LITERATURE
I've entitled this section simply 'Literature' rather than English Literature because although an IGCSE exam will be limited to English Literature, the overall schedule can be much wider than that and take in literature from other cultures.
As well as the ubiquitous novel, we encourage our children from an early age to read plenty of traditional folk tales, faerie stories, epics and myths from various cultures. Some parents argue that such tales (beyond the odd nursery tale) are unsuitable for Christian children, containing as they do bucket-loads of magic, sorcery, daemons and bloodshed, not to mention the obvious fact that Celtic and Norse (as likewise Greek and Roman) myths are not remotely Christian. To parents who feel like this I would recommend reading Michael O'Brien's book 'A Landscape with Dragons', or Tolkien's essay 'On fairy Stories', which you can read in full here in PDF format.
On the age specific pages I've included a few further book recommendations for fairy stories, myths and epic tales for those who are brave enough to follow this enchanted trail...
For older children, and especially from a Catholic perspective, we also want to keep the range wide enough to take in great works of literature from, for example, French, Italian and Spanish authors in translation. Who would want to be so focussed on Austen and Dickens that he missed out on the Song of Roland, Dante's Inferno or Don Quixote, to name but a few.
Since there are so many possible recommendations for children's books, it is impossible to single out just a few for each age group. Lists can be found in such books as O'Brien's, linked to above, or 'Honey for a Child's Heart' by Gladys Hunt. There are also plenty of lists online which you could browse, including the reading lists of Catholic Curriculum providers such as Kolbe Academy, Mother of Divine Grace and Seton Homeschool. A group of catholic home-educating mothers compiled their own very useful list, which can be found here.
A word about the great books
Several of the well known Catholic curriculum providers lay a very great emphasis on the reading of great or even good books, by which they mean a vast array of 'Classic' literature. Whilst the reading of great literature is obviously something to be highly recommended, I would argue that it is even more important to ensure the reading (alongside these works of literature) of those great - or even just good - books which form and inform the development of our understanding of the most profound realities of life (our reasons for being, and our relations to others etc. - what might be properly termed the metaphysical realities). If this sounds a lot more complicated than reading Dickens, it needn't be. It is simply the case that unless a man (or in this case an adolescent) has not grasped these realities, much of what makes any literature 'great' or even deeply meaningful will be lost to him. The reason the great books are so essential and appealing is not that they teach us what we need to know, but that they allow us to reflect (in high, moving and often beautiful ways) on those realities - those truths - which we already know but are striving better to understand and apply. What your child takes from a great work of literature will depend to a large extent on what he brings to it, and that in turn will depend on the discipline of his intellectual formation. In his 'Idea of a University', Cardinal Newman has some sobering words for parents who think that so long as their child is reading a wide array of good literature, his intellectual development is assured: "(there are those) who certainly have a taste for reading, but in whom it is little more than the result of mental restlessness and curiosity. Such minds cannot fix their gaze on one object for two seconds together; the very impulse which leads them to read at all, leads them to read on, and never to stay or hang over any one idea. The pleasurable excitement of reading what is new is their motive principle... Such youths often profess to like poetry, or to like history or biography.... but on the other hand they profess that they do not like logic, they do not like algebra, they have no taste for mathematics; which only means that they do not like application, they do not like attention, they shrink from the effort and labour of thinking, and the process of true intellectual gymnastics.
Important as the great works of literature are, reading them should be a pleasurable pursuit of one's leisure time rather than an academic subject per se, and I would recommend devoting at least as much (if not more) scheduled time in your secondary level curriculum to the more fundamental (if more demanding) study of philosophy. You can find some suggested resources for this study on the Philosophy page
GCSE
Two exam-only IGCSEs are available in this subject, from CIE and Edexcel. Both exams require the pupil to study selected texts in poetry, prose and drama. Since the reforms, GCSE English Literature is also now available to private candidates. The main differences appear to be that two elements (Shakespeare study and the analysis of unseen texts) are optional with IGCSE but compulsory at GCSE. Parents generally choose based on their preferences for the texts offered in any particular year (texts change on average every two to three years, though there is always some overlap). It is generally advisable to choose popular texts for which plenty of support material is available. There is an excellent support group for English Literature on Facebook
OVERVIEW BY AGE
PRIMARY LEVEL
7-8
Read alouds and own reading
Selective narration and poetry study
8-9
Read alouds and own reading
Selective narration and poetry study
9-10
Read alouds and own reading
Selective narration and poetry study
10-11
Use selected texts for simple character and textual analysis
Poetry analysis techniques
MIDDLE LEVEL
11-12
Use selected texts for simple character and textual analysis
Poetry analysis techniques
12-13
Poetry and prose of England: Anglo Saxon, Medieval, Reformation and Elizabethan literature:
(click on the name for question sheets)
1. Anglo Saxon literature Beowulf, ballads
2. Middle English literature Sir Gawain, Chaucer, Everyman
3. Renaissance and Elizabethan literature Thomas More, Lyric Poetry, the Sonnet, The Bible, Edmund Campion
SECONDARY
13-14
Poetry and prose of England:
1. Introducing Shakespeare study: Macbeth scene by scene questions on full text
2. and Eighteenth Centuries
3. Romanticism, the Victorian era, the Twentieth Century
14-15
Begin IGCSE set text poetry, play and novel
15-16
Complete IGCSE set texts. Revision/past papers.
IGCSE exam
I've entitled this section simply 'Literature' rather than English Literature because although an IGCSE exam will be limited to English Literature, the overall schedule can be much wider than that and take in literature from other cultures.
As well as the ubiquitous novel, we encourage our children from an early age to read plenty of traditional folk tales, faerie stories, epics and myths from various cultures. Some parents argue that such tales (beyond the odd nursery tale) are unsuitable for Christian children, containing as they do bucket-loads of magic, sorcery, daemons and bloodshed, not to mention the obvious fact that Celtic and Norse (as likewise Greek and Roman) myths are not remotely Christian. To parents who feel like this I would recommend reading Michael O'Brien's book 'A Landscape with Dragons', or Tolkien's essay 'On fairy Stories', which you can read in full here in PDF format.
On the age specific pages I've included a few further book recommendations for fairy stories, myths and epic tales for those who are brave enough to follow this enchanted trail...
For older children, and especially from a Catholic perspective, we also want to keep the range wide enough to take in great works of literature from, for example, French, Italian and Spanish authors in translation. Who would want to be so focussed on Austen and Dickens that he missed out on the Song of Roland, Dante's Inferno or Don Quixote, to name but a few.
Since there are so many possible recommendations for children's books, it is impossible to single out just a few for each age group. Lists can be found in such books as O'Brien's, linked to above, or 'Honey for a Child's Heart' by Gladys Hunt. There are also plenty of lists online which you could browse, including the reading lists of Catholic Curriculum providers such as Kolbe Academy, Mother of Divine Grace and Seton Homeschool. A group of catholic home-educating mothers compiled their own very useful list, which can be found here.
A word about the great books
Several of the well known Catholic curriculum providers lay a very great emphasis on the reading of great or even good books, by which they mean a vast array of 'Classic' literature. Whilst the reading of great literature is obviously something to be highly recommended, I would argue that it is even more important to ensure the reading (alongside these works of literature) of those great - or even just good - books which form and inform the development of our understanding of the most profound realities of life (our reasons for being, and our relations to others etc. - what might be properly termed the metaphysical realities). If this sounds a lot more complicated than reading Dickens, it needn't be. It is simply the case that unless a man (or in this case an adolescent) has not grasped these realities, much of what makes any literature 'great' or even deeply meaningful will be lost to him. The reason the great books are so essential and appealing is not that they teach us what we need to know, but that they allow us to reflect (in high, moving and often beautiful ways) on those realities - those truths - which we already know but are striving better to understand and apply. What your child takes from a great work of literature will depend to a large extent on what he brings to it, and that in turn will depend on the discipline of his intellectual formation. In his 'Idea of a University', Cardinal Newman has some sobering words for parents who think that so long as their child is reading a wide array of good literature, his intellectual development is assured: "(there are those) who certainly have a taste for reading, but in whom it is little more than the result of mental restlessness and curiosity. Such minds cannot fix their gaze on one object for two seconds together; the very impulse which leads them to read at all, leads them to read on, and never to stay or hang over any one idea. The pleasurable excitement of reading what is new is their motive principle... Such youths often profess to like poetry, or to like history or biography.... but on the other hand they profess that they do not like logic, they do not like algebra, they have no taste for mathematics; which only means that they do not like application, they do not like attention, they shrink from the effort and labour of thinking, and the process of true intellectual gymnastics.
Important as the great works of literature are, reading them should be a pleasurable pursuit of one's leisure time rather than an academic subject per se, and I would recommend devoting at least as much (if not more) scheduled time in your secondary level curriculum to the more fundamental (if more demanding) study of philosophy. You can find some suggested resources for this study on the Philosophy page
GCSE
Two exam-only IGCSEs are available in this subject, from CIE and Edexcel. Both exams require the pupil to study selected texts in poetry, prose and drama. Since the reforms, GCSE English Literature is also now available to private candidates. The main differences appear to be that two elements (Shakespeare study and the analysis of unseen texts) are optional with IGCSE but compulsory at GCSE. Parents generally choose based on their preferences for the texts offered in any particular year (texts change on average every two to three years, though there is always some overlap). It is generally advisable to choose popular texts for which plenty of support material is available. There is an excellent support group for English Literature on Facebook
OVERVIEW BY AGE
PRIMARY LEVEL
7-8
Read alouds and own reading
Selective narration and poetry study
8-9
Read alouds and own reading
Selective narration and poetry study
9-10
Read alouds and own reading
Selective narration and poetry study
10-11
Use selected texts for simple character and textual analysis
Poetry analysis techniques
MIDDLE LEVEL
11-12
Use selected texts for simple character and textual analysis
Poetry analysis techniques
12-13
Poetry and prose of England: Anglo Saxon, Medieval, Reformation and Elizabethan literature:
(click on the name for question sheets)
1. Anglo Saxon literature Beowulf, ballads
2. Middle English literature Sir Gawain, Chaucer, Everyman
3. Renaissance and Elizabethan literature Thomas More, Lyric Poetry, the Sonnet, The Bible, Edmund Campion
SECONDARY
13-14
Poetry and prose of England:
1. Introducing Shakespeare study: Macbeth scene by scene questions on full text
2. and Eighteenth Centuries
3. Romanticism, the Victorian era, the Twentieth Century
14-15
Begin IGCSE set text poetry, play and novel
15-16
Complete IGCSE set texts. Revision/past papers.
IGCSE exam