Welcome to
Literature Odyssey
for grades 8 to 12
Embark on an exciting journey to confident, critical reading.
Introducing
The Literature Odyssey Series
Literature Odyssey is designed to help high school students build the necessary skills to be confident readers of literature. The curriculum strengthens students’ abilities to read, analyze, and think critically. Throughout the series, students will immerse themselves in various literary genres from a diverse range of authors, encouraging them to engage deeply with the material.
Literature Odyssey: Poetry
Coming July 2026
Coming in 2027
Literature Odyssey: Drama
Literature Odyssey: Novels
Available now!
Literature Odyssey: Short Stories
Literature Odyssey: Short Stories is a 16-week course for grades 8 to 10 that focuses on building deep and active reading habits while practicing purposeful annotation. Students find and use textual evidence to support their analysis in a variety of assignments. In this course, plot structure, setting, characterization, conflict, and theme are examined within ten short stories from a diverse range of authors and topics.
The Teacher Guide eBook is available for purchase separately. It follows the student guide lesson for lesson and includes suggested answer keys, completed worksheets, and project rubrics to help assess student mastery of the material.
Stories found in Literature Odyssey: Short Stories
The course provides all ten requisite short stories along with generous annotation space for students.
Short stories included
- "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
- "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
- "Thank You, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes
- "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst
- "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain
- "The Medicine Bag" by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
- "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
- "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl
- "The Stolen Party" by Liliana Heker
- "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
Assignments found in Literature Odyssey: Short Stories
The first Literature Odyssey course, Short Stories, introduces active reading and annotation skills to encourage students to engage deeply with the stories. As students progress through the curriculum, they will build upon these skills to create a strong foundation, preparing them to become critical readers of literature.
Content Assignment
The Content Assignment provides students with valuable practice in applying the knowledge and skills they acquired during the lesson.
First Read
The first read is a "deep reading." The objective of the first read is to understand what happens in the story.
Comprehension Check
Students check their understanding of what happened in the stories before tackling more complicated analysis questions.
Second Read & Annotation
Students engage with the story in the second read, learn how to annotate, and read for deeper meaning.
Story Assignment
The Story Assignment is designed
to encourage critical thinking. Each unique assignment challenges students to develop insightful interpretations.
Analysis Questions
Analysis questions require critical thinking and justification with textual evidence from the story.
Reflection Activity
The Reflection Activity encourages students to identify the strategies that work best for them. This allows students to take control of their own learning as they develop a more perceptive understanding of literature.
Unit Projects
Students chose from a variety of writing and art projects related to the stories. Projects include creating a character mood board, writing a film script, and designing a book bento box.
Capstone Conversations
Students have conversations with a parent or teacher to determine how well they understand the material.
Coming July 2026
Literature Odyssey: Poetry
This 16-week course continues the precedent set by Literature Odyssey: Short Stories in cultivating deep and active reading skills through purposeful annotation of poetry and utilization of textual evidence to support literary analysis. Poetry is often seen as difficult or irrelevant, but this course aims to dispel that myth.
This course examines poem structure, imagery, figurative language, allusion, rhythm and meter, sound devices, and themes. Various types of poems are discussed, weaving a historical strand through this course. Types of poetry include tanka, haiku, cinquain, ode, elegy, ballad, epic, sonnet, and free and blank verse.
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Poems found in Literature Odyssey: Poetry
Sixty-one poems are referenced, reprinted, or used for student analysis. Excerpts from ancient epics such as the Kalevala, Iliad, and Odyssey are included as well as ballads such as “The Ballad of John Henry." The course provides generous annotation space for students.
Poems covered are from both classic and modern poets including Dante Alighieri, Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, Amanda Gorman, Seamus Heaney, Langston Hughes, John Keats, Marianne Moore, Ogden Nash, Jose Olivarez, Mary Oliver, Li Po, Edgar Allan Poe, Carl Sandburg, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, and William Wordsworth.
Assignments found in Literature Odyssey: Poetry
The second Literature Odyssey course, Poetry, cultivates deep and active reading skills through purposeful annotation of poetry and utilization of textual evidence to support literary analysis. As students progress through the curriculum, they will build upon these skills to create a strong foundation, preparing them to become critical readers of literature.
Content Assignment
The Content Assignment provides students with valuable practice in applying the knowledge and skills they acquired during the lesson.
First Read
Each lesson includes several poems. Students will take time with these poems, reading them carefully, and reading them out loud.
Wordplay
Wordplay challenges students to play with the language of poetry as a poet. These fun assignments give students another perspective on how the elements of poetry come together.
Listen to the Poem
The course provides links where students can hear many of the poems read aloud, several by the poets themselves.
Analysis Assignment
Poem analysis provides an opportunity
to demonstrate understanding through careful reading of the poem and thoughtful annotations.
Analysis Questions
Analysis questions require critical thinking and justification with evidence from the poem.
Projects
Projects include a poetry scavenger hunt and in-depth analysis of a poem by Amanda Gorman.
Capstone Conversations
Students have conversations with a parent or teacher to see how well they understand the material.
