What is the Pelican Society?

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In 2015, we opened a membership program for parents and teachers who love the CenterForLit approach to all things literary. The Pelican Society exists to encourage its members in their noble work as teachers, to rejoice with them in the privilege of training the young, and to equip them as readers to join the Great Conversation.

Everything in The Pelican Society is intentionally designed to fulfill one of three purposes:

  • To equip parents and teachers with the tools they need to feel confident in their ability to lead students into a love and understanding of literature.

  • To lighten the burden of a busy teacher or homeschooling parent by providing teaching resources for literary study.

  • To provide honest community for teachers, parents, and readers. There are so many standards, so many laws to keep. So often we retreat into loneliness or put up a pretense of success. There's no need for that here. If there's any theme more prominent than others throughout the Great Books, it is the idea that strength comes from relationship founded on common weakness and failure. In reading and conversing together, may we find that true friendship described by C.S. Lewis: "What? You too? I thought I was the only one!"

Member Benefits 

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Teacher Guides

Members receive complimentary access to our complete and growing teacher guide library. Teacher Guides are 20 to 30-page booklets with in-depth notes on a classic story that fully prepare a teacher for Socratic discussion. Some of our most recent titles include:

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

  • The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

  • The Iliad of Homer

 Shopping Discounts

Members receive discounts on all of our print materials and resources, as well as on all online courses.

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Audio Books 

Members receive exclusive access to our complete Radio Read Along collection, featuring our own recordings of classic books for all ages, such as :

  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (read by Adam Andrews)

  • The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (read by Missy Andrews)

  • Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (read by Adam Andrews)

  • Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (read by Megan Andrews)

  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (read by Adam Andrews)

 

Quick Cards

Members receive exclusive access to our Quick Card library, with bullet-style summaries of teaching points for dozens of classic stories. We currently have over 100 titles, with more added all the time (download a free sample).

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 Live Events

Office Hours is our live, monthly webinar covering practical teaching and homeschooling tips. Members get exclusive access and can also download all previous sessions the Pelican Society archives. Past topics include:

  • "Avoiding the Winter Blues"

  • "Teaching Multi-Age Classes"

  • "The Tyranny of the Booklist"

Members also receive free enrollment in our live discussion groups, including Pelican Book Club and Pelican Film Club.  Past discussions are available for download to members only, and include Home by Marilynne Robinson, Beowulf, and The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. Past film club discussions have covered titles such as Citizen Kane and Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

 

Pelican Forum

Membership includes access to the Pelican Forum, our chat room for parents and teachers.

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Premium Membership

Premium membership includes complete digital access to our Teaching the Classics basic seminar! Join the Pelican Society as a Premium member to stream the video sessions and download the course materials in PDF format. Enjoy all other member benefits as well, of course!

Premium membership now also includes access to our assignment template library, a collection of editable curriculum resources that can be applied to any booklist.

 We’d love to have you join us!

Our Pelicans are a special group of like-minded folk. They’ve made us cry with side-splitting laughter and encouraged us when times are hard. Although we live in different parts of the world, we can honestly say we’ve found true friends in this wonderful community. We would be honored to have you come be a part of it!

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