19 November 2014

Poets, Authors and Playwrights ~ The Late Renaissance to Early Modern Times Lit Study

I figured this list needed a post of it's own, so I could chat about things a bit more (including a small rabbit trail) and.... the line up of poets and authors made our Early Modern Times book list too long to look through.

With all the selecting out of books and guides for next year (starting in Jan 2015) Jay was really keen on using another literature guide by Greenleaf - so we'll be using their yr 3 guide during 2015 along with it's companion reads.
This will be the third literature guide from Greenleaf we've used. 
(We skipped some selections out of the Ancients Lit guide - some of the literature choices were more than we were wanting Jay to study through at age 13.)
Greenleaf’s yr 3 Literature Guide: British And American Literature 1500-1900 ~ Shearer is still in it's draft form.
If you can get your hands on this guide, do.  (I was very generously gifted a copy ♥ )
Cyndy Shearer writes directly to the student  - she's very humorous - and looking through the Early Modern Lit guide the humour and connection with the student is right there.
I like the poet and author biographies included with each study inside the guide.  One of my pet side trips with much of the literature we read is finding out, where we can,  the background and/or world view of the author... one author we took a side trip with was Robert Louis Stevenson. Being a gifted writer (musician, etc..)  does not give any guarantees to having wholesome character! 

Both Jay and me are looking forward to using Cyndy's Lit Guide, with a few adjustments.
We've elected to not read through the last few literature selections during 2015.  I was thinking of just doing the author studies and leaving the books ... I'm currently tossing up abridged audio options, maybe:
A: Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)
B: Oscar Wilde (Dorian Gray).
Jay is adamant he does not want to study Frankenstein this year (2015), and Dorian Gray is one of those not-happening works for me (ETA: an abridged edition may work though?). 
Since this is our study of literature,  I'm pleased that we get to choose what we read through each year 


Rabbit trail time: Talking about choices, and books, Lori D's 8 point considerations to assist in whittling down a gigantic book list to a doable one can be rather helpful.  (Lori's post can be found over on TWTM, and is post #15 in this thread  I find it so easy, too easy, to add in titles but to thin things down to a realistic list can be challenging; the amount of books we'd like to read and the number of weeks in a year just don't match up)

Back to our poets, authors and playwrights list.   Our family like poetry so I was delighted to see the line up of poets and pieces - listed beneath-  that Cyndy Shearer selected out for students study in her year 3 literature guide. The companion book for poetry is Poetry for Dummies  which I was fully prepared to dislike☺ (the dummies part sticks in my craw!)  - the book is actually very good and I know Jay will benefit from using it!
 
Poetry:
EML Poets, Authors and Playwrights (studied with Greenleaf Guide)

Wk 1-6   Unit 1
Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542),
Henry Howard (1517-1547),
Christopher Marlowe,
Shakespeare (1564-1616) sonnets.
Ben Johnson (1572-1637)
John Donne (1572-1631)

Wk 7-12   Unit 2
George Herbert (1593-1633)
Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
Milton (1608-1674)
Andrew Marvell (1621-1672) 

Wk 13-18   Unit 3
Anne Bradstreet (1612 -1672)
Moliere’s (Tartuffe) (1622 -?)    online extra 
Neo-Classical (1660 -1785)
Age of Dryden (1660-1700)
John Dryden (1631-1700)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) (already studied  - condense) 

Wk 19-24   Unit 4
John Gay (1685 - 1732)
Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)
Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)
Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771)
Oliver Goldsmith (1728 – 1774)   (She Stoops to Conquer ~ Goldsmith
Romantic Period (1785-1832)
William Blake (1757 -1827) 

Wk 24-30   Unit 5
Wordsworth (1770 – 1850), (French Rev 1792),  Lyrical Ballads 1802
Byron (1788 -1824)
Shelley (1792 – 1822)
Keats (1792 – 1821)
Emerson (1803 – 1882)
Thoreau (1817 – 1862) (On the Duty of Civil Disobedience / Walden ~ Thoreau (selections)

Wk 31-34   Unit 5
Fireside Poets:
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
Longfellow  (1807 - 1882)
John Whittier (1807 - 1892)
Poe (1809-1949) 
(Queen Victoria’s England b.1819- d.1901   r. 1837-1901

Victorian  Poets:
Tennyson  - Charge of the Life Brigade 
Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888) 

2 comments:

Allie said...

Chelle, Thanks for posting the link with tips for whittling down reading lists. I think I'm definitely going to need to do that next year. I have way too many historical fiction books I want to do as we cover American History.

Chelle said...

Hi Allie!!!!
How neat to find your comment here.
I can imagine the pile of books you have available for American History!
Hope the weeding out isn't too hard.