Great Books Discussion on Artistotle\u27s Politics

(We are pleased to present a transcript of a recent Great Books meeting conducted by Dr. Clide Aldrich and Dr. Clarence Efroymson. Betty Cramer, Sue Higginbotham and Nancy Dye, members of the Advanced Shorthand Class, took the transcript. The contents of the discussion on Aristotle\u27s Politics have been condensed.

Great Lakes, Great Books Diverse Texts

Book reviews of juvenile and teen literature with themes of cultural diversity

Great Lakes Great Books: Making Classroom Connections

Use stories from the Great Lakes Great Books list to connect readers to the classroom curriculum

Experiencing the Great Books

Should American education focus on the Great Books? Neither side in the canon dispute looks closely at the relational side of great books teaching. To provide more information to use in judging great books curricula, this article presents a study of relational processes in great books classes. The results show that great books have both strengths and risks. The research focuses on how teachers involve students with the great books by connecting their experiences with the insights presented in the text. Among other devices, teachers use examples to establish these connections: the class explores some aspect of the text by discussing an analogous case from students\u27 experience. This article describes how such examples carry a certain risk. These examples can lead students to experience the text so fully that they act it out. Instead of dispassionately discussing the text, students and teachers enact the roles described in the text and the example, thus creating an analogous interactional event in the classroom. This article describes and illustrates this interactional pattern, drawing on ethnographic observations, interviews, and analyses of transcripts taken from a three year study of high school English and history classes. In light of the findings, the article reassesses the pedagogical strengths and weaknesses of great books teaching and examples as pedagogical devices

Great Lake Great Books Adapting to Change

Things change quickly in a global pandemic. Books can remind us that the world is always changing and we have the resilience to adapt to those changes