Learn to Love Literature Part 3 - 5th-8th Grade (English, Literature)
In this Full-Semester 17-week English Literature course, we will dive into five great books. This class was created to build vocabulary, reading fluency, and enjoyment.
Ms. Stacey Hamlin
Average rating:
4.9
Number of reviews:(148)
What's included
17 live meetings
8 hrs 30 mins in-class hoursHomework
1-2 hours per week. There will be discussion questions each week to help focus your learner on what they are reading. I also expect to do some light character studies and vocabulary discussions as we progress through the semester. The largest aspect of the homework will entail the actual reading of the material. There will be no written homework to turn in.Class Experience
US Grade 5 - 8
While there is no prerequisite requirement for this class, I do run these as a series. You will see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc...but they just reflect different books and can be taken in any order. We will start with Hunger Games, a modern dystopian classic that pits a young girl and her home against a decaying and corrupt government. Our second book, The Golden Rhino, is the story of Never Mashamba and Sipho the rhinoceros calf. Our third book is The Great Turkey Walk, the hilarious story of a not-so-bright young man who takes a job driving turkeys across the country. Our fourth book, To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic story, full of inequality and triumph. Our stories this semester are full of excitement and hardship and figuring out how to find the things that really matter. The Details English, Literature I have been a lover of books since I was 9 years old and had to have surgery. My mother, who understood a few things about her child, read the first book in a series to me with all the voices and enthusiasm any book could want. Then she read the first 2 chapters of the next book. And then she stopped. The larger picture of why she stopped at that moment isn't important. What is important is that she lit a flame in me. I wanted to know how it finished. From that point on, I've been a reader. This early experience truly informs the books I choose for my young readers. I want the books to fire their minds, I want them to touch their hearts. Reading a book is starting a conversation with a person you've never met and truly hearing them. I want to build lovers of reading not just hit that magical 30-minute reading time. The Details We will be reading through four wonderful books over the course of 17 weeks. Each book will increase in word count helping your learner's reading fluency gradually improve. This is the perfect, light-reading class to keep everyone reading through the whole semester. Parts 1, 2, and 3 are completely self-contained and can be taken in any order. Classes will follow a general structure: Welcome Discussion (questions provided) Introduction of next class assignment Vocabulary to look out for Every week the student will need to complete the reading and the Discussion Questions to be ready for the following week's class. There is no homework to hand in. Below is our general schedule. Assignments by week Week 1 No Assignment due first week Week 2 The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins Read approximately 90 pages Week 3 The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins Read approximately 90 pages Week 4 The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins Read approximately 90 pages Week 5 The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins Read approximately 90 pages Week 6 The Golden Rhino, by Griffin Shea Read approximately 90 pages Week 7 The Golden Rhino, by Griffin Shea Read approximately 90 pages Week 8 The Golden Rhino, by Griffin Shea Read approximately 90 pages Week 9 The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr Read approximately 90 pages Week 10 The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr Read approximately 90 pages Week 11 The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr Read approximately 90 pages Week 12 To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Read approximately 90 pages Week 13 To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Read approximately 90 pages Week 14 To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Read approximately 90 pages Week 15 To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Read approximately 90 pages Week 16 To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Read approximately 90 pages Week 17 Final Class Wrap-up of Discussion Questions and Full Class Discussion
Learning Goals
This class was created to build vocabulary, reading fluency, and enjoyment.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
Each of the books in this class was chosen to provide an excellent example of a genre of books. They were also chosen for children from approximately 5th-8th grade, so 10-15 year-olds.
That said there are a few things to consider in these books. I've used Common Sense Media, Good Reads, and other online reviews to give you some "Things Parents need to Know" where available.
The Hunger Games - The story is intriguing and well thought out, the violence is fairly bloody but not overly gory, swearing and sexy stuff are kept to a minimum, and the alcoholic character sobers as the movie goes on. There are great messages and lessons we can learn from this book.
The Golden Rhino - One thing I especially appreciated about The Golden Rhino was that the "bad guys" spoke and acted with a great deal of menace, but there was not any actual death or gory violence. I appreciated that and I believe it kept the book appropriate to the Young Adult age range. There is light talk about HIV but no explanation. This might be something that your family might want to address.
The Great Turkey Walk - Very young children might be upset or confused by the fact that the lead villain is the lead hero's father. The violence is done in a cartoon-y way with no one actually getting hurt (again possibly not a good choice for very young children though). What is sweet about the story is it's a bunch of seeming losers/misfits (a teenage boy considered stupid by most of his hometown, a man who became an alcoholic when his family died, and a runaway slave) who make it big, and their best prize of all is the family that they form in the process.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Parents need to know that Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird addresses the terrible impact of racism in America through a little girl’s point of view. The story takes place in Depression-era Alabama, in the fictional town of Maycomb, which Lee patterned after her own hometown of Monroeville. The narrator, 6-year-old Scout Finch, her brother Jem and their friend Dill play children’s games, but they also have a clear view of the adults in their world. Their youth and innocence contrast with the prejudice, cruelty, and poverty they often observe. There is some threatened and real violence in the Pulitzer Prize winner: A man breaks a child’s arm; a rabid dog is shot and killed; there is a stabbing death; the children and their father, Atticus Finch, confront a lynch mob; and the court case at the center of the novel involves a Black man who has been accused of raping and beating a white woman some of this violence is whiskey-fueled, as well. Profanity includes d*mn, b*st*rd, son of a b*tch, and the N-word. These words are used as if it's commonplace language. The children in the novel learn powerful lessons about the impact of poverty and prejudice and the importance of empathy. It would be wise for the parent to be available.
Supply List
Your learner will need their own copy of the books below. Please feel free to use the library or digital editions of the books. While there are many wonderful audiobooks available here, I do not recommend audiobooks for this class simply because we are building reading fluency and speed. SEEING the words really helps with solidifying the words in the memory. I include the Amazon link to each book to make it easy to find them. Sometimes, seeing the cover is helpful. (These are NOT affiliation links...just a quick search on my part.) The Hunger Games - https://a.co/d/2ZLnKCN The Golden Rhino - https://a.co/d/iBlGjQV The Great Turkey Walk - https://a.co/d/4hdEZ7Z To Kill a Mockingbird - https://a.co/d/g6g3HKS
Language of Instruction
English
Joined May, 2020
4.9
148reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
I have taught for over 30 years so far. I started as a corporate trainer training, at the time, high-end IT classes. I went on to homeschool my children through high school, an endeavor that took 16 years. During those years I ran several Co-op classes for junior high and high school Language Arts, Public Speaking, and Drama. I also created Scene and Heard Performing Arts, a live homeschool Drama Club for ages 5-18. I am very familiar with upper elementary, middle school, high school, and adult learning.Reviews
Live Group Class
$8
weekly or $128 for 17 classes1x per week, 17 weeks
30 min
Completed by 7 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 11-14
3-9 learners per class
