Homeschool Crew Review: Memoria Press 6th Grade Literature Guide Set

Memoria Press produces easy to use, classical, Christian materials for home and private schools. Memoria Press products require no previous knowledge of the subjects being taught but are designed with high academic standards.  I have always been very pleased with the products we have received from Memoria Press and was excited to have an opportunity to use and review their Sixth Grade Literature Guide Set.  We started our review with The Door in the Wall Literature Guide.

 The Memoria Press Literature Guides teach students to become active readers.  The guides focus on vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, comprehension, and composition skills.  Students will learn to identify important content in the stories they read. Their minds will be challenged by quality literature and they will learn to think critically while becoming superior readers.


For our review we received the Student Study Guides and Teacher Guides for:

The Door in the Wall
Adam of the Road
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Student Study Guides are consumable books.  In these guides students will find an introduction to the book and then assignments broken down by chapters.  At times, the assignments will span more than one chapter but that is noted for the student.  Each day assignment starts with Reading Notes with words that may be unfamiliar to the student and names of characters introduced in the chapter.    Assignments include:  
Vocabulary Questions: Students write the definition of the bolded word used in a phrase Comprehension Questions: Students answer the questions from the chapter in complete sentences Quotations: Students identify the person speaking and answer a question about what was said Discussion Questions: Questions to discuss aloud Enrichment Activities: A variety of activities that may include composition, copywork, dictation, research, mapping, drawing, poetry work, literary terms and more that can be completed as time and interest allows     The Teacher Guide contains the entire student guide with the answers for each chapter's assignments included.  In the Teacher's Guide you will also find chapter quizzes that are allowed to be reproduced for classroom use, a final exam and answer keys for discussion questions, quizzes, and exam.  The Teacher's Guide does not include a schedule.  Teachers will need to decide how much they want their students to accomplish in a period of time.  You will also have to have a copy of the books. Memoria Press does offer them for sale, or you can purchase or borrow your own copy.     Inside the Student and Teacher Guides    

We started with The Door in the Wall because we had the book on hand and wanted to get started right away.  I chose the 6th Grade Level for my son who just finished 6th grade because from previous use of Memoria Press Literature Guides I learned that they are advanced compared to some other companies.  Also, the list of books being read in this level were all books that I knew that my son would be interested to read.  
The Door in the Wall is not a long book so the guide is relatively short.  The student book only has 22 pages and the Teacher Guide has 32.  To complete the assignments we went over the reading notes together.  We do a lot of reading aloud in our house so I read the chapter or chapters aloud to him and we went over the discussion questions. Then he completed the vocabulary, comprehension, and quotation questions.  We did not do any of the Enrichment Activities because it is summer and we have had a lot going on but we did read through a lot of the information such as the paragraphs on The Plague and description of the game Duck on a Rock.      Though we only got through one guide during the course of the review period, I did look through the other guides as well.  They all follow the same format with the type of Enrichment Activity varying depending on the book.  For example in The Adventures of Robin Hood there is a section for students to read on feudalism and another assignment has the student make a chart showing the reasons why Robin should be remembered as a villain or a hero.  The King Arthur guide has information for them to read on things like The Holy Grail and Medieval Weapons and Castles and has an assignment for students to draw a castle. Adam of the Road has students do things like draw their own coat of arms and gives them information on Heraldry. The next book we will be tackling is The Adventures of Robin Hood.   The study guides will challenge students minds and teach them to think about what they have read. The program is flexible allowing you to go at your student's pace and include additional activities or not completed all of the activities as you see fit.  The student can work independently with very little guidance needed from the teacher.  The Teacher's Guide makes it easy to check over the student's answer because the entire Student Study Guide is included in the Teacher Guide. The Enrichment Activities are very interesting.  I love the variety of activities offered and look forward to completing those when we do the other guides during the school year.  
We love Memoria Press and look forward to finishing the rest of the guides in this set this year.  Members of The Crew reviewed grades 1-10 Literature Guide Sets.  To see what my Crew mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!