So, it just so happens that Moving Beyond the Page came out with their very first high school curriculum right when we needed it. We've had a lot going on the past while, so for simplicity's sake I decided to just continue on with their program and bought their full year of High School English 1. I was nervous that she would be tired of the format from MBTP and resist another year of it. But I think we had enough variety in her other classes that she was ok using it for just the one class.
My overall impression? Pretty good. I would use it again. I felt like the material was both broad and deep and hit on some decent pieces of literature/literary instruction. Here's a look at what they cover over the year
You can see it's a diverse list. Many of the selections are available at the library. I did buy a few of the books, (like the grammar books and Malala) because they seemed like good ones to have on hand and I didn't want to have to risk not having them around when needed.
There are two units on grammar - one per semester. I'm no grammar guru (I'm sure anyone can see that by now just glimpsing through this blog) but I felt like the grammar units were SUPER advanced compared to the previous grammar exposure in the middle school levels. Some may consider that a bonus. For me it was tedious to grade and I didn't really feel like I could help every time she asked. But for the most part she did well and I could see she learned some good grammar from it.
One plus about this new content is how current the information is. I recall that one of the assignments mentions the 2016 Trump campaign and my daughter found it validating to be learning from up-to-date resources. On the downside, however, I did feel that this curriculum tried a little too hard to be "hip" with the times and ignored some of the solid classics. Yeah, it's cool to read about Malala and be current on the issues she fought for. And one of the poetry books used is very current with the times. But when I think back to my freshman English class I remember really loving some of the great classics. I felt that missing from this program. I didn't worry about this very much because my daughter also did a very literature-heavy history program this year with a TON of great reading. I felt like between the two classes she was reading a LOT and getting great exposure to lots of quality literature. She did this history program from Beautiful Feet.
But, for example, in the Sci-Fi genre MBTP selects Ender's Game for students to read. You can read my thoughts about this book here (scroll down the page a bit). I hear from other high school parents that it's time to let kids "read the hard stuff" and I would agree. But there's a line between "hard stuff" and vulgar stuff in my opinion. I was disappointed that I had to skip a unit that I had paid for and then invest a lot of time and energy to create my own sci-fi unit in its place. In the end I was happy that I had made the effort to create the War of the Worlds unit for her. Plus it was a nice break from the MBTP format.
I should have learned my lesson and pre-read ALL the selections for this course. But I am a busy, tired, homeschool mom like many of you out there and didn't get to A Raisin In The Sun before it was time for her to read it for the drama unit (final unit). So she read it! And later she told me that it wasn't great. It has a lot of strife, grief, yelling, and family discontent. Ok, none of that sounds toooo horrible. But she also mentioned that one of the family members contemplates using a windfall of money for an abortion. yikes. not cool. With so many great plays to read and study, why on earth did MBTP choose such an obscure, crappy one? If I use this program again with my future students then I will for sure switch this out and have them read 12 Angry Men instead. I've already found a good resource to help me craft a unit on that: http://www.samandscout.com/drama-and-persuasion-mini-unit-with-twelve-angry-men/
I think this course, while supposedly created for homeschoolers, would actually work better in a class room setting. There are discussion questions at the end of many lessons and we never, ever got to those. Not even once. So I feel bad about that. I can see that they were rich questions that would have added a lot of value, but it felt awkward and time consuming to incorporate them with just the two of us working together. Also, there are "homework" assignments for each lesson, which seems weird for homeschoolers. Of course, my daughter always did the "homework" as part of her regular daily work so it seems weird that they would use that terminology with a homeschool program.
One thing to note about this last Drama unit: The section that covers Romeo and Juliet requires the student to purchase a subscription to Digital Theater that will cost $11 and can be cancelled at any time. It's just nice to know about this extra cost upfront rather than learn about it in the middle of the unit.
There are a few "cheesy" assignments that require a high school student to draw, cut and paste, or color. This, of course, fits in with the MBTP project based learning style. My daughter prefers a bit more straightforward approach to assignments but didn't complain about these assignments. There were writing projects as well to compliment the more "crafty" assignments.
I appreciated that the pacing for the course was outlined for me on the back of each unit. This helped me keep our work on track for the year.
Here's a fun graphic from the drama unit:
Here's a fun example of how MBTP has tried to make old material seem relevant to today's tech savvy youth:
Like I said, overall it was a good course. I feel like my student got a solid year of English under her belt and is well prepared to move forward. I would give it 4/5 stars.
