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Greetings!

Deborah Wuehler and family

Literature: What is it, and how do you teach it?

Webster's definition: Literature (1): writings in prose or verse; especially: writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.

What we should glean from that definition is that the literature we choose or allow our children to choose should be excellent in form or expression, and, I would add, in agreement with our own family values. There is a lot of junk out there, so I always carefully monitor what the children are reading to make sure it is excellent. I also have the children analyze the literature for the worldview that is presented, or I talk about what views are presented as I read aloud.

You can build a desire in your child for excellent literature by making sure you expose them to it even when they are very young. If they are not old enough to read it themselves with comfort, then you read aloud or obtain the audio version. You don't want to wait until they are old enough to read it for themselves, but get it in as early as possible. Choose literature geared toward your older children and even the younger ones will pick up the meanings of words in context, and they will also increase their vocabulary.

I have two lists here: favorite read-alouds we've done and language arts books or curriculum we have used.

Here are a few of our favorite read-alouds over the years:

Christian biographies of great men and women of faith

Wisdom and the Millers series

Hive of Busy Bees

Lamplighter books (Basket of Flowers, Christie's Old Organ, etc.)

Daughters of Destiny (short stories of courageous women in history)

Where the Red Fern Grows

Little House on the Prairie series and Farmer Boy

Uncle Tom's Cabin

C.S. Lewis works

G.A. Henty historical fiction

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Little Women and others by Louisa May Alcott

Treasures in the Snow and others by Patricia St. John

Literature and language arts books or curriculum we have used, in age order:

Pathways readers and workbooks

Bob Jones BookLinks

YWAM Heroes of History and Christian biographies

Total Language Plus (classics and workbooks)

A Beka literature (Themes in Literature, Of People, Of Places)

And, above all else, don't forget to read the Bible aloud to the kids, and while you're at it, stop and talk about it. The history and classic stories and poetry and wisdom included here far outweigh any other classic. This is the best learning for life.

~Deborah

 

Hey from Gena 

Gena Suarez

Gena Suarez, Publisher of TOS     

~~~

Janice Campbell

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it.

It . . . irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."

- C.S. Lewis

Teaching literature can seem a daunting challenge if you've not studied it yourself, but the truth is, even if you don't know Virginia Woolf from Beowulf, you can share great literature with your children. The key is to understand that literature, like every other subject, is best begun simply. The first and best foundation for literature study is lots and lots of reading aloud (and/or audiobooks), beginning in infancy.  

No matter what age student you are working with, teaching literature is a matter of making connections and understanding meanings. When you read aloud to an infant, you point at words and pictures and emphasize the connection between meaning, letters, sound, and image. When you teach literature to older students, you study connections between the big idea of the narrative (the theme) and the plot, setting, and characters.   

It may seem simple to make connections for a short story such as The Three Little Pigs, but it can be more challenging for longer works. The easiest way to unravel a story, poem, nonfiction text, or play is to see it in the context the author intended. Before your student begins to read, use an encyclopedia or online resources to discover something about the book's author and the cultural and historic context in which he or she was writing. You can see a sample of how this is done at http://goo.gl/McKha.   

As you read and discuss literature with your children, remember that literature is an art, not a science. There is rarely only one theme in a piece of literature, and in a work such as Les Miserables, readers may disagree on whether the theme is justice, love, forgiveness, or something else. As long as the reader can make a convincing argument backed by evidence from the text to support his position, the interpretation can be acceptable.   

Great literature is much more than great stories. Reading literature improves vocabulary, teaches cultural literacy and critical thinking, models great writing, improves test scores, and offers a window into other lives, times, and cultures. Begin where you are and read with your children every day, and you'll find that you're teaching literature all along the way.   

"Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting."

~Janice Campbell

 ~~~