Progeny Press Frankenstein Study Guide Review

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Good books are a priority in my homeschool, thankfully both of my kids love a good story. I love it when I can find resources that dig deeper in those books. We have used Progeny Press study guides a few times in our homeschool lately. Our most recent one is Frankenstein Study Guide.

Frankenstein Study Guide is for grades 10 – 12^th grade. Progeny Press has a plethora of study guides and books available. You can use Progeny Press as a full-year credit of literature with 4 of the Study Guides.

I received a PDF download, for the study guides and the Answer Keys. You have instant access to your download once you purchase it. This can also be purchased as a physical Printed Workbook or on a CD. On the CD you can print out the pages or type the answers directly into the document. If you don’t own the books you can order the books that accompany the guides from Progeny Press too.  

Progeny Press literature studies cover K-12^th grade. They break their guides down by grades: Lower Elementary (K-3rd), Upper Elementary (3rd-6th), Middle School, and High School. They recommend that you first read the book as a whole before beginning the study guide. They are flexible to accommodate your child’s needs if you read a few chapters then work on the study guide. I have done them both ways with my son.

You will need a dictionary, thesaurus, Bible the NIV is used in the guides but you can use your translation, books for the guides, and access to the internet. There are resources to look up online to enhance the guides.

Plan around 8 to 10 weeks for middle school and high school to complete each unit study. Usually one section a week is recommended.

The Answer Key has all your answers to the questions in the key. It’s easy to navigate through the answers and is broken down so you can quickly locate the chapter or section you are working on to grade. 

The PDF Study Guide is interactive you can type your answers into the PDF and print them out or you can print it out and write the answers in the space provided. This will work with both Windows and Mac.

The Study Guide has a short biography about the Study Guide’s author and the author of the book you are using. A Table of Contents is also provided at the beginning of both guides. There is some information provided about using the guides and how you can put together a final test.

 Frankenstein Book and Study Guide

The Study Guide uses the Frankenstein Book by Mary Shelley. The Study Guide is developed by Calvin Roso and Andrew Clausen.

There are a total of 24 chapters, and an overview of the book. A Background Information which gives you details on the science and discovery of the time the book was written. One discovery was exploration and encountering new cultures and animals. My son found this interesting as he was reading over this and sharing it with me. Another interesting part is the information about the literary movement and the types going on in the world. It also gives you an overview of the Political Revolution going on in the world. With all this information you can see how the author did her homework or was familiar with the science and other aspects of the world around her.

You can also add more substance-using, The Ideas for Pre-reading Activities. This has activities like reading a suggested playwright and a Poem and writing a paper on them. There are map work activities, and reading Genesis 1-9. You can find other activities by going to Progeny Press’s Pinterest page too. There are also quite a few recommendations on essays projects for the book at the back of the study guide.

Synopsis of Frankenstein:

This classical story was first published in 1818, Robert Walton, the captain of a ship, retells this story to his sister back in England. He meets Victor Frankenstein, who has been traveling by sled and is not well. Walton brings him aboard the ship, helps him back to health, and hears the tale of the monster that Frankenstein created.

Victor Frankenstein collects and connects parts from dead bodies, which creates a living him rejected and abandoned.  As revenge, it kills Victor’s younger brother William.  Even though Victor knows that his creation is the murderer, William’s nanny, Juis blamed him for the death, tried, and executed.  There are three more deaths in Victor’s circle: the murder of his friend, Elizabeth, his new wife, and Victor’s father, who dies from losing his son William, the beloved nanny Justine, and his daughter-in-law.  Frankenstein eventually loses his own life.

Vocabulary Words: The exercises use vocabulary words throughout. From matching the word to the definition using a dictionary, multiple choices, fill in the blank, and other activities. The words are challenging and require some analysis of their meaning.

Questions: Comprehensive questions that lead to further thinking about the story from the book.

Analyzing: This goes above the comprehensive questions and has a lot more details. Some may include grammar concepts, anthropomorphism, and point of view, examining motives, how they feel, or character issues.

Dig Deeper: This is the Biblical portion of the study guide that deals with principle, relationship, conflict, and other topics. A scripture reading is also provided in this section.

My son read the book this summer and he didn’t have to re-read the book first. The book was not the one that Progeny Press uses but very close to the original story.

He referred back to his book as needed. The book he used lined up well with the Study Guide and he didn’t have any issues. I would recommend using the book they use normally. Some of the vocabulary varied but not too much. The vocabulary words are advanced and he used the dictionary often. He found that when he read the story this summer it was easier figuring out the meaning in context. With the study guide, he found it more challenging with so many months in-between him reading the book. In other aspects of the guide, he recalled the storyline enough to fill in the blank, and if not he referenced his book.

He planned 3-4 days a week depending on his other assignments. My son prefers the interactive PDF that he can type in the answers rather than write them out. After every chapter, I go over his answers with him. That way we can discuss the questions if needed. He has completed several sections and I suggested that he didn’t do more than 1-2 sections in a week. He did not do any more of the Optional Projects and Activities.

We have done several of the Study Guides from Progeny Press in the last few years. Frankenstein Study Guide was an enjoyable one for my son.

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Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew are doing different Study Guides than what I did. Click on the graphic below and see what they think.  Don’t forget to head over to Progeny Press to check out their selection.