Literature

Honors Literature and Writing 1

Ninth grade

1.00 high school credit

Core curriculum

to see where this is scheduled in your curriculum.

Description

This course has two major components: writing skills and literature.

Writing skills are taught using the third volume of Writing with Skill, a literature-based writing series commenced in our curriculum's middle school grades. This course thoroughly teaches expository (academic and professional) writing skills, and provides a reasonable amount of practice without requiring excessive time. The first half of this volume is covered in this course; the remaining half will be completed in tenth grade.

The main focus of this course is reading unabridged Great Books in their entirety. Instead of dividing books into American, British and world literature courses, we progress through the great books chronologically over the four years of high school. We feel this approach better facilitates appreciation of the progression of literature over time, and eliminating nationality restrictions allows for inclusion of more relevant books.

In this course, we start with the ancient epics of Gilgamesh, the Iliad and the Odyssey. We then spend a month on classic Greek plays, and another month on The Aeneid. After that, we move on to the ancient Indian epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and then to Chinese classics Tao Te Ching and The Art of War. We read several books of the King James Bible, then transition to the medieval period. The Islamic Golden Age is represented by the Quran, Rumi and The Arabian Nights. We end the course with a reading of Sundiata, one of the best examples of African oral literature dating from the medieval empire of Mali.

Most months contain both core and optional readings. All students should try to complete the core readings, and those looking for additional challenge may take on the optional readings as time allows.

In the descriptive page for each book, we recommend a translation and include other information to help the student. In some cases such as the Bible and the Quran, only portions of the entire work are assigned. It is not necessary to read the literary essays included in many editions of these works. Instead, we suggest that you prepare to read each book by reading one or two online reviews from publications like The New Yorker, and browsing discussions of the work on Quora.

You do not have to produce book reports, answer discussion questions or write essays on the books. Instead, we ask you to set aside plenty of time to experience and enjoy the works for their own sake, as we hope you will continue to do with great literature throughout your life.

If you are not used to unabridged classic literature, many of these readings will be challenging. We ask that you give each core book an honest trial, but you do not need to force yourself to finish something you have no taste for. If you decide not to finish a core reading, you may substitute one of the optional readings or another classic book of your choice.