High School British Literature by Hewitt Homeachooling ~~ A New TOS Review!!

With my high schooler in the midst of 10th but thinking ahead to 11th and with us moving to a new state we have been thinking what we needed yet to complete. So we were pleased to be part of the review for British Early-Mid 19th Century by Hewitt Homeschooling Resources, which is one area we were needing to fill for the upcoming year. My daughter has really enjoyed delving into the poems of William Blake and now has been wrapping her head around the ins and outs of Pride and Prejudice during the review period. We plan on taking it a little slower the rest of the summer and then picking up the program at full speed once we get back to our full schedule (we do a reduced school schedule over summer) in September.

For our review we received the Lightning Literature & Composition: British Early-Mid 19th Century Student's Guide as well as the Teacher's Guide. These books are about 240 pages in length covering a variety of some of the best works of British Literature during the early to mid 19th century -- Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Ivanhoe, Frankenstein, and Jane Eyre. The curriculum will also cover William Blake, Thomas Carlyle, Coolerdige, Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Mackplace Thackery. All of the shorter works are included in the body of the book, but the novels are to be acquired separately. You can purchase them all together as a book pack or use one from your shelf (if you are a literature person and have a lot of books) or even rent from the library.

Borrowed a book from the library.

This set is suggested for those who have done a prior high school level literature course, studying world history, or just generally love this era of literature, but it can be for anyone. The curriculum has an introduction, 4 units (in each unit you have one of the novels and then a few of the shorter works), and the appendices. The regular schedule for this course is to take only 18 weeks, but since this was heading into summer I knew we'd take this part a little slower and follow the full year schedule (provided for your ease in Appendix C) until we jump back into it in fall - then we'd be ahead and could easily finish by mid-year.

Showing some friends the curriculum.

Throughout the course your student will learn about 7 literary lessons like persuasive writing, humor, or setting as well as 2 perspectives -- Romanticism and Historical Fiction. You will also find discussion questions and suggestions for projects as well as additional readings in the other two appendicies.

As I mentioned earlier the student guide is pretty big, but a good quality paperback book. The teacher guide is stapled together without a firm cover. It has a copy of the student book, helps on how to grade their work as well as a schedule with each week having a set amount due. Since my daughter had just completed 3 dual enroll classes at our local community college with one being in Writing, I sort of told her what was expected for the review period and then let her have at it. Of course I checked in on her, but in high school this is what you are looking for - you are more a facilitator and less a dictator when it comes to getting school work done.

Talking about the poetry.

In the student guide, my daughter was armed with all she needed (without the novels as I stated above) to complete the course at a pace that we had discussed. At the beginning of each unit there is a brief overview of the author, like a mini biography, along with some basic information like one of the seven literary terms or more on a genre.

Introduction in the Student Guide

Next come comprehension questions ... not a favorite of my daughter, but she's done quite well with them, better than she gives herself credit. She chose to write her answers in a separate notebook full of lined paper because there just isn't enough room to fit an appropriately lengthed answer.

Comprehension questions for sets of chapters.

Working on her writing assignments.

After the comp questions it will focus more on the literary lesson of the unit. So her first one was about tone and later on in Unit 3 she will learn about imagery and poetic language after reading a handful of some of the well known romantic poets of the time. At the end of the unit there are about 10 to a dozen choices for writing exercies. I asked my daughter to chose 2 to focus on, but her choice. Each of the units follow this same pattern which makes it easy to understand anda get in a flow.

Since literature and English in general is kinda my "thing" I'm an old pro of a red pen ... however, I was very appreciative of the helpful hints and ideas in the teacher guide of how to remind my student of what I would be looking for as I was grading her writing assignments. I know that sometimes the difficulty with upper level studies is the grading and Hewitt Homeschooling Resource was one step ahead with their tips and tricks.

Grading sheet - a great help!

Teacher Guide has answers to the discussion questions.

project suggestions

Since we were doing this toward the end of the year and I'm anticipating using it in the fall we didn't fully delve in to the extra project suggestions that were offered. I do think I will be assiging one to be done over summer so that we will have completed the entire first unit. She is looking forward to some of these hands-on type assignments also.

Who knows, we may keep going through the summer and I think I will be joining her in reading some of these great works of literature. I may even purchase the other British titles they have available (Mid to Late 19th Century Medieval, and Christian), especially the Shakespeare Comedies and Tragedies (can you tell I love literature?? and Shakespeare!) just for me to peruse and work through!

Hewitt Homeschooling Resource also has Lightning Literature Sets from 1st through 4th and 7th through high school so you are going to want to read the other reviews, which you can do by clicking the banner below. You can also find Hewitt Homeschooling on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram so go check them out too!!