How can teachers lead meaningful and compelling literature conversations? To answer the question, Andrew and Julie welcome Amanda Butler to the podcast. Amanda is a homeschool mom, tutor, and Vice President of Training and Support for Classical Conversations. In this episode Amanda shares her number one tool for leading literature discussions: the five common topics of dialectic. Amanda explains how she guides her students through each of the topics, asking questions along the way to help them think about and engage with the books they are reading.

Referenced Materials

• "The Four Language Arts"
  • Article
  • Audio talk
  • Podcast Series: Listening | Speaking | Reading | Writing | Thinking
• Classical Conversations
• Primary Arts of Language 
• The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• The Odyssey by Homer
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• The Core by Leigh A. Bortins
• The Question by Leigh A. Bortins
• The Conversation by Leigh A. Bortins
• Transcript of Podcast Episode 346

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† Contains distinctly Christian content

MEET OUR GUEST

After a nearly decade-long career in semiconductor process engineering (a.k.a. playing with electrons), Amanda Butler stumbled into her true vocation while helping elementary school students memorize Bible verses during Vacation Bible School.  Since making the transition from electrons to children, she has taught in various capacities including private tutoring, public school, private school, and now homeschooling.  Amanda and her family made Classical Conversations the core of their homeschool after discovering Classical Conversations during a dinner party in 2008. She began her tenure in CC as a Foundations Tutor and has served as a Challenge A and IV Director, Challenge A Academic Advisor, Academic Development Manager, and now VP of Training and Support. One of Amanda’s favorite things about Classical Conversations is that homeschooling families are rightly recognized as image-bearers of God and accordingly encouraged and equipped to better know God, themselves, and the world around them via ongoing conversations with one another.