American literature Honors

American Literature Honors   (Becker)

Course Description, Course Objectives, Classroom Expectations, Grading, and Syllabus

Course Description:

American Literature Honors requires additional reading, writing, and further analysis of the literary works covered in American Literature (English III).  In addition to the material covered in English III, the honors section will read The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck,   short stories written by Willa Cather, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, and Edgar Allen Poe. Students will also read and discuss American plays written by Eugene O’Neill, Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, and Authur Miller.  Work with the vocabulary series continues with Wordly Wise Book 8. Development of writing skills will continue with Rules for Writers.

Course Objectives:

a. Enhance Vocabulary skills. Students will be able to define three hundred out of three hundred and seventy five vocabulary words with Greek or Latin roots.

b. Increase Reading Skills.  Students will read a wide variety of poems, novels, short stories, and essays written by American writers from the 17th century to the present day.

c. Sharpen Analytical Skills.  Students will be familiar with the terms Realism, Romanticism, Classicism, Modernism, and Imagism and use these terms as reference points when discussing the works read in class.  Students will recognize themes and ideas that are recurring in American literature from the late 17h century to the present

d. Practice Oral Presentation Skills.  Students will become familiar with the   works   of specific American novelists and poets from the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, then present them in a way that will enhance the groups understanding and appreciation for the work. 

e. Improve Writing Skills by creating written responses to literature.  Students will create written responses to literature for the purposes of Explaining, Evaluating, Problem Solving, and Arguing. Secondary sources will be required for some of these written responses.  One research paper will be assigned in the second semester of the course.

f. Improve Critical Thinking Skills; Students will be able to explain, through the means of essays and class discussion, how the works they read relate to the world around them        

 Classroom Expectations:

1. Come prepared. 

          This class is hard work.  Having read the required material and completed the required writing assignments is only a beginning. Read ahead. If your syllabus tells you we begin a unit on The Scarlet Letter on Monday, I will expect you to have read a good deal of it by Monday.

2. Contribute to Discussion.

          You are expected to contribute to discussion. Habitually sitting back and letting others come up with the ideas means your grade will suffer. Participation in class discussions can count for up to 5 points per day.

3. Always bring the required text(s) to class.

4. Be on time.

          Be in your desk and ready to begin when the bell rings. The attendance policy in the student handbook will be strictly followed.  Tardiness and absence can hurt your grade.

5. Check the weekly class schedule.

           A weekly schedule will be posted in the classroom and on the school's                website. Click on Mr. Becker under the English Dept.  

Grading and Assignments:

Each unit will contain the following:

Contribution to Class Discussion

Quizzes (at least 2 per unit)

Essays (at least 1 per unit)

3 word lists from the Wordly Wise workbook

Writing and Grammar exercises

1 special project or exam

Syllabus Semester I (subject to change)

Unit I

Weeks 1-2 Aug. 22-Sept. 2.

              Summer Reading:

Catcher in The Rye

Literary Genres and Terms

Writing the Response to Literature

Wordly Wise word lists 1-3

Review the writing process (Hacker pgs. 1-56)

Unit II

April 24 - May 12

Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter

The Minister’s Black Veil (anthology)

The Crucible, Arthur Miller

Puritan Witch Trials

The Red Scare of the 1950's

Unit III

Weeks 3-7, Sept. 6- Sept. 30

              The Great Gatsby

              Winter Dreams (anthology)

              Hemingway Short Story (anthology)

              Imagist Poetry (anthology and web)

              Wordly Wise word lists 4-5

             The Emperor Jones (bookstore or web)

              April Showers (anthology)

Unit III

Weeks 8-12 Oct.3 Oct 28 (Oct. 14 = end of quarter 1)

              Harlem Renaissance Poetry

              Zora Neil Hurston  Short Story (anthology)

              Music of the Harlem Renaissance

             Literature of the Harlem Renaissance

             Wordly Wise word lists 7-9

Unit IV

Weeks 13-18, Oct 31- Dec. 14. (Dec. 21 = end of quarter 2)

              John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

              Wordly Wise word lists 10-12

              Dec. 20, 8 a.m. Semester Final

Semester II

Unit V

Weeks 19-22 Jan. 4 - Feb. 3

Literature of the American Theatre

                            The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill

                            The Childrens Hour by Lillian Hellman

                            The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman

                            A Streetcar Named Desire by Tenessee Williams

                            Death of A Salesman  by Arthur Miller

                            The Crucible by Arthur Miller

                            Wordly wise word lists 13-15

Unit VI

Weeks 23-25   Feb 6- Feb. 25

American Women Writers 1850-1920

             The Life You Save May Be Your Own Flannery O'Connor (anthology,web)

             Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor

             A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

             A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather (anthology)

             Paul’s Case by Willa Cather (online text)

             Love on the Bon Dieu by Kate Chopin (online text)

             The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin (anthology)

             Miss Tempy’s Watcher’s  by Sarah Orne Jewett (online text)

             Wordly Wise Word lists 16-18

Unit VII

Weeks 26-30, Feb. 27 – March 31    

(March 10 = end of Quarter 3.  Spring Break: March 12- 18)

Easter Break: March 24-28)

Mark Twain and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Story of the Old Ram (online text)

The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (online text)

Slave Narratives (Library of Congress website)

The Fireside Poets (anthology)

Wordly Wise Word lists 19,20,21

Unit VIII

April 3 – April 21

The Transcendentalists

              The Story of the Dial  Margaret Fuller (anthology)

              Nature and Self Reliance, Emerson (excerpts in anthology)

              Civil Disobedience and Walden Pond Thoreau  (excerpts in anthology)

              Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman (anthology, online texts)

              Selected Poems by Emily Dickenson (anthology, online texts)