$79.00
Your Literature Professor
Investigates a new novel every other month
Sparks inquiry into classic and modern literature and language
Offers an in-depth survey of punctuation and grammar
Provides engaging discussion prompts
Examines literary themes with inviting ease
Meet: Slingshot
The Slingshot is your friendly professor, tossing tedious lectures in favor of inviting inquiry to help you navigate challenging high school literature.
Every other month, your language arts guide:
- Chooses a powerful novel to read
- Selects four insightful passages for copywork and dictation
- Offers expert, easy-to-understand language notes for you and your teen
- Guides students in literary analysis
- Plans book club parties so you don’t have to!
How it works
- Each Slingshot is a digital PDF file that includes four to eight weeks of instruction
- New Slingshots are uploaded to a private folder on the first of each month of release
- Check your email (once your purchase is complete) for login instructions
- Download the Slingshot Guidelines anytime after purchase
- Download the released Slingshots at your convenience anytime after September 1
- Print or read on your device (you own them)
- No matter when you purchase, you’ll have access to all five Slingshots by May 2022
- See the tab at the bottom of this page for in-depth Program Details.
2021-2022 program begins September 1, 2021.
Special Offer: Free Coaching!
When you purchase the Slingshot as part of the College Prep Writers bundle, you will receive:
Receive coaching for how to implement the Slingshot this year and for your homeschool experience every year!
(Regular price membership: $198/year)
The 2021–2022 Slingshot Book List
We encourage you to review the books yourself to be certain that you are comfortable with the content before giving them to your teens.
September: A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
November: Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer)
January: The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
March: The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
May: Swing (Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess)
Books are not included with purchase of the Slingshot.
Book list contains Amazon affiliate links. Brave Writer receives compensation at no extra cost to you.
Support indie bookshops! Our friends at Here Wee Read have listed all of the 2021–2022 Brave Writer Dart, Arrow, Boomerang, and Slingshot books in the Here Wee Read bookshop!
The Slingshot appears in our College Prep Writers Bundle.
After September 1, 2021, find single issues of the Slingshot here.
All purchases of digital products are FINAL. No refunds.
Join us in funding Summer Camp Reading! Let’s bring great books to everyone! Learn more and donate here!
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Age: Ages 15–18 (around 10th–12th grades)
Format: PDF files, downloadable to your computer or tablet. Permission to print also included.
See https://thehomeschoolprintingcompany.com/ for good prices and quality printing.
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Download a Sample here.
The Slingshot Guidelines that explain how to use the Slingshot are included with each Slingshot purchase but are not included with the sample.
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What is the Slingshot?
The Slingshot shows you, the homeschooling parent, how to bring language arts and literary analysis to life for your teens through living literature, copywork, and dictation.
The Skinny
- Your teen will read the selected work (novel or short story) over the course of one to two months.
- As they read, your teen will examine the selected passages from that novel and engage in discussion with you and writing activities found within the Slingshot.
- The passages are accompanied by notes that detail interesting spelling, punctuation, grammar concepts, writer's craft, along with in-depth literary analysis.
- Each Slingshot provides "Think Piece" Questions that provoke deeper investigation of the novel’s themes, plot, and characters through discussion and freewriting.
- Each issue students are encouraged to select “Golden Lines”—their favorite passages from the novel, to keep in a special notebook.
- Each Slingshot includes a Book Club Party Ideas section to help you celebrate the book.
How do I use it?
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Read the Guidelines (separate download, included with purchase) to understand how to make the most of your Slingshots.
- Read the first passage and the accompanying notes. Investigate the passage with your teens, highlighting and discuss the grammar, spelling, punctuation, writer's craft, and literary devices.
- Consider the “Inside Scoop” and “Beyond the Passage” sections for insights into literary analysis.
- Give your teens the opportunity to copy the passage or to write it from dictation.
- Invite your teens to discuss and write about some of the Think Piece questions.
- Select a “Golden Line” (favorite passage) and hold a book club party!
How the Slingshot fits into a Complete Writing Program
The Slingshot is one part of a three-part complete writing and language arts curriculum, meeting the need for instruction in writing mechanics and the reading and study of quality literature.
A three-part Brave Writer writing program for ages 15–18 includes:
- A tool for mechanics and literature (punctuation, grammar, spelling, literary style).
- A tool that teaches the writing process for original writing (Help for High School or online high school writing classes).
- A tool that supplies writing projects (assignments) that makes use of mechanics and original writing skills (Help for High School and online high school writing classes).
