During my high school years, I loved reading Shakespeare. I picked William Shakespeare as my Senior paper topic and I had so much fun researching him and all his wonderful plays and sonnets. I always hoped that one day my children would enjoy reading his works. I was thrilled to receive and review Shakespeare: Comedies & Sonnets by Hewitt Homeschooling. I knew this was an opportunity to share my love of Shakespeare with my son Ryan who is a Junior in high school.
The set includes a Student's Guide and a Teacher's Guide. To work your way through this curriculum, you will have to purchase or borrow 4 unabridged copies of Shakespeare's plays that include:
- Twelfth Night
- As You Like It
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- The Merchant of Venice
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| You can see I have a personal collection of Shakespeare's works that was given to me by a special person who also had a love of Shakespeare |
The Teacher's Guide will help you teach your student. It contains:
- Introduction
- Grading Tips
- Schedules
- Answers to Comprehension Questions
- Writing Exercises
- Discussion Questions and Projects
Personally, I loved the section on discussion questions and projects. It allowed my son and me to talk about the plays he was reading. It opened up conversations about the time period and settings of the plays. He loves history, so we used some of the suggestions in the Teacher's guide on how to incorporate history class into this study of literature and that made this more interesting for Ryan.
The Student's Guide consisted of an Introduction, a background of who Shakespeare was, and 4 units of 2 lessons each. The first lesson would go over the play that was being read, then the second lesson of the unit would discuss the sonnets that are included in the guide. The lessons on the plays were broken down into 4 sections that consist of:
- Plot Summary
- Literary Lesson Themes: Love, Appearance Versus Reality, Festival, and Fun
- Literary Lesson Characters
- Literary Lesson Language
The sonnets were then discussed by:
- Literary Lesson: Content, Language, and Contrasting Sonnets
- Perspectives
In the back of the Student's Guide you are given:
- Appendix A: Discussion Questions and Project Suggestions
- Appendix B: Additional Reading
- Appendix C: Movie and Video Recommendations
- Appendix D: Semester and Full-Year Schedule
- Bibliography
I was very impressed with this curriculum. I feel it helped my son navigate his way through these plays with ease. He has never enjoyed reading literature, but this gave him new tools to help him understand the writings. The plot summaries were very informative and aided in understanding what was going on in the plays. I have not seen any other curriculum guide in the way this one did. He didn't have any trouble keeping up with the storyline.
I asked if he enjoyed reading these plays and he said, " Well mom I don't love Shakespeare like you, but now I understand it more." That is what matters. He was introduced to these plays and sonnets in a way that he could comprehend them and was given the opportunity to make up his own mind about them. He will be able to read other plays with the knowledge of how to study them. His reading comprehension was taken to a whole new level with the use of this curriculum. That is what makes all the difference!!!
Would you like to know more about Hewitt Homeschooling Resources? I encourage you to visit their website Hewitt Homeschooling and their social media pages:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HewittHomeschooling
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/hewittonline
- Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/hewittonline/
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/118179952485411291615
We also have some more reviews for you to check out for this set and others like Shakespeare Tragedies & Sonnets and American Christian Authors, over on the Homeschool Review Crew website. I encourage you to look them over and see what other homeschooling families are saying about Hewitt Homeschooling.
Have a wonderful day!!!!
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