Curriculum Guide
Literature
Literature includes the reading, aloud and silently, of short stories, folk tales, and novels, as well as the memorization and recital of a number of poems. Students also practice creative writing with poetry and short stories. Outside reading and book reports are required. Entertainment and the love and use of language are important aspects of literature, but emphasis includes heroism in epic stories; formation of the moral imagination; tapping capacities for wonder, especially through folk or "wonder" tales such as those collected by the Grimm brothers; as well as perceiving the connections between choice, action and well-being. (The following list is a sampling; books and poems may vary slightly.)
Grade 3
Texts: The Great Quillow by James Thurber, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, The Tales of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris (as told by Julius Lester). Poetry includes "The Cats of Kilkenny", "The Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, "A Knight" by Geoffrey Chaucer, "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Tiger" by William Blake, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning, "St. George and the Dragon" by G.K. Chesterton.
Grade 4
Texts: Farmer Boy by L.I. Wilder, The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry, The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, A Wonder Book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Poetry includes "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Barbara Fritchie" by James Whittier.
Grade 5
Texts: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum, The Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Poetry includes: "The Bells" and "El Dorado" by Edgar Allan Poe, "Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Pied Beauty" and "The Windhover" by Gerard M. Hopkins, "The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare, "The Donkey" by G.K. Chesterton, "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest L. Thayer.
Grade 6
Texts: Sounder by William H. Armstrong, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum, The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, and Selected Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. Poetry includes "The Three Ravens", selections from Emily Dickinson, and "Jim" by Hilaire Belloc.
Grade 7
Texts: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Song of Roland, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. Select poems such as Beowulf, "Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", "The Solitary Reaper" by William Wordsworth, various sonnets by Keats and Hopkins.
Grade 8
Texts: Iliad by Homer, Julius Caesar and Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, excerpts from Plutarch, various short stories from O'Connor, Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Select poems such as medieval ballads, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge, "The Pulley" by Herbert, and various sonnets by Shakespeare.