Killingly High School

English 10 Honors: American Literature Fall 2009 Mrs. Rogers Room: 606 [email protected]

Description: The literature focus of this course, as the title implies, is American literature as it has evolved from the very practical and/or religious texts of the Puritan founders to the almost limitless variety of present-day authors. Needless to say, we cannot read them all; our hope is to encourage students to expand their reading horizons, to become life-long readers enjoying the richness of other lives that is available to them through books.

Students will study literature from all the major genres: poetry, drama, short story, novel, and non-fiction. The writing aspect of the course will engage students in a variety of assignments; these assignments will use the literature as a topic (analysis), as a motivator (response, persona), and as a model (style and structure).

In addition to the anthology, students will study four major works, The Crucible by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and the Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. If time allows, students will also read The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemmingway. During these units, students will be expected to read between 25 and 30 pages a night; it is extremely important that students keep up with the reading since class work and discussion will be based on it.

The course also contains a research component, which will begin at the end of first term. Time management is an important element in the research process, and failure to meet deadlines will have a significant effect on the grade.

Course Requirements  You will need to complete all assigned readings and papers including at least one paper, exam, or project per unit of literature.  All essays and papers are to be turned in on the due date- NO EXCEPTIONS. You will be able to rewrite any assignment receiving an A- or below and you will be required to re write any incomplete assignment or assignment not receiving credit.  There will be several oral presentations and speeches during the semester as well as a group project.  I reserve the right to quiz at any time. Any test will be announced well in advance.  You will have to opportunity to make up all missing or incomplete work ONLY after meeting with me.  For all major tests and papers you will have at least two weeks notice, while minor assignments will be given with less than one week’s notice.  Homework assignments will be checked the day after they are assigned, they may not be collected. Materials Students will be expected to have the following materials everyday unless specified in class: The Language of Literature Sadlier Oxford VocabularyWorkshop notebook completed homework pen and pencil book currently in use outside reading book (when assigned)

Classroom Procedures First and foremost my classroom demands respect. With each classroom discussion you will be required to participate, but also asked to listen to your classmates and respond thoughtfully. I do not tolerate disrespectful language or treatment of peers.

Homework: A due date for homework will be given in class, there is NO exception to due dates. Homework and minor assignments will be discounted 5 points; major projects and presentation will be deducted 10 points per day late.

Absenteeism: If you are absent even for one class you are responsible for missed work. If you have email access, you can email me for assignments or missed work. Homework assignments will be due the day following your return to school. You will still be held to due dates for all major assignments regardless of attendance!

Participation: You will be required to participate in class discussion, as well as listen to your classmates and respond thoughtfully. Participation will be a percentage of your final grade.

Group Assignments: This course requires several group projects and class work. Each member of the group will be graded as an individual as well as a group. If you are assigned to work with a group for a project there will be no allowance for extended time if one or more of the members are not present during class prep time or the day the project is due. If the group is not ready to present the day due, the group’s grades will be affected.

Procedure for extra help: Should extra help be necessary, I will be available after school on Mondays and Tuesdays until 4:00 and by appointment. Don’t wait to get help, if you think you are falling behind, come see me! Additional Literature

Literary style Text Works and authors pages Coyote stories Unit 1: Origins and Iroquois myth: “The World on a Turtle’s Back” Encounters Bradford: “Plymouth Plantation” 24-128 DeVaca: “La Relacion” Native American John Smith “The New World” Exploration Leslie Marmon Silko “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” Ann Bradstreet: “To my Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of my House” Arthur Miller: The Crucible Unit 2: Colony to Edwards: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Country Henry: “Speech at the Virginia Convention” 130-250 Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence Puritan Jean de Crevecoeur “I am an American” Colonial Martin Luther King: “Stride Toward Freedom” Malcom X “Necessary to Protect Ourselves” Red Jacket “Lecture to a Missionary” Emerson: “Self Reliance” Unit 3: The Spirit of Thoreau: “Civil Disobedience” and “Walden” Individualism Whitman: “I Hear America Singing” and “I Sit and Look Out” 336-552 Irving Washington: “The Devil and Tom Walker” Transcendentalism Poe: “The Raven” and “The Masque of the Red Death” Romanticism King: “Danse Macabre” Gothicism If time: “The Life you Save May be Your Own” Bierce: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Unit 4: Conflict and Crane: “A Mystery of Heroism” Expansion 554-631 Mark Twain: “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Realism/Naturalism Douglass: Slave Narrative Emily Dickinson: Selected poems Unit 5: The Changing Face of Kate Chopin: “The Story of an Hour” America Tillie Olsen: “I Stand Here Ironing” 554-631 Carl Sanberg “Chicago” Women’s literature Edgar Lee Masters “Lucinda Matlock” Modern voices Fitzgerald: “Winter Dreams” Unit 6: The Modern Age Ernest Hemmingway “The End of Something” 920-1066 Hemmingway: The Old Man and the Sea Harlem Renaissance T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Modernism

***** Vocabulary Units 1-12. Vocab units are due every Tuesday, quiz on Friday. *****