Language Arts Resources Part 2: Writing and Literature
Learning to write well and to read excellent literature lays a sure foundation for anyone's education. This sample of my library collection will help parents and those continuing their own education.
Last month, I featured my collection of English fundamentals resources. This month, I’m focusing on resources for teaching writing and literature.
Reading quality literature aloud to your children will help them develop an ear for language. See my "Reading Aloud as a Family" post for more on this topic. When your children can read independently, ensure their reading diet includes classic works, which can serve as models of good writing that they can imitate in their compositions.
Good books also shape souls. The old computer developer saying, “garbage in, garbage out,” holds true to any media we consume. Seek literature that extols the good, the beautiful, and the true, and your children will emulate these qualities.
Literature
Although I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Literature, I felt ill-equipped to teach literature at an elementary level. So, I read up on how to teach children literature.
You can start with the basics, such as having your child narrate back a story to you. But if you'd like to go deeper, especially as your children grow older, here are some resources you can use to teach yourself how to be a parent-English teacher.
Teacher Resources
Teaching the Classics: A Socratic Method for Literary Education on DVD
This course trains parents to use questions to guide their children in thinking about literature, from picture books such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit to the writing of Leo Tolstoy. It explains the five elements of fiction: conflict, plot, setting, characters, and theme at different reading levels with diagrams.
Reading Strands: Understanding Fiction
This resource teaches parents how to discuss fictional works with their children and supplies model conversations.
Learning with the Movies: A Guide for Education and Fun
Study the art of story through film. Featuring family-friendly movies, the author lists movies by topic, genre, and historical context, with some commentary on each title. Contains an index.
The Literature Teacher’s Book of Lists
Designed for teachers of secondary and college students, this reference work contains both useful and whimsical lists about literature. Section I covers the basics of literature study, such as terms, quotations, and literary criticism.
Other sections cover book lists, genres, poetry, drama, literary themes, literary periods, a weird and whimsical section, and ends with a reference section.
Elementary Resources
Five in a Row series
This curriculum is a flexible, picture book-based unit study that can be used alone or as a supplementary literature program for preschool or early elementary. See my review in my library catalog. My son and I immensely enjoyed this program during his primary school years as it introduced us to some marvelous children's books.
Learning History Through Living Books
I didn't use these, but these guides and books will work well for someone following the classical, Charlotte Mason, or literature-based education philosophies.
Theras and His Town: A study about life in ancient Greece, 5th grade and up
A Triumph for Flavius: A study about life in ancient Rome, grades 3–6
The White Isle: a study guide of ancient Britain
Poetry
How to Write, Recite, and Delight in All Kinds of Poetry
This book describes different elements of poetry and gives examples of each element. It also contains samples of poetry written by elementary-aged students.
Reading and Writing Poetry, grades 4–6
The first half of this short book covers poetic elements such as personification and metaphor, and the second half introduces types of poems such as haiku and limericks. Each section has a lesson plan and reproducible worksheets for student assignments.
How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare
Shakespeare for children? Yes! Author and playwright Ken Ludwig introduced Shakespeare to his daughter when she was six, and she enjoyed it. In this book, Ludwig teaches readers, children, and their parents twenty-five passages from the Bard by having the readers memorize them. He also explains the text and the stories from which they come.
Secondary Resources
Painless Poetry
This text for middle and high school students walks the reader through exercises on how to read poetry, recognize elements of poetry, and write poetry. Answers to assignment questions are listed at the end of each chapter.
The Eternal Argument: A Framework for Understanding Western Literature and Culture
I used this fantastic book as a spine for my son’s senior literature course. I designed a simpler version for my daughter’s 8th-grade literature assignments. The author traces the worldview shift in Western culture from the Middle Ages to modern times. See my review.
Bob Jones University Textbooks
Fundamentals of Literature for Christian Schools, high school text plus teacher’s manual
American Literature for Christian Schools, high school text plus teacher’s manual
Continuing Education Resources
If you have a high schooler who needs more advanced literature guides or you want to improve your knowledge of the classics, check out these books.
Books about Books and Reading
Invitation to the Classics
A Christian view on the Western Classics and recommendations on best editions to study.
The Discerning Reader: Christian Perspectives on Literature and Theory
The contemporary study of literature has become hostile to Christian thinking. This book addresses this controversy from a biblical point of view. Recommended for the college-bound student.
The Twelve Trademarks of Great Literature: Essays, Stories and Poems
An excellent book written by a member of the Worldview Academy.
How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
This book shows up on many reading lists for the college-bound study. I became bogged down with the note-taking system and never finished this work.
The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
Written by the authors of The Well-Trained Mind, a guide to classical homeschool education.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature
As part of the PIG book series, this book exposes how contemporary worldviews have distorted the study of English and American literature. Recommended for the college-bound student.
College Literature Texts
I majored in English literature and used some of the following in college. Others I collected later.
The Norton Introduction to Fiction
An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama
The Norton Book of Classical Literature
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol. 1
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol. 2
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 1
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 2
The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces
Writing
Teacher Resources
Teaching Writing: Structure and Style
This DVD course trains homeschool parents on how to teach the Excellence in Writing curriculum, units 1-9 covering grades 2 through high school.
Easy Writing: Teaching Students How to Write Complex Sentence Structures
This book contains instructions for numerous reproducible worksheets to aid K-12 students in writing sentences well.
Writing Strands: Evaluating Writing (MasterBooks)
I always struggled with how to evaluate my children's writing. Being a professional editor, I'll admit I graded my kids' work more strictly than their co-op teachers. Most parents have the opposite problem of needing more confidence in their own English skills. This book provides examples of writing problems and how to fix them.
Elementary Resources
The Institute for Excellence in Writing resources
I discovered this curriculum company at a homeschool curriculum fair, fell in love with its methodology, and used it with both of my kids in elementary school. The Excellence in Writing program uses writing models for students to rewrite in their own words. Ben Franklin taught himself to write in this manner. My son, who has a writing disability, struggled with it. Below are supplemental materials.
Logos Press
These writing guides follow the keyword outline method of the Excellence in Writing program but also add a vocabulary study. The book contains reproducible worksheets, a grading rubric for each assignment, and a sample school schedule.
Writing Trails in American History, grades 3–4
Writing Smarter, Not Harder, Young Author Edition
The author, Colleen L. Reece, was a Northwest Christian Writers Association (NCWA) member, to which I belonged in the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s. This junior version of her adult book of the same title takes the reader step by step through the writing process.
Secondary Resources
Write Stuff Adventure (Exploring the Art of Writing), grades 7–10
This text begins with simple assignments and then moves into personal history, essays, nonfiction articles, and news pieces.
Student Writing Intensive Group C DVDs by Excellence in Writing, high school
Continuing Education Resources
Because I’ve worked as a writer all my adult life, I own several books on writing. Here are a few favorites.
The Write Start: Practical Advice For Successful Writing by the Northwest Christian Writer's Association (NCWA)
I volunteered as editor of the NW Christian Author, the bimonthly newsletter of NCWA, from 1994 to 2003. While in that position, my mentor, Agnes Lawless, and I compiled a beginner writer's packet of articles. Later, NCWA took this idea and put together this book.
On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
A classic work on writing by William Zinsser.
Write Tight: How to Keep Your Prose Sharp, Focused and Concise
The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook
A fun book listing the origins of first names and surnames listed by nationalities. I found a name for a cat in this book—Egan.
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
In college, I was assigned to read this classic work, often called "Strunk and White," and not its title.
Search the Newton Family Library for many more titles on writing.