Does the subject of English in a homeschool need to look like the traditional school studies? For our family, we have NOT wanted the “typical English” program and so, over the years, we’ve tried to cover the four English courses at a secondary level in a more palatable, less boring manner!
High School English that isn’t as boring…
Why?
I will say that encouragement to “self-design” courses to meet individual interests and needs largely came when we heard about the flexibility offered from the North Atlantic Regional High School (NARHS) organization. I explain more about that specific school/organization in my post about how to obtain high school credits (at this link).
Secondly, I should likely also mention here that, in high school, I generally did academically well in English; however, I now choose to ignore some grammar rules for curriculum or blog writing, simply writing the way I would speak as a mom or “friend-to-friend”.
While I appreciated my teachers, I did not, often enjoy most assignments. I tended to dislike the literary selections and felt that the assignments for frequent analysis or debate were often not matching with skills that I’d find useful for “real life”.
While I could read/recite Shakespeare with a dramatic flair, dissect classics to refute troubling themes, I’d rather read literature which was more uplifting, conveying useful knowledge, or having a genuine good-humor to it.
And I’d rather “bid adieu” to much of the rest!
I did enjoy writing stories, independent reading choices (fiction), research projects (non-fiction), and found grammar and business English lessons helpful.
You can imagine my frustration when, as a homeschool mom, I found that typical homeschool English resources included a heavy emphasis on literary analysis, with some titles even being ones I had rejected inwardly when I had been a student!
Since homeschooling was about offering choices and flexibility, we were determined to see “what else” we could do in English, so that time would be better spent with more fun and actually-useful content!
Table of Contents
Here are my favourite options for English programs in the upper levels of homeschooling:
GRAMMAR
I think it’s very important that students learn how to express themselves in a written manner which fits with correct grammar, in formal language (e.g. essays, research reports) and in informal language (e.g. curriculum design for home environments, letters, blogging). (Note: We don’t find a real life purpose in “diagramming sentences” or “schwa sounds” and so do not worry about those topics in our homeschooling.)
One whole English course, sometime during the high school years for our family, has its main focus on grammar – to repeat and expand the practical skills learned back in elementary so that these skills are solid.
Resources I like to provide for GRAMMAR are: Copies of summary sheet hand-outs from teachers in my high school days plus a Canadian textbook entitled, “The Bare Essentials: Form B” by Sarah Norton and Brian Green (- we use the 7th edition, black cover with a big “B” on it). Students generally complete “every other question” for most grammar chapters over the duration of one semester of work.
To avoid making an entire grade all about “only grammar”, I also ask them to write and illustrate a children’s storybook and/or participate in a family newspaper assignment and/or read/listen to and discuss some poetry or music lyrics (e.g. Canadian folksongs).
NOTETAKING
Outlining and learning how to take notes with short-forms, colour-coding, and symbols (e.g. a circle can indicate a definition) – oh, notetaking skills are very practical!
Ideas I’ve found helpful to me are shared with my children and they can come up with more ideas themselves.
Also, the student listens to things of interest (e.g. online lectures) to practice note-taking skills.
When we went to school, we used to be given a “notebook mark” for how well-organized, comprehensive, and neat it looked.
This skill fits within business English skills! When I was in high school, notetaking lessons also included a form of shorthand (Forkner).
READING /LITERATURE
NARHS suggests that for one of the high school levels of English courses, a student could choose 12 pieces of literature and writes “something” as a result of understanding each one. (Then those 12 writing pieces are marked for analytical and writing skills.)
The level of literature is at a high school level but there is freedom as to “what” to read.
When our students have done that for a semester, they have chosen mostly Canadian-authored novels, some fiction, some non-fiction, and some from other countries in the world. Then, these have been followed by a variety of essays, book reports, creative writing projects. (So far, none has been a piece of poetry or drama to express one’s thoughts about a piece of literature; but that would be a possibility, depending on the interest of the student.)
We’ve also spent a bit of time learning the definitions of literary terms, poetry terms, and literary techniques.
Definitions of knowing what these things are can help if a student has a standardized test to do in the future (e.g. ACT, SAT).
Simply knowing “what” the terms are, with a few examples to show it in a piece of familiar literature or media, I feel is fairly sufficient. I don’t have them pick all sorts of examples of these out of several novels. I’ve sometimes thought, “How much is actually enough for understanding a particular literacy term or theme? How many examples are truly needed, or is it just busywork to keep writing short answers through a novel study booklet?”
(When we’ve tried a novel study booklet with those sorts of questions, it has been very boring and tedious to go through. When our teens study a specific novel, they might make charts or lists instead.)
(My e-book curriculum for literature studies/reading comprehension skills for the junior/senior elementary levels is not finalized as of this point in time. But if/when it is published, it will include the high school levels of comprehension such as literary terms with examples in it.)
WRITING
Often I like to include at least one written story assignment which they can read to a younger child.
We make a number of these storybooks with dental floss like this. But for the high school level, the expectation for a more-complex plot and vivid vocabulary with literary techniques is higher compared to the elementary level.
When I wrote the writing curriculum for the upper elementary levels, I also included in it, the worksheets and tips that I use for the high school levels. The curriculum is self-paced and starts at a level of “wherever a student is at” in his/her written skills, as long as the older student has already grasped the foundation of composing sentences and paragraphs. This curriculum gives the student some fun and solid direction for “how to write well”.
It’s called “Writing Stories, Letters, Reports, Essays, and Speeches” (linked title).
I like to include at least one “creative writing” assignment for each English course.
There are a couple of other writing skills I’d like to mention besides the “creative writing” of stories –
- My guess is that this next generation will compose more blog posts in comparison to formal essays.
One option is to take a few weeks to learn about blogging techniques and then write a couple of example blogs in the recommended styling about topics of their choice. (It’s true that I don’t usually care about following the recommended structure of business blogs but I still want my teens to know of it in case they ever end up with a website themselves someday.)
- One of the resources I pointed them to for direction on blog structure is Jenny Rose Spaudo at this (non-affiliate) link. She offers a free downloadable booklet as a blogging guide from her main page.)
2. Non-fiction research or technical writing –
I didn’t experience a lot of this style of writing as a high school student. But I wish it had been included for the skills of reading abstracts and scientific journals which I learned in post-secondary.
Again, my guess is that research articles to read or write or present about will be a more prevalent activity in the “real world” in comparison to writing literary or persuasive essays.
It’s my aim to include learning about the basics of this sort of writing in our high school level English.
- One of the resources/references useful for teaching about non-fiction writing (and might be available in a library to look at for a bit) is: “Writing in the Life Sciences – A Critical Thinking Approach” by Laurence Greene, Oxford University Press, 2010.
- (Someday I’m hoping to finish a blog post which teaches students how to read an example scientific research paper. If/when I do this, I’ll try to remember to link it here.)
For sure, knowing how to properly write a variety of essays is important. I just would like to see a better balance between the amount of essays and other forms of writing.
ORAL LANGUAGE
Every once in a while, I like to give an assignment for a 3-5 minute speech (on a topic of own choice or based on a topic within their history or science topics).
I encourage the use of visuals; perhaps the student might make a complimentary poster, dress in costume, or use a puppet or visual aid. Designing a slide presentation is also possible, since that also helps them to practice useful computer skills.
Vocal music has been a frequent activity in our home outside of “school hours”. But such could also be included as relating to speech skills (e.g. clarity, accents, syllabication, voice strength).
These oral presentation skills can be very helpful in their future work and ministry opportunities. And students can have fun with these presentations too!
COMMUNICATION
Related to oral language skills is the idea of teaching students how to be effective teachers and communicators. This can be a fun and practical English skill to learn in the teen years!
And it can help people learn how to be better spouses and parents too!
- A favourite resource for learning about effective communication is “Teaching to Change Lives” by Dr. Howard Hendricks (non-affiliate link).
- There is a video series at this link here that supplements the book. But the book by itself is also excellent.
- (This would be a unit study within the year, for example, perhaps taking the length of a few weeks.)
MEDIA STUDIES
Think of a variety of projects which could be done. Here are a few examples:
- Example 1 – a student researched the history and influence of radio in worldwide evangelism.
- Example 2 – a student learned about social media advantages and disadvantages and watched as I read through the fine print of setting up an account.
- Example 3 – a student could learn more about a favourite comic strip artist/author or compilation of humorous sayings, noting the puns and double-meanings.
- Example 4 – a pair of students used simple recording equipment to record friends and family for a Christmas audio CD, edited it on the computer, created the cover with credits, understood permissions/copyright issues, and communicated with all involved. The time spent on such a project I feel is worthy of counting it as part of an English course.
LINGUISTICS and HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
We have also done a unit study with “Excavating English” (my affiliate link) by Ruth A. Johnston.
This homeschool curriculum introduces students to basic linguistics (how phonetic sounds are made by the mouth and throat) and the history of the English language. It provides links for supplemental videos online plus activities (with an answer key) for puzzlers, language charts, reading examples to decipher, and other interesting activities to understand each chapter.
I have especially liked the overview of British history which comes alongside such a study and so we have taken an extra “rabbit trail” to watch more than just the two “The Story of English” video clips from Ellen McHenry’s playlist for this curriculum. (More episodes for the video series can be found at this link.)
I have found it suitable for multi-level studies, interest-levels grades 5-12, however, the younger children often play quietly nearby (e.g. with play dough).
The curriculum is downloadable and printable in black/white, making it quick and easy for homeschooling families to begin.
Here is that (affiliate) link again: Excavating English (downloadable, printable unit study)
Dual Credit for Grade 12
This could be an option for some homeschool students – to enrol in a university to take an English course online which could count towards a grade 12 credit AND a first-year university English.
Dual credit options historically have been options in USA education. So if you want to look into what might be available in comparison to typical grade 12 English options or the ideas above, you might try searching at post-secondary institutions which offer online courses, such as some Christian universities, some of which may have more of a practical approach to English.
Other Ideas for English
Some families might take a more-detailed study of just one or a couple of aspects of English studies (e.g. topics as short stories, business English (communication, marketing, courteous social media, spelling), drama, writing/publishing stories for young children, writing/speaking/studying on Biblical topics, journalism, doing research reports of own interest).
Some students might want to take time to do practice tests for standardized English tests (e.g. a provincial literacy test, an SAT, ACT, etc.).