DISCLAIMER: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew
One review we always look forward to is the literary study guides from Progeny Press because they always help the kids think more about the stories they are reading. For the last few weeks, the kids have been reading Redwall and using the Redwall Study Guide to dive deeper into the story.
For this review, we were given two study guides - the Redwall Study Guide as well as the Cricket in Times Square Study Guide. While we have only had the time to go in depth using the Redwall guide, both of these guides follow the same format and we look forward to using the Cricket in Times Square study guide once we are finished with the first study.
Progeny Press is a publishing company who offers E-guides for literature with a
Christian perspective. Offering guides for reading levels from early
elementary through high school, each of the Progeny Press guides are
designed to help students to better understand the story they are
reading as well as to recognize the themes presented by the author.
However,
what makes Progeny Press different from other literature study guides
is that Progeny Press uses Biblical teachings, backed with scripture, to
tie the story into practical lessons. While many books contain content
or beliefs that do not align with Christian beliefs, Progeny Press
guides direct students to instead study what God says about such things
so they will be better prepared and strong in their faith when they face
such behavior, language, and philosophy in life.
Progeny
Press literature guides break the assigned book into weekly reading
assignments. Students read the assigned chapters and then they complete
different activities that correlate with what they have read. These
activities fall into four categories to help expand the student's
knowledge about what they have read.
First, vocabulary activities help to introduce words that might be unfamiliar to the student in ways that help with retention. These questions can be matching the word with a definition as well as asking the students to use the word in a sentence of their own choosing.
Second,
reading comprehension questions are used to be sure the student is
understanding what they are reading. These are both direct questions
that can be answered straight from the reading as well as questions that
require the student to think about what they read and determine why a
character might have done an action, thought the way they did, or what
they might do in the future. These questions also include asking students to paraphrase quotes from the story as well.
Next,
literary techniques that are used by the author are introduced with
activities that help the student understand concepts such as
alliteration, metaphors, conflict, compare and contrast, mood and coming
of age.
Character
Values and Moral Lesson help the student recognize traits that either
honor God or that conflict with Christian beliefs or living, such as
acceptance, honoring parents, lying, patience, and dealing with fear.
Students are given Biblical references that correlate with the values
being taught to solidify what God says and how they relate to the
situation the characters in the book find themselves in.
Finally,
suggested activities and writing assignments are offered to expand that
help to expand on the book. These included field trip suggestions,
plant research, creative writing assignments, discussions about safety,
research topics, and science connections that can be used to tie in with
the book. Additional reading selections that can tie in or are similar
to the novel being read are also suggested.
How We Used The Literature Guide
For
this review, we were given the digital e-book versions of the
interactive literature guide as well as the digital answer key that
corresponds with the guide for both books. For the review period, we opted to use the Redwall Study Guide. The guide for Redwall is written by Janice and Robert DeLong. This interactive guide is a 75 page PDF file that can either be printed out for the
student or it can be used on a computer. The guide is formatted in such
a way that the student has the ability to type answers and use drop
down selections to answer the material and then print the pages, which was extremely convenient for us as Garrett prefers this method. This
makes for a great option if you have a student who either dislikes
writing or just prefers typing over using a pen/pencil.
Much like the Redwall Study Guide, the Cricket in Time Square study guide is also a PDF file that can be printed out or used on the computer. This guide is 52 pages in length and is written by Andrew Clausen. This guide also focuses on the same format as the Redwall study, but includes activities that include opera music, cooking Chinese food and using chopsticks to eat it.
Incorporating
the literature guide into our daily work was easy. The kids and I
would read the required chapters on Monday and Tuesday, then spend the rest of the
week working on the activities and questions that go with the reading. This worked really well for us.
As a homeschooling parent, I really enjoy using the Progeny Press study
guides with the kids. They really help the children to understand the
literature they are reading and dig deeper than just reading the story. I
also really appreciate the Christian perspective the guides use that
help to really tie Christian teaching into the study, because it gives
my kids the opportunity to see how scripture teaching can be used in a
real world setting.
For more information about Progeny Press and the large selection of
study guides for literature that they offer, be sure to visit their
website. You can also find more information by visiting the company's
social media sites:
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of the Crew were offered their choice of five literature guides for
grades K-12. Be sure to click the banner below to see their reviews
today.
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