Hi - I've been going over my unit one materials here, looking for any writing assignments directly tied to the literature for my 10th grader.
I do see on the writing assignment pages that we will be doing some analytical essays tied to the history, etc., which is great. However, I really would like my daughter to respond to the literature a little more often, as well, with a paper.
For example: after reading Chanson, or after finishing Beowulf, I'd like her to be responsible for a paper, not just questions to answer.
Can someone point me in the right direction for help with this? I considered looking at the "Continuing level" questions, which looked like they might give me a jumpstart with this.
My daughter is following the beginning level, being new to Tapestry, but is a fairly good writer, and just needs more practice writing in response to literature. I was trying to avoid "reinventing the wheel" if there was something I was missing in this....
Thanks for any advice you can give.
Jo

Have you read the Loom document entitled something like Using Tapestry's Rhetoric-Level Literature? That document says that there are five optional papers each year which are on literary topics. It says that they'll be mentioned either in the Glance into the Week Ahead section or else in the literature section in the student activity pages, and are to be substituted for some of the normal writing assignments as you see fit.

Looking through Unit 1, I haven't found reference to one of these papers, so I assume that they will come later in the year, but maybe I just missed one.

Beth

Hi Beth,
Yes, I have read that and did look through my unit, and didn't see any more than one assigned, either. I would just like my daughter to do more literature-response writing than this.
I can study through the whole literary analysis instruction in WA, and have a bit, but didn't know if somewhere some specific question could help point the student in a writing direction on some of the specific works we're covering.
Thanks for your help.
Jo

Hi Jo! As Beth said, there are specific optional literature papers suggested throughout the year. For Unit 1 the optional paper is a Personal Response (first mentioned in the Glance at the end of Week 7, page 62) which is meant to be done of the course of two or three (I think it's two) weeks. The paper is intended to help the student explain his or her own response to a work of literature, and you can find all the specifics, plus suggestions about how long, what citation style, etc., in Writing Aids.

It says "Level 12" on that page because in our Writing Assignments it is assigned in the senior year, but just as an optional paper assignment I would say that it is perfectly appropriate for a much younger student---in other words, there's nothing special about it that a fourteen-year-old or a sixteen-year-old couldn't handle as well as a seventeen-year-old, but apparently they just chose to assign it late in high school rather than earlier. You can, of course, read about it in Writing Aids and decide for yourself whether your daughter should do it. :-)

In Unit 2 I believe we suggest a three-week project of writing a Literary Analysis paper on one of the plays studied that unit, and I think Unit 3 is a Literary Analysis paper focusing on a poem, and then there's a Literary Comparison paper and a third Literary Analysis (on a story, I believe) in there as well. These are spread out over the course of Y2, averaging about one paper per unit (one unit might have two). All the specifications on these genres are in Writing Aids, and practice with the analysis outlines should put your daughter in a very good position to analyze a literary work in a formal paper.

So, all that to say "The Unit 1 suggested paper is the Personal Response, and there will be more coming up in other units." I believe we usually list suggested paper topics as well, though not for that first paper because your student will only be in Week 8 and therefore has only the literary works studied in the first seven weeks to choose from for a topic. Personally I would recommend that she not tackle Dante, and Beowulf or the Chanson might be heavy going as well because they are difficult to decipher and understand, much less discuss in a paper (though if she's fired up about one of those, more power to her!). I'd be more likely to suggest one of the Arabian Nights stories or one of the poems from Week 2 as a gentle, fairly simple place to begin.

For example, she could write about a single character in one of the Arabian Nights stories and show how his experiment in living supports the author's theme. This would likely be easy for your daughter to do, since all the stories in our selections for that week have a clear and ongoing theme (supported by various experiments in living) that forgiveness is good and that we should accept atonement for faults and not punish the innocent. All the stories show this in some way, and your daughter could write about how the princess is using them to convince the king to forgive the wrong done against him and stop killing innocent young girls.

That's my suggestion, but of course it is up to you and to your student. :-) Each of the papers, when assigned, assumes that you can choose as a topic any element of any play, poem, or story studied so far (or any two, if it is a comparison paper). Again, most give suggestions, but the choice is exclusively yours.

I hope I've clarified it for you...?

c.j.somerville

Hi C.J. -
Thank you for your response. You took a lot of time. I really appreciate your thoughts.
Believe me, I would not be asking the questions if I did not have a 15 yr. old for whom none of this literature is daunting. She tackles patiently just about any work. She reads, comprehends and is spiritually sensitive on a much higher level than her age might indicate. So, my challenge is to bring her writing abilities along with it, helping her to make/get the most out of the literature. The questions each week are a great help, of course, and I just want to stay on track with the writing.
All the assignments you mentioned in your note, these are in found in the writing assignment charts, correct? Just want to be sure I'm looking in the right places.
Thank you, again.
Jo

No problem! Actually, however, because these are optional papers, I believe you will find them listed most often in the Glance, not in the Writing Assignments pages. I know that can be confusing, but the "Using R-level Literature" document on the Loom explains the why and wherefore of it. So whenever you are thinking about specifically literary writing assignments for your dd, I would check both Glance and Writing Assignments. :-)

If you want, you could even page through the Glances of each new unit as you get them, figure out where the papers are assigned, and then make up a list for your daughter's assignments. I think that would take you about 5-10 minutes and would ensure that you're not missing anything. :-)

God bless you both!

c.j.somerville

Hi again -
Thanks for everything. I just read the thread on here about folks a little overwhelmed with the literature portion of Redesigned 2. I've been wanting to express something and maybe now's a good time - I love this program. I am very thankful for the way it is laid out; for our situation, and for my rhetoric student, as I may have already hinted at previously, it is not too much. We need what is here and appreciate it all very much.
Every home and family is different, no doubt. We are attempting, by God's grace, many difficult subjects this year, as well. I know it can be hard, especially when kids aren't extremely eager. But thank you - a ton of work has obviously gone into this, and it has truly been a blessing getting started with TOG.
God bless,
Jo