Brit Lit: Writing papers

The two young women in Brit Lit are writing papers on Robin Hood and King Arthur.  In their papers the girls are providing some information about the history, the way the story has changed over time, and why the stories or character has stood the test of time, why he remains popular.

The Brit Lit (We are using the older edition.) has an excellent question (p. 65 Lesson 4 Essay), "What are the abiding qualities of biblical Christianity that transcend time, place, and culture,...?"  I asked the girls to  identify the themes, events, or qualities which are consistently in each story as it changes over time, such as the fight against injustice or the theme of betrayal.  In these human qualities, there are aspects of universal truth.  I'm going to have the girls add a bit about the themes.

In any case, the girls wrote rough drafts.  I encourage them to keep copies of the revisions as evidence of their work for a Brit Lit portfolio.  We are going to do more work on their papers.

The girls are also reading Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler, and New Boy by Tracy Chevalier. (Angel is using these Reader's Guide questions.  Scroll down for the questions alone.)  Initially, the girls are reading the novels and answering the reader's guide questions.  I think it's fine to look at author interviews after they write their answers to the questions.  We'll all read Taming of the Shrew and Othello after the novels.  (I read both before assigning them to the girls.)  The governing question is, "Do these novels from Hogarth Shakespeare compare to the original plays?"  The larger question is, "Can adaptations, contemporary literature compare to the original classic?"

The girls will select films, novels, songs, etc. to support their opinions.  By the way, in this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, "Paul McCartney has said that he was inspired to write that philosophical wrap-up by Shakespeare's practice of ending plays with a rhymed couplet." (Abbey Road's "The End".

I'm trying to make Brit Lit fun.  Certainly, this is proving to be a challenge!