[Ben Crist]

We’re so excited you’re exploring our new site…and have joined the Literature group! We hope this provides a safe, curated place for sharing questions, resources, reading lists, and teaching aids for great literature.

Reply to this post and introduce yourself, and let’s get started! How could we make this group a useful resource for you?

Feel free to reach out to me at any time about:

• this group,
• technical issues on the site, or
• more information about any of our literature courses: Middle School Lit, American Lit, and World & British Lit.

Sincerely,

Ben Crist

Director of Curriculum And Content

[Robert L Wesley]

I have two tenth graders who will be taking your American Lit class. I have a question about the second semester Thesis Paper. Will they be submitting their work to you? Thank you!

[Ben Crist]

Fantastic! I hope they enjoy it. I don’t receive submissions from the course, but I’d be happy to make comments on the papers if you’d like the help via private messaging.

[Robert L Wesley]

What is and isn’t graded in this course? Are the date recommendations just based on what you do in your live class? Thank you.

[Ben Crist]

Correct—the due dates were given for the in-person class held 2020-21, when I was grading in-person work. All assignments in the course are to be graded by parents now.

However, I am happy to provide clarification or suggestions about any of the assignments if you need them.

[Robert L Wesley]

Is there an answer key for this class? I wasn’t able to find one. If not, how are we supposed to grade the reading assignments?

[Ben Crist]

You could do this a couple of ways—for the reading itself, I go over the content and some of the key points in the subsequent video. For the written assignments, I give specific details about what questions to answer so that parents can modify/exclude as they wish. There aren’t keys written for the questions because we generally take them up in the next video class.

However, I am happy to relay what I was looking for on a particular assignment.

[Robert L Wesley]

Did you explain how to choose a thesis topic in a video? I can’t find any information on choosing a thesis. I’m assuming it should cover something in their reading. Do you have recommendations? Thank you.

[Ben Crist]

Because we filmed this from a class that met weekly, I would spend some time (usually at the beginning) on thesis with the students, describing where they were in the process and what to do next. So yes, there are pointers in the videos.

However, I treat the thesis as part of an ongoing conversation with a student, so I would meet with them and they needed to get their topics approved.

I start by asking what the student is interested in. Then, I ask what questions they have about that topic. Great research and thesis papers begin with questions.

For instance, a student was interested in poetry, so I asked her if there was a period of American history that she liked, and she said the War Between the States / Civil War. We kept talking, and the question emerged, why would someone compose beautiful verse about war? How was that war writing different than, say, WWI poetry?

At its root, the thesis paper is about learning something new and sharing it in a persuasive way. A good way to keep it fresh for the student and interesting for her readers is to have her always be asking questions.

[Robert L Wesley]

Some of your links, like the one for an example outline, appear to be broken.

[Ben Crist]

Sorry about that! We tried to remove the links last week in favor of pointing folks to the all-inclusive zip file for the course. On the course homepage, look for “Materials” and then a link to this zip file. Should be the same process for all our courses with downloadable materials!

If you can give me the exact step or page where the link is broken, I’ll edit the page to reflect the above directions.

[Rebecca]

Hi, my son is enrolled in American Lit for Fall. Can you point me to a schedule that he might follow to ensure he stays on track? (Eg. Week 1, week 2….) Thank you!

[Ben Crist]

Hi Rebecca,

The course was originally delivered in 30 weeks. Each of the lessons in the course (save the first, “What You Will Need to Know”) came from those weekly lectures and assignments. Of course, you can speed up or slow down depending on your particular schedule.

There is a scope and sequence here that also breaks down the course and assignments by units.

Let me know if you need anything else!

[diane.colville]

Hello!

My daughter, Olivia, will be starting your course in September as a sophomore. She has already taken a Latin course and Dave Raymond’s US History course thru Compass Classroom, both of which she really enjoys! I am pairing this course up with Dave’s American History course (she still has 8 lessons to complete) and then onto Modernity. Previously, we’ve done Classical Conversations using LTW and IEW. Looking forward to see how you teach Literature and hone her reading and writing skills.

Thank you!

Diane Colville

[Ben Crist]

Hi Diane & Olivia. That’s great! Let me know if you need any help as you progress through the self-paced course.

[diane.colville]

The class description says there are 31 lessons, but the scope and sequence has 28 weeks. I’m a little confused as to how many weeks to plan for.

Thank you for clarifying!

Diane

[Ben Crist]

There are 31 lessons to mark complete in the course, including the initial lesson describing which books to purchase and how the class will work. The actual lecturing starts in Lesson 2. (30 lectures)

There is also one snow day we had locally which prevented us from meeting, so an assignment was given in lieu of a lecture. (29 lectures)

Finally, the last lecture was more of a wrap up by me than anything that the students had to prepare for with homework, so it was included to watch but not something for which you have to plan ahead. (28 lectures)

Does that help?

[diane.colville]

Yes, thank you!

[diane.colville]

Does your course provide a certificate of completion? I see Visual Latin with Mr. Thomas provides one.

[Ben Crist]

It’s on our list to add before the end of the academic year. I will make sure we get one installed.

[Rebecca]

Hi Mr Crist,

For American Lit, is there any sort of guide to help parents grade papers and assignments without having to do all the reading ourselves alongside our students? Thank you!

Rebecca Schreiber

[Ben Crist]

Hi Rebecca: I have a general set of guidelines (included in the course materials) that I used when grading. As far as accuracy of the content for your student, i.e. did the character “John” really do X or say Y, that will depend on your student’s reading of the material.

I’d be happy to provide feedback on one of your student’s response papers as a sort of template.

In the video following the assignment, I often ask the students about their writing and use that as a gauge for the viewing student.

Let me know if I can help further!

[Rebecca]

Thank you for your previous reply. One more question. I am unable to open the zip file of coursework for American Lit. It says “file invalid” no matter what device I download it on. Is it possible to get this file another way? Thank you!

[Ben Crist]

I will try to email you directly based on the address in your account. Watch for it in a few minutes!