Description
Writing through To Kill a Mockingbird provides a seminar in creative writing through a set of self-paced video lectures. Jonathan Rogers explores this masterpiece of American fiction to teach writers how to use point of view, pacing, and mannerisms to write what you know.
Dr. Rogers has written The Wilderking Trilogy, The World According to Narnia, and other books.
Writing Through To Kill a Mockingbird is part of the new series Creative Writing with Jonathan Rogers. Purchase the whole series or explore one of the other lecture sets for your homeschool:
Try sample lessons in our online learning platform.
License: This product is licensed for use by one family. For group, co-op, or school use, each family will need to purchase a copy or purchase licenses for each student. For more information, visit our group license page.
Sample Lessons
Experience sample lessons inside our learning platform:
- Engaging video lectures
- Reading assignments
- Writing prompts
Try Sample Lessons
In the meantime, here is just one of the videos available at the link above.
Sample Exercises
Writing Exercise #1
This is a two-part exercise about first-person point of view:
- Pick a familiar fairytale or folktale and retell it in first person from the point of view one of the characters.
- Then tell the same story again, in first person from the point of view of another character.
Writing Exercise #2
Skim two chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird and note every place where Harper Lee shifts from writing in-scene to writing out-of-scene, or vice versa.
Now go back to the out-of-scene sections. What does Harper Lee accomplish by pulling out of scene? Some of the possibilities from the video lesson include:
- Providing exposition or background information
- Conveying necessary information
- Moving the story along or skipping ahead
- Establishing tone and voice