Teaching Method

Our Platform and Purpose

 Through the experience of home schooling my own children for 19 years, I have tried numerous methods and materials. After becoming frustrated with covering unit studies out of historical order, I was introduced to the classical-educating model. Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn’s Teaching the Trivium and Susan Wise Bauer’s Well-Trained Mind have made many home educators aware of the language-focused classical method that interrelates subjects in a way in which students can’t help but learn. It is a broad-based study of the liberal arts including the study of literature, poetry, art, drama, history, and languages (especially Latin). The best use of this approach integrates the teaching of values and character, as I do.

The Powers Classical School addresses the language elements of this approach. Below, I explain how the classical approach can be applied in general and then specifically in my classes. If you would like to know how to incorporate this method in the other subject areas of your homeschool, I highly recommend visiting  www.welltrainedmind.com, the source of my basic information on the subject.

My high school classes will utilize the last two levels of the trivium and build upon the first level of basic knowledge already learned in the elementary and middle school years.

High schoolers are in the Rhetoric Stage in their thinking. They are ready to take the facts they have learned and evaluated and to make them their own. This ownership is the impetus for original, forceful, and persuasive written or spoken expressions of the conclusions they have made about a subject.

  • My high school English classes cover American, British, and World classics. The writing assignments include literary analysis essays, creative writing projects, and a position/research paper.
  • The Introduction to Literature and Writing class provides step-by-step instruction on writing, literary analysis, high school grammar basics, and vocabulary (including Latin and Greek roots).  
  • The high school Latin I and II classes give students a firm foundation in the Latin language and in English grammar, using The Latin Road to English Grammar, Volume 1 and Volume 2. I have taught from this curriculum for over 15 years and have been impressed with its incremental and thorough approach to the language. 
  • The upper elementary Lively Latin program includes Roman History and Roman based artwork as well as the Latin Language.

~Shelly