American Lit.

AMERICAN LITERATURE

Summer:

All: Fahrenheit 451 (1953 Bradbury)

Pick 1:            Red Badge of Courage (1895 Crane)*

A Lesson Before Dying (1993 Gaines)

The Scarlet Letter (1850 Hawthorne)*

Little Women (1869 Alcott)*

(* available online for free)

FIRST SEMESTER QUESTION: What does it mean to be American and how did this identity develop?

Current plan for reading/writing instruction (Google Doc)

Sept: Discuss F451

Crucible (1953 Miller)

Oct: Founding Fathers

Source Supported Essay

Nov: Romanticism – Poe, Irving, Dickinson

Transcendentalism

Dec: Civil War Lit -Slave Narratives

Realism

 

SECOND SEMESTER QUESTION: How is the American Dream individualized and in what ways is it a shared experience?

Jan: American Dream

The Great Gatsby (1925 Fitzgerald)

Feb: Harlem Renaissance – Jazz Age

Mar:Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937 Hurston)

Apr:Of Mice and Men (1937 Steinbeck)

May: Culminating Project – American Dream – multi genre perhaps?

http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/litfram.html Great explanations of literary periods and lists of examples (can look for excerpts) to broaden/enrich units.