Page 12 - 2017-2018 Class Catalog

also need reliable home internet access for the short stories & poems we will be reading this year.
Teacher: Emily Bolthouse Recommended Donation of $10 per weekly class session

• History and Literature Through the Centuries (American History and Literature, 1600-Present). This
series of classes walks students through the pages of world history and world literature in four-year
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cycles, but accommodates grades 5 - 12 simultaneously, broadly dividing classes between two of the
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classical model’s stages of development: the Dialectic (or Logic) stage, roughly 5 or 6 -8 grade, fluent
readers who have naturally started making connections between the academic disciplines and
demanding the reasons behind the facts, and the Rhetoric stage, strong readers in high school. The
classes are designed to reduce confusion in homeschooling by unifying the family in a single historical
period, allowing for family conversations that slide naturally around common themes and topics, but at
different levels of complexity, depending on the ages of the children in the family. The classes
themselves allow for weekly, simple and systematic practice of sentence and paragraph structures and
styles, and guided discussions and presentations with and before peers. The at-home assignments are
easily adapted to all middle school and high school writing abilities, using the natural abundance of
historical and literary topics in class to practice and develop narrative, expository and persuasive writing
skills. High school classes assume a basic knowledge of the structure of a simple, 5-paragraph expository
essay and a 9-paragraph persuasive essay, or that the student is in a separate writing class, actively
learning these structures. Guidance for writing an optional, 7-10 page, persuasive research paper will be
offed to high school students who desire the practice. This year, we will be studying American history
and literature; next year, we will progress to Modern World History and Literature, 1600-Present; then
we will cycle back to the ancients. The History and Literature Through the Centuries classes are designed
to be taken together at each level, but may be taken separately. Middle School (Dialectic) American
Literature will not be offered this year.

Core text for high school classes only (to be used as a reference for structure and style, not for writing
prompts, which will come from class topics): Kane, Thomas S. The New Oxford Guide to Writing. New
York: Oxford U, 2007.
Optional high school research paper text: Rozakis, Laurie. Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great
Research Papers. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

A historical atlas of the United States is helpful, but is not required.

Supplies: A 2-inch three-ring binder, 4-10 dividers, 5X5 graph paper, loose-leaf notebook paper,
pencils/pens, colored pencils.

• Dialectic American History (5th-8th). Middle School (Dialectic) American History takes advantage of the
middle school student’s developing ability to ask and answer analytical questions and organize
information. The core text is encyclopedic to provide a framework in which students will master the
fundamentals of inquiry by exploring topics that particularly interest them. In class, we will review and
solidify important dates and facts, share our research, and discuss how the topics of American history
relate to each other, how to avoid other

people’s mistakes, and Americans who inspire us to godly action. Core Text: DK Smithsonian Children’s
Encyclopedia of American History. Core Text: DK Smithsonian Children’s Encyclopedia of American
History. Supplies: A three-ring binder, 10 dividers, 5X5 graph paper, loose-leaf notebook paper,
pencils/pens, colored pencils. Teacher: Laura Keifer Recommended Donation of $10 per weekly donation

• Rhetoric-stage American History (9th-12th). High School (Rhetoric) American History (and American
Literature)
takes advantage of the burgeoning adult’s desire to formulate their own opinions and assert them. The core