Download AMERICAN LITERATURE

English Department Syllabus – American Literature Standard
AMERICAN LITERATURE
STANDARD LEVEL
½ CREDIT – JUNIOR ENGLISH REQUIRED
I.
11th GRADE STANDARD AMERICAN LITERATURE
II.
INSTRUCTORS
Ruthie Roth and Courtney Eddleman
III.
TEXT
A. Kinsella, Kate, et al. Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voice,
Timeless Themes: The American Experience. Glenview,
Illinois: Pearson Education, Inc., 2002.
IV.
PREREQUISITES
Students must have passed both semesters of freshman LA 9 and
sophomore LA 10 English classes.
V.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The STANDARD LEVEL of AMERICAN LITERATURE is a semester
course composed of selections representing the best American
writing from four centuries. The chronological survey of American
literature begins with excerpts from the Colonial Period and
continues through time to modern American prose, poetry, and
drama. The American dream, or our hope for the future, is shared
from the writings of the Puritans and our early leaders such as
Franklin and Jefferson through the selected works of some of our
modern spokesmen including Hemingway, Wilder, Frost,
Sandburg and other great writers.
This course helps the student become aware of the changing
values of Americans. Through renowned works of outstanding
American authors the student gains a mastery of a sufficient
portion of our nation’s literary heritage to insure an appreciation of
American literature as well as an awareness of our literature being
an important reflection of our nation’s history.
Enrichment consists of reading and reporting on several
books/plays each semester; students will select books from a list
compiled by the instructor or by approval of the instructor. Class
group study of one or more novels may also be included in the
course. Writing assignments may consist of compositions based
on important features of selections read, an analyzation of a work,
special reporting, keeping a literature notebook, etc. There may
be one oral presentation during a semester. Audio-visual aids are
used also.
VI.
COURSE CONTENT
A. UNIT 1: BEGINNINGS – 1750 – INTRODUCTION
1. Part 1 – Meeting of Cultures
a.
b.
c.
d.
Onondaga – “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” (optional)
Modoc – “Where Grizzlies Walked Upright” (optional)
Navajo – from The Navajo Origin Legend (optional)
Equiano – from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano (optional)
2. Part 2 – Focus on Literary Forms: Narrative Accounts
a. Smith – from The General History of Virginia
b. Bradford – from Of Plymouth Plantation
c. Wolfe – from The Right Stuff (optional)
3. Part 3 – The Puritan Influence
a. Bradstreet – “To My Dear and Loving Husband”
b. Taylor – “Huswifery”
c. Edwards – from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
B. UNIT 2: A NATION IS BORN (1750 – 1800) – INTRODUCTION
1. Part 1: Voices of Freedom
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Franklin – from The Autobiography
Franklin – from Poor Richard’s Almanack
Jefferson – The Declaration of Independence (optional)
Paine – from The Crisis, Number 1
Wheatley – “To His Excellency, General Washington
(optional)
2. Part 2: Focus on Literary Forms: Speeches
a. Henry – “Speech in the Virginia Convention”
b. Kennedy – “Inaugural Address” (optional)
c. Adams – “Letter to Her Daughter From the New York
White House”
d. Jean de Crévecoeur – “from Letters From an American
Farmer”
C. UNIT 3: A GROWING NATION (1800 – 1870) -- INTRODUCTION
1. Part 1: Fireside and Campfire
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Irving – “The Devil and Tom Walker”
Longfellow – “The Psalm of Life” (optional)
Longfellow – “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”
Bryant – “Thanatopsis”
Holmes – “Old Ironsides”
Lowell – “The First Snowfall”
Whittier – from Snowbound
2. Part 2: Shadows of the Imagination
a. Poe – “The Fall of the House of Usher”
or “The Pit and the Pendulm”
b. Poe – “The Raven” (& others) (optional)
c. Hawthorne – “The Minister’s Black Veil”
Or “Dr. Heidigger’s Experiment”
d. Melville – from Moby-Dick or
– from Redburn
e. Cooper – from Deerslayer or
from The Prairie
3. Part 3: The Human Spirit and the Natural World
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Emerson – from Nature
Emerson – from Self-Reliance
Emerson – “Concord Hymn”
Emerson – “The Snowstorm”
Thoreau – from Walden
Thoreau – from Civil Disobedience (optional)
4. Part 4: Focus on Literary Forms: Poetry
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Dickinson – “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”
Dickinson – “My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close”
Dickinson – “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
Dickinson – Other Poems (optional)
Whitman – “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
Whitman – “I Hear America Singing”
Whitman – from Song of Myself
Whitman – “By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame” or
“Beat! Beat! Drums!
i. Whitman – Other Poems (optional)
D. UNIT 4: DIVISION, RECONCILIATION, AND EXPANSION (1850
– 1914) – INTRODUCTION
1. Part 1: A Nation Divided
a. Crane – “An Episode of War” or
Crane – “The Open Boat”
b. Spiritual – “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (optional)
c. Spiritual – “Go Down, Moses” (optional)
d. Bierce – “An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge” (optional)
e. Lincoln – “The Gettysburg Address” (optional)
f. Lincoln – “Second Inaugural Address” (optional)
g. Lee – “Letter to His Son” (optional)
h. Douglas – “from My Bondage and My Freedom”
2. Part 2: Focus on Literary Forms: Diaries, Journals and
Letters
a. Jackson – “An Account of the Battle of Bull Run” (optional)
b. Truth – “An Account of an Experience With
Discrimination” (optional)
c. Moore – “Gulf War Journal from A Woman at War”
(optional)
d. Goss – “Reflections of a Private”
3. Part 3: Forging New Frontiers
a. Twain – from Life on the Mississippi or
“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
(optional)
a. Harte – “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”
b. London – “To Build a Fire”
4. Part 4: Living in a Changing World
a. Chopin – “The Story of an Hour” (optional)
a. Robinson – “Luke Havergal”
b. Robinson – “Richard Cory”
c. Masters – “Lucinda Matlock”
d. Masters – Other Poems (optional)
e. Cather – “The Sculptor’s Funeral” or
“A Wagner Matinee”
E. UNIT 5: DISILLUSION, DEFIANCE, AND DISCONTENT (1914 –
1946) – INTRODUCTION
1. Part 1: Facing Troubled Times
a.
b.
c.
d.
Eliot – “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (optional)
Williams, Pound, & H.D. – (choose a few selections)
Fitzgerald – “Winter Dreams” or “The Baby Party”
Steinbeck – “The Turtle” or “Flight” or “Migrants”
2. Part 2: Focus on Literary Forms: The Short Story
a. Hemingway – “In Another Country”
a. Welty – “A Worn Path”
3. Part 3: From Every Corner of the Land
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
Sandburg – “Chicago”
Sandburg – “Grass”
Porter – “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Faulkner – “Race at Morning” or “The Bear” (optional)
Frost – “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Frost – “Mending Well” (optional)
Frost – “Out, Out—”
Frost – “The Gift Outright” (optional)
Frost – “The Death of the Hired Man” (optional)
Frost – “The Road Not Taken”
Thurber – “The Night the Ghost Got In” (optional)
F. UNIT 6: PROSPERITY AND PROTEST (1946 – PRESENT) –
INTRODUCTION
1. Part 1: Literature Confronts the Everyday
a. O’Connor – “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
(optional)
b. Malamud – “The First Seven Years” (optional)
c. Updike – “The Brown Chest”
d. Momaday – “from The Names” (optional)
e. Nye – “Mint Snowball” (optional)
f. Walker – “Everyday Use” (optional)
g. Kingston – from The Woman Warrior (optional)
2. Part 2: Focus on Literary Forms: Essay
a. McCurllers – from The Mortgaged Heart (optional)
3. Part 3: Social Protest
a. Bladwin – “The Rockpile” (optional)
b. Hersey – from Hiroshima (optional)
c. Jarrell – “Losses” (optional)
d. Miller – The Crucible (optional)
G. NOVELS/PLAYS
1.
2.
3.
4.
VII.
Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter (optional)
Twain – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (optional)
Wilder – Our Town (optional)
Miller - The Crucible (optional)
COURSE FORMAT
The following instructional strategies may be used in the teaching
of this course: lecture, mini-lecture, small-group collaboration,
discussion, projects, and technology-based learning.
VIII. COURSE EXPECTATIONS
Students will be expected to complete all reading, writing, and
speaking assignments and fulfill all tasks for daily homework. All
will be expected to contribute to discussions and in-class activities
as well as individual and group presentations. Book/play reviews
may be included. Some cooperative learning experiences,
individual projects, vocabulary study, and research work may also
be expected.
IX.
GRADES
Final course grades may include the following forms of
assessment: daily work, class participation, quizzes, exams,
projects, essays/compositions, oral presentations, technologybased presentations, semester final exams, and alternative
assessments as determined by individual instructors.
X.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
A. Literature
1. The student will be able to trace the concept of the American
dream as it develops and changes throughout the various
literary periods.
2. The student will be able to compare and contrast the way of
life of the Puritan and Cavalier.
3. The student will be able to explain Calvinism.
4. The student will be able to recognize the major kinds of
Colonial literature and the important Colonial writers.
5. The student will be able to identify and define the conceit.
6. The student will be able to name and explain the major
ideas/themes found in selections studied from the Colonial
Era.
7. The student will be able to define deism.
8. The student will be able to contrast deism to Puritanism.
9. The student will be able to recognize the elements and
purpose of persuasive writing of deistic/Revolutionary
writers.
10. The student will be able to name and explain major
ideas/themes found in selections studied from the
Revolutionary Era.
11. The student will be able to define and explain satire.
12. The student will be able to define classicism.
13. The student will be able to define romanticism.
14. The student will be able to recognize romantic qualities in
romantic literature.
15. The student will be able to define/explain the
characteristics of a romantic hero.
16. The student will be able to identify/define blank verse.
17. The student will be able to name and explain major
ideas/themes found in selections studied from the period of
romanticism.
18. The student will be able to define transcendentalism.
19. The student will be able to explain the ideals of Emerson
and Thoreau.
20. The student will be able to name and explain major
ideas/themes found in selections studied from the period of
transcendentalism.
21. The student will be able to explain why the style and themes
of the Fireside Poets were popular.
22. The student will be able to define/explain the sonnet.
23. The student will be able to name and explain major
ideas/themes found in selections of some of the Fireside
Poets/Cambridge Writers.
24. The student will be able to identify the impact of the style
and subject matter of the poetry of Emily Dickinson on the
Modern Era.
25. The student will be able to recognize the importance of Walt
Whitman in the development of modern poetry.
26. The student will be able to name and explain the major
ideas/themes found in the selections of Emily Dickinson
and Walt Whitman that were studied in class.
27. The student will be able to define realism.
28. The student will be able to identify the viewpoint of a
realistic writer.
29. The student will be able to name and explain the major
ideas/themes found in realistic works studied.
30. The student will be able to define naturalism.
31. The student will be able to identify the viewpoint of a
naturalistic writer.
32. The student will be able to name and explain the major
ideas/themes found in naturalistic works.
33. The student will be able to recognize the characteristics of
local color writing.
34. The student will be able to analyze the five parts of a plot of
fiction.
35. The student will be able to explain how the modern short
story deals with contemporary themes.
36. The student will be able to recognize revelations about the
author as a person from his/her work.
37. The student will be able to recognize the function of setting
in a literary work.
38. The student will be able to analyze an author’s methods of
characterization.
39. The student will be able to explain the function of tone in a
specific literary work.
40. The student will be able to analyze the function of point of
view in a specific literary work.
41. The student will be able to name and explain the major
ideas/themes found in modern short stories studied in
class.
42. The student will be able to recognize poetic feet.
43. The student will be able to recognize poetic meter.
44. The student will be able to recognize the power of
suggestion of figurative language.
45. The student will be able to recognize free verse.
46. The student will be able to recognize experimental forms in
modern poetry as opposed to traditional.
47. The student will be able to name and explain the major
ideas/themes found in modern poetry studied in class.
48. The student will be able to state and explain the major
ideas/themes found in novels and plays studied in class.