Students read the whole novel at home, a few chapters a week; class is for telling it back, looking closely, and following the thread. We open the book together — Chapter 1 is read aloud in class in Week 1 — and the reading is spaced comfortably through Week 12, leaving the last three weeks for the seminar, the composition, and the quilt.
| Wk | Focus & reading | Narration | Milestones & lenses |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beginnings & the GhostChapters 1–3 · Ch 1 read in class | First impressions | Presentation sign-ups; the commonplace journal begins |
| 2 | Childhood & Social ClassChapters 4–6 | Retell | |
| 3 | I Am HeathcliffChapters 7–9 | Compare | Lens Augustine · ordered & disordered love |
| 4 | The ReturnChapters 10–12 | Trace the thread | |
| 5 | Wild Children & Sheltered SoulsChapters 13–15 | In a voice | Lens Rousseau · natural man & civilisation |
| 6 | The Cycle BeginsChapters 16–18 | Retell | Recitation window opens |
| 7 | The Sins of the FathersChapters 19–21 | Draw it | Lens Class, race & the outsider |
| 8 | The Trap ClosesChapters 22–24 | Letter to the editor | Relation Study underway |
| 9 | What Revenge CostsChapters 25–27 | Compare | Lens Coercive control · love or possession? |
| 10 | The Turn Toward RedemptionChapters 28–30 | In a voice | |
| 11 | The ReckoningChapters 31–32 | Trace the thread | Rhetoric · Ethos, Pathos, Logos |
| 12 | The EndChapters 33–34 · novel complete | Found poem | Choose your capstone topic |
| 13 | Follow the ThreadThe Question Table · seminar | Retell (whole novel) | Working thesis due |
| 14 | Remembrance & the FilmBrontë’s poem · the film | Compare (film vs text) | Thesis workshop; visual square in progress |
| 15 | The Composition & the QuiltEssay · presentation | Capstone & reflection | Essay due; square joins the Quilt |
Across the final weeks each student follows a single question — Catherine’s divided heart, Heathcliff’s revenge, the nature of disordered love — from a first choice all the way to a spoken defense and a painted square for the class quilt.
The fifteen weeks are meant to breathe. In a co-op, feel free to combine two weeks’ reading, stretch one week’s handout across two meetings, or give a class to home projects — recitation, presentations, the Relation Study, or composition prep. See the Family & Teacher Guide for more.