Heart of the Matter

When I hear the term “Literature Analysis,” I develop cold sweats. My mind is yanked back into the 11th grade and flashes back on eight page literary analysis essays, along with difficult and cryptic names for what should have been very simple. My compositions were forced and unnatural and my enthusiasm for reading all but dried up. Blech…no wonder I didn’t pick up a quality piece of literature for years afterward!

It wasn’t until I began homeschooling my children about eleven years ago, that I began to learn to enjoy literature again. Following Charlotte Mason’s wisdom to use living literature in our studies helped us to delight in the literature for the sake of the story. Reading each selection aloud, the children and I learned how to discover something fun from whatever we read. After that, we dove into a couple of years of Sonlight where we learned all about both World and American History and had fascinating rabbit trails of exploration.

Photo Credit: Heidi, Mt Hope Academy

With all of that reading, we never formally analyzed anything, yet our love and appreciation of literature grew by leaps and bounds.

During those years, we discovered that each book has a buried treasure, a hidden message to uncover. Most books are written by an individual and contain a distinct perspective. In each piece of literature the writer has a message to share or a lesson to teach. In a well written book it becomes the reader’s pleasure to experience that lesson through the pages of a story, discerning the message and evaluating it for possible application. Sadly, many teachers insist on turning this experience into a dreadful exercise!

In our home, we keep literature studies simple…and apparently it’s a successful endeavor. My children love literature and even more than that, we enjoy discussing it together.

Now before I tell you what we have done in our homeschooling, let me encourage you with a precious nugget of wisdom that I picked up from Ruth Beechick. If a child is curled up with a book, quietly reading to their heart’s content, they are comprehending. If they look up at you to share something that is exciting, they are comprehending. If they giggle, or if a tear rolls down their cheek, they are comprehending. It is unnecessary to have them answer twenty questions on a book’s content or to produce a book report for every book they read. We homeschool moms tend to worry too much! Early on, I chose to keep book reports and pre-fabricated comprehension questions at a bare minimum.

So how do I cover reading and literature in my home? Push the Easy Button here!

We have a daily quiet hour. This is a time in which the children go off to read a book of their choice. This is not assigned reading…but a quiet period, where they can enjoy whatever they have chosen to read for entertainment, edification…or whatever. Right now, my children are reading a variety of literature that run the gamut from “Encyclopedia Brown,” by Donald Sobol to “The Giver,” by Lois Lowry and for my oldest, “The Way of the Wild Heart,” by John Eldredge. The importance of having the quiet hour is simply to foster a love of reading and self directed learning.

We read aloud every day. There is something special that happens when a parent puts on a character’s voice. Children strain to hear every word, they sit forward in their seats and are often eager to discuss the material. There are so many great books that edify children with life lessons about a myriad of topics. From picture books to novels, there are wonderful examples of literature at every level of learning.

Unfortunately, some families give up on reading aloud because they have wiggly children. Please let me encourage you to work through the wiggles. The trick is in training younger children to listen and be still.

I’ve done three things that have helped my children grow to love reading aloud.

1. When training young children for read alouds choose books that support their interests. If your child is all about surviving in the wilderness, then choose a book like “My Side of the Mountain,” by Jean Craighead George or an adapted version of Swiss Family Robinson. Don’t bore them with a book that will only make their minds wander. Remember, this is training…try to make it pleasant.

2. Allow young children to build with Legos or Lincoln Logs, draw pictures, or color while you read aloud to them.

3. Alternatively, read aloud to them at bedtime. They’ll enjoy the snuggles and have something to dream about when the light goes out. As a plus, when they’re in bed, they can’t wiggle too far.

If the wiggles persist, consider reading another season of picture books to allow a child a bit more time to develop listening skills. Don’t give up, but be willing to find what works.

Photo Credit: Heidi, Mt Hope Academy

We learn vocabulary as we come across it. If we run into a word that we don’t understand, we try to figure out the definition by it’s context. If not, we look it up and say the sentence again, using the definition instead of the word being defined. I then read the sentence once more, this time using the word in question. I might write it down on an index card, but it’s not often necessary. I’ve discovered that the word is usually assimilated and will pop up in my children’s spoken and written vocabulary about six months later. (I don’t know why this is true, but this has been our experience.)

We discuss literature on the fly. As we read a book we discuss it informally. We talk about whatever pops into our minds as we read. From imagery to characters, to the problems they face, or the obstacles they overcome, we talk about it all. I remember one conversation back when my oldest child was in the fifth grade. We came to a scene in the Lord of the Rings series where Mr. Frodo tells Smeagol that he should not call himself names. We talked about the wisdom of relying on God’s truth about ourselves, that we are sinners…and yet precious to God. It was an opportunity to remember Jesus and how His estimation of us is that we are worth His life. Amazing. We made a memory and each of us remembers that conversation as a gift.

I use our read aloud time as a means to encourage my children to think. If a child can think, they can discuss…and eventually they will be able to defend their ideas and write about them in detail. (Usually in high school.) I use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a very rough guide, a basis in which I lead my children in our discussions of literature. Bloom’s assists me in evaluating where my children are regarding their thinking on any particular topic, literature or otherwise. It gives me a quick visual on where they each may be and assists me in stretching them to the next step in their thinking abilities.

I strive to give my children lots of experiences, talking about everything, asking many questions about opinions and thoughts. I really like to dig in, always looking for the heart. “How does that make you feel?”  ”What would you do differently?”  ”How does this information alter your opinion?” I guide my children through these discussions, keeping my feelers out for where they’re at on the Bloom’s chart with the goal of stretching them just a bit further.

By the time my oldest two children reached high school, they had developed adequate thinking skills to enable them to write. They needed a bit of encouragement in getting organized, but I discovered that if the thoughts were in their noggins, then the words eventually came spilling out onto paper.

Use movie versions of classics! I don’t want to make this a blanket statement, because sometimes the movie versions of literature are awful. But there are quality motion pictures which might spark an interest in reading a great work of literature. “Emma,” comes to mind, along with “Hamlet,” or the BBC versions of Jane Austin classics. I’m also reminded of “Heidi,” my favorite being the Shirley Temple classic. Use your discernment, of course, but I’ve found this an equally valid way to develop my children’s thinking skills as well as create interest in a title that otherwise might be overlooked.

Furthermore, if you have a teen who just cannot make himself pick up a Jane Austin novel, then consider having him watch the movie, and discuss it along with him.

Cliff Notes or Spark Notes – Lastly, and used sparingly, I allow my children to use Cliff or Spark Notes. I do this only in the case of assigned reading as a substitute for a book that I feel won’t work for us. This fall, in our chosen curriculum, one of the books assigned was Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I pre-read it and I decided that one of my students would find it too heavy to dwell on. So, at the encouragement of my personal mentor, I will have them read the Cliff Notes and we will discuss the social points important to understanding the historical significance of the book. This will help them appreciate this work of literature without having to experience something that is too heavy for them to bear at this time in their life.

So, as you see, we keep literature analysis very simple. We may discuss literature elements like foreshadowing or denouement from time to time, but mainly our discussions center around the heart in the form of building thinking skills, learning life lessons, and enjoying the love of finely crafted words…literature.

Yvonne Ferlita, married for nearly nineteen years, is a homeschooling mom to four children from kindergarten to high school. Her family has been blessed with eleven years of grace filled homeschooling. She does her best to follow Christ in educating her children, and she believes that when it all boils down, that means, “No Nonsense!” Visit her blog, The No Nonsense Homeschool.