Level H highlights some wonderful world literature that is readily available at your library via public domain or even audio books. These include The Importance of Being Earnest; Glinda of Oz; The War of the Worlds; Cyrano de Bergerac; Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; The Misanthrope; and A Double Story. You’ll find lots of poetry directly in the text, including many sonnets and excerpts from larger pieces. To promote cultural literacy, readings also include the author’s short retellings of stories from the Talmud, from Zen Buddhism, and often directly quoted Christian parables from the Old and New Testaments (uses Revised Standard Version). This level contains more religiously derived stories than all previous volumes. The author, however, includes stories from multiple traditions with a cultural literacy goal.
For the literary analysis exercises, you’ll need to select from children’s books (easily obtained at a library) such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Last Stop on Market Street, Blueberries for Sal, Roxaboxen, Aesop’s Fable, The Misanthrope or The Bix Box.
These 108 lessons are designed to be accomplished at 3 per week for 36 weeks. The instruction assumes that students have been exposed to skills of dictation, grammar/diagramming and composition, and the writing stages of chreia and maxim. Dictation exercises 2 or more times per week for 5-10 minutes serves to study grammar, spelling, and the writing mechanics. Reviewing skills from Level G, the course will also cover slant narratives and comparison/contrast, with particular attention to the advanced writing stages of progymnasmata: chreia, maxim, refutation, and confirmation. Using a 6-day rotation, you’ll schedule assignments with this pattern: Day 1-model stories; Day 2-composition; Day 3-literary analysis or narration with picture study; Day 4-composition work and commonplace book entry; Day 5-complete composition; and Day 6-sentence rewrite and edit your composition.
Sentence diagramming continues; for teaching, the program recommends some online options (subscription or free) or teaching the skill on a white board. Multiple appendixes include definitions/sentences to correct; diagramming reference; definitions of 4 types of clauses; basic punctuation rules; verbals reference guide; tenses, aspects, and voices reference guide; subjunctive mood and conditional statements reference guides; irregular and phrasal verbs; and helps for writing projects. Periodic black and white illustrations feature famous artwork. Unfortunately, some in my sample seemed a bit like blurry reproductions. I’d recommend looking at a full-color copy of the original for full appreciation. 820 pgs, pb. ~ Ruth