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Lisa R
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| Posted: July 02 2009 at 11:41am | IP Logged
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What does it look like at your house?
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God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: July 02 2009 at 3:32pm | IP Logged
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Depends on the child. I like programs that are as independent as possible for the student, but I have some students that prefer a more traditional structure and some that prefer a CM structure.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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Faithr
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| Posted: July 03 2009 at 7:55am | IP Logged
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I am tweaking as I go but high school language arts has been a combination of www.writeguide.com which the kids have used to write papers in Religion, Literature and History, Oxford-Sadlier composition texts to review grammar and review/learn basics of essay writing and writing prompts and analysis from Lightning Literature.
I have not focused on vocabulary in high school because my kids seem to have no trouble with this.
Writing has been supplemented with fun books such as Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
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Willa
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| Posted: July 03 2009 at 9:47am | IP Logged
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I put some examples of my second-born child's work here. I'll paste part of it below:
For language arts we divided up the work into different "strands". Vocabulary or word study, grammar, reading skills, composition skills, and study/research skills.
How we did it would depend on what the highschooler needed and what his interests were.
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My second-born wrote a full-length novel over a period of 2 years. So this "counted" towards composition since he was learning how to express himself, how to revise, etc. He read several books on plot construction, etc.
He also did a vocabulary workbook that only took 5-10 minutes a day. This was easy and fun for him because he likes words and has a good vocabulary already, and there was little writing required.
I wanted him to be able to write highschool level essays so he did a few history or literature-type papers over the four years, as well. ANd we experimented a little with the classical "progymnasmata".
Reading and conversations about great books -- the Iliad, the Aeneid, Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight, some Norse sagas, to name a few. I often read them aloud to him to keep in touch with the oral tradition of much of this literature and to train his ear because he had some auditory processing difficulties. Then I'd give him some follow-up assignment sometimes, or we'd discuss some element.
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My oldest used:
Grammar from Daily Grammar. Actually, all the kids used this on and off. We worked on grammar for "seasons". I'd usually have all three of the older kids do a grammar course for 1 term each year. They'd also do some SAT practice and prep for a few weeks each year. This gave me feedback on some areas they might need to work on in future.
He also used Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary and
Composition in the Classical Tradition (I whited out some funky articles about spouse abuse, etc -- the book seems to be directed towards university law students).
Various papers from MODG history and religion syllabi.
A full-length research paper using a research-paper workbook as a guide.
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My third, my daughter, basically designed her own language arts. She did a lot of blogging and story-writing and also wrote a bit for some newsletters. She did some grammar and vocabulary. She would plan reading outlines for herself based on MODG syllabi and her own interests and she and I had many, many literature discussions.
She was an excellent writer and reader and I never did too much formally with her because she seemed OK on her own.
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My fourth went to public high school and just completed his freshman year. Since I quite liked the basic format of his class I will outline that too for comparison.
His LA teacher did "units" -- first, short stories; then a research project; then Greek mythology; then drama (Romeo and Juliet), then a novel (Lord of the Flies). There was also an accelerated reading program -- the kids had to choose one or two books per term and read them and do an AR comprehension quiz OR a book report.
Integrated with the units was some vocabulary and grammar work and there was a writing project with each unit too. For example, for Lord of the Flies he had to pass a couple of class quizzes, write 8 pages of double-columned notes, write a literature essay (he chose the symbolism of Piggy's glasses) and then design a book cover.
Much more formal and organized than anything we did at home but basically, not too unlike the TYPE of thing we do. Only we do more systematic grammar, and read WAY more.
Sean read more books in his first two weeks home from school this summer than he'd read all year that he went to school 
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 03 2009 at 10:41am | IP Logged
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Well, we are unschoolers so keep that in mind.
My ds will be in 9th grade next year. He is very strong in Lang Arts, so it not an area of much concern for me.He reads voraciously and writes well. We address grammar topics as they come up in his writing.
He is working on his One Year Adventure Novel writing curriculum which he started about half way through last year. I imagine he will finish it up this year.
He has also asked that we study Shakespeare's The Tempest together next year, so I am putting some thought into that. Likely we will read it aloud together and then do some additional related reading.Should be fun.
He knows that at some point he will have to learn to write a proper essay.(He has written short ones in the past but knows he needs to take it up a notch or two.)I will probably sit down with him at the beginning of this year and show him the different types of essays (persuasive, expository, narrative etc) so he knows where he needs to go with that. I doubt he will want to dive into that until he finishes the novel, which is fine with me. He really likes to focus only on a few things at a time, give them his full concentration, and then move on.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Lisa R
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| Posted: July 07 2009 at 4:31pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, everyone! Boy, I wish there weren't so many good choices out there! 
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God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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Macmom
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| Posted: July 11 2009 at 11:08am | IP Logged
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My #2 is following in the footsteps of #1 for high school language arts-
We use Regina Coeli's Humanities program- on-line, great discussions, awesome Catholic professors for teachers, a 1,000 page paper due every month that is independently graded (ie- it's not MOM giving the grade!!!), and good literature integrated with history to boot.
I supplement with Vocabulary From Classical Roots, so they finish that series by 11th grade. "Elegant Essay" was also useful to get them up to speed for all the writing required.
It's also not fair to classify only "English" subjects as Language Arts. There is also of writing necessary for Science and Religion at this stage, as well. The focus of "Language Arts" is to become a good communicator (and to have something worth communicating!) so don't neglect to see other subjects as vehicles to practice those skills.
Peace,
Macmom
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Catholic family life works on the same principle as a washing machine- clothes get clean by agitation.
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: High School Language Arts
