BIO

I was born and raised in Kingsport, Tennessee. I attended East Tennessee State University and Middle Tennessee State University.  I married David (now deceased) in 1979 and moved to Middle Tennessee permanently.  I first heard about home education from my pastor in 1978, and I told David before we were even married that I wanted to homeschool any future children we might have.  God gave us three precious children and we were blessed and privileged to home educate them from birth through high school graduation.  We began our home school journey in the fall of 1988 and continued for the next nineteen years.  All three children have graduated from college and two have gotten their master’s degrees.  Our son is an officer in the United States Army.   Even more important than that, I am now a grandmother!

During those nineteen years, we volunteered in various capacities in the homeschool community.  David and I served on the Middle Tennessee Home Education Association Board of Directors for thirteen years, and we helped to organize and start the Home Education Association of Rutherford, Tennessee (HEART).  I spoke at various conferences, graduations, and homeschool seminars and workshops.  In the fall of 2002,  I began teaching at Rutherford Tutorial Academy, where I continue to teach today.  I also do private tutoring.  In addition to teaching and tutoring, being a Mama and a Gigi, I also serve on the Powerfully Positive, Inc., Board of Directors.

American Literature

32 WEEK CLASS

 

Tutor Name:  Ginger McCreery

Course Name:  American Literature

Required Text:  See Book List below

Copy Fee:  $25

Minimum Number of Students:  6

Maximum Number of Students: 18

Course Description/Outline/Objectives:  This will be a chronological survey of American Literature, broken down into major literary periods. We will sample literature set in the major periods and of many different genres. An attempt will be made to help the student understand the time period and the cultural setting of each book, so that one may understand the author’s perspective, values, etc, and what is going on in the world at the time each book is set. Students will be required to write 4 essays, one per quarter.

Reading great literature accomplishes at least two things: academic excellence and excellence of character. If you want your student to write well, your student needs to be reading lots and lots of excellent, well-written classics that have stood the test of time. If you want your student to have a great vocabulary, your student needs to be reading lots and lots of excellent, well-written classics that have stood the test of time!

Literature is: “a pleasure which arises not only from the things said, but from the way in which they are said; and that pleasure is only given when the words are carefully and beautifully put together into sentences.” -Stopford Brooke

Expected Weekly Time Commitment for Homework:  4-6 hours

Prerequisites: None, except for required summer reading:  THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Recommended Grade Level:  9th-10th

Rate for Additional Private Tutoring:  $25/hour

Book List below:

REQUIRED SUMMER READING:   
      THE SCARLET LETTER
            by Nathaniel Hawthorne Prentice Hall
            ISBN:  0-553210092

  • THE CRUCIBLE (play)
    by Arthur Miller    -    Penguin USA
    ISBN:  0-140481389

  • A LIGHT IN THE FOREST
    by Conrad Richter     -    Juniper Press
    ISBN:  0-449704378

More Courses
   by GINGER MCCREERY

  • Junior High Literature B

  • American Literature

  • British Literature

  • Classic Christian Literature

  • THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
    by Benjamin Franklin      -    Dover Publications
    ISBN:  0-486290735

  • UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
    by Harriet Beecher Stowe    -    Bantam Classics
    ISBN:  0-553212184

  • THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN
    by Ernest J. Gaines      -    Bantam Books
    ISBN:  0-553263579

  • THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
    by Mark Twain    -    New American Library
    ISBN:  0-451526538

  • CARRY A BIG STICK
    by George Grant     -      Cumberland House Publisher
    ISBN:  1-888952202

  • A LANTERN IN HER HAND
    by Bess Streeter Aldrich      -    Puffin Books
    ISBN:  0-140384286

  • THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE
    by Forrest Carter    -      University of New Mexico Press
    ISBN:  0-826328091

  • TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
    by Harper Lee      -      Little Brown & Company
    ISBN:  0-446310786

  • THE GREAT GATSBY
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald    Scribner Paperback Fiction
    ISBN:  0-684801523

  • THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
    by Ernest Hemingway     -    Scribner Paperback Fiction
    ISBN:  0-684801221

  • CANNERY ROW
    by John Steinbeck     -      Penguin USA
    ISBN:  0-140177388

  • OUR TOWN (play)
    by Thornton Wilder   Perennial
    ISBN:  0-060929847

  • THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
    by Washington Irving     -    Tor Books
    ISBN:  0-812504755

*Note:  I have provided the ISBN’s and publisher names but I don’t require that students get these exact editions.  As long as the book is unabridged I don’t care how old the book is or who the publisher is, etc.  Find bargains at used book stores, it doesn’t matter to me.