What's included
The following materials are included in this course package:
- The Hero's Journey: Literature and Composition Coursebook Second Edition
- The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
- Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
- Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- House of Light by Mary Oliver
- A Pocket Style Manual by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers
- Write It Right: A Handbook for Student Writers
- Two Blank Journals
Link to the digital version of Pygmalion
Additional Materials Recommended
The following materials are recommended for use with this coursebook (NOT included in the course package):
Course Overview
Course Length: Full year
Suggested Grade Level(s): 9 10
View samples of our high school curriculum here.
This course explores the question "What does it mean to be a hero?" It looks at literature featuring ordinary people who find themselves in circumstances that require extraordinary acts and examines these acts in relation to the archetypal hero's journey.
Lessons provide historical background on the setting and author while offering discussion points students can use to explore literary topics with family and peers. The course includes the use of a main lesson book as a reader's journal to keep track of key passages new vocabulary observations about characters settings literary techniques etc.
Students develop a wide range of composition skills throughout the course by exploring techniques and formats such as comparative essays first-person writing figurative language summarizing poetry persuasive writing inferential reading and contextual clues and observational writing.