World Literature

73 core topics + 106 prerequisite topics taught as needed · approximately 57 hours of instruction including spaced review

How the course runs

An adaptive diagnostic (up to 40 questions) places the student on the course's knowledge graph - topics already known are credited, and instruction begins exactly at the learning frontier. Every topic is taught with a worked-example lesson and auto-graded practice; a topic is mastered at 75%+ and then maintained through spaced reviews on an expanding schedule. Mixed checks follow every 6 lessons; each unit ends with a 12-item quiz, and course-wide assessments appear at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% mastery. Prerequisite gaps below the course are detected and taught rather than skipped, so completion certifies the whole tower, not just the top.

Core curriculum

Close Reading & Annotation · 9 topics

Say It Straight First [H]	Restate a difficult passage accurately before you interpret it.
The Weight of One Word [H]	Ask why the writer chose this word and not the nearest alternative.
What the Sentence Shape Does [H]	Read the structure of a sentence as part of what it means.
The Image That Carries It [H]	Read a concrete detail or comparison for the abstract work it is doing.
Where the Tone Turns [H]	Name a text's attitude toward its subject, and find where it changes.
What the Text Will Not Say [H]	Draw a conclusion the words on the page require but never state.
The Line That Actually Proves It [H]	Choose the quotation that supports your claim, not the one nearest it.
Reading With a Pencil [H]	Mark a text so the second pass starts where the first one ended.
Where the Reading Stops [H]	Tell a reading the text supports from one you have supplied yourself.

Characterization & Complexity · 8 topics

What a Character Does Instead of Saying [H]	Read a character from conduct, from how other people behave around them, and from what nobody says out loud.
The Reason a Character Will Not Give [H]	Work out what a character actually wants when the reason they offer is not the reason they have.
The Distance Between the Telling and the Told [H]	Measure the distance between what a narrator claims and what the same text shows.
The Object That Does the Work [H]	Read the object, gesture or image that carries what the sentence refuses to state.
Voice as Evidence [H]	Use word choice, sentence shape and sentence length as evidence about the person speaking.
Set Against Each Other [H]	Use one character to see another, without letting the contrast turn into a verdict.
Characters Who Do Not Add Up [H]	Hold two true and incompatible things about one character at the same time instead of choosing between them.
What Changes, and What It Costs [H]	Locate the turn in a character, and say what the change leaves untouched and what it costs.

Theme, Motif & Central Argument · 8 topics

Stating a Theme as a Claim [H]	Write a theme as a sentence somebody could argue with, not a noun.
The Evidence a Theme Rests On [H]	Support a claim about theme with the detail that would break it if removed.
Motif: What Keeps Coming Back [H]	Track a repeating image or word, then say what changes between its first appearance and its last.
When an Object Starts Carrying the Meaning [H]	Read a symbol by the gap between what an object does and what the text keeps it for.
The Central Argument of a Nonfiction Text [H]	Name the one thing a writer wants conceded, as distinct from the subject.
Concession, Rebuttal, and What They Cost [H]	Tell a granted point from a denied one, and say what the writer bought with it.
Two Readings, One Text [H]	Say what a text settles, what it declines to settle, and which reading the evidence rules out.
How a Theme Gets Built [H]	Follow an idea from its first appearance through the place it is complicated to its last.

Literary Movements & Historical Context · 8 topics

Reading the Period Off the Page [H]	Name the period habits a text is using from the writing itself, without being told the label.
Evidence for a Claim About a Text [H]	Test a claim about a text against the detail that would actually settle it.
Form Carries the History [H]	Explain what a technical choice about narration asserts about what can be known.
The Moment That Made the Text [H]	Connect what a text worries about to the conditions it was written in - and say how far the connection reaches.
Movements Answer Other Movements [H]	Identify what a text is refusing, and read the refusal as part of its argument.
One Subject, Two Periods [H]	Compare two treatments of the same material and locate exactly where the periods part.
Reading a Text Forward, Not Backward [H]	Keep a later fact, a later word, or a later verdict from being smuggled into a reading.
Who Gets Counted In [H]	Ask how a movement's roster was assembled, and what a roster can and cannot measure.

Irony, Satire & Ambiguity · 8 topics

Verbal Irony: Words Against Meaning [H]	Detect a speaker who means something other than what the words say, and name what the gap is doing.
Situational Irony: Aim Against Outcome [H]	Tell an ironic outcome from a merely unfortunate one by testing it against the aim that produced it.
Dramatic Irony: What the Audience Carries [H]	Track what a reader knows that a character does not, and say what the gap does to the lines that follow.
The Gap Between a Speaker and the Text [H]	Measure the distance between what a speaker claims about himself and what the text puts on the page - including when the distance is zero.
Satire: Finding the Target [H]	Separate what a satire pretends to be from what it wants you to think worse of.
How Satire Works on a Reader [H]	Name the technique a satire is using and say what it buys that a plain complaint could not.
Is It Irony at All? [H]	Decide whether a text is ironic by naming the gap, rather than by how the text makes you feel.
Ambiguity: What a Text Refuses to Settle [H]	Say what a text settles, what it deliberately leaves open, and which readings its evidence rules out.

Diction, Tone & Connotation · 8 topics

Same Fact, Different Verdict [H]	Choose the word that carries the verdict you want without changing the claim you are making.
How Strong Is Too Strong [H]	Pick the rung of a word ladder the evidence actually supports.
Where the Judgment Is Hiding [H]	Find the word that is arguing inside a sentence of facts, and take it out without losing anything.
Softening It and Sharpening It [H]	Tell a euphemism from a plain statement, and a strong true sentence from one that overclaims.
The Level of the Diction [H]	Match the level of your words to the occasion, and tell inflated diction from necessary technical language.
Naming a Tone Precisely [H]	Name a writer's attitude with the word the evidence supports, not the nearest feeling.
Where the Tone Turns [H]	Locate the sentence where a writer's attitude changes, with or without a signal word.
What the Word Choices Add Up To [H]	Read a writer's position out of an accumulation of choices he never states as an opinion.

World Literature: Epic & Classical Traditions · 8 topics

The Machinery in Plain Sight [H]	Read a repeated phrase, a fixed opening or a stock scene as equipment a performer needs, and then ask where this writer chose to put it.
The Comparison Brings Its Own World [H]	Read an extended comparison as an argument, asking what world it imports and whose side that world turns out to be on.
What the Culture Is Paying For [H]	Work out what a heroic story treats as the reward, and read the hero as an argument a culture is having with itself.
Two Full Explanations, Both Kept [H]	Hold a divine cause and a human cause in the same event without letting one of them cancel the other.
Where the Poem Puts the Cut [H]	Follow how an epic is arranged - the digression, the ring, the delayed return - and say what the arrangement is for.
The Audience Knows First [H]	Track the gap between what an audience has worked out and what a character still believes, and say what the gap is doing.
Who Is Given a Line [H]	Notice who a victory story lets speak, who it keeps offstage, and what the arrangement is doing.
How the Words Got Here [H]	Ask by what route a text reached you, and what the route did to it, before arguing about what it means.

World Literature in Translation · 8 topics

Every Line Is a Decision [H]	Read a translated sentence as one option that somebody selected, and name what the selection ruled out.
Two Versions, One Original [H]	Compare two renderings of the same text and say precisely what each one bought and what it paid.
The Word That Takes a Paragraph [H]	Name the four things a translator can do with a term that has no English equivalent, and what each one costs.
What Happens to the Shape [H]	Track what a poem's meter, rhyme and repetition do when they meet a language that cannot supply them.
The Voice the Translator Picks [H]	Hear the level of a translated voice - formal or plain, warm or official - and ask what the choice does to the speaker.
What the First Readers Already Knew [H]	Spot the knowledge an original audience brought to a text, and judge how a translation handles a reader who does not have it.
The Apparatus Around the Text [H]	Read the title, cover, introduction and notes as arguments about how the book inside should be taken.
Judging a Translation You Cannot Check [H]	Build an argument about a translation using evidence a reader without the source language actually has.

Mythology, Folklore & Archetype · 8 topics

The Shape You Brought With You [H]	Name the pattern you think you are seeing, then test whether it is in the text or in you.
There Is No Original [H]	Treat the text in front of you as one version among others, and say what that version does differently.
The Room the Story Was Told In [H]	Reconstruct the teller, the listener and the occasion before deciding what a traditional story means.
Motif, Symbol, Archetype [H]	Name the level of the thing you noticed, and say what evidence a claim at that level would need.
What the Story Authorizes [H]	Identify what a myth or tale accounts for in the listener's own world, and what would be unsettled without it.
The Lesson That Arrives from Outside [H]	Separate the lesson printed at the end of a tale from what the tale itself shows, and say who attached it.
What a Change of Body Costs [H]	Read a transformation as an event with consequences, and say what the new form is afterward used for.
Who Is Described and Who Speaks [H]	Count who speaks in their own voice, who is only reported, and who appears in a story without appearing in the record of it.

Prerequisite material - taught automatically when the diagnostic finds gaps

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness · 3 topics

Hearing Rhymes	Tell when two words end with the same sound.
Hearing the First Sound	Tell which sound a word starts with.
Words That Begin Alike	Group words by their beginning sound.

Phonics: Letters, Sounds & Short Vowels · 1 topics

Capital and Lowercase Letters

Match every capital letter to its lowercase partner.

High-Frequency Words & Sight Vocabulary · 2 topics

Recognizing High-Frequency Words	Know the most common words on sight, instantly.
High-Frequency Words in Sentences	Use common words correctly inside a real sentence.

Print Concepts & Early Comprehension · 3 topics

How Books and Print Work	Know the parts of a book and which way print goes.
Listening Comprehension	Understand a story that is read out loud to you.
What Happened First, Next, Last	Put the events of a story in the order they happened.

Sentence & Capitalization Basics · 4 topics

What Makes a Sentence	Tell a complete sentence from a group of words.
Naming Part and Telling Part	Split a sentence into who it is about and what happens.
Capital Letters and End Marks	Start every sentence with a capital and end it with a mark.
Choosing the Right End Mark	Use a period, question mark, or exclamation point.

Context Clues (Grades 2-3) · 8 topics

When the Sentence Just Tells You	Find a word's meaning written into the sentence itself.
A Nearby Word That Means the Same	Use a synonym elsewhere in the passage to unlock a word.
When a Contrast Points the Other Way	Use a contrast word to work out the opposite meaning.
Working Back From Examples	Use a list of examples to work out the category.
When There Is No Clue Word	Work out a meaning from the whole situation.
Naming the Clue	Say which kind of context clue a sentence is using.
Putting Your Guess Back In	Check a guessed meaning by reading the sentence again with it.
Words With More Than One Meaning	Choose the meaning a sentence needs, not the one you thought of first.

Context Clues & Word Nuance (Grades 4-6) · 3 topics

When the Clue Is Somewhere Else	Find the meaning of a word when the clue sits in a different sentence.
Shades of Meaning	Choose the word whose size matches what actually happened.
Words That Carry a Feeling	Hear the approval or disapproval hidden inside a word choice.

Figurative Language & Idioms · 5 topics

Noticing When Words Are Not Literal	Tell when a sentence is not meant exactly as written.
Working Out What It Really Means	Say in plain words what a figure of speech is telling you.
Similes	Read a comparison made with like or as.
Metaphors	Read a comparison that says one thing IS another.
Idioms	Learn set phrases whose meaning the words do not give you.

Story Basics: Character, Setting & Events · 2 topics

Who the Story Is About	Name the characters in a story and say what one of them is like.
How a Character Feels	Name a feeling a story shows through what a character does.

Retelling, Sequence & Summary · 7 topics

Who the Story Is About	Name the character a story follows.
First, Next, and Last	Say what happened first, what came in between, and what came last.
Putting the Whole Story in Order	Arrange all the events of a story from beginning to end.
Finding the Problem	Name what goes wrong in a story.
Finding the Solution	Say how a story's problem gets resolved.
Summarizing a Story	Retell a story keeping only what matters.
Knowing What to Leave Out	Spot the detail a summary does not need.

Theme, Lesson & Central Message · 8 topics

Topic or Theme?	Tell the subject of a story apart from what the story says about it.
What a Character Learns	Find the theme by watching what a character understands at the end that they did not understand at the start.
The Moral a Story States	Read a stated moral or saying and check what the story actually backs up.
Saying a Theme in One Sentence	Word a theme so it is neither about one character nor true of every story.
The Evidence for a Theme	Point to the detail that actually supports a theme, not just a true detail.
Themes Nobody Writes Down	Work out a theme from an ending, a silence, or a word the writer chose.
Objects That Carry the Message	Read the object or image a story keeps returning to.
What a Story Does Not Say	Refuse a lesson the text will not support, including the tidy one.

Point of View, Narrator & Perspective · 6 topics

Who Is Telling This	Find the teller of a text before deciding what the text means.
How Much the Teller Knows	Work out how far a teller can see, and what is therefore missing.
What the Teller Cannot See	Assemble what a text shows but its teller has not noticed.
What a Person Makes of It	Separate what happened from what a person in the text made of it.
Words That Give a View Away	Notice the single words that carry a teller's attitude.
One Event, Two Views	Explain why two honest accounts of one event can disagree.

Poetry & Drama · 6 topics

Lines, Stanzas and Where a Poem Breaks	Read a poem's shape on the page as part of what it means.
Rhyme, Rhyme Scheme and Poems Without Either	Hear rhyme, name the pattern it makes, and read a poem that has none.
Repetition, Alliteration and the Sound of a Line	Notice what a poem's sounds are doing besides rhyming.
The Picture a Poem Puts in Your Head	Read the sensory pictures a poem or a stage sets, and say what they do.
How a Play Is Written Down	Read a script: cast list, scene heading, dialogue and stage directions.
Reading What a Scene Is Really Doing	Work out what characters want, what blocks them, and what they will not say.

Comparing & Contrasting Texts · 6 topics

Comparing on the Same Point	Name one point that both texts speak to before you say anything about either of them.
Two Characters, Side by Side	Compare two characters by what each one decides, not by what each one is called.
Patterns of Events Across Stories	Recognize the shape two stories share, and find the exact place where they stop sharing it.
Same Idea, Different Story	State what each text says about a shared subject, then compare the two statements.
Two Tellers of One Event	Compare who is telling each text and what that teller was in a position to know.
The Same Story in Another Form	Compare what a poem, a play, a story or an explanation can and cannot carry.

Main Idea & Supporting Details · 6 topics

Topic or Main Idea?	Tell what a text is about from what it says about it.
Finding the Main Idea	Say in one sentence what a whole text is telling you.
Main Ideas That Are Not Written Down	Work out the main idea when no sentence states it.
Details That Back It Up	Find the fact in a text that supports a particular idea.
Writing a Summary	Retell a text keeping only what matters.
Telling a Detail from the Main Idea	Spot the sentence that is only a detail.

Author's Purpose & Point of View · 3 topics

Why the Author Wrote It	Name what a text was built to do, not just what it is about.
The Author's Point of View	Say what the writer thinks about the subject, even when no opinion is stated.
Words That Take a Side	Notice how a writer's wording steers what a reader concludes.

Inference, Evidence & Summarizing · 6 topics

Stated or Implied?	Tell what a text says outright from what it only lets you conclude.
What One Detail Tells You	Draw the conclusion a single detail supports, and stop there.
The Line That Proves It	Given a claim, find the sentence in the text that actually supports it.
Putting Two Details Together	Reach a conclusion that no single sentence in the text states.
Which Evidence Is Strongest	Choose between two relevant details by asking which one settles it.
Inference or Guess?	Spot the step that goes past what the text can carry.

Integrating Multiple Sources · 5 topics

What Your Sources Are Really About	State the one question a set of sources is answering, precisely enough to compare them.
Where Sources Agree	Find the ground two sources share before you look at where they split.
Where Sources Disagree	Locate the exact sentence where two sources stop agreeing.
A Fact Fight or a Meaning Fight	Tell whether two sources disagree about what happened or about what it means.
What Each Source Chose to Include	Notice what one source puts first, and what another leaves out entirely.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (2-4) · 3 topics

The Main Idea of a History Text	Find what a history passage is really about.
Evidence in a History Text	Point to the detail that actually proves a claim.
Whose Story Is Being Told	Notice whose point of view a history text takes, and who is missing.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (5-6) · 2 topics

Reading a Source Like a Historian	Ask who made a source, when, and what they wanted it to do.
When Sources Disagree	Compare accounts of the same event instead of trusting one.

Nouns & Verbs · 4 topics

What a Noun Is	Name the words that stand for a person, place, or thing.
What a Verb Is	Name the words that tell what someone does.
Finding the Verb in a Sentence	Pick out the verb inside a whole sentence.
Finding Both Parts	Pick out the noun and the verb in the same sentence.

Sentence Types, Fragments & Run-Ons · 4 topics

Spotting a Fragment	Tell when a group of words stops before it is a sentence.
Spotting a Run-On	Notice when two sentences have been jammed into one.
Three Ways to Fix a Run-On	Repair a run-on, and choose the repair that fits the meaning.
Joining Two Sentences	Combine short sentences with the joining word the meaning needs.

Conjunctions, Prepositions & Complex Sentences · 6 topics

Clause, or Just a Phrase?	Tell an independent clause, a dependent clause, and a phrase apart.
All Seven Coordinating Conjunctions	Choose among the seven - and, but, or, so, for, nor, and yet - by what each one claims.
The Comma Before a Joining Word	When a joining word holds two halves together, the comma goes in only if a whole sentence follows it.
Subordinating Conjunctions	Use because, although, unless, until, and their kin to say how two ideas relate.
Where the Comma Goes in a Complex Sentence	Comma after a leading dependent clause, none after a trailing one.
Simple, Compound, Complex	Name the structure of any sentence by counting its clauses.

Writing Strong Sentences · 3 topics

Knowing When You Have a Sentence	Tell a finished sentence from a piece of one.
Joining Two Sentences	Put two related sentences together without making a run-on.
Choosing the Right Joining Word	Pick the joining word that states the real relationship.

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