I am using “Teaching the Classics” this year with my second and fourth graders. I am really excited about this program. It’s not a curriculum per se, but rather an outline for the teacher on how to teach your students to analyze and dissect any literary work. I have been watching the videos and reading the manual for about a week now. I think I’m ready to start our first book and discussion. Here are my plans:
week 1
Read “Where the Wild Things Are” and use the Socratic method to analyze Setting
Read “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” and use the Socratic method to analyze Conflict and Plot
I am also going to introduce them to a couple literary devices such as alliteration, Imagery, Smilies and Personification. We will find examples of these literary devices in the reading and start learning to recognize them in future books and poems.
week 2
Read “Brave Irene” and use the Socratic method to analyze Characters
Read “Horton Hears a Who” and use the Socratic method to analyze Theme
Depending on how all of this goes we will either keep practicing on these elements seperately (setting, conflict, plot, characters, theme) using a selected reading to study each one, or we will move on to reading a longer book and looking at all 5 elements in that one book.
I have a plan. Now let’s see how it works!! Will report on our results soon.
