If you have not yet read the Read Me First page, please do so before continuing. It contains information you need to know to successfully complete this course.
Forrest Gump said that life was like a box of chocolates. Other people have compared life to a roller coaster. The author Robert Fulghum said that everything he needed to know in life he learned in kindergarten. There are many metaphors that we create to help us describe and understand life better, and to help us to press on in the pursuit that we call life. For the purpose of organizing this course around a central theme, we are going to create an extended metaphor comparing life to a journey. The reason I chose this theme is that I think it works well to accomplish the goals I have for what you can get out of the course.
As you begin this course, I hope you realize that literature was never written so that someone like me could write "Self Mastery" and "Speedback" questions quizzing you on the particulars of the pieces. I know for a fact that William Shakespeare did not write his plays thinking, "Boy, I hope this is good enough to teach in senior English in the year 2000 through BYU Independent Study." I would be willing to bet that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow didn't write a poem thinking, "Whoa, I bet this poem would be perfect to test high schoolers in their understanding of literary terms." I would also venture to say that even someone like J.K. Rowling, the author of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, didn't write her books with the intent that kids would read them and then be tested for the content of the book.
Great authors are great usually because they have successfully captured a glimpse of the human experience, and have articulated it in a way that the rest of us can relate to. Unfortunately, the way the school system is set up, we must give grades so you can get credit, and in order to get credit, you have to show some level of proficiency in the material that you are supposed to master. Thus we had the birth and evolution of the multiple choice question, and a grading system that usually rewards those who are simply willing to work. A lot of times someone who hates literature will get an "A," whereas someone that appreciates and understands literature may not get a good grade — for a lot of different reasons.
In a perfect world, I would sit down with you, read with you, chat with you, understand you, challenge you, encourage you, and hopefully inspire and empower you. But, it is not a perfect world, and so we are left with forms of assessment (Speedback questions, tests, etc.) that are less than perfect. But, as you go through this first lesson, I hope you will realize that the poetry contained herein has powerful commentary on life, and that by reading and understanding other people's view of life, we might see or improve our own journey. I also understand that you will not like every piece of literature that I have picked for this lesson and this course. In fact, some of you may really dislike some of the literature in this course, and that is perfectly alright. I wouldn't want this to be a Jensen Clone Clinic. How boring would that be? Nevertheless, the literature is inspiring, and despite the fact that I don't enjoy writing multiple choice questions and you don't enjoy answering them, I hope you can look past the frailties of the system and enjoy the literature. Ultimately, the goal is to become better people by reading great literature.
So, as you begin this course understand that the whole theme of "life as a journey" is designed to help you reflect on where you have been, where you are now and where you hope to be ten years down the road (and what it is going to take to get there). We will accomplish this by looking at great literature from inspired minds of the past, and by letting you write in a variety of different ways.
In the process of doing this you will also focus on certain skills that will help prepare you for college, or whatever your plans might be after high school. The skills you will master include the following:
Textbooks
The two books we will be reading are Man's Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl
and The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. Both books are phenomenal for their thought
and wisdom. They also both lend themselves well to the theme for the course
of "the journey of life."
Realize too, that even though we are reading two books for this course, they are both very short and inexpensive. You shouldn't have a problem getting them from any major bookstore or online bookstore.
Other Materials
Because this is a self-contained course, all the literature you will need for
the course is found in the course, except for the two books I talked about above.
If I were you, I would get a large three ring binder so that you can keep all the course materials together while you are working on the course. As you'll see later on, the most important part of the grade is the lesson 8 portfolio in which you will submit all the writing assignments that you have done for the entire course. I suggest you have a section in your binder where you keep all those things together so that you don't have to redo them or try to find them when the time comes.
How This Course Works
To better understand the setup of the course, I will list and describe the various
parts you will find in each lesson.
Vocabulary: The vocabulary will be taken from the literature that you will be reading for the lesson in which the vocabulary appears. I will pick words that realistically you should know and be able to use. I will avoid words that are extremely rare in the real world. There will be questions to assess your understanding of these words. Any of these words will be fair game on the final.
Literary Terms: Though most of these should be a review at this point in your
education, we will still cover several of them in some of the early
lessons. I will limit it to a few in the first three chapters in hopes that
you will really master the concepts behind each literary term. You should be
able to apply them both in your reading and your writing.
Questions
Let's Check Your Mastery: The first set of questions after every section is
"Let's Check Your
Mastery." These questions will check comprehension of important facts about
the reading, vocabulary, literary terms, or the six traits of writing. You will
grade these questions yourself, using the
answers found in the Answer Key at the end of this course manual. These questions
are designed to help you understand the material better, and find out where
you are deficient. By doing these, you should then do much better on the other
questions--the Speedback questions.
Speedback: The second set of questions are called Speedback questions. These
questions are more comprehensive, asking you to interpret what you learned in
the reading. They often employ higher-level thinking skills, and they will ask
you to apply what you have learned. These
questions should be answered on a Speedback bubble sheet and will be submitted
to and graded by Independent Study. There is no Speedback assignment for lesson
8 since that lesson is strictly the submission of all the writing you have done
for your portfolio.
Writing
Writing Assignments: You will complete a
total of six required writing assignments throughout this course. They must
be typed.
In lesson 2 you will be writing a creative
extended metaphor to describe your life. In lesson 3 you will write a personal
narrative about a
moment that helped define who you are today. In lesson 4 you will express an
opinion/value through a letter to the editor. In lesson 5 you will write your
own imaginary epitaph. Lesson 6 gives you the opportunity to define your values
and goals. And last, in lesson 7 you will write a literature based essay, using
examples and quotes from the literature in the course.
Response Journal: After the reading selections in each lesson, you will be given a list of response journal options. These writing options will allow you to respond to the literature in the course on a more personal level. The response journal will be submitted as part of your portfolio in lesson 8. These do not have to be typed.
The Six-Part Writing Assessment: This is a tool by which you will be able to assess and improve your writing. This should be very valuable as you write for this course, and as you go on to other things in your life. There is a detailed explanation of the six traits in chapter one.