For my freshman year english and lit, I took a biweekly OHG class taught by AnnMarie Fireman. The theme for the class was American literature. The book list for the year is included below.
American Literature: The Crucible by Arthur Miller, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Billy Bud by Herman Melville, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
American Literature 2nd semester: Short Stories of Edgar Allen Poe, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, The Bean Tree by Barbara Kingsolver, and Six American Poets-an anthology.
This was a fantastic class. AnnMarie introduced me to high school level work and writing with this course. She had high expectations of every student and worked with each one individually from where they were. In this class I learned how to read critically, interpret symbolism, identify character roles, and write organized five paragraph essays. Learning these things gave me the confidence to fully participate in our literary discussions and voice my opinions and ideas. It was a single class crash course in english and lit, and I think that I learned more in that single class than I have in any other. In class she would start by telling us about the author we were studying and their general life. Then, for the majority of our meeting tome, AnnMarie would lead discussions about symbolism and interpretations of the book. For every book we read she also gave us a comprehension quiz in class. By examining which questions I was getting wrong, she helped me figure out the things I had trouble grasping and showed me ways to focus my attention on them while reading.
I have included one of the essay I wrote for this class below.