This class will give students practice using the new skills they are learning in the Scholar Workshops. Each month we will read a classic from the Medeival/ early Renaissance time period.

I recommend students committing to 1-2 hours 3-4 days a week to reading and writing about the classics. Students will do the following at home throughout the month before we meet in personal study in relation to the classic:

 1. research the historical time period that the classic is based on (I’ll have research book recommendations to have on hand for this research, or you can use the library)

2. write a 1-2 page summary or notebook page of the most significant historical events of that time period

3. choose 5-10 significant dates from world history during that time period and put them on their timeline

4. read from The Well Educated Mind about the history of the genre that the month’s classic is in, such as drama, novel, autobiography, poetry.

5. read the classic, taking notes as The Well Educated Mind teaches

At the end of the month we will meet for a colloquium/book discussion, activity, project, simulation, or guest speaker on the classic.

After the colloquium each student will then spend the next week writing a composition of choice based on the classic and the knew knowledge/insight/understanding gained from reading that clasic. Students will bring their composition to the Scholar Workshop the following Friday with copies to share with all their friends in the class. We can inspire each other and learn a lot as we studying this way together.

Book List:

Sept - Beowolf, Seamus Heanely version and I can recommend a quality online translation

Oct - King Arthur and His Knights, Pyle

Nov - Walking Drum, L’Amour

Jan - Magna Charta, original and book by James Daughterty

Feb - In Freedom’s Cause, Henty

March - Joan of Arc, Twain

April - Fire in the Bones by Wilcox, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, and messages