Examples in Teaching
Written by students in the various home school classes, the following works were compiled to help other students in their work. The poetry, prose, music and art presented below were inspired by the literary works studied in our various classes.
Written Work
Speech Night is a formal event given at the end of the school year in which each student delivers a 3- to 6-minute speech completely without notes to a general audience. The event may include dramatic monologues, poetry recitations and plays. Students concentrate on oratory in high school with the course titled Drama, Writing, Speech
The Vice and Virtue and Foundations in Literature and History classes spend a good amount of time reading poetry and learning poetics and rhyme and are assigned to write a poem during the year using a meter and rhyme scheme that they studied.
In the Personal Narrative Class students read examples of journal writing, autobiography, personal narrative and biography, using the works as models for their own writing. Listen to a sample interview for the biography and read some examples.
Before writing their own creative works, the students of the Short Story and Novel class study the great classic works of the Western tradition.
Before writing their own creative works, students of the Classic Works of the Imagination, Symbol and Allegory class first study the “oral tradition” works, such as fairy tale, fable and myth. Like the short story class, they learn about the common elements of the oral tradition, including stock characters, fantastical details, random occurrences, harsh punishments for the oppressors and lavish rewards for the oppressed. Stories involving animals are some of the oldest works of literature in the oral tradition, going back several thousands of years.
The English Literature and History class studied the lives of many kings and queens, wars and movements. They were assigned to write something about what they learned in the form of a children’s book. Although there were many admirably illustrated examples I could have chosen, I have included only a sampling of students’ work in this page.
