Three Theban Plays

Please note that a brief synopsis of many of the books included here are provided in our Library Builders section. Study guides for the same book are often available from several publishers, so we found it more efficient to give a description of the book only once.

Well-organized, user-friendly, and academically challenging, these guides equip students to be active readers through thoughtful and purposeful study. Formatted similarly, each guide includes vocabulary, comprehension and discussion questions, quotations, composition, and literary analysis in increasing depth. Grade Level Packages are available for your convenience and align to the Memoria Press Literature and Poetry books grade level packages. Components are also available separately. For additional literature options from Memoria Press, please see the Alternate Literature or the Classical Literature options.

StoryTime Treasures and More StoryTime Treasures incorporate real books, rather than controlled readers, to advance phonics and reading skills, once a student has learned phonics. Student Guides at this level are different compared to the 2nd grade and up Literature Guides. Featuring a horizontal orientation for ease of writing, worksheets focus on vocabulary and comprehension. There's writing involved (7/16" lines with dotted midline) but the top binding makes it easy for either right or left-handed students. The teacher needs to take a quick peek at two pages at the beginning that give the plan for the Word Study, Read, Comprehension, and Language (introductory grammar) segments of each lesson. StoryTime covers four classic children's books in 14 lessons and 2 optional Christmas lessons. More StoryTime provides another 15 lessons and seven children's books. Teacher Guides for StoryTime and More StoryTime include a model lesson plan, overview, daily assignments for each lesson (which highlight phonics and vocabulary activities) and answers to the student pages. Packages are available for StoryTime Treasures and More StoryTime Treasures which include both student and teacher guides as well as the literature resources. Packages of literature resources only are also available. Optional Lesson Plans are available.

Beginning in 2nd grade, Literature Guides are organized around the Trivium with activities grouped into Pre-Grammar, Grammar (preparation and presentation); Logic (reasoning with facts, elements, and features) and Rhetoric (expression). Although there is consistency from lesson to lesson, the extra activity provided with each lesson is quite varied. Background information on the author and book is also included.

Student Guides for Grades 2-8 are consumable. Each book/story/poem is approached in much the same way, although with increasing depth. Vocabulary, comprehension/discussion questions, quotations, composition, and literary analysis activities are covered. Beginning in Grade 9, the guides transition to a smaller formatted (6" x 9") non-consumable format. Students are encouraged to create a personal Literature Notebook. Currently, The Divine Comedy Student Guide is the last remaining full-size consumable literature guide available.

Teacher Guides provide valuable teaching information and full-text answer keys at all grade levels. Discussion talking points, reproducible quizzes and final tests (with answers) are included in numerous guides especially at the upper levels. The early grades differ a little bit in content in order to be more suitable for young learners.

Used as part of their classical studies, these literature selections are available separately for families wanting to incorporate classical literature into their homeschool. For each study, the Teacher Guide, Student Guide, and book are required.

There are many reasons to study the Theban plays (Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus). The masterful playwright - Sophocles; the great myth/story - Oedipus, who is fated to unknowingly kill his father and marry his mother; the great themes - fate, free will, the quest for knowledge and truth. There is one very good reason to read/study these plays using the Memoria Press' Guides - they do the job very, very well! With an emphasis on the "Central One Idea," there is a four-stage approach to each play. The Pre-Grammar stage is preparation (pre-reading); the Grammar stage is presentation (background, vocabulary, and comprehension); the Logic is dialectic (Socratic discussion); and the Rhetoric stage is expression (summary, abstract, and essay). The Student Guide includes some very helpful instructional material concerning these four stages as well as the Central One Idea (COI), along with a short tutorial on Greek tragedy, as well as the outlines, background info and features of these plays. These Guides are consumable with plenty of space to write the normal short essay answers as well as the longer essays. Appendices include a section on Memorization & Recitation plus a Master Words-to-be-Defined List. The Teacher Guide is a replica of the Student Guide with all the same introductory information and Appendices but with answers provided for all questions except the essays. The TG also provides non-reproducible quizzes (one for each play) and a Final Exam along with answers for each. Student is 85 pgs, pb; Teacher is 116 pgs, pb ~ Janice