Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set - Crew Review

The Tenth GradeLiterature Guide Set from MemoriaPress develops superior readers. This set includes a student book and teacher guide for the following pieces of literature: To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, The Scarlet Letter, and Julius Caesar.

The student books train students to read actively and lead students through a four-stage trivium-based continuum to the acquisition and expression of the Central One Idea. Students are guided through pre-grammar, grammar, logic, and rhetoric stages. The student books feature helpful reading notes for background information and difficult words, extensive vocabulary training, comprehension questions, Socratic discussion questions, as well as, essay options to prepare students for sophisticated literary analysis and future study. The student book does not provide enough space for students to write their answers in the book, so my daughter used a separate piece of notebook paper to complete her work.

Each teacher guide reveals what is contained in the student book. The teacher guide is also the answer key, which is written beside the student book page.

Both the student book and teacher guide explain in detail the four stages to the Central One Idea for a proper reading and for cultivating wisdom and virtue. The joy of learning comes from the Elysian fount of discovery. Knowing the destination is vitally important in this four-stage sequence. For both the journey and the destination count, but especially the destination, which is the understanding and expression of the idea.

Each novel in the literature guide set has been carefully selected to nourish your child’s soul and improve their reading skills. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The protagonist is Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, an intelligent though unconventional girl who ages from six to nine years old during the course of the novel. She is raised with her brother, Jeremy Atticus (Jem), by their widowed father, Atticus Finch. He is a prominent lawyer who encourages his children to be empathetic and just. He notable tells them that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, alluding to the facts that the birds are innocent and harmless. When Tom Robinson, one of the town’s black residents, is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, Atticus agrees to defend him despite threats from the community. Although Atticus presents a defense that gives a more plausible interpretation of the evidence, Tom is convicted and is later killed. A character compares his death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds.

Romeo and Juliet is an age-old vendetta between two powerful families that erupts into bloodshed. A group of masked Montagues risk further conflict by gatecrashing a Capulet party. A yound lovesick Romeo Montague falls instantly in love with Juliet Capulet, who is due to marry her father’s choice, the County Paris. With the help of Juliet’s nurse, the women arrange for the couple to marry the next day, but Romeo’s attempt to halt a street fight leads to the death of Juliet’s own cousin, Tybalt, for which Romeo is banished. In a desperate attempt to be reunited with Romeo, Juliet follows the Friar’s plot and fake her own death. The message fails to reach Romeo, and believing Juliet dead, he takes his life in her tomb. Juliet wakes to find Romeo’s corpse beside her and kills herself. The grieving families agree to end their feud.

The Scarlet Letter is set in a village in Puritan New England. The main character is Hester Prynne, a young woman who has borne a child out of wedlock. Hester believes herself a widow, but her husband Roger Chillingworth, arrives in New England very much alive and conceals his identity. He finds his wife forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as punishment for her adultery. After Hester refuses to name her lover, Chillingworth becomes obsessed with finding his identity. When he learns that the man in question is Arthur Dimmesdale, a saintly young minister who is the leader of those exhorting her to name the child’s father, Chillingworth proceeds to torment him. Stricken by guilt, Dimmesdale becomes increasingly ill. Hester herself is revealed to be a self-reliant heroine who is never truly repentant for committing adultery with the minister; she feels that their act was consecrated by their deep love for each other. Although she is initially scorned, over time her compassion and dignity silence many of her critics.

Julius Caesar tell of jealous conspirators who convince Caesar’s friend Brutus to join their assassination plot against Caesar. To stop Caesar from gaining too much power, Brutus and the conspirators kill him on the Ides of March. Mark Antony drives the conspirators out of Rome and fights them in a battle. Brutus and his friend Cassius lose and kill themselves, leaving Antony to rule in Rome.

Reading requires an active, discriminating mind that is challenged to think, compare, and contrast. Students who have been challenged by good literature will develop into superior readers and will never be satisfied with poor-quality books.  Visit the Crew Blog to read what the Homeschool Review Crew has to say about this Tenth Grade Literature Guide Set, as well as other products from Memoria Press.