Progeny Press Eagle of the Ninth Study Guide {A Review}

Study guides for literature from a Christian perspective.

Study Guide for Eagle of the Ninth 

The Essentials - What you need to know

• Company: Progeny Press 
•   Study Guide for the book Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Stucliff
• Age Range: grades 5-8
• This product is only the study guide for the book.  The book is not included.  This product is available in three forms:
• Printed booklet - $18.99
• CD - $16.99
• Instant Download (pdf file) - $16.99

The Review

In the note to Instructor the Progeny Press Study Guides are "designed to help students better understand and enjoy literature by getting them to notice and understand how authors craft their stories and to show them who to think through themes and ideas introduces in the stories." The guide followed through on that promise.  It took a wonderfully written story and unpacked the writing, themes and ideas.

After the introduction, a brief synopsis  and a note on the author there are some pre-reading ideas to put the student in the time and space of when the story takes place, in this case Roman Briton in AD 119. The study guide is organized into sections of 3 chapters each.  They employ an inductive study to the book, suggesting that students read the whole novel over the course of a week to get the scope of the whole story.  Then students work on one study guide page per day using the book for close reading and reference   

Each section begins with a vocabulary activity. Each section approached vocabulary words in a slightly different way.  Then there are questions that work from surface reading comprehension, through to thinking deeply about the story.  First reading comprehension questions that simply ask the what, where, when questions about the events of the story. Then there is a section called thinking about the story.  This is where the student is asked the why questions.  It also introduces different

 writing devices and asks the student to explore how the author uses them.   Next there is a section called dig deeper. The students are asked to apply ideas and concepts to their own lives.  The study carefully leads the student to think about ideas in a profound way.  Students are asked to look up scripture verses to help them think about the words, actions of the people in the story.  Last in each section of the study is an invitation to go even further either through class discussion or optional activities.  

At the end of the whole study there is an overview, which could be used as a final assessment  and a list of additional resources, including non-fiction books, additional fiction books of a similar time period and movies. 

We reviewed the digital downloaded product, a pdf file.  The pdf file was equipped with the ability to type and save data in the file, which I really like as it saves on paper.  This book is a new one for me, I had not read it prior to this study guide.   The story, just at face value was an engrossing tale for both myself and Zippy.

Doing the study as we read the story was beneficial to Zippy.  I knew that she could not read this whole novel by herself in a week.   I do understand how having a global understanding of the story would be useful especially when it comes to studying the writing itself.  Going over the story twice would lead to a greater comprehension.  I did a mixture of  Zippy reading to herself, I reading aloud, answering orally, discussions, and writing.  In the end we found a combination of reading, writing and discussion was the best. We still ended up doing a section a week.  The first day Zippy wrote out the vocabulary.  The second day I  read aloud all three chapters, at one sitting if I could, while she drew pictures, illustrating the story.  This helped her focus and remember more.  Then on the third and fourth days we discussed and she wrote answers to the questions.  The only thing I would change about this study is to break it up chapter by chapter, rather than three chapter chunks.  

I really liked that everything was laid out and the study guide really did not require any preparation on my part as I read through the book with Zippy and had the answer key for the questions.  I would recommend these to homeschool students and parents.  It would also be useful in a classroom setting.  

Rod and Staff - Fifth Grade English Curriculum {a review}

We are working out way through the fifth grade book of the Rod and Staff Building Christian English series, Follow the Plan. Rod and Staff is a Mennonite publishing company.  They do not have a website, but samples of this book, can be found here.

This is an excellent program with an elegant blend of writing and grammar.
It does not teach English for English sake, it teaches that English for the sake of clear communication with a clear and Godly focus.

I Like:

• The logical progression.  One concept builds on another.  For example, first they talk about sentences, then they tackle paragraphs.
• Diagramming sentences.  There is a lot of debate over the value of diagramming sentences.  Personally, I think that it helps to make sense of what a sentence is and how it functions.  This book starts in the first chapter with simple diagrams. 
• The teacher manual.  It is a build out from the student book, so I can look at the same page as Zippy, but with extra material (purpose of the lesson, answers, and oral review) beside the student text. 
• Multi-sensory approach.  There is almost equal emphasis on oral and written work.  This ensures that the brain is working in different ways to process the information. 
• The Godly focus.  This is definitely written from a Christian point of view. With biblical references sprinkled throughout the work as well as the teaching material.  My absolute favorite thing so far in the book is a question at the beginning of a lesson: "Why did God make sentences?"
• Tests. The tests test what is taught and are well written.  

The only thing that I found lacking in this book is the lack of review at the very beginning.  It took us a fairly long time to work through the first chapter because there were a lot of assumptions made about prior knowledge.  I am sure, had we worked through the previous books, this would not be an issue, but because we are jumping in from a completely different place it was a bit of a struggle.

I would definitely recommend this English curriculum.

{Linked up: Happy Housewife Homeschool Curriculum Review}