Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set by Memoria Press -- my REVIEW

Whenever I see the opportunity come up to review a product by Memoria Press, I jump at the chance! In my experience, all of the products from Memoria Press are high quality, easy to use for both the teacher and the student, and quite academic (not just fluff, if you know what I mean!) Okay, I probably sound like I'm gushing a bit, but truthfully I am not. My kids also perk up when I mention that we will be using a product by Memoria.  This time we were given literature curricula to use and review...the one I received was the Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set. We actually did not receive the novels along with this set, but I would recommend that you purchase the novels with the set (as linked above) -- I'll address this further on in the review :)

The Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set, which we received, contains a Teacher Guide and a Student Book for each of the following novels: Julius Caeser, Romeo and Juliet, The Scarlet Letter, and To Kill a Mockingbird.  Since we are studying primarily American literature this year, we began with To Kill a Mockingbird Literature Guide Set.

Unlike some other Memoria Press resources we have used in the past, the student guide is meant to be used with a notebook, rather than having spaces for the student to write answers in the guide itself. I think this is definitely appropriate, as for the high school level, the questions require more thought and longer answers than one or two words.

The goal of the Memoria Press Literature Guide Sets is to help students understand the great work of literature by helping them to identify and understand the "Central One" idea of the work. The book is viewed not only as its separate parts (as each chapter is dissected/discussed), but also as an entire work. I really like this aspect and it moves the literature study further--from just a study of the parts of the novel to an experience of the whole of the novel. 

One of the components of the literature study is to learn to utilize marking the text. This is what I referred to when I said that I'd recommend you purchase the novels with the study set.  The books in the Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set are definitely available at your local library, but I think that by using a book you cannot mark in (as we did with this set for To Kill a Mockingbird), you are losing out of this focusing tool.  We will definitely purchase books for the other three studies so that my daughter can mark up the books as taught in the course. 

How are the guides used? The student guide walks the student through each chapter, including reading notes (highlighting terms that might not be understood)--including some words which are used in a different sense (for example, chapter 8, one of the reading notes defines touchous (p.73) as a variant of "touchy".  

Words to be defined give less-common words in context and have the student use the sentence for context to figure out which definition from the word bank fits that word.  This is a great vocabulary-builder!  Beyond just building your vocabulary, it also allows students to learn/practice the skill of inferring the definition of a word using context clues.

These reading notes and words to be defined set up the reader for a successful read-through of each chapter. Students are encouraged to mark the text in key places as they read. 

Following the reading, the student will complete the comprehension questions, which, just as it sounds, are questions about the content of the chapter. General and specific questions, some of which the student may have to look back at the text to find, if they did not mark/remember the particular detail.  

The next section is questions under "Socratic Discussion Questions," which, as it sounds, are questions that require more thought than the previous section. Questions are such as, "Do you agree or disagree with Rev. Sykes' direct methods in dealing with the congregation? Why or why not?" Though these questions may be answered in the student's notebook, they are also great points for verbal discussions within your family. :) Sometimes I think it helps the student to explain out loud to a parent or someone what they are thinking and then to write their answer, if  you choose to have them write them in their notebooks.

Memoria Press divides To Kill a Mockingbird up into three sections. At the end of each of these sections is a Rhetorical/Expression segment, in which different essay prompts are given for the student to expand on one or more ideas within that section. Before writing the essay, some questions are asked of the student to kind of help them focus their thoughts and lead them to the Central One idea of each part.

I really like this aspect, as it encourages a thoughtful view of the section and book. It is not just focusing on the "nuts and bolts" of the book, but themes and ideas.  A helpful tool for the student as they write their essays is at the back of the student guide, the Rhetoric Essay Template seen below. (Yes, I know I scribbled over it...it's pretty proprietary, I'd think, and I probably shouldn't share it to the world!)

At this point I've been just telling you about the student book (which the student can go through fairly independently).  There is also a great teacher's guide which accompanies the study--it has great essays on why the course is taught as it is (read them!) and also has the answers (it gives a mirror of the student text with the answers written in the margins) as well as tests and test answers in the back.

The teacher's guide is very easy to follow and it gives the teacher helps for grading and discussing.

At the end of each book, the study guide encourages students to memorize a segment from the book, which helps the student to internalize the book and recall it better at a later date.

Well, I've been just telling you about the one study that we are working through right now, To Kill a Mockingbird.  I did mention at the top that we received the full Tenth Grade Literature Set, which includes studies on three other novels.  The three others are set up very similarly to the one we used. Julius Caesar is split up into acts, and each act includes a preparation section, which is basically a question or point to get the reader thinking along the lines of the Central One idea for the act, where in To Kill a Mockingbird that was found at the beginning to each section, not chapter. All four of these novel literature guide sets are of the same format and same high quality. They will help your student to not just read through and then forget the themes, but to really chew on the ideas and digest the book (figuratively, haha, as opposed to when they were toddlers and literally would chew on and maybe digest books... )  ;)

Once again, Memoria Press did not disappoint!  We will be continuing to use the rest of these literature guide sets throughout the schoolyear!  Memoria Press actually makes a lot of different literature guide sets, and for this review, families were reviewing different grade levels from first grade all the way up through tenth grade!  Please click on the image below to read reviews from each of the levels!