Progeny Press Literature Study Guides - Review

 

Progeny Press is a company that we associate with quality study guides for literature, written from a Christian perspective, for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Out of the over 100 study guides available through Progeny Press, we received two guides to use in our homeschool and review.  We have been using the study guides for The Golden Goblet,  by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, and Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe.

     Each study guide provides “easy-to-use, reproducible lessons on literary terms, comprehension and analysis, critical thinking, related scriptural principles, vocabulary, and activities, plus a complete answer key.” We received the instant download version of both.  This version retails on the Progeny Press website for $16.99.  There is also a printed booklet version available for $18.99 and a cd version for $16.99.  With the download version, we were able to take advantage of the ‘type-it-in’ interactive format of the study guides.  This simply means that the .pdf has all of the areas where students would normally write answers available for students to be able to type their answers.  This was very popular with my tenth grader!  He loves to be on the computer, and he hates to write things out by hand.  So, when he found out he would get to complete his literature assignments on the computer he was stoked!  My twelfth grader preferred to print the activity pages and fill in by hand.  I am glad that this product allows for this versatility.

     The Golden Goblet study guide is intended for students in grades 7-9.  I have been using it for an eighth grader and a 10th grader. Our tenth grader could have worked with the high school study guide for Things Fall Apart, but, he is more on the ninth grade level in literature so The Golden Goblet was a better fit for him. The book itself is set in ancient Egypt, so it has fit in nicely with our world history studies.  Things Fall Apart is intended for students in grades 10-12.  It is set in Africa in the 1800’s.  It is about a young man named Oknokwo whose biggest fear is being a failure.  The lessons learned through this classic piece of literature have been invaluable for my twelfth grader.

     I love the way that these study guides are laid out.  For me, they are a lesson planning dream.  Each guide provides background information to help both students and parents understand more about the books and authors.  My kids and I each read through the background information first and discussed it.  Then, it was a simple process of assigning a few chapters to be read and study guide pages to be completed.  These study guides are detailed, but not ‘nit-picky.’  I appreciate that. Students are exposed to new vocabulary words by definition and through context, they are given opportunity to demonstrate comprehension of what they have read, and they are taken through questions to help them interpret and analyze what they have read and make application to the Christian life.  Many of the questions are very thought provoking and have led to some interesting discussions in our house.  Most of the lesson sections revolve around chunks of reading approximately 3 chapters in length.  I have found, that for my kids, this is a perfect amount of reading to work with at one time.  It only takes my slower readers a few days to complete 3 chapters, so completing both the reading ad activities for that much material is easily completed in about a week and a half.  These guides are designed to take approximately a half of a semester to complete, and we have found that is a very accurate time frame.  We will totally complete both study guides in a couple of more weeks.  I have already planned four study guides and books to use with each child next year.  Voila! Literature curriculum is complete and ready for next year.  It is independent, which is what high school should be, yet, it fosters discussion.  I can’t say enough good things about these study guides!

     My friends on the Schoolhouse Review Crew have been using and reviewing many other study guides from Progeny Press.  To read their reviews, click on the graphic below.