Teaching Without Textbooks

Note: This was a workshop I presented at a couple of homeschool conferences in 2004. Thanks to Rhonda W. and Judy W. for sharing some of their ideas with me!

I'm an avid reader and I love to learn. When my children reached school-age it seemed natural to me to just continue to share my love of learning and good literature with them. I wasn't sure where to start the educational process, but I knew I wanted to include as many "real" books as possible. As much as I love to learn and read, textbooks never held much appeal for me. I'd like to share with you our homeschool journey with very few textbooks.

Why Literature-Based Learning?
Think back to your school days and try to remember the title of your favorite textbook. Not coming to mind right away? How about your favorite storybook or novel? You can probably think of several! "Real" books make you think; they involve you in their subject and leave behind a lasting impression. Textbooks, on the other hand, "tell" you what the main points of a subject are; they do the thinking for you. A literature-based curriculum takes advantage of the ability to impress you. Instead of using a textbook to teach history, science or other subjects, a literature-based curriculum will utilize real books to create a memorable learning experience.

It's the stories that engage our interest… spark our imagination… ignite our emotions… make us excited… angry… happy… sad… and sometimes they're just plain fun! Well-written books desire to touch your emotions. They are designed to incite a passionate response in the reader. Passion, when guided and directed, encourages you to think deeply about all sides of an issue and come to a well-founded, defendable conclusion.

A good story can whet your appetite to learn more. One book we enjoyed in our introductory study of World History was Detectives in Togas. It is the story of five school boys during the hey-day of the Roman Empire. They stumble across a mystery and put their heads together to solve it. Just the excitement of the story kept us interested, but it also provided glimpses of Roman life to make us want to learn more. In the story, one of the boys, Mucius, was locked in a building one night by accident. He escaped by climbing through a trap door to the roof.

Now he crawled along the edge of the roof, hoping to find a rain gutter on which he might shimmy down. But this hope failed; there were no gutters. He made himself as small as he could, hunched up against the driving rain, and stared despairingly into the darkness. But suddenly he sat bolt upright. By the latest lightning flash he had caught a glimpse of the flat roof of another house, almost within reach. The distance between the two roofs was hardly longer than the length of his arm. Immediately, he crawled down to the edge and prepared to jump. At the next lightning flash he leaped, fell forward on his face-but he was safe…

Cautiously, he crawled forward. But suddenly his hands reached out into empty space; he lost his balance and fell headfirst into space. It's all over, was his last thought. The fall will kill me. Then he dropped with a loud splash into water and sank like a stone.

Mucius was a good swimmer, and with a few vigorous strokes he brought himself quickly to the surface. It was pitch dark; he could see nothing at all. Water had got into his nose, and his head rang as though a thousand pins were sticking into his brain. [His] cloak felt as heavy as iron on his back, and he had to keep treading water vigorously to stay on the surface. He had not the faintest idea where he could be. He must have fallen into a river, for he could feel a strong current under his feet. But how was that possible? The Tiber was at least half a mile away from here, and there was no other river near. Perhaps I am dead, he thought in sudden terror. Perhaps I am swimming in the River Styx which leads to Hades. But that was really too fantastic. The dead were supposed to wait nicely on the shore until Charon took them across the Styx in his ferry. Besides, you didn't feel sick to your stomach when you were dead, and he certainly was feeling badly from all the water he had swallowed.

Suddenly he realized that it was no longer raining, although it had been pouring cats and dogs, and that the wind had stopped completely also. But he still heard the rain beating down high above his head. He gazed upward and for a second, by a flash of lightning, caught sight of the sky framed in a square opening. No doubt about it-there was a roof above him with a skylight through which he must have fallen. He was inside the house next door. But then how could there be a river inside a house? How strange.

Growing tired of treading water, he let the current carry him along, and in a short time came up against a smooth wall. It felt like marble. Then he felt the ground underfoot and realized with delight that the depth of the water was rapidly dropping. Soon it reached only his waist, and before long was gurgling harmlessly around his ankles. He waded along the wall, stumbled upon a flight of stone stairs, climbed up and sat down exhausted on the top step.

He felt altogether done in and so weary that he could not frame a single clear thought. If only he could figure out where he was. He cursed the darkness; because he could not see he did not dare move from his place, for fear of falling again. But suddenly he burst into laughter. In a flash he had realized where he was. He had fallen into the Baths of Diana-right into the swimming pool. What a joke! He knew these baths very well; they were an elegant place of recreation for rich patricians, and he had often been here with his father… How often he had happily swum in this very pool into which he had just fallen so unexpectedly."

You can tell this book has all the excitement and interest of a modern-day adventure story. My children were just on the edge of their seats as we were reading it… but when we finished we were very interested to learn more about the culture and way of life during the Roman Empire. Now we "knew" someone who lived then! Never mind that he was a fictitious character… when we learned more about the Roman baths we could very easily picture Mucius falling in through the sky-light. The references to Roman mythology in the passage caught our attention, too. What were the River Styx and Hades? See how many different educational "bunny trails" just this one passage can take us on?

That is one of my main goals of teaching with literature, to develop a love for learning in my children. When children want to learn nothing will stop them from their goal.

Literature-based learning provides flexibility to teach a broad range of ages and abilities together. It works for early readers and late bloomers alike. Literature itself is not age segregated. Teaching your children together builds family relationships and maximizes your teaching time. Dinner table conversations enrich everyone in the family from preschoolers up to mom and dad. Students can understand and comprehend concepts far above their grade level and/or reading ability. This serves to even the playing field for delayed readers, but it also enriches the education of all students!

Are the differences in how you interpret or are affected by a book always different based on your grade level? Or is it more based on your life experience? Think about a book you enjoyed in high school or college - if you read it again today you would take very different things from that book - because of where you are in life today and because of your life experiences up to this point.

Here's a quote from Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink, which was one of my favorite books growing up. I read it aloud to my children just recently when we studied American History. I had read this book several times when I was young, so it surprised me what I got out of it this time around. I want to share an excerpt from it that really spoke to me now that I'm a parent.

For those of you who haven't read the book, it is based on a true story and takes place in Wisconsin in the mid-1860's. Caddie is a young girl (about 11, I think) who was permitted to pretty much grow up as a tomboy running "wild" with her brothers. She had a sister who was sickly and died when she was younger, and her father thought that she might grow up to be healthier if she was allowed to run outside in the fresh air with the boys rather than have to stay in the house doing "girl" things all the time. But, then one day, the children were rude to a visiting cousin and Caddie got into more trouble than the boys. She was sent to her room without supper. After she had been there for several hours her father came to her room to talk to her. I loved what he had to say to her:

"Perhaps Mother was a little hasty today, Caddie," he said. "She really loves you very much, and, you see, she expects more of you than she would of someone she didn't care about. It's a strange thing, but sometimes we expect more of girls than of boys. It is the sisters and wives and mothers, you know, Caddie, who keep the world sweet and beautiful. What a rough world it would be if there were only men and boys in it, doing things in their rough way! A woman's task is to teach them gentleness and courtesy and love and kindness. It's a big task, too, Caddie--harder than cutting trees or building mills or damming rivers. It takes nerve and courage and patience, but good women have those things. They have them just as much as the men who build bridges and carve roads through the wilderness. A woman's work is something fine and noble to grow up to, and it is just as important as a man's. But no man could ever do it so well. I don't want you to be the silly, affected person with fine clothes and manners whom folks sometimes call a lady. No, that is not what I want for you, my little girl. I want you to be a woman with a wise and understanding heart, healthy in body and honest in mind..."

Obviously, I didn't have the life experience to appreciate that when I was a young girl.

Children learn through guided discussions which include older and younger siblings. Older students learn to explain concepts in an easy to understand manner to enable younger children to understand concepts - which in turn produces clarity of thought. Different children come to a situation in a novel with different thoughts, different perspectives on the conflict and resolution, asking intuitive questions that cause others to look at a subject from a different perspective. Discussion itself can cause us to look at a topic from many different perspectives, instead of making the assumption that our thoughts and impressions are the only perspective. We grapple with conflict and resolution from many different directions, which means our final conclusion is solid and defendable in the mind of the child. As parents, you can point out thinking that is not in line with your worldview and discuss the consequences of such thinking.

Literature-based learning can be adapted to any method of education. When you use literature as the foundation you can tweak or bend it in many directions.

Charlotte Mason: read at a more relaxed pace

Classical: Latin, drill in younger years, ancient classical books in high school

Hands-On: add on activities

Traditional Textbook: supplement with literature

How to Teach Without Textbooks?

--Building or Choosing Curriculum

How do you implement a literature approach in your home school? It really isn't difficult at all! I'm going to talk about the pieces, but keep in mind there are many complete literature curricula programs available that have done the work for you.

What subjects can be taught from a literature base?

History

Science

Literature

Portions of Language Arts

When it comes to deciding on your materials it all comes down to money versus time. How much do you want to do? How much do you want done for you? I highly recommend Sonlight for a great literature-based program, but it is certainly possible to "teach without textbooks" using only the library!

If you want to build a curriculum yourself, you will first choose the subject you wish to build from -- a period of history or a certain culture, for example. You may choose to go with the same theme for a full school year (or two), or you may want to focus on smaller units.

Then choose your frame work - the books you use as the factual foundation of your studies. These are usually narrative factual books - nonfiction books written more as a story instead of a textbook with a graded vocabulary and pre-digested ideas. Add in biographies and historical fiction to reinforce your framework. If you have younger children you will want to add in some picture books as well.

You can teach the same basic content (the same framework) to different ages by expecting different levels of mastery.

For younger children, the goal is to simply introduce the topic, lay a foundation, and provide "hooks" to hang information on later. Spend your "academic energy" focusing on skills - how to read, write, and do arithmetic.

As the children grow you will build on the foundation, square the corners, fill in the gaps in thinking - the motivation, the why. You will expect greater mastery of the content: what do you believe, why do you believe it, and can you defend your conclusions?

--Practical Teaching Tips

With literature-based learning there is no need for lots of workbooks and tests. Just discussing what you read reinforces the concepts and gives you an idea of what your child learned. Begin with oral narration with a group. Ask your children, "What did you learn? What was your favorite part?" Add in writing assignments based on what you've read. For early elementary students you can act as their scribe as they narrate to you. Older students can do their own writing.

Take advantage of maps and timelines. These are important tools for teaching history. Besides, they are fun and interesting!

There are so many good books that often simply reading and discussing is enough for a full educational program. Sometimes, though, it's fun to add in some supplemental materials to add a little variety to your school day. With great books it is very easy to come up educational activities to enhance your learning. Kids love things like this, and it does create great memories. However, it is easy to go overboard spending a lot of time and energy on hands-on activities, so try to keep it simple.

Posters or scrapbooks

Craft projects

Field trips

Recipes

Movies

Websites (My website is a good place to start!)

My children love to have something to do with their hands while I read, and I have discovered they listen better if their hands are occupied. You can even tie this in with what you're reading. Provide coloring sheets that have to do with the subject matter. Dover publishes a lot of really nice educational coloring books. Coloring sheets are also available on the internet to print out. Just do a search for "coloring sheets" and whatever your subject is. Keep an eye out for jigsaw puzzles that have an educational theme. We found a great one on "The American West" that my family did while we were studying westward expansion. Construction-type toys (Legos, Lincoln Logs, K'nex, etc) can also be used for educational tie-ins. We built a pyramid with Legos when we studied Ancient Egypt.

Hopefully, this has given you an overview of the "why" and "how" of literature-based learning. Whether you decide to just use this method as part of your curriculum, I just want to encourage you to keep reading to your children!

By Karla Cook. Copyright 2004.