Courses
FAMILY-BASED
English Lit: Texts that Changed World
Full Year - 32 week Course
Course Description:
Join this unique intergenerational group as we explore texts that changed the world by diving in to think about their role in that change! We will be using a wide range of texts drawn from many time periods and places, including novels, songs, poems, speeches, commercials, radio, tv, slogans, as well as a constitution and an excerpt from the Bible and Quran. Each unit will focus on a different theme, including freedom, the movement of peoples, gender roles, hope, hate, upstanders, and more.
Discussions will focus on the connection of the text to change: Did it spark the change? Did it spark change on purpose or was it an accident? Was it part of a slower evolution of change? Was it written in response to change? Did it reflect ongoing change or a desire for change?
As always, texts will be chosen to be accessible for advanced young readers as well as having the depth and breadth necessary for teens and adults.
CONCURRENT WRITING OPTIONS: This class pairs well with any of our writing courses to form a complete English course for the year. Additionally, for those who are registered in this English Lit class and have completed Writing 2 or the equivalent, Laura Morefield is offering a class to build writing skills based on these texts: “Literary Analysis: Writing in Response to Texts that Changed the World.”
Note: Learners with other challenges, including dyslexia and dysgraphia, should add on or continue with additional supports that target their specific challenges.
**ATTENTION PARENTS** OF LEARNERS REGISTERED IN ANY ENGLISH LIT SECTION: Join me for an adult-only opportunity to engage with and discuss these same texts! Connect with other parents, and deepen your family’s conversations about these important texts. (a small additional fee will apply)
Schedule and Cost:
FAMILY-BASED Section: Ages 8+ Advanced Readers and their adult (younger siblings welcome to tag along)
Friday 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. ET NOTE: MAX. 6 families
PARENTS ONLY Section (for those with learners enrolled in any of the English Lit sections)
Monday 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. ET
Other sections:
Section I: Ages 8-11 (gr.3-6) – Advanced Readers
Monday 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Section II: Ages 12-15 (gr.7-9) – Advanced Readers
Monday 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
Section III: Ages 16-18 (gr.10-12) – Advanced Readers
Monday 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET
Section IV: Ages 10-16 (gr.5-10) – Advanced Readers
Australia Japan friendly time / Evening class in North America
**NEW TIME** Wednesday 9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET
Course Dates (click to download pdf)
For Tuition Fees, Code of Conduct, and all the details, see THE FINE PRINT
Required Homework:
Read the equivalent of approx. 100 pages per week (conventionally or as a read aloud).
Students must have their texts with them every class for the whole year once we have covered it in order to enable them to make comparisons between texts.
Multimedia texts like commercials, tv, and radio, etc. are the exception to this requirement.
Course Materials:
I have finally finalised the reading list for English Lit: Texts that Changed the World for 2025-2026. (July 19, 2025)
There will be a Course Pack to print out with the texts or links to almost everything on this list!
You only need to buy the list of Long texts: Novels. NOTE: This includes the wordless graphic novel, The Arrival by Shaun Tan.
Audiobook versions of the novels are fine. I highly recommend the Stephen Fry reading of Animal Farm and the Hugh Grant reading of The Christmas Carol. Hugh Grant’s reading is what actually convinced me to go ahead and use this this year!
However, I’m listening to an Eight Cousins audiobook right now, and I really don’t love the narrator (Barbara Caruso), but I haven’t looked to see what other options are out there. It is a great story, but Caruso reads it in a sappy, condescending voice. It is one of my eldest’s favourites and my youngest happened to walk by while I had the audiobook on and he said, “Oof! That makes it sound terrible! It was a great story when they read it to me.” I would definitely suggest avoiding it! If I find a better version, I’ll come back and update this page with the recommendation.
You will also need to be able to watch the movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas, when we get to it on the syllabus. In Canada, it is available for rent on YouTube as well as being available on Netflix.
We will also be spending a week on Hamilton. There will be a required video list totalling about 45 min. in the course pack. I will also be encouraging them to either watch the full show on Disney+ or to listen to the entire soundtrack on YouTube before class that week, but neither of those will be required.
English Lit: Texts that Changed the World Reading List:
Very short texts: Songs, Poems, Anthems, Slogans, Speeches, and Advertisements
“All About That [Upright] Bass – Meghan Trainor Cover PMJ ft. Kate Davis”
“Brave” Sara Bareilles
“Fight Song” Rachel Platten
“First they came for…” Martin Niemöller
“Go Down Moses”
“The Hill We Climb” Amanda Gorman
“I Have a Dream” Martin Luther King Jr.
“I Have a Voice” Broadway Kids Against Bullying
“Imagine” John Lennon
“In Flanders Fields” John McCrae
Lego Letter and print ad
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité!
“The March of the Women” Ethel Smyth and Cicely Hamilton
“La Marseillaise”
“The Migration Series” Jacob Lawrence
“The New Colossus” Emma Lazarus
Nursery Rhymes, a selection
“Roar” Katy Perry
Sayings from Pirkei Avot
“Say Your Name” Maccabeats
“Scars to your Beautiful” Alessia Cara
“Shed a Little Light” Maccabeats and Naturally 7
Superhero campaigns from the 1940s
“Swing Low, Sweet Charriot”
“What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” Frederick Douglass
“William’s Doll” sung by Marlo Thomas and Alan Alda
“Yankee Doodle”
Short texts : Short stories, Picture books, Founding Documents, and Excerpts
Abraham and monotheism: Torah, Quran, King James Bible
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Constitution of the United States of America
Declaration of Independence
“The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen
“The Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
I am a Pueblo Indian Girl by E-Yeh-Shure’
Incan and Aztec origin stories
The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad
Pinky and Rex by James Howe
The Sneeches by Dr. Seuss
William’s Doll by Charlotte Zolotow
*** TO BUY *** Long texts: Novels
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
From Anna by Jean Little
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Polyanna by Eleanor Porter
Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan
Audiovisual
Comedy of Errors Shakespeare
Dove Ad campaign, selections
An episode of Mr. Dressup
An episode of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood
An episode of Superman radio show
Hamilton
The Man Who Invented Christmas
William’s Doll
I’m excited to be exploring all of these texts together!
Paper and pencil on hand every week (though we will only use them some weeks).