Learn
from the greatest minds
Read
Great Books
Grow
A Lifetime love of literature
The average American teen spends less than nine minutes per day reading…
and three hours looking at screens.
Are your teens reading enough?
Give your middle and high school students a love for literature with a WriteAtHome literature class.
WriteAtHome literature isn’t just about developing a book list that will impress college admissions. It’s about giving students an appreciation and love for great books and the confidence to tackle even the most difficult works.
Starting this year, we also offer two middle school literature courses to get students ready for high school literature and two high school tracks, classical and conventional. Several of our literature courses can be taken as self-paced classes where students watch recorded versions of weekly lectures and can choose when to read each work.
If you’re curious about what it’s like to take a WriteAtHome literature course, click here.
*Self-paced literature classes are for individual or family use. They are not meant to be shared outside of your immediate family. Please contact us for information about using them in a class or coop setting.
Click the links below to learn more about our literature courses for middle school and high school students.
Our Approach is unique:
It’s not about tests.
It’s not about defining literary terms.
It’s not about memorizing names and dates.
It’s about the books.
We read a lot of good books together. And we talk about them. As time goes by, we learn to talk about them more intelligently. Sure, we teach literary terms like plot, conflict, and theme. But we use those terms to help us understand and appreciate the books.
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”
Yes, your kids can handle these books: A note from brian Wasko
I know the reading list can seem intimidating. Parents and students sometimes wonder if they are ready for difficult classic works like The Aeneid, Paradise Lost, Crime and Punishment and Don Quixote. But trust me—I've been teaching this stuff for more than twenty years to high school students of a wide range of abilities. They are capable of much more than you or they would expect.
Some books will seem beyond students when they first attempt to read them, but I provide lots of resources to help along the way. And, of course, we spend much of the time in our class discussions on the basics—sometimes just figuring out exactly what is going on.
We will challenge students of every ability. Some will be ready to go beyond simple comprehension into literary analysis and criticism. Others will simply work to get a feel for the basic purpose and plot of each work. Either way, students will come away with life-changing encounters with some of the best writing our culture has ever produced.
Be aware that the high school classes are geared for students in grades 9-12, though 8th grade students have participated successfully. We don’t recommend high school lit classes for students below 8th grade.
Give it a try. You won't regret it!
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.”
Raves
“...your Writing and Lit programs have both been a Godsend to us. Both of our boys enrolled in the Fall of 2018, and overnight their interest in ELA went from completing a daily chore to “I can’t wait until the next assignment”! We are all absolutely thrilled with your program, and looking forward to the upcoming school year!”
“I couldn’t endorse a literature class by Mr. Wasko highly enough to do it justice. What I will tell you to do is to take it and take it now. I discovered that I understood not just “the Classics” but the world better by taking Mr. Wasko’s literature classes. They give you a reference point to understand events in the world. ”
“Thank you so much for teaching Lit 2, I really enjoyed your class! All of the books, plays, and poems we read were fun, interesting or both. I’ve gained an appreciation for Shakespeare and poetry that I never dreamed I would have. I was really caused to think about the works through your discussion questions and conferences. I found myself getting carried away at times answering questions way more in depth than was necessary because I enjoyed the subject so much and didn’t want to stop. I even memorized Shakespeare’s XVIII Sonnet because I loved it some much! Thank you for giving me a greater appreciation and joy for literature! You are an amazing teacher.
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*According to Pew Research, 2019
**According to the American Academy for Arts and Sciences, 2019