Grade 11 Booklist
History studied in Year 11 is the 20th century..
Note: One asterisk * means a book will be used in Term One. Two asterisks ** means Term Two, and three *** means Term Three. Books with no asterisks may either be used all three terms, or scheduled at your discretion..
Formatted etexts for Year 11 can be accessed by joining the etext email list.
BIBLE
HISTORY
BIOGRAPHIES
GEOGRAPHY
GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS
CITIZENSHIP
CURRENT EVENTS
WORLDVIEW
LITERATURE
POETRY
GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION
RECITATION
COPYWORK/DICTATION
MATH
SCIENCE
NATURE STUDY
LOGIC
ART
MUSIC
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
HEALTH
LIFE AND WORK SKILLS
FREE READING
BIBLE
The Bible - Read and narrate from the Bible, using a plan of your own preference, or follow this suggestion for this year:
* Romans, Colossians; Hebrews, Titus
** 1 Chronicles, Obadiah; 2 Chronicles, 1 & 2 Timothy
*** Isaiah, Joel, 1 & 2 Peter
Atlas of the Holy Land
Bible Maps | Bible timeline | Study questions with nice maps |
One option is Matthew Henry's commentary.
Other commentaries are available at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
Suggested Devotional Reading
* The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul
** The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
*** The Pleasures of God by John Piper--*2000, a life-changing devotional written on a deeply profound level OR Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowper, a classic devotional.
HISTORY
The time period for Year 11 is the 20th century. Primary text is A History of the Twentieth Century: The Concise Edition of the Acclaimed World History by Martin Gilbert.
HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR PARENT-TEACHERS:
You can see a picture of the book at amazon.com.
And lastly, resources for general reference:
PBS Timeline of the 20th Century
Yahoo Search Engine collection of people, events, and movements of the 20th century
Library of Congress American Memory - Primary documents and eyewitness accounts that could be joined to timeline.
American Cultural History by decade - Focuses on the main issues of that decade; the opening for 1910 says "The 1910s was a decade of great change for America. It was the decade when the United States was first considered a world leader. Many of the issues we face today were important including the escalating of immigration and poverty, labor and monopoly battles, work safety and child labor problems. World War I--the first 'war to end all wars' raged. The 1910s were the decade America came of age. " It goes on to talk about negro suffrage, child labor laws, tobacco and the Titanic.
American West 20th Century Timeline
Similar site, designed to go with PBS's similar TV series, "People's Century." 26 episodes starting with Age of Hope 1900 and Killing Fields 1919 (WWI) to People Power 1991 (Fall of Communism) and Fast Forward 1999 (technology) Includes an overview (etext) of each program.
Canadian Timeline
Evansville's World Hisory shows each period in outline form and links to lots of people, events and trends. The outline itself could serve as a timeline. Covers 1900-1945 and 1945-1990's. (seems to be offline!)
The 20th century was a very public one in which events were first heard rather than read by much of the world. The events of the 20th century were immediately brought into our lives and living rooms via the medium of pictures and sound. One of the clearest ways to gain an understanding of the shared language of the 20th century is through hearing or viewing the speeches of the era (or reading them if a recording cannot be located), From President Roosevelt's "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" to Martin Luther King's "I've been to the mountaintop," to Neil Armstrong's "One small step for man" to President Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," these famous and world-changing words were heard, rather than read, and the timbre in the voices of those who spoke them is a part of the history of this century. The phrases became part of the vocabulary of the people who first heard them. We have provided a list of those speeches in the appropriate terms, often with links where our students can go download a recording and actually listen to it over the internet. Parents should select perhaps one a week for their students to read, hear, or view. We suggest students give their narrations of those speeches orally, both because oral narration continues all the way through high school, and also to experience narrating a speech 'in kind.'
Make a century chart of the period studied. See reprint from PR July 1910. Continue to add entries to your Book of the Centuries. Instructions for making your own are at Ambleside Online. Students at this level in the PNEU schools made summaries of dates and events, referred to maps as they read their history, and made century charts.
See these helpful Parents Review articles:
Book of the Centuries
The Teaching of Chronology
The Correlation of Lessons
HISTORY OPTIONS:
OPTION ONE/Primary Text:
A History of the Twentieth Century: The Concise Edition of the Acclaimed World History by Martin Gilbert.
OPTION TWO:
Modern Times Revised Edition: World from the Twenties to the Nineties by Paul Johnson. We had always intended to use Johnson's book for option one. However, upon closer inspection, we found that Johnson writes for an audience he presumes still remembers the events he discusses. He has great analysis, but he's very short on details, and many of our students (and parents) will find it difficult to fill in the blanks. Some of our members may still prefer this book, and if you have the time to correlate the chapters with the Gilbert book above, you'll have a near perfect history combination. (And if you do put together such a correlation of chapters between the two books, please share it with us so we can make it available to others!)
OPTION THREE:
Oxford History of the American People by Samuel Eliot Morison (vol. 3 of 3 covers from end of Civil War to Kennedy Assassination)
OPTION FOUR:
A Basic History of the United States by Clarence B. Carson. Carson (a history professor) has a scholarly tone, and approaches his topic from a libertarian, probably Christian, point of view. This is a five volume series, available through used booksellers. Also available on cassette from Blackstone Audio, who offer a considerable discount to homeschoolers (order by phone for discount). Pick up volume 4 where we left off in year 10, and then go on through volumes 5 and 6.
OPTION FIVE:
A Short History of Western Civilization by Sullivan et al - David Hicks, author of Norms and Nobility, recommended this. Sullivan's book has a nice feature at the end of chapter; he lists titles for additional reading, generally fictional books, classics that go with that time period. That is a lovely option in a history book. Katie B. has determined which chapters correspond to this year's history:
Laying groundwork for the 20th Century (these dip into the 19th Century and sometimes earlier)
(Chapter 46: Science and the Challenge to Christianity)
(Chapter 47: Thought and culture in an Age of Nationalism and Industrialization)
(Chapter 48: Politics, Democracy and Nationalism, 1871-1914)
(Chapter 49: Democracy, Expansion, Civil War, and Reform in the United States, 1800-1920)
(Chapter 50: Imperialism)
Term 1 (1900-1949)
Chapter 51: World War I, 1914-1918
Chapter 52: Revolution and Communism in Russia
Chapter 53: The Rise of Fascism and Authoritarianism
Chapter 54: Paralysis of the Democratic West (1920s and 1930s)
Chapter 55: World War II, 1939-1945
Term 2 (1949-1960) and 3 (1960-present)
Chapter 56: The Recovery of Europe and the Superpowers, 1945-1980s
Chapter 57: Society and Culture in the Twentieth Century
Chapter 58: Decolonization and the Non-Western World, 1945-present
Chapter 59: The Collapse of Communism and New Realities
HISTORY ASSIGNMENTS BY TERM:
TERM ONE: 1900-1940
Supplemental Historical Reading:
Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children, Roosevelt, ed. by Joseph Bucklin Bishop. (Project Gutenberg etext here.) Delightful to read, chock full of nature study, geography, literary comparisons, composition study specifically for writing really nice letters, and some incidents of what goes on in government as seen from the White House leader of that time period.
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (preferred) This book is a vivid report of the anguish experienced by those English young people who lost their youth and lives to the "War to end all wars." Because it is an honest and accurate portrayal, there are candid references to sex and war violence, but these are few and not graphic. The experiences of the author led her to atheism, feminism, and socialism, and these topics are discussed with great sympathy. There are important themes here for young people today, as their generation may also face the horrors of a prolonged war. This is a book that should be read and discussed with a parent.
OR Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman OR Now it Can Be Told by Philip Gibbs.
Only Yesterday by Frederick Allen (still under review)
Some of Us Survived - a book about the Armenian genocide in WWI; intense but important. Parents should preview.
Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes - eye-witness account of the end of an era, 1896-98, consisting of two books by Alexander Bulatovich: From Entotto to the River Baro (1897), and With the Armies of Menelik II (1900)
Additional suggestion: The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesteron goes well with the first chapters of Gilbert's book because it talks about the conflict between nationalism and imperialism.
Speeches and Source Documents:
Select from New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2 Who Began the War, and Why? Jam-packed with speeches, papers, and other documents, from many sides and viewpoints.
We particularly recommend these speeches, though you may choose others from the rich resource listed above.
Teddy Roosevelt "The Man with the Muck Rake" - April 15, 1906 #16
Woodrow Wilson, entering World War I, April 2, 1917 "War Message" #19
Franklin Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address March 4, 1933 "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." #3
Edward VIII abdicates the throne of England - December 11, 1936 "the woman I love"
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig's farewell to baseball speech July 4, 1939 "the luckiest man on the face of this earth" #73 (also see biography on the site)
Winston Churchill "Blood, sweat and tears" May 13, 1940
Winston Churchill "Their finest hour" June 18, 1940
TERM TWO: 1949-1960
Supplemental Historical Reading:
Any collection of Ernie Pyle's war dispatches. Some resources would include the books Here Is Your War: Story of G.I. Joe; Brave Men; or Ernie's War: The Best of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches by David Nichols. There is also a website about his journalism with samples of his columns for those of us one a budget. Pyle's reports are classic recording. The soldiers loved him, and back home everybody read his articles, eagerly looking forward to the next report. Ernie Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize for his war reporting.
The Men Behind Hitler A German warning to the world by Bernhard Schreiber - An important book, very chilling, connects Planned Parenthood to the eugenics movement today.
Mein Kampf (My Struggle) by Adolf Hitler - Like Charlotte Mason's suggestion to expose students to the Communist Manifesto to help students hone their reasoning/debate skills, the purpose of this suggestion is so that students will be informed and knowledgeable--and properly horrified at the very words of a monster.
The Nuremberg trials - very important. These websites provide insight into and source documents from Nuremberg, one of the most significant events in regard to law and jurisprudence of the 20th century:
The Trial at Nuremberg - if you read nothing else, read this link, which is a short essay summarizing the significance of the trials.
Documents
The Justice Trial
Justice Jackson's Opening Statement for the Prosecution
Optional resource: The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
Speeches and Source Documents:
The man who led the raid on Pearl Harbor--Mitsuo Fuchida--came to know Christ as Saviour after the war after reading a pamphlet written by Jacob DeShazer, an American airman with Doolittle's Raiders--who had been captured and spent 40 months as a POW, including 34 in solitary--and who had accepted Christ in prison, when he was eventually allowed to have a Bible, which he had repeatedly asked for. The two men later met, and even traveled together, sharing the love of Christ. Their story is here--a wonderful website. This site tells more of DeShazer's story. And if you want to read something yourself to really lift your heart as a praying mother, read the story of Jacob DeShazer's mother--it's powerful.
Franklin Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor address December 8, 1941 "a day that will live in infamy" #4
Dwight David Eisenhower--Supreme Allied Commander broadcasts D-Day invasion order June 5, 1944: "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."
Franklin Roosevelt D-Day Prayer June 6, 1944
Dwight David Eisenhower--Supreme Allied Commander on victory June 12, 1945
Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech abbreviated March 3, 1946
Douglas MacArthur's farewell to Congress April 19, 1951 "Old soldiers never die" #14
TERM THREE: 1960-present
Supplemental Historical Reading:
Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King, ed. by Kris Shepard and Clayborne Carson; you'll have to type it in the search bar. (This direct link might work.) Search online for audios of these speeches (try YouTube)
Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King
I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. (site includes full text as well as audio)
The Hungarian Revolt by Richard Lettis and William Morris
Victim: Imprisonment Because of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by Arpad Szilagyi (some rough language)
Speeches and Source Documents:
A World Split Apart by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn - Harvard speech
John F. Kennedy's Inauguration January 20, 1961 "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
Douglas MacArthur's address at West Point May 12, 1962 "Duty, honor, country."
John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" June 26, 1963
Martin Luther King's "I've been to the mountaintop" March 3, 1968
Edward Kennedy at Robert Kennedy's funeral June 8, 1968 "I see things that never were and say 'why not?'' #70
Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 Moon Landing July 20, 1969 "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (20th century topics, or click here for 4 min. 22 sec. Of Real Audio of landing and Armstrong's words, go here and click on Speech Archive and go to Neil Armstrong entry)
Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech November 3, 1969 #21
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan's opening statement to House Judiciary Committee #13
Richard Nixon's resignation August 8, 1974 #39
Gerald Ford's pardoning of Richard Nixon September 8, 1974
Ronald Reagan--D-Day Memorial - Pointe du Hoc - June 6, 1984 "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc."
Ronald Reagan--Challenger Disaster Address January 28, 1986 "We will never forget them, as they 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' and 'touched the face of God.'"
Ronald Reagan--Brandenberg Gate June 12, 1987 "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" #94
Barbara Bush at Wellesley 1990 #47
George H. W. Bush 41st President--Announces Attack on Iraq January 16, 1991
Mother Theresa at Presidential Prayer Breakfast 1994 February 5--before President and Mrs. Clinton, on subect of abortion; no audio; also here
Billy Graham's (minister to the Presidents) funeral address for Richard Nixon April 27, 1994, before 4 living presidents; Part 1 Part 2
Queen Elizabeth II on death of Princess of Wales September 5, 1997
Clarence Thomas "I am a man, a black man, an American" July 29, 1998, before National Bar Association
Chairman Henry Hyde's Opening Remarks to Impeachment Inquiry of President Bill Clinton, December 11, 1998 (9 min. 18 sec. on Real Audio; scroll halfway down the page)
Elie Wiesel The Perils of Indifference April 12, 1999 #95
Franklin Graham at Columbine High School Memorial Service - April 25, 1999 (Columbine High School Memorial Service is online at C-Span; Franklin Graham's speech starts at 1:24:00)
BIOGRAPHIES
* The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After - an inspiring autobiography of the first male editor of Ladies Home Journal magazine.
* Georges Vanier: Soldier - The Wartime Letters and Diaries, 1915-1919, edited by Deborah Cowley - a perspective of WWI from Canada's much-admired Governor's General
* Black Boy by Richard Wright (best seller from 1945, some language)
** Witness by Whittaker Chambers
** Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
** The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
*** When Hell Was In Session by Jeremiah A. Denton Jr.--Available for $9.95 here or from the Conservative Book Club. Graphic first-hand account of a Vietnam POW that students really should read (Advisory hasn't previewed this)
***Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng (China's cultural revolution, 1966-1976)
*** Mao Tse-Tung and His China by Albert Marrin
Students interested in reading more about the movers and shakers of the 20th Century might consider looking for biographies on these people.
Jean Henri Fabre 1823-1915 Fabre, Poet of Science by Dr. Georges Victor Legros
Jacob Riis 1849-1914 (Social reformer in New York) (The Making of An American by Jacob Riis)
Woodrow Wilson 1856-1924
Theodore Roosevelt 1858-1919
Billy Sunday 1862-1935
Marie Curie 1867-1934
Tsar Nicholas II 1868-1918 (Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie)
Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) Wright
Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi 1869-1948
Vladimir Lenin 1870-1924
Winston Churchill 1874-1965
G. K. Chesterton 1874-1936
Albert Einstein 1879-1955
Joseph Stalin 1879-1953
Margaret Sanger 1879-1966
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973
Franklin Roosevelt 1882-1945
Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962
David Ben-Gurion 1886-1973
Lawrence of Arabia 1888-1935 (WWI) (Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence)
Adolf Hitler 1889-1945
Amelia Earhart 1897-1937
Marion Anderson (opera) 1897-1993
Golda Meir 1898-1978
Margaret Mead 1901-1978
Charles Lindbergh 1902-1974 (Spirit of St. Louis)
Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1906-2001 (North with the Orient, a book about the pioneer flights Anne and her famous aviator husband took, and especially any of her collections of diaries and letters, such as Bring Me a Unicorn, Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, War Within and Without)
Mother Teresa 1910-1997
Richard Nixon 1913-1994
Rosa Parks 1913-
Scientist Francis Crick (1916-)
John F. Kennedy 1917-1963
Nelson Mandela 1918-
Alexander Solzhenitsyn 1918-
Billy Graham 1918--(Just As I Am)
Ronald Reagan 1920-2005 (God and Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor; When Character Was King, by Peggy Noonan)
Pope John Paul II 1920-2005
Margaret Thatcher 1925-
Jim Elliot 1927-1956 (Journals of Jim Elliot)
Scientist James Watson (1928-)
Martin Luther King, Jr 1929-1968
Stephen Biko 1946-1977 (Biko by Donald Woods) The movie Cry Freedom about the South African activist murdered by the apartheid government is based on this book.
The Beatles 1963-1970
A book by or about one of the many participants in the Manhattan Project - here are two websites which list possible resources. (note, Advisory members have previewed very few of these.) http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/manhat.html http://www.atomicarchive.com/Store/books1.shtml
GEOGRAPHY
BOOKS
The first and last titles have been especially recommended by at least one Advisory member, but since this is a salad bar, you might prefer to choose one of the other geography options, all of which were published in the 20th century.
The World: Travels 1950-2000 by Jan Morris, formerly James - well written, but there's a brief non-graphic mention of the author's gender-change operation in chapter 18, titled "Casablanca." The chapter is very short and can be skipped or removed. This book should be spread over all three terms. (This book is divided over the year in AO's posted 36-week schedule as the only geography selection)
* Endurance - The Endurance set out on the very eve of WWI--in fact, war was declared but the Prime Minister wanted the expedition to continue. Very exciting tale of survival and exploration, scientific expeditions, polar exploration, human ingenuity
OR South by Sir Ernest Shackleton - Shackleton's exploration of the South Pole on The Endurance; travel, geography, adventure
** Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes - great geography book, but the movie of the same name isn't recommended
Alternative suggestions are listed on page of geography options.
GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt pdf file here
Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Lyall, good short story on the dangers of slander. Very sad, tragic ending. Includes information on the political climate in Russia during the early 1900's.
If you have these, you might use them instead:
Books by Marvin Olasky
Psychological Seduction by William Kirk Kilpatrick
Slouching Towards Gomorrah by Robert Bork
Race and Culture by by Thomas Sowell
The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
CITIZENSHIP
Ourselves by Charlotte Mason, approximately 22 pages per term. This book will continue through all the remaining years of HEO curriculum. This is the 4th volume of Mason's 6 Volume Series, currently in print. This year: pages 68-136 of Book 2. If you don't own CM's Series but prefer a 'hard copy' to an online text, used copies of Volume 4 can be found online, or you can purchase Book 2, Self-Direction, the second half of Volume 4, as a separate paperback book. Also available in a modern English paraphrase that can be read online or purchased.
Plutarch's Lives - follow the schedule posted at Ambleside Online.
CURRENT EVENTS
WORLDVIEW
* Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave by David Breese
** Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
*** Modern Fascism by Gene Edward Veith
If you prefer more options, we have a whole list to select from here.
LITERATURE
Shakespeare - Continue with Ambleside Online Rotation. Leithart's book Brightest Heaven of Invention--a Christian study guide for 6 Shakespeare plays: Henry V, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado About Nothing.
Miss Mason directed students at this level to keep a Common-place Book for passages that strike them particularly; to learn a hundred lines of poetry; and to be able to give some account of what they have read in each book, with sketches of the chief characters.
* The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
* All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Marie Remarque - well-written, straightforward account of the realities of WWI.
** The Chosen by Chaim Potok
** Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (Mature content, but meaty and thought provoking)
*** Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
*** To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Supplementary Reading for Intrepid and Bold Souls Who Are Not Faint of Heart
These are important novels, but some parents may feel uncomfortable assigning to their students because of mature themes or rough language.
An additional Russian literature title,such as Anna Karenina, Brothers Karamazov, or Crime and Punishment.
* How the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis
Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by William Saroyan - beautifully written, Pulitzer Prize winning, upbeat, funny, story of a man who quietly and cheerfully starves to death during the depression. It's his death that makes the book not for the faint of heart - in this year, with this age, there's already so much sadness.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Lord of the Flies by William Golding--Probably should be read by all Year 11 students who are prepared in advance to be horrified by a realistic look at how humans will act without God or Law. Dispels the idea of the 'noble savage.'
Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
SHORT STORIES
Year 11 and 12 students should gain familiarity with some of the best literary short stories and to learn something about their structure. Stories are one of the oldest literary forms (although not as old as poetry), but the modern short story didn't come into its own until the 19th century when it was adopted by writers such as Hawthorne, Chekhov, Gogol and Poe. Although Year 11 focuses on the 20th century, a study of short stories should also include early examples. Stories from the 20th and 21st centuries will pose the same problems with content. Parents are advised to preview those selections.
Since anthologies go in and out of print, it is difficult to recommend one single volume. However, any good anthology should include some of the following authors. Where the Advisory feels one story is particularly important, we have indicated that. You will probably want to choose between eight to twelve stories to read.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (Young Goodman Brown; My Kinsman, Major Molineux)
Nikolai Gogol (The Overcoat; audio here)
Edgar Allen Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher)
Herman Melville (Bartleby the Scrivener)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Grand Inquisitor)
Anton Chekhov (Gooseberries)
Gustave Flaubert (A Simple Heart)
Leo Tolstoy (How Much Land Does a Man Need?)
Mark Twain (The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County)
Sarah Orne Jewett (Miss Tempy's Watchers)
Saki (Hector.H. Munro) (The Open Window)
Stephen Crane (The Open Boat)
Sherwood Anderson (I'm a Fool)
James Joyce (The Dead)
Somerset Maugham
E. M. Forster (The Machine Stops)
Dorothy Parker (You Were Perfectly Fine)
James Thurber (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
William Faulkner (A Rose for Emily, Barn Burning)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Babylon Revisited)
Ernest Hemingway (A Clean, Well-Lighted Place; Hills Like White Elephants)
Eudora Welty (Why I Live at the P.O.)
Saul Bellow (Looking for Mr. Green)
Flannery O'Connor (Judgment Day; Everything That Rises Must Converge; Revelation)
John Updike (A & P; Ace in the Hole)
Tillie Olsen (I Stand Here Ironing)
Raymond Carver (Cathedral)
John Gardner (Redemption)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Harrison Bergeron)
John Barth (Lost in the Funhouse)
O Henry (Ransom of Red Chief)
Guy de Maupassant (The Necklace)
Shirley Jackson (The Lottery)
As an alternative to purchasing an anthology, the following websites offer a number of American and international short stories, including many of those listed above, that can be printed out: Classic Short Stories 160 short story classics from A to Z
Bibliomania (click on Short Stories)
Twenty Great American Short Stories
List of Classic Short Stories
Short Story Classics (If your images/java are on, site flashes questionable images)
As a supplement to the stories themselves, one recommended guide to reading and writing fiction is Technique in Fiction by Robie Macauley and George Lanning, available through Amazon.com.
A useful online essay introducing the short story is "How to Read a Short Story" by Dino Manrique; it's online here.
Summary and info about short stories
ESSAYS
Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation by Ronald Reagan
This article 'In Defense of the Essay,' by Christopher Orlet, is useful, as is this essay entry at Wikipedia. Here is a link to Gutenberg's collection of essays.
We hope to add more options.
POETRY
A good 20th Century anthology, such as Norton's Anthology of Modern Poetry or The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Third Edition, Volume 2: Contemporary Poetry
Lynn Bruce also compiled a nice collection of poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay suitable for terms 1 or 2.
Students who have developed an affinity for poetry will benefit from hearing these rare recordings of poets reading their own works: Poetry On Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work (1888-2006), and The Caedmon Poetry Collection: A Century of Poets Reading Their Work. These are available at Amazon but also through public libraries (check the inter-library loan system if necessary). University libraries hold them as well. Delightful and unforgettable.
Extensive audio archives of famous poets reading their own works can also be found at http://www.poets.org/ and http://www.poetryarchive.org/.
UC Berkeley Lectures includes audio of poets reading their own works
BBC audio poetry
Norton Anthology audio site (we hope to provide specific links to individual suitable poems from these audio sites in the future)
Czeslaw Milosz Polish poet; this page includes audio of him reading his poems. More at NPR.
GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION
Most students in Year 11 will have the SAT barrelling down on them, and will need to focus on preparing for the essay portion of that test. As for assigning research papers, we leave this to parental discretion. A student should learn to cite sources properly; however, it takes very little time to learn how to do this. Students should already have become proficient at writing from previous schoolwork such as narration. If the student has not already done so, he should be writing some longer papers--around 5-7 typed pages. This does not necessarily mean research papers, rather writing at length in a focused way--perhaps comparing two books, perhaps writing an analysis of the significance of a historical event, perhaps...the possibilities are endless. A student at this level should be able to write longer papers like this.
On Writing Well The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser--This is a classic, respected book familiar to all writers, and commonly used as a text in writing courses. Very readable and instructive, and currently in print. Written for adults; you may wish to preview.
Less Than Words Can Say by Richard Mitchell
If your student hasn't yet had any formal grammar lessons, use Our Mother Tongue: An Introductory Guide to English Grammar by Nancy Wilson, scheduling approximately 16 chapters per term.
OR Dr. Robert Einarrson's Grammar Handouts that Karen Glass so highly recommended have been replaced with a free downloadable textbook and workbook called Traditional English Sentence Style and teaches grammar through literature. This is an excellent book and should be used for students who have already completed Our Mother Tongue or Jensen's. It "promises not only to teach you about grammar, but also to show you the 'grammar secrets' of some of the great writers of English." Details are here.
OR, if you have Jensen's Grammar, work through that this year.
Assign 3 to 5 written narrations each week, varying the assignments among subjects, and assigning some narrations to be written from readings done earlier in the week. [Example: On Tuesdays, the student would read the scheduled Literature, news of the week, historical or allegorical subjects, etc. Then on Thursdays, the student would write a narration of one of those readings.] Narration can be done in many ways: poetic, in answer to an essay-style question, straight narration, narration in letter-writing form, and many other creative ways. Write verses (perhaps using metre of poems set for this term) on current events and characters in the term's reading, upon heroic deeds, or on seasonal scenes. Write Narrative poems on striking events.
Karen Glass: Paradigm Online Writing Assistant is a whole online free course about writing four kinds of essays. I haven't explored the whole thing, but I like what I've seen so far. At the top of the page, you can see the progression of the whole course, including tabs to the four essay types.
Purchase a good English handbook. An Advisory favorite is The Little, Brown Handbook by H. Ramsey Fowler and Jane E. Aaron. Some may find Writer's Inc. more user friendly.
AO's Language Arts Scope and Sequence for this level is here.
RECITATION
Memorize each term:
2 Bible passages of about 20 verses each
2 Psalms (whole chapters)
2 Hymns
2 Poems (or 50 lines) from the term's poets
1 passage from the term's Shakespeare play.
Scripture suggestions:
* Matthew 6; 2 Timothy 3; Psalms 27; 33
** Hebrews 9; John 1:1-14; Psalms 91; 136
*** Acts 2:14-47; Ephesians 6; Psalms 122, 123 (these are short); Psalms 119:9-30
OR, choose your own .
2 Psalms (whole chapters) per term. You may choose your own, or assign these:
* Psalm 19 and Psalm 111
** Psalms 121 and Psalm 122
*** Psalm 145 and Psalm 118
OR, you may choose selections from previous Year.
2 Hymns per term; choose from our hymn selections.
2 Poems (or 50 lines) from the term's poets (We will offer some suggested poems later)
Shakespeare - selected passages, all terms. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is a helpful tool for looking for quotable sections from various plays of Shakespeare, especially quotes from the various plays which appear in various other literature. Bartlett's 10th edition is online here or here or here.
COPYWORK/DICTATION
COPYWORK
Include selections from Shakespeare, the Bible, poetry and other sources. These selections may be the same ones used for recitation.
This is a good year to begin a personal quote book.
DICTATION
The student studies two or three pages of dictation material per week, from which the teacher dictates several paragraphs or sections. Students should have the opportunity to study the passage carefully for spelling, punctuation and form before they are required to write it from dictation. At this level, you may wish for your student to alternate between taking dictation in the traditional way by hand, and with a word processor (an added benefit here is the spellchecker function, which can be a useful teaching tool and actually functions in a manner complementary to CM's spelling methods.)
Dictation selections may be drawn from sources such as the term's prose, poetry and Bible readings. You may also occasionally choose to assign selections from well-written journalism sources to exemplify a more technical and factual style of writing. However, choose carefully as newspapers and magazines are often poorly written. Examples of worthy sources might include World Magazine, and columnists such as Peggy Noonan, William F. Buckley, William Raspberry, Charles Krauthammer, Cal Thomas, George Will, and Thomas Sowell, most of whom are accessible from www.drudgereport.com (site will need screening by parent; daily entries are increasingly and disturbingly non-family-friendly). Another good resource for exemplary journalism is http://www.opinionjournal.com from the Wall Street Journal. Writers from these sources are prolific and skilled at the craft of writing. The New Yorker magazine is known for being expertly written and edited, but may require parental previewing.
You may also select among these essays for dictation work. These provide a good starting point for the essay form of writing. After two or three terms of studying Lamb's essays, students should be prepared to tackle writing essays on subjects they choose. One possible usage is to have students read an essay on Monday, outline it on Tuesday, rewrite it from their outline on Wednesday, and polish up that rough draft on Thursday.
Note: In PNEU's Form III, a paragraph was dictated; in Form IV, selections were occasionally written from memory. You might occasionally assign the student's mastered recitation work for the dictation lesson.
MATH
Continue your math program; for some options, see this page.
Euclid's Elements
SCIENCE
Apologia science materials by Dr. Jay Wile.
Microbe Hunters by Paul deKruf (chapters 9-12 this year)
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard P. Feynman. These chapters, one per term:
* Conservation of Energy
** The Theory of Gravitation
*** Quantum Behavior
The Book Nobody Read--Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus by astronomer Owen Gingerich--though none of the Advisory has read this, it was highly recommended by an AO mom.
Good for those wanting to explore intelligent design:
Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe (somewhat technical but surprisingly readable)
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
NATURE STUDY
Keep flower and bird lists of species seen, select a special study for outdoor work, and continue to maintain nature notebooks.
The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock - Continue to use as in previous years with the Ambleside Online curriculum.
Select books by these authors:
Stephen Jay Gould - although he is an atheistic evolutionist, he is an extraordinary writer.
Also, books by Hal Bolland, Annie Dillard, John Muir, Jacques Costeau,
and, though none of the Advisory has seen this, The Outermost House by Henry Beston has been suggested by a homeschooling dad..
Other possibilities:
The Great Astronomers by Robert S. Ball
Henri Fabre's works on insect observations (online at Gutenburg or Online Books; Fabre texts with photos)
Select one of the following Fabre works from the above link:
Bramble-Bees and Others
The Life of the Caterpillar
The Life of the Fly, With Which Are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography
The Mason-Bees
More Hunting Wasps
The Story-Book of Science
The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of Insects
The 36-week schedule uses these Nature texts
* Our National Parks by John Muir
** A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir
*** The Life of the Caterpillar by J. Henri Fabre
LOGIC
One possibility: The Thinking Toolbox: Thirty-Five Lessons That Will Build Your Reasoning Skills by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn
DRAWING AND ART
Choose one of these three options (Parents may wish to screen all options for nudity.)
The Story of Painting by H. W. Janson - The Chapter titled The Age of Machines. (note: this book is best suited for the earlier years of Ambleside's House of Education)
The History of Art by H. W. Janson In print. Assign the chapters in your Janson edition that cover the Year 11 period.
Continue the artist rotation posted at Ambleside Online.
Work on drawing skills. Illustrate a scene from reading of your choice once a week, more as desired.
MUSIC
Continue composer rotation posted at Ambleside Online.
Guitar, Piano, and Drums
Singing:
Foreign language - 3 songs each term (Charlotte Mason did 3 in French and 3 in German).
Hymns:
Continue to follow the Ambleside rotation each term. Carols would do for the Winter term.
Three Folk Songs in English - In addition to continuing the Folk Song rotation at Ambleside Online, your student will enjoy learning these songs that fit well with this year's history:
Term 1 World War I:
1. Over There
2. It's a long way to Tipperary
3. There's a Little Blue Star in the Window - refers to the tradition of hanging a blue star in the window if a family member was in the war - and later it was a gold star if they died in the service of their country. This tradition was also in World War II, and some do it still today.
Term 2 World War II
1. (There'll be bluebirds over the) White Cliffs of Dover
2. When the Lights Go On Again All Over the World (refers to the 'blackouts' in homes at that time)
3. I'll Be Seeing You-- Originally recorded by Sammy Fain, who co-wrote it for a Broadway musical. Artists of the era who covered it include Billie Holiday and Bing Crosby; search for their recordings on Pandora, Rhapsody, Youtube, etc. The song was also featured in a WWII-era movie of the same name starring Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton and Shirley Temple.
(several could be added to this - like "Don't sit under the apple tree without anyone else but me," or "Boogie-woogie Bugle Boy from Company B" or "In the Mood" - the list goes on!)
Term 3 Vietnam War/Civil Rights
1. Where Have All the Flowers Gone - a protest song written by Pete Seeger
2. We Shall Overcome - a theme song of the Civil Rights movement
3. Okie from Muskogee (portion) - an anti-hippie song
Also - Families might want to explore on their own the music of the 20th century - Big Band, Jazz, Country, Bluegrass, Rock and Roll, and, of course, the protest songs of the sixties by artists such as Bob Dylan or Woodie Guthrie, for the impact this music had on the culture.
From Wikipedia: The terminal state of the loss of folk music can be seen in the United States and a few similar societies, where except in isolated areas and among hobbyists, traditional folk music no longer survives. In the absence of folk music, many individuals do not sing. It is possible that non-singers feel intimidated by widespread exposure in recordings and broadcasting to the singing of skilled experts. Another possibility is that they simply cannot sing, because they did not sing when they were small children, when learning of skills takes place most naturally. Certainly it is very common for contemporary Americans to claim that they cannot sing.
There is anecdotal evidence that the loss of singing ability is continuing rapidly at the present time. As recently as the 1960s, audiences at American sporting events collectively sang the American national anthem before a game; the anthem is now generally assigned to a recording or to a soloist.
Inability to sing is apparently unusual in a traditional society, where the habit of singing folk song since early childhood gives everyone the practice needed to able to sing at least reasonably well.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Rosetta Stone French
HEALTH
Charlotte Mason had students do house or garden work, make Christmas presents, pursue useful crafts, sew, cook, and learn first aid. She also suggested that the student help darn and mend garments from the wash each week and sew for charity (serving at a soup kitchen would also work).
Parents should encourage students at this age to find something they like to do, and use it both as a ministry to serve others (preparing a meal to a shut-in; helping a widow with car repair; that type of thing - or using their skill/talent/interest within their church), and/or as a springboard to earning some extra money (by organizing a child's birthday party, selling books, working on people's computers, starting a lawn service). Some students might use the opportunity to start a small business.
Perhaps these titles might spark more interest:
The Emilie Barnes book titles (including her cookbooks) and other info
are found at: www.morehours.bizland.com
More Hours In My Day
Emilie's Creative Home Organizer
Cleaning Up the Clutter
Your Simple Guide to Home-Based Business
Simple Secrets to a Beautiful Home
We suggest that over the course of high school, your student might do the following (a rough guideline would be to choose about three of these per year for the next four years):
Learn to cook using a basic cookery book such as Joy of Cooking, one of Sue Gregg's cookbooks, or whatever you have on hand.
Learn CPR and first aid (This can also be counted for Health.)
Learn to balance a checking account
Learn to read a map
Read a book about Small Engine Repair
Take a course in Driver's Ed
Work with an Election Campaign
Learn to garden and/or yard care
Change a flat tire
Use jumper cables
Pump gas, change the oil and plugs on a car
Make some simple furniture
Lay a tile floor
Paint a room
Some basic home repair and maintenance
The Walls Around Us by David Owen is a well-written book about how our houses are built, but it needs some previewing or parental editing.
Miss Mason frequently recommended Scouting tests (Parents' Review, May 1920) and said that all girls should take the First Aid and Housecraft Tests. We suggest that all students learn CPR and First Aid. Scouting or 4-H are other options to consider.
DOMESTIC SCIENCE OPTIONS:
Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson (excellent resource for all homes)
The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer
Do I Dust or Vacuum First? by Don Aslett
books by Emilie Barnes
Get More Done in Less Time by Donna Otto
Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell
Who Says it's a Woman's Job to Clean? by Don Aslett
(These last two may be particularly useful with boys.)
MONEY MANAGEMENT
Books by Larry Burkett
The Tightwad Gazette books
FREE READING
(Still in progress; we plan to whittle this list down and divide it somehow to make it more manageable)
In no particular order:
1) 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
2) The Adventures of Richard Hannay also called The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay by John Buchan; includes The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, and The Three Hostages
3) Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys by John Buchan being reviewed by Dawn
4) Chesterton's books
5) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
6) E.F. Knight--Probably a good adventure book for our male readers (any specific title? I see three online)
7) Good Morning, Miss Dove by Frances Gray Patton
8) Keeper of the Bees by Stratton Porter (best seller, 1925)
9) Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes *
10) Michael O'Halloran by Gene Stratton Porter (best seller)
11) Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
12) Safely Home by Randy Alcorn*
13) The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis*
14) The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton (another online text of this book at Project Gutenberg)
15) The Plutocrat by Booth Tarkington, "best seller, 1927)
16) The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor
17) To Sir With Love by Edward Ricardo Braithwaite
18) The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (lots of street slang, but nothing vulgar)
19) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith--a coming of age book for girls
20) October Sky (also called Rocket Boys) by Homer Hickam (parental warning--some hormonal content)
21) Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy genre fiction, not literature--(note: rough language) will probably give a feel for the times just as well without the language.
22) Persuasion by Jane Austen
23) At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
24) Christy by Catherine Marshall
25) Dr. Von Igelfeld series by Alexander McCall Smith
26) Neither Five nor Three by Helen MacInnes
27) While Still We Live by Helen MacInnes
28) Barbara Kingsolver books
29) One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn (Parental warning: There are multiple profanities and obscenities is this work. It is, nonetheless, an important book about Communist tyranny and the human spirit. One Advisory member came away from this book enamored with Solzhenitsyn, and affected with concern for what happened 'behind the iron curtain.' It's an important book, but we strongly urge parents to make this book selection thoughtfully, while fully aware of the language it contains.)
30) The Inspector General by Nicolai Gogol--very funny play
31) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
32) Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis (best seller 1947, uncomfortable but thought provoking book about race relations)
33) Labyrinths (and others) by Jorge Borges
34) Leaf Storm by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
35) The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway?
36) The Hawk and the Dove, The Wounds of God, and The Long Fall; and The Hawk and the Dove is also the title of the trilogy in one volume. by Penelope Wilcock
37) Karen by Marie Killilea
38) G. K. Chesterton, The Apostle of Common Sense by Dale Ahlquist--a great book to read along with any of Chesterton's other books.
39) My Antonia by Willa Cather
40) Angel Unawares by Dale Evans Rogers
41) Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, abridgment by Edward Erickson, recommended by Invitation to the Classics. Purchase here.
42) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer for students who want to read more about WWII
43) History of the Second World War by Winston Churchill (magisterial) for students who want to read more about WWII
44) Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan--autobiography of a severely handicapped poet with cerebral palsy. Nolan writes in a way that's impossible to describe. Flights of fancy, incredible twists and turns in labyrinths of words he makes up, but that you can understand.
45) The Trial by Franz Kafka
46) Waiting for Godot A Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett
47) Lilies of the Field by William Edmund Barrett (sympathetic and uplifting)
48) Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino--surreal tales about the creation/evolution of the universe from the perspective of tiny particles, not to be missed by sci-fi fans. The first story is told in sensuous language, parents might want to preview.
49) Anthem by Ayn Rand--Futuristic story, useful for discussion (This is the only Ayn Rand book we recommend.)
50) A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
51) A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (Judy is previewing)
52) How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn 1906-1983 (poetically beautiful book about Welsh mining community)
53) The Giver by Lois Lowry - difficult themes; about a utopian society in which diversity is squelched and 'mercy killing' is part of the process.
LIFE AND WORK SKILLS
