October 8th

The first book we are studying in Literature this year is King Arthur and his Knights by Sir James Knowles. This is a 1920's adaptation of Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory in the 1400's, and is much more accessible while still using wonderful old-fashioned language. The students are having a great time getting into the spirit of the book, which is filled with action and adventures.

We've finished reading about the adventures of Sir Lancelot and the adventures of Sir Gareth, and this week we'll begin the story of Tristan and Isolde. These stories are all great examples of the chivalry and knighthood that we are learning about this year in our study of the Middle Ages.

We're very fortunate in the set of books that we get to use in class - they are gorgeous, illustrated, hard-cover editions and the illustrations are absolutely beautiful. They really capture the imagination!

A Day in Pictures

 Here is a typical day of teaching English at Flint Academy, in pictures!

 9:00 Arrive at Flint.

9:05 Look over the goals for the day.

9:10 Put copy work from Proverbs and poetry selections for memorization up on the board.

9:20 Call students in for homeroom Christian Studies. They copy verses from Proverbs in cursive, list things they are thankful for in their gratitude journals, discuss the verses, and never act silly!

9:40 Dismiss homeroom and prepare to read David Copperfield aloud to five classes in a row!

 9:45 My senior class!

10:35 Coach Hallford interrupts my third period class for a few minutes to make everyone laugh.

10:39 We try very hard to get back to work and be serious.

11:25 Fourth period class recites O Captain! My Captain! with great feeling before we settle in to read.

12:10 A mass exodus to lunch!

12:15 I enjoy a few minutes at my desk in solitude.

12:20 They enjoy a battle of checkers. Ever since we read The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe, which claims that skill at checkers is a better test of intellect than skill at chess, the checkers competitions here have been fierce.

1:05 Back to David Copperfield! Over five hundred pages in and we really will finish it before the school year is over, I promise!

1:55 My last English class of the day recites poetry with no enthusiasm whatsoever. They must be tired.

2:45 It's theater season at Flint! My costume crew has already accomplished a lot.

3:30 Time for chores.

3:45 Already prepared for a fresh day tomorrow.

January Newsletter

In literature class we remain thoroughly engaged in our reading of David Copperfield. We are nearly halfway finished and practically every student has become deeply interested in the unfolding events of the book. There is nothing so gratifying to a teacher as to stop reading at the end of a class period and be met with protests and pleas to keep reading! This is especially wonderful because David Copperfield is written with very complex, rich language and we are reading the unabridged version. The style and vocabulary of the book posed a challenge for many students at the beginning of the school year, and I am very pleased with how they have adapted!


The majority of our writing assignments are drawn from our reading. Currently the students are writing essays entitled Good and Bad Angels, which is the name of a chapter in David Copperfield where David, as a young adult, struggles with the conflicting influences of his peers. In their essays the students are exploring how people in their lives influence them both positively and negatively. When we finish these essays we will have a lesson on common verb errors and then identify and correct any verb errors in the rough drafts.


The students have previously learned to add exordium to the beginning of their essays as a way to create interest. The five types of exordia are challenge, question, quotation, statistic, and anecdote. The most popular choice is usually quotation and we have had a lot of fun finding relevant quotes and making sure that those quotes are connected and referenced later in the essays. Some of my favorite quotations that the students have found for the Good and Bad Angels assignment so far include:

"There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence someone is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him." 

~Oscar Wilde

"A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example."

~Niccolo Machiavelli

"One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray."

~Proverbs 12:26