Welcome to a new year of Annunciation Cooperative-
I am sending this letter to aid you in preparation for the new academic year. After reading this, if you have questions, please feel free to call me at 608-289-9113 or e-mail in response to this note.
The first class date for Annunciation is September 10th. However, because we are attempting to study so much material in such a little space of time, I am going to be sending the first week of assignments via e-mail to your student by August 23rd. That will give them a couple of weeks to prepare ahead of time so that when class convenes, they are ready to hand in assignments and to discuss the book.
We are all excited by our new core class approach. In the senior high class, your students will be receiving instruction in British and American literature, world history, composition, and some geography. We are beginning with the modern era from post-Reformation to the present. This class will count for 2 high school credits, if your student fulfills the requirements. The schedule will be based on a 32 week timetable, rather than the 30 weeks allowed in the Annunciation year. This means your child will HAVE to work through Christmas break and prior to September 10th.
Each work of literature we cover will have a packet associated with it. The packet due date will be announced when the work is handed out. The first packet, as I mentioned before, will be e-mailed to you by August 23rd. The first book we will use is The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan. Please find this book at your library or used bookstore, or on your own shelves. I will provide the remaining books for a book fee that will be announced at the first class. However, if you have copies of the books listed, feel free to provide your own.
Your student should file all assignments and completed work in a binder behind a divider labeled "Pilgrim's Progress." We will do all work in this binder, so it should be filled with both ruled and blank paper. We will add binders as students fill them up. I want them to have a record of all their work by the end of the year, so we may go through 2 or 3 2-3 inch binders over the course of a semester. If purchasing these is a financial difficulty, I have many extra binders that I could give your student. On the packet due date, binders will be collected and there will be a written test in class. All tests will be open book. There will also be writing assignments with each book.
I will also provide secondary books with assignment packets for ambitious students who want to earn extra credit. We will also draw from this secondary book list if we have extra time in the semester. I will also consider allowing a student to substitute a secondary packet for a primary packet if they have already read the primary material in another class. However, they will have to convince me that they know the material so well that they would reap no benefit from class participation!
The primary book list for 1st semester:( in order that we will cover them)
The Pilgrim's Progress
Of Plymouth Plantation
The Social Contract
The Anti-Federalist and The Federalist Papers
A Tale of Two Cities
Secondary books for 1st semester:
Foxes Book of Martyrs
Frankenstein
Pride and Prejudice
Gulliver's Travels
Autobiography of Charles G. Finney
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
