This year my middle schooler is studying the Middle Ages. For this, we’ve chosen Memoria Press Famous Men of the Middle Ages and Adam of the Road literature guide from NOVEL-TIES
Middle Ages for Your Middle Schooler
Famous Men of the Middle Ages contains a years worth of lessons broken down into 34 interesting stories, 7 review lessons and corresponding tests covering the Norse Gods to 1471 highlighting Attila the Hun, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Edward the Black Prince, and Joan of Arc, and more. Along with the beautifully illustrated reader there’s an accompanying workbook and teacher guide.
Not being a workbook oriented family, I was overjoyed to see this Memoria Press student book contains short exercises with enough variety between lessons so as not to cause boredom.
Table of Contents
Beautiful illustrations from the reader
Historical stories from the reader
On Day 1, my daughter reads the story and looks at Facts to Know. Day 2, my daughter does the vocabulary. Day 3, it’s time to re-read the story and fill out the comprehension questions. Following that, we generally have a bit of a discussion time. Day 4-5 it’s on to the additional activities!
Comprehension Questions & Additional Activities/Extension Activities
We have enjoyed Memoria Press’ emphasis on Classical Education that is easy to follow and comprehend, plus there’s no prep work involved!
As a nice addition to our Middle Ages study, we included Adam of the Road Novel-Ties literature guide. There are many literature guides on the market, but most beat a book to death. Novel-Ties is not one of them. Containing vocabulary and comprehension questions, literary devices, word studies plus extension activities for every chapter of the novel, each guide can be completed in 3-6 weeks.
I love this quote by the author
“The classroom teacher should determine the amount of work to be assigned, always keeping in mind that readers must be nurtured and that the ultimate goal is encouraging students’ love of reading.”
Start with background information on the historical time period and novel plot. Before jumping into material, there’s a full page of suggested pre-reading activities and discussion starters such as mapping, time line and storytelling. There’s enough flexibility within these pages to gear it up for an older student or gear it down for a younger student.
Though my daughter is not an avid reader, she does enjoy historical fiction. This literature guide fit her perfectly and was an uplifting addition to our studies.