Most parents and teachers would agree that a student's education wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of a solid Literature curriculum. Books, good books, provide wisdom, character lessons, linguistic skills, culture and heritage studies, and much more. Memoria Press is a company that provides such curriculum, and they provided our family with their Ninth Grade Literature Guide Set to use and review. For this review, we focused on The Canterbury Tales Memoria Press Literature Guide.
Memoria Press is a company that uses the Classical Education method. It is family run, with a Christian viewpoint. They promote the benefits of reading The Great Books as a means to gain wisdom, understand, and promote our Western Christian Heritage.
Our Literature set includes:
- The Canterbury Tales Teacher Guide
- The Canterbury Tales Student Guide
- Henry V Teacher Guide
- Henry V Student Book
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Teacher Guide
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Student Study Guide
- Beowulf the Warrior Teacher Guide
- Beowulf the Warrior Student Book
We did not receive the accompanying novels for any of the guides.
This is called the Ninth Grade Literature Set, but being a part of the Upper School literature study guides, can be used within the range of 8th to 12th grade. You know your students, and what material will work best for them. Each of these titles that we received will take approximately 6-7 weeks to complete. We decided to begin with The Canterbury Tales. The first thing that I did upon receiving this set, was to order the novels that accompany each, or at least most of them. I didn't manage to get Henry V yet, but I have some time before we get to that one. I was fairly confident that my ninth grader would not be overly excited to begin this program, as she tends to be averse to reading the classics. I was happy though, because I appreciate the quality that I have seen with this company, and of course, she needs to have this as a part of her high school work. I also know that based on past experience, that there have been classic works that we have read as part of her schoolwork that she expected to dislike, but then ended up enjoying very much. But I digress.
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| 3 out of 4 novels. |
Getting started is helped along with the Introduction for teachers in the guide. They provide the step by step instructions to get you through each lesson. I do appreciate that they recognize that every family/student brings different personalities and learning styles to the table, and therefore tell you straight out that you can and should adjust the material as necessary. Memoria Press uses the Trivium and the Central One Idea to discover the intent of a work. There are four stages in this:
Stage 1 - Pre-Grammar/Preparation- This prepares the student to absorb the material by basically seeing what they already know, through questions that get them thinking.
Stage 2 - Grammar/Presentation - Here the student will get the essential facts of the story.
Stage 3 - Logic/Dialect - Using the information they have from the story, they will reason with all of the parts of the story and begin to determine the Central One Idea.
Stage 4 - Rhetoric/Expression - This final stage has the student revealing their thoughts on what the Central One Idea is.
The teacher guide provides clear instructions in getting started.
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| A lesson in progress. |
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| More of a lesson in progress. |
At the start of the lessons, or really, just before, there is a helpful page that demonstrates how to mark a book using various types of lines that will symbolize various meanings. The material and lessons are laid out in a straightforward manner, with clear instructions. I'm using this with my ninth grader, and I may have my 10th grader begin it as well when we start up our new school year in the next couple of weeks. That reminds me, the student books are consumables, so you need one per student since they'll be writing in them. I appreciate the exposure to the rich vocabulary in this set. I would be lying if I said that my daughter absolutely loves this curriculum, but it is more challenging in its language, and we need to be challenged in our education. I'm pleased to know that in this material, my children are being exposed to a high quality of work. We're just finishing up this first book, and we'll be moving on to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight next. If you're still looking for a literature curriculum, see if this is a good fit for your family.
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| The Canterbury Tales. |
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| On deck- Sir Gawain. |
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| Beowulf. |
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| Henry V. |
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