American Literature (Student Book)

This book is setting up my freshman for a transition from lower grades to more serious work. I love it it is set up to offer 2 credits if you want to complete it all in one year. Great college prep course.

This 34 week course is a comprehensive class that is worth 2 credits when completed in full - one in writing and one in literature. This course does require the student to read literature in advance in order to keep up with course assignments. It does not include a day-by-day schedule, so students and parents must be mindful to stay on track. This is an intensive course that will require a fair amount of parent involvement. It will certainly prepare students for collegiate-level study.

American Literature is a high school level course that can offer 2 high school credit hours (1 Literature, 1 Writing) when used to its full potential. This course offers many great literature options by American authors that follows the same sequence as the High School American History course offered through Master Books. (Taking both courses together would offer 3 high school credits when used to its full potential.)

This student guide includes the chapter introduction and activities that are to be completed each day/week. At the end of each lesson, assignments are clearly outlined for the student. I especially like that they include telling the student to read future content ahead of the lesson to which it correlates to ensure the student can continuously move forward in the program rather than stopping to complete a book before it’s taught.

This is a wonderfully rich, but highly customizable high school literature course.

American Literature - Student Book

A literature course not for the faint of heart, students earn two full credits: one for writing and one for literature. It covers American Literature beginning at the start of the New Land and journeying to present day over 34 weeks of study, five days a week. This is a great course to teach student responsibility because it is set up for independent learning. Expectations include reading sometimes 200 plus pages in a week, practice writing or giving oral responses, weekly essays, and more. Weekly objectives and the read ahead schedule is very clear at the beginning of each chapter. I would definitely take the recommendation to heart to have your student start reading the literature the summer before starting this course in order to lessen their load throughout the year.

Challenging, yes. Even as a parent, learning how the course is designed and scheduled wasn’t a walk in the park, but this course is so rich and beautiful with the classics that are studied, it was worth the little bit of extra time in understanding how it is set up. I love the way that it maintains a biblical worldview even as you read from authors with different views and beliefs. This course will prepare any student preparing to further their education beyond high school.

-Students learn from great American Literature books and selections
-Students can earn two full credits for this curriculum for writing and literature
-34 week intensive study
-Most assignments are based on the student’s opinions
-Warm-up exercises in each lesson are challenging at times but enjoyable
-Students will develop essay writing skills, have a solid worldview and gain a strong vocabulary
-This equips students to think critically about philosophy and trends in culture while articulating their worldview through writing.
Excellent course to prepare a student for college literature and literary analysis.

This is a thorough introduction to American Literature. The author takes the time to equip the student to view each piece of literature through a Christian worldview. Each chapter includes reading, literary analysis (guided), essay writing, a test, and thought-provoking discussion questions.

Although all the expectations and assignments are clearly laid out for the student, there is still a fair amount of teacher involvement to discuss the readings, discussion questions, and grading of essays and tests. However, this involvement helps encourage the student to better form his/her opinions by discussing them with the teacher.

As an added benefit, the author also has an American History curriculum that can be taught alongside the American Literature curriculum, helping to connect the literature with different points in history.

This course is no joke! Definitely, for the High School level, I would not attempt for a middle schooler. My 9th-grade daughter works almost exclusively independently on her other Masterbooks subjects, except for this course. We worked together on the majority of the lessons. Except for the assigned readings and tests. Honestly, I didn't realize how much learning I would be doing alongside my daughter.

This course schedule is designed differently than the majority of other Masterbook courses. In that, they have a day-by-day 180-day schedule at the beginning of the book. Neither the teacher's guide nor the student guide has a schedule. This has made it harder for us to stay on track to complete in a year timeframe. We are taking a little longer on the essay days to help her learn how to write better-quality papers. Completing this course in a school year has gone out the window.

If your student is planning higher level education this course will definitely help prepare them for the next level.

American Literature is what I would consider a very well planned AP course for high schoolers. It's divided into thirty four chapters with nine main topics. These topics can vary in length, some only covering two chapters while others covering eleven chapters. I will say this course will take some learning to fully understand the way it is written and planning on the part of the parent. After using MB for a lot of our language arts curriculum, my daughter didn't completely understand the layout well. We worked through it a bit, but I am not sure if she is quite ready for this course as just a 9th grader. We may put it away and see if it would be a bit as she gets a bit older.
As far as layout is concerned, there is at least one essay a week to complete (at parents discretion) and weekly tests available in the teachers guide. The author does suggest spending the summer before starting this course reading from the book list provided. This will prevent any trouble the student might have with trying to get an entire book finished in just one week. For example, 'The Scarlet Letter' is discussed in just one week which would be extremely difficult to fully read and comprehend this in just one week. I do appreciate that the chapter tests vary in the methods by which questions are asked. For example, there are charts to fill in, essay questions, multiple choice, short answer, discussion, and critical thinking questions.

This course book has 34 chapters with 9 topics but multiple parts in each topic. there is an additional book list that you can get if you want to. it has a total of 20 books. If you take this course know that you have to read ahead in the course to stay on track with the schedule. There are also a couple of choices that you can choose from for the schedule. they are available on the Master Book website. This course has your student doing a daily warm up, and a daily concept builder, which should take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete. these concepts relate to what the student is learning in the chapter. they will read the assigned reading, and at the end of the week either complete the Chapter test or write an essay or both depending on what you want your student to do. These are provided in the teaches guide. You will need a notebook and a prayer journal for this course. This course also includes a vocabulary section, which if you choose to do this your student will need note cards. I think that this is a bit much for a student, but if your student likes to read it should not be a big deal. I have my student do an essay one week and extend it to the next week for the due date, but on the extended week, they will be doing the chapter test while completing the essay from the week prior.

I really like it as I do with most masterbooks, but my older kids struggled with the reading required and the amount of books (some of this is due to my oldest having had history of reading comprehension issues) my youngest 2 are elementary and I think they may be fine with this class when they get into high school