The following is written by Debbie G. in Canada. She bought our Comedy & Tragedy notes to use with her 9th grader and was very pleased. She sent us both a testimonial (the first paragraph) as well as a description of what she and her son did. I was especially interested to read of her son's experience with Electra: I taught a Comedy & Tragedy main lesson to several groups of 9th and 10 graders and had a similar experience with them. Each group complained bitterly about Electra and "couldn't understand it". Then, somewhere about half way through the play they all "got it" and could suddenly understand what was going on (of course, this didn't stop some of them continuing to complain bitterly....!). I think this is a very good example of where one has to be sensitive but firm in one's teaching, whether one is teaching a young child or a teen, groups or individuals. If you know in your gut that a lesson is the right lesson then you need to just persevere, no matter how much the child complains! Learning is not linear and its benefits are usually not immediately apparent (too bad the people who design most standardized tests don't seem to realize this and instead favor the "regurgitation method" of schooling). If material is well chosen and given at the right time, it will have the right effect on the child or teen. And one clear way to see this is when a child makes a breakthrough and "gets it". Those moments are wonderful and can make the otherwise hard slog of homeschooling worth it!
We are planning further high school and middle grades materials. We have plans for books on computers (8th/9th grade); poetry (9th/10th grade); the Middle East (a social studies block for general high school grades); and economics (11th or 12th grade). We will let you know when we have further details on these, whether they will be "high school notes" or "proper books" and when they are likely to appear. None will appear before the summer (2010).
This is what I really love about the "high school notes:" without being a full curriculum or detailed unit studies book, the Comedy and Tragedy booklet gives just enough background into the material and guidance through the different types of theatre and plays to enable one to put together their own block. A progression through a sort of "evolution of the theatre" is clearly laid out, with ideas for specific activities to tie into the different plays that are PRACTICAL for homeschoolers to do on their own, which is not usually the case in upper grades homeschooling materials. I thought that I knew a lot about the theatre before teaching this block, but I learned enormously about some kinds of theatre that I had never even heard of. The lists of background information and questions for discussion that Donna gives for each play stimulated lots of very interesting discussions between my son and I and really provoked thinking on his part that he wouldn't have otherwise have come to. Because Donna explains the reasons behind studying comedy and tragedy in the first place, and shows one how to approach and discuss some difficult material with teens, it was also possible for me to substitute a particular play or add on an extra play that we (okay, I..) really wanted to study and approach it in the same way as the rest. I loved using this booklet, and am hoping for more in the "high school notes" series.
I have loved doing this block. I knew that I would love it, because I love the theatre and was really involved in it when I was younger, but I wasn't sure about Zach. He really rose to the challenge, though. When we first started reading Electra, I thought he was not going to make it through. It was painful to read the play aloud together since he pronounced every second word wrong and at the end of each speaker we would have to stop and discuss what was said and basically "translate" it because he couldn't understand a word. I would give him small sections to read on his own for the next day and would also give him some of the questions for discussion for him to think about before we met again and we would talk about them together. He would always come back saying, "I'm really sorry....I read it a bunch of times but I just don't understand what is going on or what they are saying." It hurt me physically. Then, about halfway through the play, when we had been discussing the characters and their actions and motivations for about a week, he was reading a monologue out loud and in the middle of a line he broke off and shouted- "I'm getting it!!-" and then kept reading. It was the breakthrough moment where you forget that you are reading or listening to Shakespeare (for example) and you are suddenly understanding it like your own language. It was so wonderful and very exciting. After that he was very excited about the play and was very heated about some of the discussions about motivations of the characters, right and wrong, etc. It is funny how black and white teenagers are, isn't it? I suddenly found myself filling the role that my grade nine English teacher had filled - while all the rest of us in the class were sure about something being absolutely right or wrong, she would smilingly offer the alternative argument and act like she really believed it and it drove us insane. Finally one time near the end of the year during a particularly heated discussion (Merchant of Venice I think) she admitted that she was simply playing the devil's advocate because someone had to offer an alternative argument or their wouldn't be any discussion. We couldn't believe it.
I also added in Macbeth as an extra tragedy - I just couldn't resist. It is my favourite Shakespeare play (I actually played Lady Macbeth in high school) and there is a performance nearby that we are hoping to see next week so I wanted Zach to have read it. We did watch the Twelfth Night movie that you recommended and Zachary really loved reading the play and watching the movie.
I have been thinking as I used this book that these "high school notes" are perfect for someone like me. It doesn't have all of the background anthro stuff about the age group, the consciousness of the child at that age, what the curriculum as a whole is trying to do, etc. Just the info on what I am trying to accomplish in this block, what materials I need, the general progression of lessons, ideas for activities/student work, and a list of resources. Perfect! Please publish more like this!
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