How I Teach English in High School

In “How I Teach English in High School,” episode #096, Meredith Curtis shares the life skills she invests in her children during the high school years along with the classic literature they read and kinds of writing they do each year. Meredith actually teaches high school English for 5 years starting in 8thgrade. Her teens learn to work with original documents, give a decent speech, analyze literature, create stories, write excellent essays, write a novel, edit writing, and read a wide variety of classic literature. Sounds overwhelming? Not at all! Everything is broken down into bite-sized pieces in courses that are fun to teach and learn.  Be inspired to relax and enjoy high school while investing life skills your children will use in the decades ahead.

 

 

 

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Being World Changers, Raising World Changers!

 

 

 

 

Show Notes

Common question: “How do you teach English in high school?”

5 years instead of 4 to get all the skills and books in!

Classes taught in no particular order. Each one stands alone. A senior might take an English course with a freshman. Learning together is more fun!

In each course, I teach specific writing, research, and speaking skills. We also read classic literature, essays, and short stories.

Each time I teach these courses, they are a little different because they target specific needs and interests of the one or two of my teens taking the course.

Here are the Skills I Teach:  

Write a Excellent Essay, Give a Decent Speech, and Write a Effective Thesis Statements

Essays:wide variety, crafting workable thesis statements, using the thesis statement effectively, communicating clearly, making the essay enjoyable to read, having something worth saying, editing, rewriting

Speech:comfortableness in front of an audience, make it lighthearted. Speeches from reading picture book aloud all the way to persuasive speech with a dabble in debate.

Reading:Essays, Classic Literature

Listening:Speeches by Excellent Speakers

My Course: Communication 101: Essays & Speeches

 

Research, Working with Original Sources, Classic American Literature

Research Skills:Using a Library, Using the Internet, Citing Sources, Working with Original Documents (original sources from Age of Reason—Yikes!), Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Starting with a Research Question, Using Quotes, Outlines, Thesis Statements that can guide a paper, Writing Paper, Presenting Paper

Writing:Paraphrase, Précis, Thesis Statements, Essay, Articles, Research Paper. The step-by-step research and writing a research paper begins with weekly meetings to read research and notes aloud and share ideas.

Reading:Great American works from histories and poetry to adventures and humor

Reading Aloud Together:Sermons, Scenes from Plays

Book Club Discussions:Style of writing and change of writing over time. We often are studying American history at the same time so discussions can often end up intertwining American history.

My Course: American Literature and Research ​

 

Literary Analysis, Ancient Literature