When my youngest was in first grade, we switched to The Good and the Beautiful for ELA. She used that curriculum along with All About Spelling through 7th grade. Since there is not a Level 8 and I did not feel that she was ready for high school ELA, we used Cover Story by Clear Water Press along with two literature studies for vocabulary and reading comprehension. She loved it, especially putting her year’s writing assignments together to produce a magazine using MS PowerPoint.
That spring, as I began prepping for the next school year and deciding on curriculum for her freshman year of high school, she began to beg me to not use The Good and the Beautiful for high school. Her two older sisters had gone through all three high school levels of TG&TB and I was satisfied with their academic achievements. Both girls passed the TSI reading and writing tests to be able to enroll in dual credit college classes with flying colors, so I felt it was a solid high school curriculum. But it is a bit dry and boring, I will readily admit, and she said she was really sick of TG&TB after using it all throughout elementary and middle school. By the time summer vacation arrived, tears were involved in the discussions, and since dread was not a criteria for ELA in our homeschool, we ditched TG&TB to go a different route.
This is one of the beautiful parts of homeschooling: we choose what works for our students to achieve grade level academic goals, not what it popular at the time or what the state has chosen for us.
She loved the creativity and variety of the Cover Story curriculum and wanted something more like that. I have the high school level writing curriculum by Clear Water Press, Byline, but I felt she needed a more structured essay style of writing instruction for 9th grade. We had used WriteShop Jr. with my oldest two before making the switch to TG&TB and I have fond memories of that curriculum. It was thorough and it was FUN. It is a solid writing curriculum that engages children with prewriting activities and then takes them through all the stages of writing for every assignment: brainstorming, sloppy copy, editing, and a creative final product. I knew the high school curriculum, WriteShop I & II, was similar and decided to try it for her. I found the teacher’s manual used on ebay and purchased the pdf downloads of the student workbook to save a bit. The pdfs were printed and placed in a notebook with her literature study curriculum.
She has really enjoyed the structure and writing topics for WriteShop I. We do one part of the lesson each day for four days per week (Day 1: pre-writing activity, Day 2: practice paragraph, Day 3: brainstorming, etc.) , so each whole lesson takes us 2 weeks. This pace works for us and the lessons do not take long at all. This is a teacher intensive curriculum, and most of the class time is spend in direct or side-by-side instruction and practice. Students will work independently on brainstorming, writing rough and final copies, and doing the first edit. The teacher will also do one edit before the final copy and grade the finished product using the rubric provided. The entire process follows a predictable routine, which I hope she will internalize for future writing classes in college.
For literature, I found an engaging option at Literary Adventures for Kids. I had her look at the high school options with me and we decided on the Poetry & a Movie bundle, their 9th grade recommendation. I was tempted to jump into American Literature as we are doing Early American History this year through Guest Hollow, however it looks like it might be a better fit for Modern American History next year. The Literary Adventures curriculum does include grammar instruction as well as poetry writing.
The first unit, I had her work independently, however I noticed she was not printing things or taking notes as instructed. So although the curriculum could be used with little teacher intervention by a more independent learner, I find that I need to supervise the lesson each day to go over the instructions and make sure she is completing all of the steps of the assignment.
To make both curricula work with our schedule, I have decided to alternate. We do ELA for four days per week, one lesson in Poetry & a Movie, which takes about 2 weeks, and one lesson in WriteShop I during the other two weeks of the month. It allows her to focus on the lessons without trying to do too much in one day.
I also have her spend 10 minutes each day working on Khan Academy’s 9th Grade Reading & Vocabulary during her literature weeks and Khan Academy’s Grammar during her writing weeks as the daily warm-up.
We are in our 8th week of school, and so far, it is working well. The literature and writing curricula that we chose together is engaging. She especially likes the Write-Shop I activities and I can already see improvement in her writing. The alternating every two weeks provides variety that she asked for. The Khan Academy warm-ups help to review and sharper her grammar, reading comprehension, and vocabulary skills.
If the year continues to go as smoothly, I can see us continuing next year with WriteShop II and the American Classic Literature curricula (to pair with Modern American History), along with Khan Academy’s 10th grade Reading & Vocabulary. Next year might also be the year that she takes the TSI to start dual credit classes, but we will see if she is ready. Her 11th grade year would be a good year to incorporate Byline with SAT/ACT prep, along with World Literature and either World History or World Geography. After that, she will take dual credit classes for English Composition.
Which brings me to the another beautiful part of homeschooling: we determine the course of our child’s high school years, depending on their abilities and interests. This is just a plan, not set in stone, and will be evaluated and changed as needed each year. Our children’s education is too important to just be left up to chance.
No compensation was received for the endorsement of these products, these opinions are my own. The links provided are for your convenience, I do not provide any sort of compensation.
North Star Homeschool Resources 