Literature is a must in our household. I encourage the kids to read books of their own choosing, but require them to read classics from over the years. I was thrilled when we were given the opportunity to review the Animal Farm Study Guide from Progeny Press. This was on both Michael's and Therese's reading list for their literature class next year.
Progeny Press is a Christian company that offers homeschooling families a wonderful selection of study guides that help students gain valuable insight into the classic, literature books they read. These books and study guides open up the doors to some new, amazing worlds.
What are the E-Guide Study Guides from Progeny Press?
The study guides come in an E-guide form and can be easily down loaded. They cost $21.99. The Animal Farm study guide is recommended for students in grades 9th through 12th. The study guides can be used in two different ways. The interactive study guide can be opened up with Adobe reader allowing student to fill in their answers directly into the study guide while working on the computer. The second way to use the study guides is by printing out the study guide and placing the pages in a binder. It's a printable workbook! I choose to print the entire study guide out at once. Of course, families can chose to print the lessons out one at a time. I print out the study guide and create the binders for both Michael and Therese. Both ways can be used for multiple students. Being able to use the study guide with multiple students saves homeschooling families with more than on kid lots of money. It gets expensive when you have to buy more than one book, workbook, etc.
The purpose of Progeny study guides is to help students understand literature better. The guides help students understand how the authors craft their stories and understand the themes being presented in the story. The guides allow students to dig deeper into the literature they are reading. For the high school guides, students should be able to complete them in 8-10 weeks. If the student works through the study guides for 8 weeks, families should be able to complete 4 different literature guides during the school year. These guides are an excellent way to complete a high school English literature course. I currently have a few different guides I'm looking at for next year. Michael and Therese be reading a wonderful selection of books for their American literature class, so I'm currently trying to decide which study guides to use to help them earn their English high school credits.
The Animal Farm study Guide is broken up into 15 sections.
The first section is geared for the teacher/instructor. This section simply explains how to use the study guide with your students.
Next up is a brief synopsis of the story. This section provides the students with a brief summary of the story, introduces them to the plot, and introduces them to the important characters they will meet during the story. This section is followed by an introduction to the author, George Orwell. Students will read a brief biography about the life of the author. It's just 2 pages long, so students can research for more information about the author if they wanted to.
The next section in the study guide is important background information. This section introduces students to governing systems and economic systems: Monarchy, Republic, Democracy, Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism. This important for the students to know, so they can understand the message George Orwell is trying to convey.
After reading the back ground information, students can work through the Pre-Reading activities. This section gives ideas for various projects the students can work on before they begin reading the book. Research the Russian Revolution, research Joseph Stalin's rise to power, learn more about the Soviet Union and its participation in World War II, discover more about allegories, or research George Orwell and his socialist views. These topics are a great way to get the student ready for reading Animal Farm. Knowledge and understanding is extremely important in today's day and age.
The following sections of the study guide deals with the actual book. The study guide is broken up into sections to help the student work through the book in an organized manner.
Chapters I-II
Chapters III-IV
Chapters V-VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
It is recommended that these sections are to be completed by the student once they have finished reading the book. They can use their books to help them answer the questions. They should also have access to a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a Bible read.
Each of these sections are broken up into different topics.
Vocabulary
Analogous Characters and Events
General Questions for Comprehension
Analysis Questions
Dig Deeper Questions
Optional Activities for Students to complete (art projects, research papers, music, and various projects)
Next up is the Overview section. This section sums up the book. Students will discuss conflict, literary techniques, and the dangers of power. It's a wonderful section that provides topics to discuss with the student.
Optional Essays and Projects is the next section. This gives students a few more ideas for projects to complete. One of the research ideas I liked in this section was the idea of free speech and why it's so important. In today's political turmoil, this topic is extremely important for students to understand.
The last section in the study guide is the additional resource page. This provides students with other books written by George Orwell and other books of related interest. There is also a link to additional activities, projects, and information.
Each study guide comes with a full answer key. This comes as a separate download so that only the instructor has access to it. I don't print out the answer key. I check the their answers on the computer.
How Did We Use the Animal Farm Study Guide?
I printed out the study guide for both Michael and Therese. I printed the entire study guide out at one time, 3-hole punch the pages, and then place them in a nice, sturdy binder.
For the first week, they both worked on reading the book. After completing the book, they worked on the chapters according to how they were broken up in the study guide. We only work on the study guide 2 times a week, since they are technically on summer break.
What Did We Think of the Animal Farm E-Guide Study Guide
I like how the study guides cover great classic novels. I like having the ability to be able to print the guides for both Michael and Therese. Since they work on their subjects together, this saves me money by not having to buy 2 of everything. Progeny Press study guides are a great way for students learn more about the great literature of out time.
Discover more about Progeny Press
Over the past few years, we used and reviewed a few other study guides from Progeny Press.
Learn more about some of the other great study guides offered from Progeny Press! The other crew members reviewed study guides for A New Coat for Anna (Grades K-3), In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Grades 4-6), My Side of the Mountain (Grades 5-8), and Little Women (Grades 8-12).
Click below to learn more about these amazing study guides!
Till Next Time,
Monique
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