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Teaching High School Literature

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As I prepare to begin teaching high school next year, I am reaching out to those homeschool mom friends who have gone before me. Debbie is one such friend. I am thrilled she was willing to share with you about her experience homeschooling high school!


 Teaching high school can be a scary thought for a homeschool mom! Certain subjects can be intimidating to teach depending on your strengths and weaknesses. For me, my nemesis has always been teaching math. I preferred history or literature. I have found after thirteen years of homeschooling that there is always a way for a homeschool mom to teach any subject. She just needs to find the right resources.
 
My favorite subject I have taught my boys is literature. I am a voracious reader and loved discussing the novels and short stories they were reading. However, you don’t have to love reading or be a literature expert in order to teach the subject if you have the right tools.
 
Your goal with teaching high school literature is to help your student continue to love reading and to connect what they are reading with everyday life.
  
Select your novels and short stories.
With my oldest I did a year each of American and British literature. I am thinking with my second son I may also have him do a semester of World literature since he is more of a reader World literature tends to be harder to tackle, because it is written with a worldview that is influenced by a foreign culture. Not sure what to have your student read? Here are a few ideas for each category to get you started:
 
American Literature
 
Novels
  • The Scarlet Letter
  • The Call of the Wild
  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • To Kill a Mockingbird {There is a sequel coming out July 2015,Go Set a Watchman}

Short Stories {Many can be found online.}

  • “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
  • “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving
  • Stories from Edgar Allan Poe {“The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, “Fall of the House of Usher”, etc.}
  • Stories from Mark Twain {The series of McWilliamses stories are very enjoyable!}
  • “To Build a Fire” by Jack London {There are two versions of this story. We thought the 1908 one was better.}

British Literature

Novels

  • Anything from Charles Dickens {My personal favorite is Great Expectations.}
  • Pride and Prejudice {For boys, you might want to skip this one.}
  • Silas Marner
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Frankenstein
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles

 And don’t forget to read and watch some of Shakespeare’s plays. We did Macbeth among others.

World Literature

Novels

  • Les Miserables {NOTE: This version is abridged! It cuts out the heavy-duty French history.}
  • Don Quixote
  • The Count of Monte Cristo

Short Stories

  • “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
  • “Continuity of Parks” by Julio Cortazar
  • “The Night Face Up” by Julio Cortazar
  • “One of These Days” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • “The Perfect Crime” by Enrique Anderson Imbert

Get your resources ready. 

There is a plethora of resources to help you teach literature. We love using Progeny Press guides for individual novels. They even have a poetry unit that is all set up and ready to go. I am not particularly fond of poetry so this was the way to go for us. Another helpful resource is Teaching the Classics. This resource will guide you in discussing and analyzing novels and short stories. The only downside to it is that it is helpful to have read the literature selection before trying to use the questions to discuss it with your student. The upside? You can use this resource with any literature selection! One other resource we have used is Novel Units. The teacher’s guides provide vocabulary, discussion questions, and writing assignments.

Work with your reading selections in a variety of ways. 

Here’s a list of what you can do with literature as you read: -Discuss. -Write a summary or an analysis. -Collect vocabulary words and define them. -Watch the movie AFTER reading the book and discuss the differences between the book and the movie. -If you are doing Shakespeare watch the play BEFORE reading it. This makes Shakespeare more understandable. His plays were meant to be watched not necessarily read. -Research and discuss the life of the author and/or the historical background of the story.

Relax and enjoy the reading journey. 

Your goal with teaching high school literature is to help your student continue to love reading and to connect what they are reading with everyday life. Doing only two novels per semester {with some short stories thrown in between} is better than trying to plow through too many reading selections. Reading and discussing literature with your student is a wonderful way to impart wisdom to him or her about life in general. For example, when we read Great Expectations we discuss how revenge backfires on us. When reading Silas Marner we talked about how people are more important than possessions. Les Miserables is great avenue to discuss grace. Make your time in a book worthwhile by applying it to your student’s life!  


 

Debbie lives in central Alaska with her husband and two teen boys. She loves to read, write, and spend time with loved ones. She homeschools her sons and runs an in-home business offering Spanish lessons to other homeschoolers. She blogs about faith at The Architect and the Artist and about teaching Spanish at Debbie’s Spanish Learning.    

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