Bob Walton’s
NOTES ON CLASSIC LITERATURE
for the
Having taught in Christian high schools for
thirty-four years, I have had the opportunity of teaching many subjects, from
Bible courses of all kinds to any math course one might imagine all the way up
to A.P. Calculus, to Physics, and including A.P. courses in English Literature and European History. For six years I taught the Humanities
program at The Christian Academy in
The
notes include background information on the author, a summary of the plot, a
list of characters, significant quotations from the book or play, and a series
of essay prompts. The first four of
these can be found elsewhere on the Web, often in greater detail. I hope the essay prompts, however, will
provide a unique aid for teachers of English Literature. The prompts are designed for
five-paragraph essays, but may be adapted for longer or shorter writing
assignments. Because I was working
with advanced students in a college-level environment, the questions deal with
ideas and require thoughtful interaction with and analysis of the
literature. Some of the prompts
require comparison of the work with other novels or plays. In each set, a number of the questions
ask the student to evaluate biblically the issue at hand, or to support his or
her arguments from Scripture. You
may find that the prompts not only help in designing writing assignments for
your students, but also may give you ideas concerning how to think about the
work of literature in question, thus suggesting stimulating approaches to class
discussion. I trust these labors
will be of some use to others who seek to teach young people to analyze the
world around them from a Christian perspective.
Current
statistics:
Works
of literature – 136
Essay
prompts – 3501
Last
three works added – Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford, Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White
List
of works by Author List of works by Title
Return to
Faith Reformed Baptist Church Sunday School Curriculum Project Home Page
Have
any comments or questions? Find
typos in the notes? Have
suggestions for other works of literature to include?
You may contact Bob Walton at: rwalton@rcwalton.com