Students will learn language art skills through the medium of art and performance. We will

watch, listen to, read, and discuss important plays, movies, poetry, speeches, paintings, and

songs. The students will understand the power of the arts as we focus on the ideas they bring to

our culture today. Basic logic and faulty thinking will be touched on, but the emphasis will be on

arguing a viewpoint based on the evidence found in the material.

We will cover vocabulary, spelling, and reading comprehension while promoting active reading

and listening. One goal of this class is to understand that literature is more than big, old, stuffy

books. It is a powerful tool to create empathy, understanding, and possibly even change.

Language Arts Through the Arts will provide the stimulus for critical thinking, argumentation, as

well as analysis of methods of writing. We will focus on the six traits of exceptional writing

(ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, mechanics) as we uncover the secrets

found within the material.

All language arts skills will be challenged and enhanced through classroom discussions.

I have formulated a list below that I will pull from. It is not a race to go through the material, but

rather a deep dive. We may not complete the list, but we will get a sampling of some of the most

powerful performance and art media—or to flip it a little, how works perform on us!

Average hours for homework: two to four hours a week

Required: Selected readings from the list below; short writing assignments; and one presentation per semester by each student highlighting something that we have discussed during the semester.

Ages: 15 and up

We will pull material from the following plays, movies, poetry, speeches,

paintings, and songs – REMEMBER, this is not a race to get through all the

material. We will deep dive into excerpts to teach analysis skills: 

1. Selected readings of the KJV of the Bible

2. Excerpts from Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth by Shakespeare

3. Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais

4. Dear Evan Hanson (PLAY) - *if I can find it; if not then the movie version which is rated PG-13

5. "Turning Red" (MOVIE) - rated PG

6. "Jaws" – (MOVIE) rated a strong PG

7. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (MOVIE) rated PG

8. "Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back" (MOVIE) rated PG

9. "The Life of Pi" - (MOVIE) rated PG

10. Passing by Nella Larsen (audio book)

11. The Bet by Anton Chekov

12. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

13. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

14. Poetry selections from “Out of the Dust”

15. Poetry from Langton Hughes and Walt Whitman

16. Poetry from Edgar Alan Poe and Emily Dickinson

17. Frederick Douglass’ “The Fourth of July” speech

18. MLK’s “I Have a Dream” and “The Mountaintop” speeches

19. Analyzing selected songs from plays such as Les Miserables, Hamilton, Rent, Six, Hades Town, Tommy, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Fiddler on the Roof

20. Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors

21. "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso

22. "Starry Night" by Van Gogh

23. "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo Da Vinci

24. "Girl with a Pearl" Earring by Johannes Vermeer

25. "Christ in the Storm on the Sea" of Galilee by Rembrandt

26. "The Scream" by Edvard Munch

27. "Lascaux Cave" Painting