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Creating these homeschool high school literature suggestions for teens is more satisfying now that my teens graduated. Looking back, I know their love of reading came from being exposed to a variety of genre. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School.
Having a variety of genre to choose from is just one element of keeping teens reading into adulthood.
Beyond reading to fill a high school credit, use your time with your homeschooled teens to shape and develop their thinking.
Contrary to what some educators think, teens are still questioning beliefs. Their thinking is not fully matured. Issues raised in literature gives you the opportunity to analyze beliefs.
Too, high school and college courses require your teens to interpret literary terms and techniques.
I found this was best done by classic literature.
The point is whether your teen is reading American, British, or World literature he is gaining a greater understanding of the world.
That is something which will stick with him well into adulthood.
This high school literature list will give you a starting point in choosing the best literature for your family.
Moreover, don’t fret if your teen is still not loving to read.
Some of these books will ignite a fire and did I mention some are short?
Whether you have a teen who is a voracious reader or who is an unenthusiastic reader, I have some high school literature suggestions for all.
See, I had to learn the hard way that a teen should have a choice in what he reads.
I remember being in English class in middle school and reading about boring topics.
I was a good reader, but not an enthusiastic reader until I read The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. He’s not an author I thought I would be drawn to as a teen.
However, his stories and poems invoked a love for reading detective stories along with his great storytelling. I loved everything about that poem, the figurative language, the dynamics, and the theme.
Homeschool High School Reading
The point is I would have never picked up his book on my own when evaluating my choices.
So your teen needs your help. It literally takes one book your teen can’t put down for your teen to look at reading differently.
Now as a parent, it is a learned balancing act when each teen got to the high school level.
I tried to find their interests and themes they loved to weave that with other genre they weren’t interested in or thought so at the time.
Also, another way to engage your high school kids is to learn through a theme.
We love history in our house and learning history through living literature has been one of our very favorite ways to learn history.
Why Some Homeschoolers Choose to Read Banned Literature
Next, I also had to decide how I wanted to talk to my teens about sensitive subjects.
A lot of homeschoolers, including myself, reject some modern reading lists.
However, the similarity stops there when choosing literature. Families and teens differ in how they want to handle sensitive topic.
When you research about banned books, the Washington Post stated, “The American Library Association launched Banned Books Week in 1982 to celebrate the freedom to read.”
However, every since then, the topic of banned books sparks controversy for any education.
You too have to decide if you’ll present these banned books to your teen.
It’s been my experience that the sensitive subjects in books allows me the chance to direct my children about mistakes of the past.
I didn’t want to cover up mistakes in history, but to expose them so we learn from them. Most important that we don’t repeat them in the future.
Children relate to everyday things and some kids lives have had painful turns they couldn’t control. Although my kids didn’t experience the sadness of divorce and death at the time, they had friends who did.
Homeschool High School Books
It helped my sons to form a compassion for their friends. Every child has a different maturing rate and I was sensitive to each teen’s emotions.
The point is that you are the only one to know whether you want your children to read banned books or not. Me? I will do the choosing for my family and determine the values; you probably feel the same way.
As you see from this quick list that the books reflect personal tastes of each teen. In the end, you want your child to enjoy reading.
I stressed way too much about balancing the genre when my focus should have been on the short time I had with each teen.
Besides being forced-fed never worked for any reader. So use this list to begin your list for your unique teen.
Lastly, this is by no stretch all that each kid read in high school.
As I pore over my huge amount of books, I’ll update this post for you.
The point today was to get this quick glance to you.
In the end what matters is creating a lifelong reader.
Remember what Francis Bacon said “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few are to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”
How to choose the besthomeschool middle and high school language arts curriculum can be intimidating unless you have a road map. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips
Knowing the elements of language arts is important; knowing that not every teen needs the same amount of instruction for each component is equally important.
Using free language arts curriculum before you make a purchase can be especially helpfulfor many reasons:
Budget friendly curriculum allows you to assess problem areas in greater detail without busting the budget;
A free curriculum can be used as a reference alongside a purchased curriculum;
Your teen may need review in just a couple of areas and you can save your hard earned dollars to buy language arts where he requires in-depth focus or help;
Returning to free curriculum resources throughout the middle and high school years helps your teen review quickly; and
Let’s face it. Teen curriculum resources can be pricey, so having many options at your fingertips helps.
Homeschool Middle and High School Language Arts
Let’s start with a language arts road map.
Step one is knowing the language arts components.
Step 1. Identify the Language Arts Components.
The easiest, but most useful definition is that English language arts is any subject to do with written or oral communication, including listening.
Right away you can see that some things are not formally taught or don’t have to be taught in isolation.
For example, from the time your teen was a toddler, you started speaking to him in full sentences.
He learned your language through the art of conversation and discussion. That part still continues in the teen years.
Too, especially at the middle and high school years, teens need to make sense out of what they have been learning.
Combining language arts elements makes language arts practical and gives teens a reason to understand it.
For example, grammar can be revised or used while a teen writes an essay.
Next, let’s dive into the subject breakdown of what is language arts so you know that you’re covering it and that you choose the subjects your teen needs.
Language arts includes all facets of English: phonics, reading/literature, spelling/vocabulary, grammar, composition, and penmanship. In addition, it includes oral speech.
By this age your child has probably learned to read and write.
So penmanship turns to composition and reading becomes literature. Phonics is now spelling.
Step 2. Isolate the Language Arts Components Needed for Middle and High School Teens.
To help clarify this even further, here are the language art subjects for middle and high school grades.
Literature which is reading and could include literary analysis
Grammar
Spelling (if still needed)
Vocabulary
Composition
These subjects are the ones that most language arts all-in-one programs cover.
Next, now that you know the subjects that fall under the language arts umbrella, look at some of these homeschool language arts curriculum for middle and high school kids.
Step 3. Choose the EXACT Components Your Teen Needs OR Choose an All-in-One Curriculum.
Before you choose language arts, pay attention to the details to see if it’s an all-in-one program which covers most of the subjects for language arts OR if it’s just one component.
I have organized the elements for you so you can quickly see the choices for your child.
Grammar Homeschool Curriculum For Teens
Too, some of the resources can be used as a guidebook to assist your teen in his writing.
The first one I’m diving into is grammar. Grammar is the rules of a language.
Your teen has learned some of the rules naturally, so some of these resources can be used as a reference.
Other resources can be used as separate curriculum to shore up any weakness
Look at this list of homeschool grammar curriculum.
Rod and Staff English. Solid no fluff worktext for doing grammar stand alone or use for a reference. The books in the high school years made great reference books for us. It’s a faith-based curriculum, but I found it easily tweaked for faith-neutral approach.
Easy Grammar. This goes all the way to high school. It’s a secular view and a traditional approach.
Although I feel grammar is best covered in conjunction with writing so a teen sees the value, there are some teens who need grammar in isolation.
Before looking next at the composition options, keep a few key points in mind. If a teen is struggling with penmanship remember that he can type his essays.
Try to not make composition always about penmanship. Yes, it’s about doing neat work, but that is for the final draft.
Composition is about learning how to compose his thoughts. So if you have a teen struggling in both penmanship and composition, focus on one or the other until he gets more practice.
Go gentle in what you require of him if he is struggling.
You would think it would be easier to choose an all in one program which covered a bit of most of the components of language arts. It may or may not be.
The problem at this level is that most providers are assuming that your teen has had a fair amount of each component of language arts.
If you’ve switched homeschool approaches or resources, like most of us have, then you want to be sure you’re clear on what is the focus of the all-in-one language arts curriculum.
For example, it’s been my experience that curriculum may focus more on composition, while another one covers more literary analysis.
While yet another resource may focus heavily on grammar.
All-In-One Language Arts Homeschool Curriculum for Teens
So the important point I’m making is look over the scope and sequence so that you make a good fit for your teen.
Next, look at the options for all-in-one language arts programs.
Powerhouse or Acellus Academy.. They are both by same company. However, Acellus academy is accredited and more expensive, but Powerhouse isn’t accredited. Both are online and offer everything.
Step 4. Combine Many Components of Language Arts for Lasting Benefits.
Finally, the most important benefit of teaching language arts to our teens is so that it sticks with them. Understanding the mechanics of the English languages connects our teens to great minds of the past.
In addition, teaching valuable thinking skills is an important part of communication whether verbal or written.
For language arts to have lasting benefit and to teach thinking skills, combining the components of language arts is a superior way to teach.
When a teen works with a piece of literature, he focuses on grammar, writing, vocabulary, and spelling to name a few.
We want our teens to have a solid foundation for language arts whether he chooses a career track or college track.
More Homeschool Middle and High School Language Arts
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Let’s face it! Whether you’ve homeschooled your kids from the beginning or started part way through, choosing high school literature can be intimidating. Until I started using Beautiful Feet Booksa few years back, I made the high school years unnecessarily stressful. You want the peace of mind knowing you prepared your teen well by using great books whether he chooses a career or college track.
I stalked the mailman waiting for these books. I was given this product for free and I was compensated for my time. However, paid for my time does not mean paid off or that a company will receive a glowing review. I don’t roll that way. ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun stuff!
How to Narrow Down Your High School Literature Scope
Understanding that you have to have goals or reasons other than needing literature in high school makes it easier to narrow down your choices for literature and curriculum providers.
That may be an obvious statement, but there are many factors that you want to consider when choosing a program for your junior or senior teen.
foremost is our love for literature-based history to avoid a boring and blah approach to history,
thought-provoking books which may conflict with our world view or tug at my teen’s emotions are part of my job in preparing him for adulthood,
the role of the teacher is valued, respected, and encouraged with this curriculum to shape the teen’s understanding,
as the supervising teacher, I need to be the one to decide when and how we will deal with sensitive adult themes,
all of my sons need to be exposed to literature which may be covered in higher education,
a passion for history of any time period is awakened and appreciated through the use of living books, and
although non-fiction is important for a framework of facts, advanced literary criticism happens when a teen selects from excellent fiction literature to analyze.
My reasons may or may not include classic books, but they always include good books or living literature.
Too, having the opportunity to cover modern world history was not something I even thought about covering with my first high school graduate.
Sticking to the commonly held belief that high school teens need to have an emphasis on American history or U.S. government, I over emphasized those time periods with my first graduate.
Of course, hindsight gives you perfect vision. So I knew with my second and now third high school teen that I could tailor and tweak to suit their needs because Beautiful Feet Books is flexible when it comes to covering history.
Most of the middle school and high school curriculum includes two history eras. I never appreciated this fact until I switched from a strictly classical approach to a more eclectic approach with an emphasis on unit studies.
At first notion, this dual history period approach may seem hodgepodge. However it’s quite the opposite for a true historian. And there are two main reasons.
1. Past history and today’s current events always have multiple world powers and key players in action at the same time. While it’s true that an in-depth study of any civilization would make a fascinating study, my goal for high school is for my sons to have a framework of key events in a time period.
2. Being able to pull back and look at events happening in the world at the same time helped my teens to make a meaningful connection to what they’re learning.
Juniors and seniors especially have the maturity now to see that one area of history is part of a much larger piece of the history puzzle. Being able to pull back and see the broad strokes of history like the events in the U.S. and world history simultaneously works well for both a history lover and history hater.
For my history lovers, it gives them additional topics for rabbit trails. For my one history hater, (yes I can’t believe I had a child that came from me that wasn’t wild about history) he got an overview of key events without overwhelming him about details which didn’t interest him.
That is exactly why I love the way Beautiful Feet Books designs their courses. All of the benefits of teaching it to adjust to each of my teens likes and dislikes along with my need for minimal teacher prep makes it a superior high school literature program.
The Nitty-Gritty of Modern U.S. and World History Literature
I know you want the nitty-gritty like I do. Look at what this level includes and the details:
it’s designed for Junior and Senior levels of high school,
it covers American and modern world history from the 1850s into the 2000s,
you can award one American history or modern world history credit and one general literature credit,
it’s a one year study, but we go a bit longer because we school into the summer and we like to spread it out,
it is Christian-based, but as with all of their literature and questions, it’s easier than some other providers to tweak to what I want my sons to know,
these beautiful books: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Rifles for Watie, The Red Badge of Courage, Virginia’s General, Up From Slavery, Around the World in Eighty Days, A History of the Twentieth Century, The Jungle, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Yanks are Coming, Stalin: Russia’s Man of Steel, No Promises in the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hitler, Churchill, The Hiding Place, Night, Unbroken, Victory in the Pacific, Hiroshima, Lost Names, America and Vietnam: The Elephant and the Tiger, Red Scarf Girl and The Kite Runner,
and it has a general literary analysis study. My goal was to be sure that Tiny had a general grasp on literary concepts. We used another language arts resource to enhance this one. Although literary analysis is very important to me at this age, it can be fun. For us that means learning it from books we love.
My emphasis on literary analysis leads me into another valued part of this curriculum which deserves the spotlight and it’s the Study Guide or teacher’s guide.
Modern U.S. and World History Literature Study Guide
I hesitate to call it just the teacher’s guide because at this age your teen needs to be independently delving into the Study Guide. Of course, it’s a teacher guide too.
Because the Study Guide is jam-packed full of teaching tidbits, supplements, and background information, you’ll want to take your time understanding how it’s set up.
The Study Guide is divided into five history periods:
Part I. Antebellum and the Civil War
Part II. Reconstruction, the Industrial Revolution, and the Turn of the Century
Part III. The First World War, the Depression, and Segregation
Part IV. Building Towards War, the Second World War, and the Atomic Age
Part V. The Struggle for Freedom in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
To help your student hone his ideology and principles there are themes in each section. Some of them are:
A Study in Freedom and Responsibility,
A Study in Conviction and Triumph,
A Study in Fortitude and Forgiveness,
A Study in Ambition and Courage,
and a Study in Conscience and Fairness.
In addition to the extensive notes in the Study Guide with background information, points in each lesson guided us on each discussion.
After reading the books like Stalin: Russia’s Man of Steel or Virginia’s General: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War it made for some great discussions about topics like freedom and prejudice. I loved having the themes to guide my teen to comprehend the theme in each book which is a part he has struggled with in the past.
Because my high school kid worked on his own on part of this, I have to rely heavily on the Study Guide for the answers, questions, and some of the background information. Although it’s not easy to flip back and forth between time periods and books, you can easily with the way this is laid out.
Also, some of the books my son read right away and wanted to delve deeper into those topics. World War II is one topic that my son knows well and never gets tired of talking about. Besides reading the books in the curriculum by Albert Marrin, one of our favorite history authors, the Study Guide has more recommended books and videos in the back to feed my son’s love for the Second World War.
Yet another reason I loved using this is that we needed more help in literary analysis. I’ve never been keen on assigning book reports although I know they have a practical purpose which is to train a child to write critically in the older grades.
Because I’ve never forced Tiny to do a formal book report, but have worked on reading a lot of good books I needed to be sure he has a good grasp on literary concepts.
There are six books highlighted to use for literary analysis:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
The Red Badge of Courage,
To Kill a Mockingbird,
Night,
Hiroshima,
and Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood.
Learning literary analysis should be repeated like grammar and it’s best taught in context or while using examples from literature. As an example, earlier I mentioned ideologies listed in each section. The reason this was important is because even at this grade level students can still get confused between the plot of the story and its theme.
Exposing my sons to the basic elements of fiction like plot, setting, character, point of view, mood, and theme are the foundation of literary analysis, but I wanted to be sure we touched advanced concepts as well.
In addition, there are some literary concepts that can’t be recognized until your child is older. Some figures of speech and poetry devices confuses my teen. So the books used gave him a good overall grasp of basic and advanced concepts.
It’s not necessary to break down every novel, but it’s important to choose a few to do. I try to be balanced when teaching literature analysis because I don’t want to suck the joy out of reading, but it’s important for our teens to become critical thinkers too.
Simply requiring my son to write down the term, define it, and explain it to me is a simple method, but it’s the same one I’ve used since I first taught him to read. Too, we wrote a few on index cards for review because just writing it down once didn’t mean he remembered it. Making a notebook like we have as we’ve used Beautiful Feet Books work best for us.
In addition to the literary concepts we focused on, we also chose a few of the essay topics. Essay writing was not my exact focus for him because we’ve done a lot of writing. When we wanted to, however, the Study Guide made it easy for us to choose writing topics.
The Study Guide is much more than an question and answer guide. It is the backbone at this level and it’s all-inclusive.
Our Experience withModern U.S. and World History LiteraturebyBeautiful Feet Books
Even at the high school level, there is no one-size-fits-all curriculum. As the parents, we still have to be involved when choosing the right curriculum for our teen.
This is my third high school teen to use Beautiful Feet Books because I love their literature and easy approach to teaching. I’ve never been disappointed with the high quality literature, guides, and help for the teacher. This level is no exception.
As the teacher, I don’t think you ever stop worrying if you’ve prepared you teen enough for whatever track you ultimately decide. However, I do know that my first two sons are doing well in college after using Beautiful Feet Book. I know my third teen is equally well-prepared.
You’ll love reading these other posts for how I used
I have a fun hands-on history Helen Keller braille activity.
My eleven year old read about Helen Keller as part of his history curriculum this past fall.
He was amazed that being blind and deaf was even possible, much less that she was able to learn to communicate, read and eventually, become a motivational speaker for our nation.
Last week, he brought it up again.
Helen Keller’s diligence and perseverance is what impressed him. “She just never gave up,” he said, shaking his head a bit.
You see, my son is profoundly dyslexic and still struggles with basic reading. Although he has made a ton of progress, reading continues to be a constant struggle for my little guy.
It occurred to me that this connection he felt to the historic story of Helen Keller was influencing his perception of his own abilities.
He felt so inspired witnessing the endless possibilities associated with Helen Keller’s grit and desire to learn.
Wanting to jump on this history and life lesson, I decided to layer in some additional learning by created this challenging, but fun hands-on activity.
Helen Keller Braille and ASL Activity
What You Need For This Activity:
Printables (included for your reference) – The Braille alphabet and the American Sign Language alphabet
Card Stock or Index Cards
Thumb Tacks or Push Pins
Step 1: After printing up the alphabet references, I asked my son to take a look at the patterns in the braille letter formations.
He studied them for a bit, and then I created a secret message for him in “braille” using an index card and a push pin.
Step 2: At first, he tried to run his fingers over the letters, but was not able to identify the letters, even when he used the reference sheet.
We talked about how difficult it would be to have to learn it all by touch, with no access to a cheat sheet.
Step 3: Then, he took the sheet itself and visually matched the dots to the reference. He was able to decode his message, and then created one for me to decode as well.
Easy Hands-on History Kid’s Activity
Step 4: After finishing our “braille lesson,” I grabbed a few coins.
As he closed his eyes, I placed each one in his hand and asked him to identify what coin it was, and any other writing or engravings on it.
Step 5: Now it was time to move on to the sign language alphabet.
He and I both spelled different words, using the sign language letters, back and forth to one another. We remarked how much easier it was than interpreting the braille lettering.
Step 6: Finally, we stepped into the world of Helen Keller.
He closed his eyes while I placed his hands on mine and finger spelled basic words. He did the same for me.
Step 7: The most impactful part of this activity was our recap. We discussed how it felt to have one sense removed, how difficult not being understood must be, and the amazing the story of Helen Keller.
This was a wonderful way for my son to actually experience what had fascinated him in his reading and I was so encouraged to have this level of conversation with him.
We were able to deeply discuss empathy and the power of perseverance – something not always easy to do with a middle school boy.
Best of all, we had fun!
How to Get the Free Braille & ASL Printables
Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.
That means when you sign up to follow me, you get my emails in your inbox and you get this freebie.
Alice in Wonderland is probably one of my very favorite children’s books. It’s truly a great piece of literature.
And, while it’s often held up as a young children’s book, I think it’s a fantastic work for older elementary and middle school students to examine.
There are so many great lines in it. Some of my favorites are:
“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
“I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I am not myself.”
And the best line in the entire book: “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” (You could write a graduate thesis about all the possible meanings of that quote.)
Since the book is such a great story, I thought it’d also be fun to add a hands-on literature activity. So we made up some Alice in Wonderland Eat Me Cupcakes!
Hands-On Literature: Make Alice in Wonderland Eat Me Cupcakes
I’ll admit: I’m not much of a home baker. So I used a few shortcuts, namely, boxed cake mix and prepared frosting. You could always make this from scratch if you wanted.
But I wanted our cupcakes to be fun and that calls for Funfetti baking mix!
I also wanted them to be bright and cheery, so we went with bright blue frosting and hot pink cupcake liners.
Here’s the actual supply list:
One box Funfetti baking mix (You’ll need the ingredients on the box as well: eggs and vegetable oil)
One can Funfetti Aqua Blue Vanilla frosting (I didn’t use the fish sprinkles.)
Colored cupcake liners
White sugar pearls
Just a tip here: I learned (from somewhere) that using an ice cream scoop to divide the batter makes it easier to make the cupcakes even. It totally works.
We baked the cupcakes according to the directions on the box.
And then frosted them with the blue frosting. Now it was time to add the decorations!
And that’s where the sugar pearls come in! We sprinkled a few of them over the cupcakes and, on one of them, we spelled out the words “EAT ME”.
When Alice finishes drinking the potion from the bottle with the label that says “DRINK ME”, she comes across a small cake with the words “EAT ME” spelled out in raisins. After she eats the cake, she starts growing and is soon too big to fit back through the garden door.
That didn’t happen with us, thankfully. And it’s important to discuss why children should never, never, never eat or drink anything just because it’s there. But we knew what was in these, so we didn’t have any reason to hold back.
Chomp! They were so, so good, too.
These were so fun to make and eat! If you wanted to really have an Alice in Wonderland party, you could have a tea party and serve these alongside. Just make sure no one acts too “mad” at teatime!
Looking for more ways to bring literature to life? Try these ideas!
