If you prefer classical Christian education then you need to check out Memoria Press and their Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set which includes the To Kill a Mockingbird Literature Guide. As someone who loves to read, and more importantly loves to read quality literature. I was thrilled for our family to have the opportunity to review this Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press. Through our years of homeschooling, our family has always found Memoria Press offers quality Christian based materials that meet our family’s needs. This package includes The Scarlet Letter, Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Romeo & Juliet. This tenth-grade set is suitable for students in Grades 8 – 12.
All of the guides begin with preliminary information to help the students get started including how to mark a book, how to set up the notebook, and other helpful suggestions. Then each guide moves into the actual work of literature being studied. The Student Guides are designed for the students, while the Teacher Guides are designed for the Teacher/Parent. The Teacher Guide includes the Student Pages along with answers to the questions for those pages in the margins, tests, quizzes, writing assignments along with other features designed to help the teacher.
The Student Guide includes directions for the student, questions to answer, and other information necessary to help the student complete their work. For our daughter, who is 16-years-old, little assistance or instruction was needed from me in order for her to complete the actual assignments. However, if you were using this with an 8th or 9th grader, they may require additional assistance. I think these guides would work exceptionally well for students close in ages/grades to each other. If I was using these with our oldest two sons who are two years apart, I would definitely use one level for both sons. However, they have graduated already, so that is not an option.
We elected to start with the guide for To Kill a Mockingbird. The set includes a Teacher Guide and Student Book. Rather than writing in the Student Book, students are required to set up a literary notebook. In addition to the guides, families will need a copy of the book (I recommend a physical copy since students may want or need to mark in it). Also, the student will need a notebook or other means of keeping up with the written assignments. We elected to use an online word processing program to make it easier for us to pick up the work and go. Plus it made it frees us from worrying about papers getting damaged or lost.
The guides include Vocabulary assignments, comprehension questions, basic features and backgrounds, useful literary terms, setting, and more. Our daughter appreciated the reading notes at the beginning of each chapter in the Student Guide. She stated some questions were very straight-forward and simple to answer, such as when the author was born or when her parents were married. However, other questions required more thought and effort to answer.
In addition to the vocabulary work and comprehension questions, essay assignments and Tests and Quizzes can be found in the guides as well. We felt these items helped keep students on track and allowed parents to see how much their student was retaining. Since we are on a summer schedule, I am allowing our daughter to work at a slower pace than I would if it was our normal school year. The first test for To Kill a Mockingbird does not come until after chapter 11, we did not complete that quiz yet.
All of the guides contain the same features of completing vocabulary, comprehension questions, reading, and either quizzes and tests or just tests. Our second son is looking forward to his sister completing the two works by Shakespeare. So we will see if he provides his sister with assistance when we begin those two guides.
Here are sample pages from the other guides.
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Other members of the Home Schoool Review are blogging about their experiences with Memoria Press and their Tenth Grade Literature Guide Se along with other levels of their literature guides. So click here or on the graphic below to read additional reviews.
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