Literature - 6th grade

The planning begins! I can't believe that C will be a 6th grader next year. I think - depending on what area of the country you are in - this is considered middle school. :shudder: That's ok... My entrance into homeschooling was finding out that our then 11th grader needed to either be homeschooled or head to a city high school that we didn't want her attending. Her then 9th grade sister followed shortly after. Talk about being thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool! I'm finally heading into territory that I'm comfortable with. (Truth be told, the elementary grades spooked me simply because since I started in the upper grades my sense of depth in work and expectations has always been hard to balance!)

I'll be posting on subjects as we get things chosen, planned, etc.

I'm going back to what I know for literature, which is pulling together my own units using what I can find online or what I can make up as I go. :) We're going to aim for one book a month with adjustments made should we need to slow or speed up. I'm keeping this light and fun with a focus on discussion and easy projects that will get us involved with the characters. C has shown some interest in creative writing, so our focus here will tie into what she'll be doing in composition. (Example - if we are focusing on detailed descriptions of say setting in her writing assignments I'll adjust our book discussions and projects to focus on setting and/or descriptive writing.)

Basic format - Each book will have some pre-reading discussion and possibly research (short) so that she has an understanding of either the culture or time period in which the story is set. Each chapter will have any unfamiliar vocabulary listed for her to define. Each chapter or group of chapters will have review questions that will be used in discussion with most likely one to three held for written answers in her lit notebook. (This is just because she needs practice getting her thoughts out in writing since she's more verbal by nature.) Each chapter or group of chapters will have several project assignments that she can choose from that might include art, poetry, mapping, research, etc. based on chapter content. (Ex - The Swiss Family Robinson will be great for creating a nature/animal notebook.) Each book will have some sort of final project that will tie into her creative writing. (Using the SFR example, she might need to write a short adventure story about survival in an unfamiliar place, etc.) There won't be any tests or book report forms. My goal is to walk away with useful knowledge gleaned from each book, not a file full of papers. :)

We'll be reading these books in no particular order. They were chosen after looking through several "great books" lists and recommendations with selections mainly taken from lists meant for middle school, upper elementary grades, or advanced readers in the general 5 - 7 grade range. I tried to get a mix of male/female main characters with a mix of subject and genre. I also tried to pick books with various copyright dates so that I got some of the classics in while nodding toward some of the good fiction that is a bit more modern. Yes, I know that there are more than we can read in a typical school year... we're going to begin most likely in May and read throughout the summer. (Summer will probably mean math and reading just to keep the flow going. I've not decided if we will bring in any other lessons. It will probably depend on interest and what we have going on during those months.)

*An asterisk indicates that I already have study guides with projects found or created. If anyone needs one let me know. Everything I'm using is either in public domain or created myself so there aren't any copyright issues to contend with. I have several for Redwall that I'm looking at, though I just don't know which one I'll use yet, so it isn't marked as completed for that reason.

1 - Tom Sawyer OR Huckleberry Finn (Twain) - I love these both, so I'm prepping for both and will let her decide.*
2 - The Swiss Family Robinson (Wyss)*
3 - The Westing Game (Raskin)*
4 - The Princess and The Goblin (McDonald)
5 - Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt)*
6 - Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls)*
7 - Black Beauty (Sewell)
8 - Twenty-One Balloons (duBois)
9 - Redwall (Jacques)
10 - A Year Down Yonder (Peck)
11 - The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Speare)*
12 - The House of Dies Dreer (Hamilton)*

I'm trying to locate a copy of several other titles that are out of print and not listed at our library. If I can pick these up through Interlibary Loan or find them cheap online, I might add in The Magic Summer by Noel Streatfeild and Secret at Pheasant Cottage by Patricia St. John. These both had rave reviews and showed up on several lists that I referenced, so I'd really like to give them a read. She'll continue with daily free reading, but I'll probably get back to having a "good books" list handy for when she's searching the library.

Money spent: $0