High School American Literature for Homeschoolers

I’ve said it before, but it is definitely worth repeating. I love Apologia! We have used and are using many of their products, from the What We Believe series to Exploring Creation with Biology…

…from Writers in Residence and Readers in Residence to Exploring Creation with General Science and Physical Science…and I’ve never been disappointed!

I received this product free of charge for review purposes and was compensated for my time. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and I was not required to post a positive review of the product.

Whenever I find out about a new Apologia product, I can’t wait to get my hands on it! Now that I’ve got a freshman, of course I wanted to check out their high school American Literature curriculum! And, needless to say, it did not disappoint either!

It is Bible-based. It is written by a homeschool parent for homeschoolers, with homeschool parents in mind! And, the student notebook is amazing! Let me tell you more…

Bible-based High School American Literature

Apologia’s American Lit curriculum explores many of America’s greatest literacy works from a Biblical, Christian worldview. Biblical truth is both affirmed and illuminated through the author’s use of the Socratic method.

Students are asked probing questions about each classical literature reading, which leads to a deeper understanding of each work and how Biblical truth can be found in or applied to the selection.

American Lit for Homeschoolers by Homeschoolers

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel that no one knows what homeschoolers need like other homeschoolers. This excites me because the author of the textbook is Dr. Whit Jones, a homeschooling father who has taught American Lit to homeschool students.

Not only is he a homeschool parent, but he is the 2017 Recipient of the Educator of the Year Award from Bryan College, where is is a professor!

You can’t beat that! I’m certain that Dr. Jones is not only highly qualified, but he “gets” homeschoolers!

Meet Dr. Jones in the video below and see what he has to say about the curriculum:

The Student Notebook

I absolutely LOVE the Apologia student notebooks! Simply put, they are awesome! They provide an organized, comprehensive way to not only document learning, but to showcase it!

The hefty student notebooks are beautiful! And, I love being able to pull them out and look back at all that my kiddos learned through the year!

Truth moment…Sometimes when I’m having one of those days where I’m questioning if my kids are really learning anything, flipping through their student notebooks remind me that yes, they are learning! And, their completed students notebooks are proof!

Details About the Curriculum:

The Apologia American Literature curriculum covers all of the major time periods and literary movements:

The Colonial Age
The Age of Reason and Revolution
The Romantic Age
The Age of Realism
The Modern Age

It includes readings from authors such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Phillis Wheatley, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, Harper Lee, Langston Hughes, and more!

During this 2 semester course, students can complete a series of questions after each of the 90 literary works (parents determine how many works are covered).

Each of the eighteen chapters conclude with a chapter test, which consists of objective questions, short-answer questions, and a brief essay. Toward the end of each semester, students are assigned a longer essay that should take one to two weeks to complete. The notebook guides the students step-by-step in writing this analytical paper.

There is an extensive Answer Key, along with the Daily Lesson Plan outline available for free on the Apologia Book Extras site (login info located inside the textbook).

Purchase details can be found here!

Please Note: The Publisher’s Note at the beginning of the text warns of highly offensive racial slurs in a few of the suggested readings and explains the author’s reasoning for their inclusion.