High School Classic Literature Ongoing Class | Novel Study | Book Club |

STARTING MAY 28 FRANKENSTEIN BY MARY SHELLEY

Get $10 off my classes with coupon code THOMPYEVGF10 

Classic novels can be fun and interesting to read, but oftentimes students are intimidated by the language and writing style. In this ongoing class, students will have a chance to read different classic novels and discuss them. They will expand their reading comprehension and vocabulary, work on critical thinking skills, and gain insight into how to analyze and discuss a piece of literature. The plot, setting, character development, literary devices, and themes will be discussed and analyzed for each book. 

We will be reading a variety of books, some more challenging than others. The ongoing nature of this course allows students to participate in reading the books they want to and skip the books they aren't interested in. 

Depending on the length of the book, we will be reading one book every three-four weeks. This gives us enough time to read and analyze the book and have a meaningful discussion. I will post relevant discussion questions in the classroom for students to use as they read to help prepare them for the discussions we will have in class.

This is how the classes will be structured:
Each class will start with the teacher providing background information on the author, setting, and time period to provide context for the discussion of the book.
Then the class will answer discussion questions led by the teacher. 
Each class will conclude with a variety of activities and games to help the students comprehension of the book.

Reading schedule:
Week of:

April 9- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Chapters 1-9
 April 16- Jane Eyre Chapters 10-19
April 23- Jane Eyre Chapters 20-29
April 30- Jane Eyre Chapters 30-38
May 7- Passing by Nella Larsen Part One
May 14- Passing Part Two 
May 21-Passing Part Three
May 28-Frankenstein by Marry Shelley Volume One
June 4- Frankenstein Volume Two
June 11- Frankenstein Volume Three
June 18- Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier Chapter 1-8
June 25- Rebecca Chapter 9-15
July 2- Rebecca Chapter 16-21
July 9- Rebecca Chapter 22-27


Upcoming novels will include The Haunting of Hill House, The House of the Spirits, East of Eden, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Giovanni's Room, Crime and Punishment, and many more!

See below for the synopsis and age rating for each book

JANE EYRE (ages 12+)
Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?

PASSING BY NELLA LARSEN (ages 13+)
Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past--even hiding the truth from her racist husband.

Clare finds herself drawn to Irene's sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself--and her deception--into every part of Irene's stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen's brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to "pass," is as timely as ever.

FRANKENSTEIN BY MARY SHELLEY (ages 13+)
Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

REBECCA BY DAPHNE DU MAURIER (ages 13+)
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."

Ancient, beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden and the sea, is the county's showpiece. Rebecca made it so - even a year after her death, Rebecca's influence still rules there. How can Maxim de Winter's shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow?

A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and its inhabitants completely...

THE GREAT GATSBY BY F. SCOTT. FITZGERALD (ages 14+)
Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby---young, handsome, and fabulously rich---always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.