American Literature Home and Group Set
American Literature – Home & Group Curriculum (Grades 10–12)
This high school American Literature course guides students through the major themes and authors that shaped U.S. history and culture. The first semester focuses on the colonial through 19th-century periods using poetry, short stories, and novels. The second semester explores modern American literature and how its themes reflect our society’s shift away from a biblical worldview.
The Home & Group version includes the student workbook used in One Day Academy’s American Literature course, along with a leader guide for once-a-week teaching by a parent or tutor in a co-op or group setting. Students complete the remainder of their assignments independently at home with parent supervision.
Through reading, writing, and discussion, students analyze how American authors used literary elements—like characterization, setting, irony, and symbolism—to communicate themes unique to the American experience. Lessons also include historical background, author worldview summaries, biblical integration, and literary analysis essays.
Parental responsibilities include purchasing the workbook and the assigned reading titles (print versions preferred), helping students manage their reading pace, and ensuring all written assignments and worksheets are completed and submitted on time. Students must bring both their workbook and current novel to class each week.
Civil War while the second semester highlights the consequences of our country’s progressive
social evolution away from being predominantly Christian.
Process: Students will learn how classic American authors utilized characterization, setting, irony, and
other literary tools to expand upon various themes, often in ways that are unique to American
culture. Students consider the use of these tools and themes and analyze them from a Christian
perspective through class discussion and writing assignments. Lessons include:
An overview of the history of the time period and its predominant worldviews;
An explanation of the authors’ backgrounds and personal worldviews;
Charts, essay questions, and literary analysis essays.
Leader Guide and Student Workbook
The Leader Guide is designed for use with the American Literature Student Course Workbook,
as well as all the required reading books, and is suitable for one-on-one or small group home
instruction. The Leader’s Guide features a weekly overview, a lesson guide for each of 34
weekly lessons, and information about each of the books that will be key to completing the
writing assignments and charts. The Leader Guide includes some of the student materials,
including the writing assignments, samples of the charts, and the writing rubrics to help parents
with evaluating and grading student writing. Students take notes on these lessons in the Course
Workbook, which will aid them in completing the writing assignments and charts, also found in
the student coursebook.
Curriculum/Materials
For parents or group leaders: American Literature Leader Guide, by Susan Peisker (included in set)
Student edition: American Literature Course Workbook, by Susan Peisker (included in set)
Original, unabridged versions of the following titles to be purchased separately:
(Limited Stock available from us here)
• The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
• Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
• My Ántonia, by Willa Cather
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
• The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, preferred edition: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 978-0-684-80122-3
• Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
• The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton