ENGLISH III, AMERICAN LITERATURE



SAMPLE



  1. The Beginning of the American Tradition -- four weeks


    1. The students will read, discuss, and analyze works by early and contemporary American authors.

      1. Prose
        1. William Bradford from Of Plymouth Plantation
        2. John Smith from The General History of Virginia
        3. Jonathan Edwards from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
        4. Benjamin Franklin from The Autobiography
        5. Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur from Letters from an American Farmer
        6. Puritan work ethic essay on Cal Ripkin

      2. Poetry
        1. Anne Bradstreet
          1. "To My Dear and Loving Husband"
          2. "Upon the Burning of Our House"
        2. Edward Taylor The Preface to God's Determination
        3. Selected Native American verse
        4. Joni Mitchell "Big Yellow Taxi"

      3. Drama
        1. Arthur Miller The Crucible
        2. Selections from other plays


    2. Writing

      1. An essay comparing and contrasting the New England and Southern Colonists through the works of Bradford and Smith
      2. An narrative essay discussing a time when the student had to stand against the majority
      3. Review diction, detail, and point of view in style analysis.
      4. Will discuss, practice, and write examples of organization papers and syntax analysis papers on two selections by a published author.
      5. A letter to a college
      6. Begin timed writing


    3. Vocabulary study, quotation memorization, and journal entries


    4. Grammar as it applies to the student's writing


    5. Outside Reading of 300 pages



  2. The Emerging American Identity -- four weeks


    1. The students will explore, read, and analyze works by American writers that illustrate a distinctive American voice.

      1. Prose
        1. Washington Irving "The Devil and Tom Walker"
        2. Ralph Waldo Emerson
          1. from "Nature"
          2. from "Self-Reliance"
        3. Henry David Thoreau "Civil Disobedience" from Walden
        4. Edgar Allen Poe
          1. "Fall of the House of Usher"
          2. "The Oval Portrait"
        5. Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Minister's Black Veil"
        6. Herman Melville from Moby Dick
        7. Michael Dorris "Three Yards"
        8. Joyce Carol Oats "Where Is Here?"

      2. Poetry
        1. William Cullen Bryant
          1. "Thanatopsis"
          2. "To a Waterfowl"
        2. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
          1. "A Psalm of Life"
          2. "The Tide Rises The Tide Falls"
        3. Oliver Wendell Holmes
          1. "Old Ironsides"
          2. "The Chambered Nautilus"
        4. James Russell Lowell
          1. "The First Snowfall"
          2. "Auspex"
        5. John Greenleaf Whittier "Hampton Beach" from "Snowbound"
        6. Edgar Allen Poe
          1. "To Helen"
          2. "The Raven"

      3. Novel The Scarlet Letter



    2. Writing

      1. Style analysis paper on four of the elements
      2. Process analysis on word search research
      3. Discussion of who is the more evil using comparison and contrast, Dimesdale or Chillingsworth
      4. Timed writing


    3. Vocabulary study, quotation memorization, journal entries


    4. Grammar study as needed


    5. Outside reading of 300 pages



  3. The American Short Story -- four weeks


    1. The student will read, study, and analyze selected short works of fiction and develop an individual analysis supported by secondary sources.

      1. Beginnings
        1. Ambrose Bierce "An Occurance at Owl's Creek Bridge"
        2. Bret Harte "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"
        3. Sarah Owen Jewett "A White Heron"
        4. Jack London "To Build a Fire"
        5. Kate Chopin "The Story of an Hour"

      2. The Modern
        1. Sherwood Anderson "Sophistication"
        2. F. Scott Fitzgerald "Winter Dreams"
        3. Kathryn Anne Porter "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
        4. John Steinbeck "Flight"
        5. Eudora Welty "A Worn Path"

      3. The Emerging Contemporary
        1. Flannery O'Conner "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"
        2. Anne Tyler "Average Waves in Unprotected Waters"
        3. John Updike "The Slump"
        4. Joyce Carol Oats "Journey"


    2. Writing

      1. Short story analysis
      2. Documented short story analysis with critical sources
      3. Narrative essay
      4. Timed writing


    3. Vocabulary study, quotations, and journal entries


    4. Grammar study as needed


    5. Outside reading of 300 pages



  4. Through the Eyes of the Poet -- two weeks


    1. The student will read and analyze poems from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

      1. Early modern poets
        1. Walt Whitman
          1. "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
          2. "Song of Myself"
          3. "Beat! Beat! Drums"
          4. "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"
          5. "A Noiseless Patient Spider"
        2. Emily Dickinson selected poems

      2. Modern poets
        1. Amy Lowell "Patterns"
        2. Carl Sandberg
          1. "Grass"
          2. "Chicago"
        3. Edna St. Vincent Millay "Renascence"
        4. John Crowe Ransom "Janet Waking"
        5. Archibald MacLeish "Ars Poetics"
        6. e.e. cummings
          1. "since feeling is first"
          2. "anyone lived in a pretty how town"
        7. Robert Frost
          1. "Birches"
          2. "Mending Wall"
          3. "The Death of the Hired Man"
          4. "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"
          5. "Fire and Ice"
          6. "Acquainted with the Night"
        8. W.H. Auden "The Unknown Citizen"

      3. Contemporary poets
        1. Theodore Roethke
          1. "The Waking"
          2. "Once More, the Round"
        2. Richard Wilbur "The Beautiful Changes"
        3. Sylvia Plath "Mirror"
        4. Andrienne Rich "The Observer"


    2. Writing

      1. Timed writing
      2. Position paper on a value and its significance
      3. Poetry analysis


    3. Vocabulary study, quotation memorization, journal entries


    4. Grammar study when needed


    5. Outside reading of 300 pages



  5. The Multi-Cultural Voices -- four weeks


    1. The student will explore the many ethnic voices of America in order to analyze and discuss them

      1. Poetry
        1. Gwendolyn Brooks "The Explorer"
        2. Alice Walker "Expect Nothing"
        3. Langston Hughes "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
        4. Arna Bontemps "A Black Talks of Reaping"

      2. Prose, fiction
        1. Alice Walker "Everyday Use"
        2. James Baldwin "The Rockpile"
        3. Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

      3. Prose, non-fiction
        1. N. Scott Monaday "A Vision Beyond Time and Place"
        2. Ralph Ellison from Hidden Name and Complex Fate
        3. Kuangchi C. Chang from Garden of My Childhood

      4. Drama
        1. The history of American drama
        2. The role of minorities in drama
        3. Lorainne Hansbury's play
        4. Excerpts from other dramas


    2. Writing

      1. The college application
      2. The college application essay
      3. Timed writing
      4. Essay relating the effect of differences


    3. Vocabulary study, quotation memorization, journal entries


    4. Grammar study as needed


    5. Outside reading of 300 pages


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