AmblesideOnline Year 11 Basic Version

Based on AO's Year 11. Detailed weekly schedules for these books are available in various formats:
Html List; PDF; modifiable DOC; modifiable ODT

History studied in Year 11: The 20th century
Term 1: 1900-1940, Term 2: 1940-1960, Term 3: 1960-present

As students mature, their reading material will present more challenging content, and may include strong language and more mature themes. We have placed footnotes linked in red beside those books that most parents will consider an issue. However, we cannot anticipate which content might be an issue for every family. We encourage parents to pre-screen material to determine its appropriateness for their child and family. Note: These booklists and curriculum suggestions are incomplete without a thorough understanding of Charlotte Mason's ideas and methods. We cannot emphasize enough that you take time to familiarize yourself with her philosophy by reading her books.

Table of Contents: KEY TO SYMBOLS BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY HISTORY BIOGRAPHIES GEOGRAPHY GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS CITIZENSHIP CURRENT EVENTS WORLDVIEW LITERATURE SHORT STORIES ESSAYS POETRY GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION RECITATION COPYWORK DICTATION MATH SCIENCE NATURE STUDY LOGIC ART MUSIC FOREIGN LANGUAGE HEALTH LIFE AND WORK SKILLS FREE READING EXAMS

Key: (What do all those symbols mean?) Book titles are linked to Project Gutenberg (which offers free etexts in a variety of formats) or other online text when no Project Gutenberg text is available. β - manybooks.net, another free ebook site. α - free etext at archive.org. K - free Kindle text from amazon.com. (£) Living Books Press purchase using AO's amazon.com affiliate link. ($amzn) - book purchase using AO's amazon.com affiliate link. (K) - Kindle purchase using AO's amazon.com affiliate link. Λ - free audiobook at Lit2Go Ω - free audiobook at Librivox [2] ∩ - other free audiobook source [0] - Click the bracketed numeral to view any notes about the book near the bottom of the page. [0] - red footnotes indicate a heads-up for parents about the title. We cannot foresee every incident that might potentially be an issue to every family, but we have red-flagged those that are commonly a concern. AmblesideOnline is part of Amazon.com's Affiliate program. If you use the Amazon links, we receive a small commission which enables us to cover the costs of keeping the website and curriculum. Amazon links are identified like this: ($amzn) or (K), but we have provided links to free and alternate sources as well. Asterisks refer to which term the book is used: * Term 1 ** Term 2 *** Term 3

Bible and Christian Theology

Old Testament: Lamentations, Ezekiel, Joel, Daniel, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Esther, Nehemiah, Malachi
New Testament: 2 Corinthians, Romans, Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1 and 2 Peter, Titus, Hebrews, Jude, 1, 2 and 3 John
Psalms 106-150
Proverbs 17-31

Bible Gateway has many versions of the Bible online. ^[4]

Suggested Devotional Reading

The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul ($amzn) (K)
The Pleasures of God by John Piper ($amzn) (K)

History

Keep a century chart and Century Book of the period studied. ^[6]

A History of the Twentieth Century: The Concise Edition of the Acclaimed World History by Martin Gilbert ($amzn) (K)


OR A History of the American People by Paul Johnson ($amzn) (K) ^[4a]

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain ($amzn) (K)
The Men Behind Hitler by Bernhard Schreiber

The Trial at Nuremberg (one short essay; the original link is gone, and the new site hosting the article includes graphic war images, so we've used an archive.org link until we find a replacement.)

Various speeches (four per term are scheduled; others are optional but inserted in the 36-week schedule where they fit chronologically.)

* Woodrow Wilson, entering World War I, April 2, 1917 "War Message"
* Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball speech July 4, 1939 (also see biography on the site)
* Winston Churchill "Blood, sweat and tears" May 13, 1940
* Winston Churchill "Their finest hour" June 18, 1940
** Franklin Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor address Dec 8, 1941 "a day that will live in infamy"
** Eisenhower--D-Day invasion order June 5, 1944 "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."
** Franklin Roosevelt D-Day Prayer June 6, 1944
** Douglas MacArthur's farewell to Congress April 19, 1951 "Old soldiers never die"
*** John F. Kennedy's Inauguration January 20, 1961 "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
*** John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" June 26, 1963
*** I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. Aug 28, 1963 OR "I've been to the mountaintop" March 3, 1968
*** Ronald Reagan--Brandenberg Gate June 12, 1987 "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Biographies

Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank ($amzn) ^[7]


OR The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom ($amzn) (K)

Geography

The World: Travels 1950-2000 by Jan Morris, formerly James ($amzn) (K) ^[8]

Government and Economics

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt (or here; ($amzn) (K)

A basic government book ^[10]

Citizenship

Ourselves by Charlotte Mason (£) ^[14]

Plutarch's Lives - follow AO's Plutarch rotation. ^[15]

Current Events

Keep up with daily news (resource options here) and keep a calendar of events

Worldview

Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave by David Breese ($amzn) (K)
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman ($amzn) (K)

Literature

Invitation to the Classics by Louise Cowan and Os Guinness ($amzn) ^[16]
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ($amzn) (K)
The Chosen by Chaim Potok ($amzn) (K)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (3 parts) ($amzn) (K)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ($amzn) (K)

Short Stories

* The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (1909); also here Ω
* The Open Window by Saki (Hector. H. Munro; 1914)
* Barn Burning by William Faulkner (1939)
** The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber (1939) (possibly here)
** Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell (1936)
** The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (1948) (also here)
** The Outstation by Somerset Maugham (1950) (also here, a third of the way down)
*** A & P by John Updike (1961)
*** Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1961)
*** Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor (1965) or here
If you prefer some upbeat stories, there are some "feel good" short by classic authors listed here.

Essays

* In Defense of the Essay by Christopher Orlet
* The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent by John Erskine, 1915
* The Superstition of School by G. K. Chesterton, 1923, from The Common Man (also here)
* Master of Many Trades by Robert Twigger, 2013
* The Second Time I Learned to Read by Stephen L. Carter
** Introduction to Athanasius' Incarnation (or, The Reading of Old Books) by C. S. Lewis, 1944 or here
** The Inner Ring by C. S. Lewis, 1944
** Politics and the English Language by George Orwell, 1946
*** Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation by Ronald Reagan, 1983
*** Can Beauty Help us to Become Better People? by John Armstrong, 2014
*** You're Regretting Wrong by Judith Shulevitz, 2014
*** The Problem With Too Much Information by Dougald Hine, 2014

Or, if you prefer a book:
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman ($amzn) (K) ^[18]

Poetry

Edna St. Vincent Millay
A short anthology of Modern Poetry ^[20]

Grammar and Composition

On Writing Well - The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser ($amzn) (K)

Recitation

Matthew 6
2 Timothy 3
Psalms 27; 33
Hebrews 9
John 1:1-14
Psalms 91; 136
Acts 2:14-47
Ephesians 6
Psalms 122, 123 (these are short)
Psalms 119:9-30

Shakespeare passages
a poem per term from the term's poetry selections

Copywork

Include selections from Shakespeare, the Bible, poetry and other sources. These selections may be the same ones used for recitation. Consider beginning a personal quote book.

Dictation

Do dictation regularly.

Math

Continue your math program; for some options, see this page.

Science

The Handbook of Nature Study α by Anna Botsford Comstock (as a reference) ($amzn)

Apologia science text ($earch) OR BJU Press Science

Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman ($amzn) (K)
Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif ($amzn) (K) (chapters 9-12 this year)

Nature Study

Our National Parks by John Muir


OR The Life of the Caterpillar by J. Henri Fabre (Fabre texts with photos)

Art

Continue the artist rotation posted at AmblesideOnline

Music

Continue the composer rotation and hymn rotation posted at AmblesideOnline

Folk Songs:
* Over There
* It's a long way to Tipperary
* There's a Little Blue Star in the Window
** White Cliffs of Dover
** When the Lights Go On Again All Over the World
** I'll Be Seeing You
*** Where Have All the Flowers Gone
*** We Shall Overcome
*** Okie from Muskogee

Foreign Language

Begin Latin if you've not started already, or continue with any previous foreign language studies

Health

Study nutrition
Keep fit: Learn and play a game (kick ball, tennis, croquet, ping-pong, softball, etc.) or folk-dance, or pursue other physical activity of your choice. One option is Swedish Drill Revisited by Dawn Duran purchase

Life and Work Skills

Work on useful skills such as budgeting, gardening, cooking, car maintenance, carpentry, etc.

Free Reading

Try to use books that were not included from Year 11 in addition to the Year 11 Free reading List

---

Footnotes

2. Note on Audiobooks: While links to audio books are added as a courtesy, Miss Mason's approach to grammar and composition is heavily dependent upon the children receiving an immense amount of visual exposure to the written word over many years, so parents should exercise extreme caution in how many audiobooks they use each year. Our brains just work differently when we see the words. (Cindy Rollins did a Circe Mason Jar podcast that included the role of audiobooks with difficult books.) For children who have difficulty reading, one solution is to have them follow the audio version along in a written text.
Librivox free audio is done by volunteers, and some are better than others. Heidi Nash has a list of some favorite Librivox readers. Be aware that apps, including Librivox, that have clickable ads can open a browser and allow children unfiltered access to the internet, even when browsers have been disabled by the parent. There are options: either download mp3 files from Librivox and listen without the app, or only install the app on a parent-controlled device. Librivox has a pay option to turn off ads. (Back)

4. AO's Bible plan goes through the Bible semi-chronologically over 6 years in Years 6-11. This year's Bible readings would be as follows:

* Lamentations, Ezekiel 1-36; 2 Corinthians, Romans; Psalms 106-118; Proverbs 17-2
** Ezekiel 37-48, Joel, Daniel, Ezra; Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Timothy, Titus, 1 Peter; Psalms 118-124; Proverbs 22-26
*** Haggai, Zechariah, Esther, Nehemiah, Malachi; Hebrews, 2 Timothy, 2 Peter, Jude, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John; Psalms 125-150; Proverbs 27-31 (Back)

4a. A History of the American People by Paul Johnson:
     Term 1 1900-1940 pg 621-725 (104 pgs)
     Term 2 1940-1960 pg 725-841 (116 pgs)
     Term 3 1960-2000 pg 845-976 (131 pgs)
A weekly schedule for Paul Johnson's History of the American People is here.
There's a new American history book published in 2019 called Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred M. McClay. ($amzn) (K) The Advisory is still previewing this book, so we can't make an official recommendation yet. However, if you wish to give it a try, there's a schedule that fits it into Years 8-11 here. Year 11 corresponds with ch 14-Epilogue. (Back)

6. Timeline: At this age, students should be keeping a Century Chart and Book of Centuries. Students at this level in the PNEU schools made summaries of dates and events, referred to maps as they read their history, and made century charts. Instructions for making your own timelines and charts are included in these Parents' Review articles: Book of the Centuries; Teaching Chronology; The Correlation of Lessons. For more details about the why, when, how of keeping CM timelines (and other notebooks), we recommend Laurie Bestvater's book, The Living Page ($amzn). (Back)

7. Diary of a Young Girl: We recommend locating an edition published before 1989, as later editions include content that was left out of earlier editions and will need parental screening. If you use a later edition -- The Critical Edition (1989), or The Definitive Edition (1991), or The Revised Critical Edition (2003) -- please pre-read for content. (The mass paperback linked from the AO website ($amzn) translated by B. M Mooryart-Doubleday "with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt" should be fine; it's a reprint an earlier edition.) (Back)

8. The World: Travels 1950-2000 - only half of this book is scheduled. There's brief non-graphic mention of the author's gender-change operation in chapter 18, titled "Casablanca." The chapter is very short and can be skipped or removed. Also some language on pg 233 and 242. (Back)

10. A basic government book: High School students will need to earn credit for basic government. This material can be done in Year 9, 10, 11 or 12. Some options:

Foundation for Freedom: A Study of the United States Constitution Workbook by Lars Johnson - This "workbook" is the text with review exercises after each chapter, which can be skipped. ($amzn) Foundation for Freedom is an updated, full-color version of The Story of the Constitution, Second Edition by Sol Bloom and Lars Johnson ($amzn). Both appear to be the same book/workbook, but the newer one is in color. (Sol Bloom's original 1937 Story of the Constitution, which Lars Johnson used as a foundation for his own book, is online at Hathi Trust.) Because it was written in 1937, it stops at the 21st Amendment. Lars Johnson did an excellent expanding and updating the Bloom book by adding concerns that weren't on the radar in 1937. He also wrote a chapter on limited government, checks and balances, and Biblical morality as well as a full-page explanation of each Amendment; Sol Bloom's book just explains each Amendment with a sentence or two. If you are in a situation where you need an online resource, the Sol Bloom text could work, but you should also seek out a source that explains why each Amendment was added and what it does.

Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution is a ten-week online course offered by Hillsdale College with 40-minute streaming video lectures (or you can download the audios). You have to register with a login and password, but the course is free. After you register, "you can find out how to get a copy of Hillsdale's U.S. Constitution Reader, the essential companion to the course, which contains over a hundred primary source documents edited by Hillsdale's Politics faculty." The website says the course begins on Feb 24, but their FAQ says their courses are archived so you can start them at any time, and you can go at your pace.

Exploring Government Curriculum Package by Ray Notgrass (purchase from CBD)

The Everything American Government Book by Nick Ragone is an easy to read explanation of political terms (such as caucus, filibuster, bureaucracy, regulatory commission, judicial review, pork barrel spending, gerrymandering) with a minimum of bias. The author glosses over the Constitution, giving his interpretation of the key points, so this is not a substitute for learning what's in the U.S. Constitution. If you decide to use this book, a schedule that divides it over either 36 weeks or 18 weeks is here. ($amzn) (K).

This 10-minute YouTube video presents a clear explanation of the difference between a republic based on law, and a democracy based on majority rule. (Back)

14. Ourselves: approximately 22 pages per term. This book will continue through all the remaining years of AO/HEO curriculum. This is the 4th volume of Mason's 6 Volume Series. This year: pages 68-136 of Book 2
Also available in a modern English paraphrase that can be read online or purchased. (K) The paraphrase of Book 2, Self-Direction, the second half of Volume 4, can be purchased as a separate paperback book.
Term 1: Book 2 pg 68-96
Term 2: Book 2 pg 97-114
Term 3: Book 2 pg 115-136 (Back)

15. Plutarch: Charlotte Mason recommended Thomas North's "inimitable translation." (Back)

16. Invitation to the Classics: pages 307 to 366 this year, beginning with James Joyce, and continuing to the end of the book; the chapters are short. Table of Contents arranged by Year and Term for both books is available here.
(Back)

18. Ex Libris: If you prefer a book, "This witty collection of 18 essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language." (Back)

20. A short anthology of Modern Poetry: some suggestions are Norton's Anthology of Modern Poetry or The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Third Edition, Volume 2: Contemporary Poetry (Back)

Ask a Question on our AO Forum!

Last update Oct. 5, 2020