This online live American Literature course is designed for high school homeschoolers in grades 9–12 who are ready to explore the diverse voices and stories that have shaped the American experience. Live weekly meetings will offer time for face-to-face conversations, questions, skills development, assignment clarification, and addressing other student concerns as needed.
Through thematic novel study, short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, students will engage deeply with questions of identity, place, society, and belief. They will analyze literature across major American movements—from Puritan sermons and Romantic poetry to Harlem Renaissance essays and postmodern prose. Students will write scholarly essays and complete creative projects that demonstrate both insight and originality.
Class Details
-
American Literature | Traditional full-year class
-
Tuition & Resources:
-
Tuition: $700
-
See class readings and resources HERE.
-
-
Instructor: Tara Limoco
-
Dates: August 25, 2025 to May 8, 2026
-
Weekly Live Meetings: Tuesdays | 12-1:15 PM EST
-
Office Hours: TBD
-
Grade level: 9th-12th (14+)
-
Students should have completed 8th grade or higher English coursework, be comfortable with paragraph structure, and familiar with the five paragraph essay.
-
-
Format:
-
Instruction is delivered through a dedicated online classroom. Live weekly meetings will include short lessons, discussion of reading assignments, and time for questions and feedback. The class will engage throughout the week in our online forum for discussion, short skills-based assignments, and peer feedback.
-
This is a teacher-graded course. Weekly assignments may include self-graded, peer reviewed, or automatically graded components, but essays and projects will receive detailed, individualized feedback from the instructor. The instructor is available for student questions and support during office hours or by request.
-
-
Average Weekly Time Commitment: 6–8 hours.
A Journey Through American Voices
What is the American Dream? What defines an American? How do race, religion, gender, geography, and ideology shape who we are and what we write?
In this course, students will self-select novels across seven thematic categories:
-
The American Dream
-
Humanity, Nature, and the Power of Place
-
Coming of Age
-
Liberty, Justice, and Equality
-
Wealth, Power, and Classism
-
Personal Identity and Cultural Diversity
Literary Movements Students Will Encounter
In addition to their novel choices, students will read short stories, poems, and essays by key writers that exemplify the major movements in American Literature. Some of the authors they will encounter include Anne Bradstreet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Zora Neale Hurston, Mark Twain, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Steven Crane, Kate Chopin, and Flannery O’Connor.
Each weekly reading assignment will be accompanied by a discussion, designed to foster literary insight, peer engagement, and critical thinking.
-
Colonial & Puritan Writing
-
Enlightenment & Revolutionary Era
-
Romanticism & Gothic
-
Transcendentalism
-
Realism & Naturalism
-
Modernism
-
The Harlem Renaissance
-
Postmodernism & Contemporary Voices
Deep Reading, Thoughtful Response
Students will complete essays and projects to enhance their understanding of the literature they read and hone their ability to express ideas with eloquence, thoughtfulness, creativity, and insight.
Each assignment will receive detailed, instructor-written feedback and guidance for revision.
Brief, targeted activities will reinforce students’ understanding of literary elements, vocabulary, and writing skills.
Purposeful Practice
Every assignment—whether a discussion post, a short reflection, or a major essay—is designed with purpose: to develop reading insight and a deeper understanding of American literature’s role in shaping and reflecting our culture.
Students will practice annotation, interpretation, argumentation, and creativity—building confidence in their ability to understand and write about literature with voice and purpose.
At the end of this course, students can expect to have a wide familiarity with American authors, literary movements, and overarching themes, as well as the ability to write and speak about them with a depth of understanding.
More about Tara Limoco
When she was a child, Tara’s mother often scolded her to “put down that book and go outside!” Tara’s love of reading started very early, from reciting preschool nursery rhymes that her parents read to her, to devouring book after book during sunny summer afternoons, to making the public library her sanctuary as a teenager. All that reading, plus the encouragement and support of a few special teachers along the way, led to an equally strong love of writing, and eventually a desire to inspire others to love the written word as much as she does. An English teacher was born.
Tara graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Science in Communication Education, which certified her to teach all English language arts, drama, and speech for middle and high school levels,
as well as reading for kindergarten through twelfth grade. She taught English and coached a small speech team in public school, just as she had always imagined.
However, she soon set out on a new adventure as part of a team preparing the charter for a school that would serve adjudicated youth in her city. Working with this group of educators proved to be the best experience she could hope for, as they learned from and leaned on each other in the complex, arduous process of preparing a charter from scratch, connecting with a unique population of students, and finding new ways to ignite curiosity in learners who had lost it.
Tara later homeschooled her three children. Her two sons are currently in college, and her daughter will head there soon as well. Much like her teaching experience in schools, she and her children learned alongside each other, explored their interests, followed their curiosity, and practiced learning as an active, cooperative process. In addition to lots of reading, writing, and discussion, they made gallons of maple syrup in their backyard, created art in a multitude of media, explored the historical, scientific, and cultural sites of their region, grew a garden, started a student-run baking business, and enjoyed many other adventures together.
In addition to these teaching experiences, Tara has taught language arts, cooking, art and book club for a homeschool co-op, been a contributing writer for the Cincinnati Mom Collective blog, and tutored reading, writing, and math with a focus on high school entrance exams. In her free time, she enjoys cooking (especially sourdough bread baking), gardening, West Coast Swing dancing, painting, writing, and of course, lots of reading.
Tara believes that words and the stories they create, whether real or imagined, hold great power. When we grow as readers and writers, parts of the world and human experience become available to us that we would otherwise never get to experience. Reading and writing are the greatest tools for connection available to us. For her, facilitating these discoveries and connections for students is the greatest joy of teaching.