English
Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea Book Discussion: Flexible Schedule
In this 4-week course, students will read Ernest Hemingway's classic, The Old Man and the Sea
11-16
year old learners
6th-9th
US Grade Level
1-6
learners per class
$10
per weekCharged weekly
Flexible schedule
Over 4 weeks
No live meetings
Available times
Pacific
Description
Class Experience
The Old Man and the Sea is a great introduction to Ernest Hemingway, one of America's classic authors. It is required reading in many classrooms. Its themes of man vs. beast and man vs. self make it a wonderful story to read and discuss. Students will read between 30 pages a week on their own time. Each week a new video will discuss the pages that the students have previously read. This class does not meet live. The prerecorded sessions will emphasize characters, their motivations, theme,...
Week One: pages 1-30 Week Two: pages 31-60 Week Three: pages 61-90 Week Four: pages 91-127
I have a Master's Degree in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults. I was a substitute teacher for three years before teaching full-time on Outschool for multiple years. I also teach English Composition at my local technical college. I have been blessed to discuss classic authors like Hemingway in the classroom many times, including my own high school reading experience! I learn something new every time I am exposed to his stories. The Old Man and the Sea is an excellent book to discuss and analyze due to its epic themes: man vs. nature, man vs. self, love, survival, teaching the next generation, overcoming obstacles, etc. I am excited to read it alongside your student to see what emotions, feelings, and gut reactions Hemingway's writing stirs up for them.
Students will read between 30 pages a week on their own time. Each Sunday, students will have access to the new video and a corresponding one page worksheet with discussion questions and places for fill-in-the blank answers. Each week, I assign a short writing assignment focused around that week's discussion questions and ask the students to share their responses in the classroom. There are also daily activities each day like vocabulary words, an I Spy game, and a free Kahoot! trivia quiz to test their comprehension from the weekly chapters.
The students will need a copy of The Old Man and the Sea to read on their own. It can be borrowed from the library or even listened to as an audio book. The students will not need a physical copy of the story in class, although they may find it helpful to have while filling out their worksheets or working on their writing assignment.
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
The more questions, comments, and posts that students share in the classroom, the more I can understand their knowledge and comprehension of the topics we are discussing. Please let me know if a grade is required for this course.
No live meetings, and an estimated 1 - 2 hours per week outside of class.
From commonsensemedia.org: The Old Man and the Sea is a classroom reading-list staple. Widely regarded as Hemingway's masterpiece, it won the Pulitzer Prize and had much to do with his winning the Nobel. It's packed with epic struggles (man vs. nature, man vs. himself), eternal issues (love, survival, teaching the next generation, tenacity against the odds) and strong writing. It's also about three days in a boat in which most of the action takes place in the title character's head, punctuated by graphic descriptions of, say, the gutting of fish. It's also somewhat fraught with a late-in-life perspective that may be largely lost on young readers. Readers young and old are rarely ambivalent about this book -- it's either love or hate, often mixed with a hefty dose of parody (Hemingway at times writes like a macho parody of himself).
Teacher
About Me
I currently teach English Composition at the collegiate level. I have a Master's degree in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults, so I teach reading and writing classes. I worked as a substitute teacher for 3 years, in all age ranges and...
