Classes

CLASSES

Summer 2025

Children's Classic Novels

For five weeks, we will read and study one or two wonderful children’s books, to be chosen from among Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Charlotte’s Web, The Wind in the Willows, or one of the Harry Potter books.

Although the books are light, in keeping with the season, we will delve deeply into them, thinking critically about characters and ideas, and discussing literary elements and techniques. Students will produce one or two pieces of writing, which I will critique and have the students revise, unless parents choose to have their child participate in reading and discussion only.

Classes will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, June 10th - July 10th, except for the week of Independence Day, when we will only meet on Tuesday. Contact me for class meeting times.

Classes are an hour long.

2025/2026

Mostly American Classics

The goals of the class are:

to expose students to great writing from different times and places,
to think critically about what we read and what constitutes great writing,
to explore ideas that are raised in literature and relate them to our own experience,
to understand ourselves and others who are similar and different from ourselves,
to learn the different techniques by which authors express their ideas,
to express our own ideas precisely and vividly, both orally and in writing,
to learn, practice and improve different types of writing, and
to have fun reading and discussing literature.

Books will be chosen from among the following:

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Remarque

Classes will meet twice a week for an hour each from early September to the end of May, with vacations at Thanksgiving, Christmas and the last two weeks of Ramadan. Each class meeting is $20 per student. Contact me for exact dates and times.

GinaFTrent@gmail.com or (917) 676-1517 (Eastern Time!)