LITERATURE, CLASSICS, AND READING SKILLFULLY  

Teacher: Elijah Robertson 

Prerequisites: None 

Ages: 14-19 

Class size: (5-20) 

Materials fee: (There is no material fee, but you will need to purchase the five books we will be reading this year. I will send out an email with suggested editions, but you may purchase them wherever you like) 

Tuition: $40/month 

Payment Options: Venmo (@Elijah-Robertson-14), cash app ($Elijahone24), Cash, or Check 

Supplies Needed: (The book list below, a notebook, and pen or pencil) 

Homework: Expect 3-4 hours of homework every week. For your convenience, we will use Google Classroom for communication and assignments. 

High School Credit: Yes, this literature class will be robust and can be counted as a 1 credit hour course. 

COURSE DETAILS: In the great works of literature, we encounter the ideas of people, and what those ideas assert about God, mankind, and creation. But we don’t only encounter ideas; literature also gives us the perfect medium for grappling with the fundamental questions of what it means to be human; it allows us to move outside of our own thoughts, context, time, and geography and examine how people throughout the ages have answered these questions in accordance or rejection of God’s truth. 

Learning to read well is one of the best skills with which we can equip our children. It is vital to be able to discern what an author is actually saying, and just as important to discern whether that message is true or not.  

 In this class, we will be learning how to encounter those ideas as Christians; how to discern an author’s message and determine if that message accords with God’s truth. We will learn what it means to enter the “great conversation” that surpasses the here and now, and we will also learn how to annotate in a book, summarize its content, and defend our conclusions with data and not mere opinion.

This is going to be a great class that will begin to equip your child with the necessary tools of skillful reading, discerning ideas, and thinking Biblically. 

Reading for this class: 

The reading for this class will be chosen from the great works of literature, and we will learn about short story, poetry, drama, essay, and novel.

Reading for this class: 

The Iliad by Homer 

Confessions by Saint Augustine 

Hamlet by William Shakespeare  

Silas Marner by George Eliot 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee