Read closely · Prepare to converse

The Examining Life

Each course walks the same seven practices — orient, read, mark, outline, reason, prepare for seminar, reflect — through a different text. The work you do is saved as you go.

Where your reading has got to

I. Attending

You read what the course sets before you, and mark what strikes you.

What the courses hand you

The passages, their glosses, and a lens beside each one.

  1. Attending
  2. IIIInterpreting
  3. IVLeading

II. NoticingYou write the lens yourself. The course's waits until yours is written.

  • Three marks explained in your own wordsMark a passage, name why, then say what you actually see there.
    0 of 3
  • A passage you brought in yourselfAdd a passage of your own from the book in front of you.
    0 of 1

Reading courses

Choose a text

Demo progress saved on this device
Plato

Apology

What must a person love in order to speak an unwelcome truth?

Two sittings of about half an hour each.

2 of 7 practised
Cicero

On Duties

What do we owe one another when our duties conflict?

Nine sittings of about half an hour each.

0 of 7 practised
The American Founders

Founding Documents

When many states become one people, who decides where the whole ends and the parts begin?

Three sittings of about half an hour each.

0 of 7 practised
Augustine

Confessions

What is a heart restless for, when it cannot say what it wants?

Eleven sittings of about half an hour each.

0 of 7 practised
William Shakespeare

The Tempest

What is power finally for, once every enemy is already in your hands?

Five sittings of about half an hour each.

0 of 7 practised

Also in the Learning Lab

Demonstrations