring to go and I couldn't assign her enough books to keep her happy.

I do remember one agonizing time of reading Wuthering Heights and I was trying to get my son to love it as much as I did. I was at a loss, as he complained, and rightly so, that there were too many characters with the same name.  My daughter and I ended up drawing a map of the two houses, and putting the appropriate characters in the right house.

Number 2 son, just wanted to read.  If there were murders and war, he'd happily soak it in.

So, now I'm on sons 3 and 4.  One of them loves to read, but doesn't want to write about it.  The other one only wants to read sports stories.  So, how do I tackle Brit Lit?

Thanks to son number 1, Wuthering Heights is off of the list!  It was determined that if it was a female author, they would watch the movie, but they didn't want to read it.  We enjoyed Jane Eyre via Netflix last week.

I had asked last Spring if anyone wanted to join in, as I lesson planned for 5 Brit Lit novels.  I figured I'd have to do the gory novels, the war-fraught novels, and novels with murder and intrigue.  No one bit last Spring, so this summer I picked my 5 books:  Henry VIII, Pilgrim's Progress, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and some Dickens' novel.  A friend emailed in July and said she might be interested, and that they were going to read Romeo and Juliet.  OK, I can switch out Henry VIII with Romeo and Juliet.  And I began lesson planning for Pilgrim's Progress and Frankenstein.  I really wish there were stand alone Teacher's Manuals, but alas, that wasn't to be, so I started reading and plotting and planning.

Fortunately, there was just enough killing in Romeo and Juliet to capture the imagination of the guys.  They read it without complaining.  We talked about world views, morals of the story, history of the story and all of the literary components in between.  They were ready for the book club meeting.  They really did get a lot more out of it than I thought!

For Pilgrim's Progress, they are drawing a map of Christian's journey through the land.  I'll post pictures when they are done.

When the youngest was in fourth grade, my friend Amber Healy introduced me to a "lap book".  I had heard of them, but had never done one with my kids.  It was really a fun way to walk through California History.  And it was very elaborate.  Every year since then, I have looked for "lap books" for certain topics.  I wished there were kits that you could buy everything already cut out.  I wished there could be lap book ideas for the topics I was teaching.  I wished there could be lap books for high school level.  I wished.  I wished.  And I wished.  So, finally, as I've been struggling to find innovative ideas to teach my kinesthetic learner Brit Lit, I decided last year that I'd create my own lap books.  The one below is for Frankenstein.  And I'm going to publish it on the web, so that if anyone else wants to do a lap book on Frankenstein (am I truly the only one with a kinesthetic high schooler?), they will have access to my ideas.  And I'm certain that anyone can improve upon them, because my ideas are very simple.

Here is my instruction sheet:

Instructions for Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein

Hands-on book

Put the title of the book, backed with scrapbook paper, on the top front of the folder, with the folder lying sideways.

Attach the Tree, the Cottage, and the School House to the front of the folder. On the tree, attach green leaves, with the names of the Frankenstein Family members.  On the Cottage, pink, write the names of the occupants of the cottage, plus their visitors.  On the School House, red, write the names of Victor’s professors.

  Open up the folder and attach the timeline to the right side bottom.  After you’ve read a few chapters, start jotting down on the timeline when certain events happened.

In the open folder, attach the gray frame to the left side top.  Trim the frame to fit inside the folder.  Cut out pictures from magazines, or from images from the internet, and organize Victor’s workshop.  OR be totally creative, and draw your own vision of Victor’s workshop.

   Using clear packing tape or duct tape, create a book using the composition notebook (representing a journal), stationery (representing the letters), and the notebook paper, with one sentence on each page summarizing the chapter.  After it is completed, attach the “binding” of the book to the open folder, above the timeline.

 On the back of the folder, attach the picture of Mary Shelley to a piece of scrapbook paper.  Type on a piece of paper that will fit on the scrapbook paper, 3 interesting items about Mary Shelley.  Attach the whole thing to the back of the folder.  You may need to use clear packing tape.

Attach the World View questions to the inside of the folder, right below your rendition of Victor’s workshop.  You may attach them to a piece of scrapbook paper.

World View

1.     What modern day activities could equate with Victor’s workshop?

2.   How does advanced technology help or hurt us today?

3.   How did technology invade nature in the story?  How does technology invade nature now?

4.   What is Mary Shelley’s commentary on the poor?

5.   What is Mary Shelley’s commentary on Natural Law?

6.   What is Mary Shelley’s view of religious freedom as mentioned in Chapter 14 in regards to Safie?

Type the themes that you found, and attach them to the back of the folder, right below Mary Shelley’s picture and facts.  You may back them with scrapbook paper.

  Fold up the 3 pieces of scrapbook paper.  Two of them are 5”x4” (fold to make them 2.5”) and one is 12” x 2” (fold to make it 6”).  Attach the 3 pieces of scrapbook paper along the side of the notebook/journal and in between the time line and the notebook/journal.  Attach the name of the characters you wish to analyze.  You have four to choose from.  On the inside of each character write either one each of the physical, emotional, and psychological traits.  OR, write 3 traits of one of those subjects. 

We have 3 students that will be joining us in two months, after they have read Frankenstein.  So, each of the five will create their own lap book prior to our meeting.  I instructed them to create their folder with whatever theme they wanted.  Gothic?  Romantic?  Or just create the book by meeting the bare elements of the assignment.  We'll see what they do and I'll post pictures of each of their creations.

UPDATE:  I am posting their creations!  This worked out great for everyone!

The boys did a far more simple job.  They met the basic requirements.  Still it was a lot of fun.

 The gal with the yellow folder added an additional pocket for the diary entries.  She even burned the edges of the paper to give it an aged look.  She also took pictures off of the internet of the characters for her timeline and her character analyses.

Next, we have the second red folder.  This gal chose to use her imagination and drew her rendition of Victor's workshop.  She had everything neatly labeled.



The themes that stuck out to her were:  Secrecy, Knowledge and Revenge.





The next red folder was done by a very creative gal:

She had very neat and artistic letterings, notes and paper backings!  Her themes included:  Seeking knowledge can lead to ruin; and Loneliness can have devastating effects on human lives.

When we all met together to discuss the book Frankenstein, I made some special snacks.

Our Veggies

Our sweets

Our salty (Chips and guacamole)

Our Fruit

The kids humored me by trying everything!

Here is my lesson plan:

Frankenstein Lesson Plan

7:00 - Open in prayer

7:05 - share lap books

7:15 - Read a louds:

Chapter 5 - 2nd paragraph - Victor proud of himself
Chapter 15 - 12th paragraph - half way down to start “...Their happiness was not decreased...” - Monster - to Victor Frankenstein
Chapter 20 - 10th paragraph - The Monster to Victor Frankenstein
Chapter 24 - 14th paragraph - Victor’s resolve toward The MonsterChapter 24 - second to the last paragraph - The Monster to Mr. Wallton

7:30 - The plot - 3 separate plot lines:  Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, The Monster.  Give a brief synopsis of each plot.

7:45 - Answer the following questions:

Are the characters of Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein similar or dissimilar?
Discuss what is meant by the Romantic patterns found in the novel?
Describe the personality of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates
How does the monster learn about the world in which he lives?
Is the ending inevitable?  Do the monster and Victor have to be destroyed in order for there to be order restored among men?
The genre - How is Frankenstein both a Romantic novel and a Gothic horror novel?
Discuss the role that nature plays in this novel.
What is the significance of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Plutarch’s Lives, and The Sorrows of Werter?

8:00 - go over world view questions

8:15 - Discuss themes - technology, treatment of the poor

8:30 - Character Analysis
Victor Frankenstein - family, education, job - did things to excess
The Monster - Physical appearance, adopted family, personality
Elizabeth Lavenza - family, personality
Justine Moritz - family, why she was a martyr, how she fits in Mary Shelley’s world view

Teaching Math Facts

Teaching math facts to 2^nd and 3^rd graders is kind of like wanting to lose weight.  It would just be easier to take a pill.  But, alas, just like there is no weight loss pill, there is no math fact pill!  You just need to do the work.

But first, why memorize math facts?  I made my eldest memorize math facts because that was what he was “supposed” to do.  As my children got older, we saw kids that had never memorized math facts, and consequently could NOT do simple division and multiplication problems without the use of their calculators, I became convinced that it was imperative that my younger sons memorize their math facts.  More on this later, but I don’t let my students use calculators for math until Algebra 2.  We do use a Calculator Math curriculum so that they know HOW to use their calculator, but for their math lessons, I make sure that they understand the way they need to compute everything.

I taught math facts using two tools.  We used Calculadder  http://www.schoolmadesimple.com/calculadder.html  for speed, as a drill every day.  Each page allows you to do a 2 minute to 5 minute timed test.  After my children got a perfect score on a page, I would allow them to move on to the next level.  After they were finished with all 6 books, they were done. 

Priscilla detested the math drills.  She didn’t mind doing the computation, but she did mind being timed.  She would protest that she would never be timed in real life.  One day, I had the opportunity, as we sat in a drive-thru line at Taco Bell, to teach her that sometimes we live in a timed math test.  I said to the five passenger children sitting in my 12 passenger van, “I have $10.  Figure out what you want, and how much it costs, and let’s see if we have enough for drinks!  I have until the two cars in front of me drive away from the speaker.  Oh, no!  It’s a timed math test!”  With David and Priscilla taking orders, and starting the math on the $0.69 tacos and burritos, I heard whooping and hollering, and stomping of feet as they were adding up out loud.  I’m sure Stephen was only screaming because he was trying to keep up, even though he was only 6, and Philip was just stomping his toddler feet to add to the excitement.  David proudly announced the total of what the younger set wanted.  And Priscilla proudly added that we could get 3 drinks.  She never fussed about the timed math tests after that.

The second tool I used was simple flash cards.  I had one set each of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  I would introduce a game called Penny Math.  I read about it years ago.  I’m sorry I can’t reference the original author.  As soon as they had been introduced to the 9’s in addition, I’d start them in addition. 

I’d keep a timer, a bowl of change, and the flash cards.  Each day I’d give them ONE round.  I’d set the timer to two minutes.  I’d let them answer the flash cards for the full 2 minutes.  I would give them a penny for each card they answered correctly within the two minutes.  After they answered 30 correctly, I’d move them to 1 minute for the next day.  After a couple days of trying that, when they would get to 30 answered correctly in 1 minute, I’d move to 30 seconds.  It might take a couple of weeks to get to 30 in 30 seconds, but that was the goal.  After they could do that, I would consider that their math facts were memorized.  I’d do this with the four different sets of cards (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).  I remember at one time, David said it was his goal to answer 29 in 30 seconds so that he could just keep collecting 29 cents a day.  He may have tried, but pretty much after having his math facts memorized he’d go over the 30 in the 30 seconds.

A side benefit to Penny Math.  I’d have them keep their cups of pennies within easy reach.  Sometimes, after our Penny Math drills, which typically took under 2 minutes, we’d spend more time changing pennies for nickels, nickels for quarters, and even quarters for dollars.  They learned their money values at the same time!