Similar to the tales of novelists like Jane Austen and Emily Brontë, “Little Women” lets the world into the lives of otherwise silent women.  These classic texts challenge the representation of women and continue to have significance today, as Jo March says in the book, "Women have minds and they have souls as well as just hearts. They’ve got ambition and they’ve got talent as well as just beauty."

This book study will read and discuss the book Little Women (part one in this class) in a mixture of reading assignments and close reading during the class - we will use presentations and discussions for the majority of lessons. Learning aims will be to study the genre, literary era, tropes and motifs, literary devices, character analysis and themes in the novel. 

Week 1 - Background : In this lesson we will learn about Louisa May Alcott, setting of the novel, the literary era and the 'coming of age' genre. We will read Chapter 1 together. Homework reading assignment Chapters 2-5.
Week 2 - Discussion and analysis of the reading homework assignment chapters 2-5 and discuss tropes and motifs
Week 3 - We will study the literary devices used in the text such as : allusion, foreshadowing, hyperboles, imagery and metaphors. Homework reading chapters 6-10.
Week 4 - Discussion and analysis of the reading homework chapters 6-10 and character analysis.
Week 5 - Reading together chapters 11-13 during class, with discussion and analysis. Homework reading chapters 14 -18.
Week 6 -  Discussion and analysis of the reading homework chapters 14-18 and discussion of themes in the novel. Homework reading assignment chapters 19-23. Practice writing a summary
Week 7 - Discussion and analysis of the reading homework chapters 19-23 and quiz on the entire novel.

**Little Women is available online in the public domain, learners may access this for free they will need access to this or a copy for reading.