Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis -- my REVIEW

We are a family of readers. . .but formal learning in literature is not my forte. Some appreciation of classics (for things like societal references and etc) have been discussed, but I am always kind of torn as to how much time and effort we should put on literature, "great authors," classics, and historic writing. We have tried a few different literature curricula, with differing degrees of learning and enjoyment. My attitude toward literature may be a bit lax, but I do realize that for several purposes (college prep, social understanding, appreciation of great art/writing) we ought to study literature and authors.

My son had begun a literature course this schoolyear, the type of course that is a textbook with samples of many, many authors--and then quizzes/tests. This didn't seem to be a thing that stuck in his mind, doing it independently. Maybe with a teacher teaching, it would have been more learn-able, but as an independent learning thing, it wasn't great. ENTER Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis which is produced by Writing With Sharon Watson.   When the opportunity to review this literature course came up, I thought that it would be a good chance to check out another curriculum--and boy am I glad we got to use this!!!


My 10th grade (15 year old) son is the student that is using this course, and from the very first day that he flipped through the course he was excited to switch to this one away from his other literature (okay, seeing that one of his favorite books, The Hobbit,  was "required reading" may have played a part in that happiness as well:) ) but he jumped right in. 

The book begins with chapter zero (haha!!) and the lessons focus on an introduction to "literature" and why you should read it/study it, different important terminologies, descriptions of antagonists/protagonists, etc. along with a concrete exercise to reference these in one of their favorite
books or movies. 

from the student text

Once the student has begun with relating these to something they chose, they move on to chapter 1, which begins with a short story ("A Jury of Her Peers").  Different literary terms and concepts are taught, as well as historical context, followed by the reading of the story and then questions to answer and discuss.  There is also a Novel Notebook (a pdf download) which the student can utilize to answer more questions/thinking exercises. 

from the novel notebook

Between the textbook and the novel notebook, there is an abundance (overabundance?) of questions for the student, to provoke thought and for them to write in answers for.  There is also a large list of activities ("Your choice of activities") which relate to the topic/study...for instance, for the "A Jury of Her Peers" short story, some of the options are: research (research the history of women on juries), create (draw, paint, or sculpt an event or character from the story), can (learn how to can fruit), write a procedure (write the procedure for police coming to the scene of this story), conduct a trial (Conduct Minnie's trial), and more.  These activities will cement this story into the minds of the learner.

There are also quizzes.  There is a quiz book, the quizzes are also available online.  There is a "Yes I read it" quiz (covering the story itself) as well as a "Literary Terms Quiz".  My son enjoyed doing the quizzes online, though they could be done on paper as well.  (the online ones are self-scored, if you utilize a paper quiz, the answers are provided in the Quiz and Answer Manual.  

Once the book-reading begins, specific publications are recommended (the ISBN's are in the book, so you can purchase the corresponding one) so that the student can follow line references referred to in the textbook.  Thankfully these are not really super-pricey versions ;) We haven't tried using a non-recommended version, so I don't know if that makes it more difficult.  

As of right now, my son is working on Frankenstein.  The other books that will be addressed in this program are Silas Marner, Much Ado About Nothing, "A White Heron", "The Garden of Forking Paths," "Haircut," "The Lady or the Tiger," "Of the Passing of the First-Born," "A Child's Christmas in Wales," Sense and Sensibility, Biography (of the student's choice), and (my son's favorite!!!) The Hobbit.  Short stories are either printed in the text or linked to online.  

from the novel notebook download

Okay, so ... I really like this literature curriculum.  I love all the literary terms that are introduced, in a concrete, applied fashion, not just as abstract terms.  My son learns things much more thoroughly when they are applied right away (as do I!)  The website on which  you can find this curriculum mentions that "by the end of this course, your teen will have learned almost 100 literary terms and devices as they occur naturally in the selections. "  This is very valuable.  There are a wide range of pieces that are covered and discussed (and learned about!)  It is also written in a very learner-friendly way.  My kids do much of their high-school work independently, and this book is written in a way that is easily-independently-used.  My son actually has said that he would like to use another book by this author next year, if it's available!  So there, high praise from a 15 year old boy! :) 

The set of books that is included is a Student text, a quiz and answer manual, and a teacher's guide. As a reminder, there are also quizzes available online, as well as a "novel notebook" .pdf to download if you wish.  It's a great value, with all of these together.  Check out this Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis and you'll see what I mean!  

To hear what other reviewers thought of this curriculum, you can click the link below!