With a few health issues at our house, I've had a bit of a delay in sharing my next sneak peek. So, I am delighted to have the opportunity to share my next sneak peek with you now.
This sneak peek is one that is very important to me. It deals with the area of literature, which is one of the areas that always takes me the longest time to ponder how to handle. This is because there are so many ways that the study of literature can be approached, and while many approaches have merit, not all approaches have the same effect. In looking at the study of literature, while it is important that students learn how a story is put together and recognize how the various elements work together to form a cohesive whole, as students mature it is even more important to look at a story's central themes and weigh those against what God tells us in His Word.
While it is also important that students gain practice in reading more difficult literature, it is a worthy goal for students to still being able to enjoy the experience as much as possible. Charlotte Mason stated that "...a living book is able to quicken the mind and is full of living ideas." She felt that children need to enjoy the book, and so do I!
Since doing "too much" to a piece of literature as students read it can often steal the joy of reading good literature, balance is needed in following up with reading literature too. Charlotte Mason felt that "All children get from a flood of explanations is the trick of coming up with the right answer." I agree wholeheartedly.
As we select books, it's also important to remember that high school level literature can often contain many adult themes that may leave a student feeling hopeless and/or searching for meaning. So, in our book selections, it's important to temper that without totally running from it. This means that we need to allow students to grapple with more difficult, adult themes without allowing the themes to become so heavy that they overtake the story until the child is weighted down in the reading. With this in mind, some books (in my opinion) are just better read as a mature adult.
Does this mean that we should only read literature that has an inherently Christian message? Not necessarily, as students need to learn to weigh what they read against the Word of God, to see what life looks like without God at its center, and to have the opportunity to learn from a character's mistakes.
With all of this in mind, I'll share that for the literature portion of the World History Guide we are going to use a purely real books approach to literature study. While the year in the World Geography Guide spent alternating BJU with real books provides a terrific and rich literary experience, I enjoy mixing things up from year to year to keep everything fresh. So, for this upcoming guide, we will forego the BJU and just stick with the real books.
While it was my original intention to have a year of "World Literature" for this guide, as I began the careful process of selecting literature I quickly discovered that I didn't want to stay within the confines of selecting a book from each continent. Rather, I wanted to choose from all potential books, steering more toward longer standing classics overall without staying within the parameters of the World Literature category. So, our book choices reflect that and will fall under an English II distinction instead. The books generally go in a loose chronological order and are as follows:
Ben Hur (unabridged book followed by Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre Audio Version)
Julius Caesar (unabridged play, along with a full-cast unabridged audio production)
Pearl Maiden
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
A Man for All Seasons (play by Ray Bolt)
Scarlet Pimpernel
Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Les Miserables (Abridged, followed by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre Audio Version)
Animal Farm
Celestial Railroad
I will share that while in true Charlotte Mason style I typically avoid abridgments, I also feel that both the Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables are so wonderful that neither should be missed. All abridgments are definitely not created equal, but the particular abridgments we will be using keep the important storyline, leave out some long descriptions, omit minor subplots with mature themes, and still keep much of the original writing. When students are older someday, perhaps they will desire to read the full-length novels (both of which weigh in at around 1200 pages each)! Be warned that the full-length novels also will contain some elements that you may not be comfortable having your child read until he/she is older. In the meantime, we will settle for the abridgments, which still include close to 600 pages each.
The plan at this point is to have students utilize Charlotte-Mason inspired follow-ups for the readings. This means that students will be using a combination of daily readings with annotations, Common Place Book entries, and a rotation of oral and written narration. In regards to annotating, Charlotte Mason suggested..."marginal notes be freely made, as neatly and beautifully as may be, for books should be handled with reverence." She also shared that oral narration is a worthy and complex skill, requiring the child to read, process, remember, sequence, choose the most important events to recall, compose what to say, and say it. Written narration takes this skill set even further, by adding the composition aspect to the narration. Her thoughts on the Common Place Book were that it was for passages that struck a child particularly and also to give some account of what was read in each book. So, these skills all fall well within a Charlotte Mason styled literature study and work well to achieve our goals too.
As part of our CM styled literature study, students will have some guidance in literary styles to watch for as they read (such as irony, allusion, foreshadowing, and symbolism). After reading, students will also have an opportunity for reflection in a literature journal. As Charlotte Mason shared, "Books need to make children expend some effort in thinking. The child needs to make generalizations, classify, infer, make judgments, be able to visualize, to discriminate, or use the mind in some capable way until knowledge from the the book is sorted so some is assimilated and some is rejected according to his/her own decision. In the end, he's the one who decides what he'll get out the book, not the teacher." This will be our goal.
At the end of each book, students will meet with the teacher (after first completing a chart/ graphic organizer related to setting, plot, characterization, and possible themes to bring to the discussion). The discussion will tend toward processing what was read and the overall themes of the book. As part of the discussion, the book will be weighed in light of what the Bible has to say about the themes.
We will take care not to get between the child and the book and to avoid the problem shown in the following quote: "Mom, I think I'd be able to understand, if you stopped explaining so much."
I'll leave you with one more great Charlotte Mason quote in regards to literature, "Maturity and wisdom require reflective thought about ideas. Getting through a book at too quick of a pace leaves room for little else beside a brief brush with the storyline. There must be time for the mind to linger with the characters and contemplate their moral aspects."
This is what we will take care to keep in mind as we desire for our students to linger, contemplate, and develop moral discernment as part of their literature experience!
Blessings,
Carrie
