A complete high-school literature education, built one “Art of” year at a time.
Each year holds two semesters — two great texts and their conversation — and stands as a full
ELA credit. Students may enter in any year; no year assumes another. Every text is read whole, and
every year meets the same disciplines below.
The Years
Foundational Year
The Art of Grace
What is grace — and how does it work on a person, from the scaffold to the ordinary day?
Fall
The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne · American Romance
Hidden sin, public shame, conscience & redemption
Spring
All Creatures Great and Small
Herriot · Memoir
Vocation, mercy, and wonder in the ordinary
Great ConversationScripture (grace, law & judgment) · Kierkegaard (the hidden self) · Wendell Berry (membership & good work) · Feminist criticism (the letter reclaimed) · Bonhoeffer (cheap vs. costly grace)
Year One
The Art of Tragedy
What happens when desire goes wrong — when ambition and love consume a person from the inside out?
Fall
Macbeth
Shakespeare · Tragedy
Ambition, conscience, fate vs. free will (+ home novel)
Spring
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë · Gothic Novel
Obsessive love, class, revenge, the moors
Great ConversationAugustine (disordered love) · Aristotle (the tragic flaw) · Rousseau (natural man) · class & the outsider · coercive control
Year Two
The Art of Attention
What happens when we give our full selves to what we read — and to the world around us?
Fall
Poetry · Old Man & the Sea
Poetry (6 wks) · Hemingway (9 wks)
Precision, restraint, the natural world, endurance
Spring
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare · Comedy
Imagination, enchantment, dreams vs. reality (+ home novel)
Great ConversationSimone Weil (attention as generosity) · Aristotle (courage) · Plato (the cave) · Charlotte Mason
Year Three
The Art of Story
Why do we tell stories — and how do they travel across three thousand years?
Fall
The Odyssey
Homer, tr. Wilson · Epic
Homecoming, cunning, identity, the hero’s journey
Spring
Canterbury Tales & Short Stories
Chaucer + O’Connor, Welty, Poe…
Who tells stories, and why
Great ConversationHomer’s gods & fate · Chaucer’s social vision · O’Connor on grace · the storytelling tradition
Year Four
The Art of Wit
How do wit, irony, and laughter reveal the truth about human nature?
Fall
Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare · Comedy
Perception vs. reality, the merry war (+ home novel)
Spring
Poetry Mini · Pride & Prejudice
Poetry (5 wks) · Austen (10 wks)
Irony, social comedy, moral growth
Great ConversationAusten as moral philosopher · Aristotle (comedy as imitation) · Proverbs (the wise & the foolish) · Charlotte Mason
Year Five
The Art of Integrity
Who are you when no one is watching?
Fall
Jekyll & Hyde · Short Stories
Stevenson + Conrad, Kafka, Tolstoy…
The divided self, duality, moral compromise
Spring
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë · Novel
Moral courage, identity, the refusal to compromise
Great ConversationConrad, Kafka, Tolstoy & Gilman (the divided & the whole self) · the cost of living without integrity
What Every Year Includes
The disciplines that run through all six years
Whatever the text, every year forms the same reader — through the same living practices.
Find It · Follow It · Frame It — the method of close reading
Narration — oral & written, in many forms
The commonplace journal — language worth keeping
Recitation — one memorized passage a year
The teaching presentation — with 3 MLA annotated bibliographies
Formal composition — the analytical essay each semester
The Great Conversation — philosophers, theologians & Scripture
Words Worth Knowing — vocabulary in context
A Full ELA Credit, Every Year
| ELA strand | How each year meets it |
|---|
| Reading · Literature | Complete, unabridged texts across tragedy, comedy, gothic, epic, novel, short fiction & poetry |
| Reading · Nonfiction | The Great Conversation read directly — Scripture, philosophy & criticism — plus rhetoric (ethos, pathos, logos) |
| Writing | Argument (the analytical essay), informative (presentation & annotated bibliographies), narrative (varied narration & imitation) |
| Research | MLA annotated bibliographies each year, building toward a full research paper |
| Speaking & Listening | Recitation, the teaching presentation, and the Great Conversation seminar |
| Language | Vocabulary in context; grammar & usage through copywork, dictation, and studied models |
A living document, not a contract. Vary the Shakespeare genres, alternate heavier and lighter
semesters, keep British and American voices and poetry in every year, and always read whole texts. The
rotation bends to your students; the disciplines stay constant.