Syllabus
Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.” Chinese Proverb
This course is a survey of American Literature, with units on the Native Americans, the Puritans, the Age of Reason, the Romantic Era, Realism, and the 20th Century.
Although first semester American literature is arranged chronologically with a focus on themes from each literary period, related current readings and documents will be included. Second semester American literature will shift its focus to more modern writers and include related readings and documents as well.
Student writing assignments include quick writes, letters, literary analysis, interview, and persuasive, reflective, and creative writing. The students will be required to keep a journal throughout the year. Vocabulary development, critical thinking, and class participation will be emphasized. Opportunity for alternative assessment is offered at the close of each unit utilizing various forms of multi-media.
Unfold Your Own Myth
The 13th century Islamic poet Rumi wrote, “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” This introductory unit will explore the hero’s journey and rites of passage in literature and film.
Possible Readings:
A Native American legend retold by Reg Harris: The Buffalo Dance
Gawain and the Green Knight, Demeter and Persephone, The Legend of Buddha, Minos and the Minotaur
Joseph Campbell: from The Power of Myth, from The Hero of a Thousand Faces
Stephen Vincent Benet: By the Waters of Babylon
Willa Cather: Paul's Case
Richard Wright: Almos'a Man
Dorothy Johnson: Flame on the Frontier
Stephen Crane: A Mystery of Heroism
Jack London: To Build a Fire
Dayna Hall: The Locket
Possible Videos: Star Wars, The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, Field of Dreams, The Little Buddha, Logan's Run, Groundhog Day, The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
Unit 1 Beginnings to 1800
The early oral traditions and documents that define our nations values and its vision of the future are explored in this unit. Native American creation myths and the religious, political, social, and personal histories of the early English settlers are studied. The dreams that unite Americans and the clashes that sometimes separate us are seen even in these very early documents.
1st Readings:
The Bible: Genesis
African creation myths: Ethiopia, Zimbabwe
China creation myth: Nu Wa Makes Men
Slavic and Romania creation myths
Joseph Bruchac: The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky, Native American Literature, The Sky Tree; Silver Fox and Coyote Create Earth
retold by Barry Lopez: Coyote Finishes His Work
retold by James Mooney: How the World
Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst: Raven Steals the Light Haida Myth
Yuma Myth: The Good Twin and The Evil Twin
retold by Rainbow William Connelly: Earth Is Big on Turtle’s Back
Poems:
Taos Pueblo Indian: I Went To Kill the Deer; I Have Killed the Deer
Tewa Indian: Song of the Sky Loom
Qee’esh Indian; Calendar Fragments
Related current documents:
Project: Power Point on a Native American tribe and their creation myth.
2nd Readings:
Nathaniel Ward: The Evils of Toleration
Anne Bradstreet: Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666 To My Dear and Loving Husband;
Mary Rowlandson: A Narrative of the Captivity
Related current documents:
Power point: Stereotypes
MVRHS: race culture retreat sheet on “ism”
Video: The Last of the Mohicans
The Examined Life
The American character has its origins in our earliest writers. The Puritan habit of introspection and self-evaluation can be found in the sermons of the Great Awakening, and in the pragmatism of Benjamin Franklin.
Readings: Jonathan Edwards; Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Benjamin Franklin: from The Autobiography; Poor Richard’s Almanack
Related current documents:
Robert Fulghum: from All I really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Project: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God-Imagery
Unit 2: American Romanticism-1800-1860
A new generation of writers, who called themselves Romantics and Transcendentalists, took steps toward creating their own cultural identity in America. Even today we feel the effects that these writers brought about in the ways that Americans view themselves, their society, and the world of nature.
The Dark Romantics
Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Nathaniel Hawthorne inherited the Puritans' legacy of introspection. Their belief that evil inhabits the world is revealed in their works.
Readings: Washington Irving: The Devil and Tom Walker
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment
POEMS: Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven, Eldorado
Related current documents:
Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado
Stephen Vincent Benet; The Devil and Daniel Webster
The Transcendentalists and other American writers while “Marching to the Beat of a Different Drummer” looked for inspiration into unspoiled nature and to the past, and celebrated imagination and intuition as the faculties that can reveal meaning. Emerson and Thoreau call on Americans to look to nature, to trust their own intuitions, and to declare their independence from the learning of Europe.
Readings: Ralph Waldo Emerson: from Nature, from Self-Reliance, a Henry David Thoreau: from Walden
POEMS: Emily Dickinson: Much Madness is divinest Sense, How happy is the little Stone;
Emerson: Rhodora
Related current documents:
Anne Tyler: Teenage Wasteland
Poems: Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken; Mark Doty: A Display of Mackerel
Major Project: Transcendentalist Web Quest
Unit 3: The Rise of Realism-The Civil War to 1914
A new movement called realism was created after the reactions to the casualties of the Civil War and rapid urban expansion. Today historians agree that although slavery was at the heart of the Civil War, economic differences between the South and the North also contributed to the conflict.
Readings:
Harriet A. Jacobs: from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Spirituals: Go Down, Moses, Follow the Drinking Gourd, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Charles Johnson-Soulcatcher
This collection of short stories, written in a mix of literary formats, depicts events in African American history.
Primary sources: PBS's Africans in America, students see the impact of historical events on individuals.
Related current documents:
Videos: Amistad
Unit 4: Political Points of View
Henry David Thoreau coined the phrase “civil disobedience”. Utilizing essays, speeches, letters, editorials, debates, and movies on civil disobedience, students will understand purpose, text structure, and language of the persuasion genre.
Excerpt Readings:
Thoreau’s: Resistance to Civil Government
Mohandas Gandhi: On Nonviolent Resistance
Martin Luther King: Letter from Birmingham Jail
Margaret Sanger: Women and the New Race
Related current documents:
Video: Iron Jawed Angels
Unit 5: 20th Century Writers
Grading: ~Your quarter grade will be based on the following (The percentages may change slightly from quarter to quarter):
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~Writing assignments (30%)
~Reading and Homework assignments (40%)
~Vocabulary quizzes (20%)
~Class work (10%) This includes class preparation and participation
“People learn by actively constructing new knowledge, not by having information poured into their heads” Kafai and Resnick, (1996)
