Challenges!
(History for Reluctant Readers and Students Transitioning from School)
Wednesdays 11:00 – 12:30 Dunwoody Home School, North Peachtree Baptist Church
$45/month
Registration: $50, non-refundable, to be applied toward the $100 materials fee. The teacher will
purchase books, maps, timelines, and other materials for the students from the materials fee. The first half
of the materials fee will be covered by the $50 registration fee. The second half of the materials fee will be
payable February 1st.
Age 11 (6th grade) and up, admission after consultation with the teacher. We will possibly have an older
and a younger class.
Sandra Williams sdealwilliams@bellsouth.net
770.458-5271 / 404.310-1482
History is dynamic and exciting when you approach it with real books, compelling human stories, maps,
timelines, and living history applications. This class is designed to encourage a love for reading as well as
a love for history. We will focus on aspects of growing up such as finding courage, making decisions,
overcoming hardships, etc. We will anchor each story on a timeline and on a map, and we will study the
appropriate history, culture, and geography in some depth. The primary social studies goal will be to open
the subject to students in ways that engage them in higher level thinking than textbooks generally do.
Students who are not enthusiastic readers do not often experience the richness of historical study. They
are stuck in the superficial layer of dates and names, and they miss the rich “you are there” aspect of
learning that comes from a literary approach to history.
Students will meet to discuss books, examine maps, update personal timelines, and enjoy multimedia
presentations. Some activities will be enjoying a typical meal, building structures, learning poems or
phrases in the language, building dioramas, mapping routes or countries, and/or listening to music.
Students will keep notebooks to document their work and to encourage organizational skills.
We will cover the state’s minimum requirement for Language Arts as well as Social Studies over the course
of the year. Vocabulary, poetry, and grammar will be included, as well as some history of the English
language and other languages. Composition will be gently encouraged. Our primary goal language arts
goal will be reading with confidence, comprehension, and enthusiasm—about interesting people. Students
will improve their communication skills through written and oral presentations. The teacher will consult with
parents about specific goals and needs for each student.
The course will have a common thread of assignments to unite the class but will include individualized
reading plans based upon students’ interests, reading levels, and parents’ input.
Cost will be $45/month, with a non-refundable $50 registration fee, which will be applied toward
the $100 materials fee. Families also will need to meet the financial obligations of Dunwoody
Home School Classes (see www.dunwoodyclasses.com).
Students will read eight to ten books during the year, in addition to short stories, poems, plays, or other
material. The teacher will purchase books and other materials for each student. The reading list will be
tailored to the individual student’s comfortable reading level so that the student can apply higher-level
thinking skills to the book’s contents. Content will be appropriate to the student’s age.
*The class is aimed at students aged 11 and up, especially older students who “don’t like to read.”
Students who are new to home school will benefit from a radically different approach to learning. Call to
discuss a particular student’s readiness for this class.
Books will be chosen because they are compelling reading and will be appropriate to the age group of the
class.
The following are examples of the kind of books we’ll choose from. Final list will depend upon the students’
prior reading and interests:
Water, Overcoming Fear
Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Ancient legend of a Polynesian boy who has to conquer his fear of
the water.)
The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck (A Japanese boy must face life after a tsunami destroys his family.)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Spooky classic story-poem by Coleridge)
Making a Life for Oneself, Even When Choices are Restricted
The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano (African boy, captured and enslaved, creates a
meaningful life for himself).
Catherine, Called Birdy (Medieval English teen rebels against her planned marriage)
Middle English Poetry
Survival!
Hatchet (Contemporary story about survival in the wilderness)
Sign of the Beaver (12 year old boy keeps the homestead in Colonial Maine)
Girl in Buckskins (My daughter’s favorite)
Breaking Chains!
The Bronze Bow (Roman-occupied Palestine; boy challenged to overcome bitterness)
Poems by Countee Cullen, William Blake
Bold and Brave!
Snow Treasure (Norwegian children save a treasure in gold from the Nazis)
Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes (Asia and Europe, first millennium, AD)
The Vikings (Northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and the new world, circa 1000 AD)
Sandra Williams earned a BA degree in English, with a minor in History, from Georgia Southern
College in 1977. She has taught history, chemistry, Readers’ Theater, and critical thinking at AAEN,
Dunwoody Home School, and her home. She has homeschooled her son for 11 years, from first
grade to college.