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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Homeschool Review Crew - Writing With Sharon Watson Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis Christian Worldview

Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing program


I somehow have birthed three very reluctant writers and 2 very reluctant readers, even though one of them was reading fluently at age 3, so needless to say - I was thrilled to get a chance to review Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis from Writing with Sharon Watson. Before I got started, I was able to download free sample chapters, grading grids, and quizzes on the course page, and you can too. Please take a look at the samples provided on the site.


Writing with Sharon Watson, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing program
Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing program
Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing program Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing program
Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing program



What is the Illuminating Literature Characters in Crisis by Writing with Sharon Watson?


Sharon Watson has written for Apologia with their Jump In middle school writing curriculum. She loves to teach writing and does so in a relaxed, non-threatening manner that is perfect for middle to high schoolers. 

Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis by Writing with Sharon Watson is intended to be used with students in 9th - 12th grade, but can be used during any high school year. This is intended to be used as a one-year high school course, which is a pace of four weeks per book. One of the best parts, in my opinion, that piqued my interest the most is that it is written from a Christian worldview. 

I received a nice physical set of glossy paperback books. The books included:


  • Teacher
  • Student
  • Quiz/Test
  • There is also a Novel Notebook available as a pdf download, and online quizzes.

The books that the study is based on usually need to purchased or obtained through the library separately. The first reading assignment is the short story entitled, A Jury of Her Peers. This is included in the text, no purchase necessary.

The program has several components:

Physical Books and Downloads:

Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing programTeacher's Guide
The Teacher Guide includes everything you need to guide your student through the literature. It includes a monthly lesson plan, grading grids and answers to the lessons, discussions, and quizzes found in the textbook. If you are using it with a co-op or classroom, it even has a grading grids to make it easy for grading multiple papers. The Teacher Guide also includes a schedule for setting up a book-of-the-month club for teens which include Facebook posts to interest teens.

Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing programStudent Text

38 easy-to-follow lessons, students read the actual novel or literature work and not passages pulled out of context. Written from a perspective intended to be used with Grades 9-12 Christian high schools, homeschools, or co-ops, this course is great for teens whether they are reluctant readers/writers or advanced at a college-prep level. Sharon Watson has set up the course to make teens feel comfortable with literature. She includes fun facts, author bios and background information that piques the interest of the students. The course is student-directed, but she provides weekly reading schedules and clearly numbered lessons. By the end of the course, your student will have studied nearly 100 literary terms and author tools and will have gained an appreciation for literature. Upon completion of the two semesters, you may assign your student one high school credit.

List of stories and books (Most suggested to be used by Dover Publications version) If you use the recommended version of the literature, the textbook includes a key that takes you to specific page numbers of the novel or play:

  • A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, (included in the textbook)
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  • Silas Marner by George Eliot
  • Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
  • An Assortment of Short Stories (included in the textbook or link provided):
  1. A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
  2. The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges
  3. Haircut by Ring Lardner
  4. The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton
  5. Of the Passing of the First-Born by W. E. B. Du Bois
  6. A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
  • Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  • Biography or autobiography of student’s choice
  • The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (Mariner Books version)

Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing programQuiz and Answer Manual OR Online Quizzes - Your choice. Do you prefer online quizzing or pencil to paper ones? Whichever you prefer, this program has you covered. The online quizzes are graded for you. If you access them online, you will need the code found in the Teacher Book. The quizzes each start with a "Yes, I read it" Quiz followed by a Literary Terms Quiz and sometimes an Opinion/Survey.

Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis, Review, #hsreviews, #highschoolwriting, #writingcurriculum, Sharon Watson, Writing with Sharon Watson, The Power in Your Hands, composition, high school writing, homeschool writing programNovel Notebook (Optional to use)

This is a free 86-page pdf download. You can print it to put inside a 3-ring binder and fill out the pages with a pencil or pen, or you can save it to your laptop and use the pdf tools to add text and fill out the pages onscreen. The notebook is a nice little extra where the student answers questions, draws conclusions about passages, and collects favorite passages.

The pages are designed in a modern, fun style that looks a bit like notebooking/scrapbooking on  lined notebook background.




How Did We Use It?

We were familiar with Sharon Watson because we had previously used Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide which we really enjoyed. So, I immediately turned to my high school daughter who absolutely loves literature and reading and loves to express herself through writing.

What Did We Think?

 Writing with Sharon Watson did not disappoint. I love her friendly style and especially appreciate that she writes from a Christian Worldview. I really like how relatable and easy to follow the who program is and how the teacher book provides enough guidance but doesn't lay out every single word verbatim that you must follow to instruct the course. I loved that! I also like how it allows plenty of options for however you learn best, either online quizzes or pen/paper ones, pdf downloadable notebook you could use on or off screen, etc.

Read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:

Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis {Writing with Sharon Watson Reviews}


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1 comment:

  1. Sharon WatsonNovember 18, 2017 at 7:52 PM

    Thank you, Tere, for your review! Thanks, too, for including the screenshot of your daughter's page in the Novel Notebook. I love her summation of the men in "A Jury of Her Peers." Very insightful!

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