Beacon of Hope Online Learning (Beacon) strives to give students the tools needed to think for themselves rather than just repeat what they've been taught. That's why when looking for a Literature program, we knew we needed to find something that would teach the students how to analyze great works of Literature as opposed to just filling in blanks on a worksheet.
When we found Center For Lit, we knew this would be perfect for our students! "The Teaching the Classics approach is based on a simple premise: to understand, we must ask questions. We therefore promote oral discussion, as opposed to fill-in-the-blank homework, as the best way to cultivate a love of literature at every level." Using the method perfected by Center For Lit, we are able to teach students at a very young age to start thinking beyond just remembering facts and continue to use those facts to begin understanding our world, applying this wisdom, analyzing their experiences, evaluating what they hear, and create beauty in our fallen world.
When we found Center For Lit, we knew this would be perfect for our students! "The Teaching the Classics approach is based on a simple premise: to understand, we must ask questions. We therefore promote oral discussion, as opposed to fill-in-the-blank homework, as the best way to cultivate a love of literature at every level." Using the method perfected by Center For Lit, we are able to teach students at a very young age to start thinking beyond just remembering facts and continue to use those facts to begin understanding our world, applying this wisdom, analyzing their experiences, evaluating what they hear, and create beauty in our fallen world.
You can read about how Center For Lit began, on their blog.
We can use even lower level picture books to explain difficult concepts that are used to analyze Literature by even Literary Professors. Students are easily able to spot setting, characters, theme, conflict, and literary devices when using books written to a younger audience. Missy Andrews states, "The only real differences between them [picture books] and their more sophisticated counterparts were their length and complexity." By using picture books as our basis for learning we first teach the students to love Literature and then to discover what the Literature has for them to learn.
Ian Andrews has this to say about teaching Literature to your children, "So, ask your students to read some Aristotle; dive headfirst into Melville; tackle Tolstoy; cherish Chaucer. But along the way, also require that they sit with Milne and study the wisdom of Pooh Bear. Free them to join Rat and Mole on the river and let The Wind in the Willows teach them to wonder at and be delighted by beauty. True education aims to create, protect, and exalt unconsciousness appreciation of simple truths; what better way to prepare the student for such a project than to remind him that he is a child? One doesn’t study to grow out of Caddie Woodlawn – one studies to grow into it. And that is as it should be."
Literature 1 is for those students that are reading well on their own. This class is open to 2nd-5th Grade students and will cover these books:
We can use even lower level picture books to explain difficult concepts that are used to analyze Literature by even Literary Professors. Students are easily able to spot setting, characters, theme, conflict, and literary devices when using books written to a younger audience. Missy Andrews states, "The only real differences between them [picture books] and their more sophisticated counterparts were their length and complexity." By using picture books as our basis for learning we first teach the students to love Literature and then to discover what the Literature has for them to learn.
Ian Andrews has this to say about teaching Literature to your children, "So, ask your students to read some Aristotle; dive headfirst into Melville; tackle Tolstoy; cherish Chaucer. But along the way, also require that they sit with Milne and study the wisdom of Pooh Bear. Free them to join Rat and Mole on the river and let The Wind in the Willows teach them to wonder at and be delighted by beauty. True education aims to create, protect, and exalt unconsciousness appreciation of simple truths; what better way to prepare the student for such a project than to remind him that he is a child? One doesn’t study to grow out of Caddie Woodlawn – one studies to grow into it. And that is as it should be."
Literature 1 is for those students that are reading well on their own. This class is open to 2nd-5th Grade students and will cover these books:
- Brave Irene by William Steig
- Sam, Bangs and Moonshine by Evaline Ness
- All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan
- Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson
- The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward
- Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco
