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Maine Literature 101: a Course for High School Seniors Courtney Hawkes University of Maine, [email protected]

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Maine Literature 101: a Course for High School Seniors Courtney Hawkes University of Maine, Courtney.Hawkes@Maine.Edu The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library Winter 12-15-2017 Maine Literature 101: A Course for High School Seniors Courtney Hawkes University of Maine, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Other History Commons, and the Secondary Education Commons Recommended Citation Hawkes, Courtney, "Maine Literature 101: A Course for High School Seniors" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2801. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/2801 This Open-Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAINE LITERATURE 101: A COURSE FOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS By Courtney Hawkes B.S. University of Maine, 2012 A PROJECT Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (in Interdisciplinary Studies) The Graduate School University of Maine December 2017 Advisory Committee: Kreg Ettenger, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Advisor Judith Hakola, Lecturer in English Mary Mahoney-O’Neil, Associate Dean MAINE LITERATURE 101: A COURSE FOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS By Courtney Hawkes Project Advisor: Dr. Kreg Ettenger An Abstract of the Project Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (in Interdisciplinary Studies) December 2017 In various schools across the state of Maine are teachers devoting their classroom time to exploring the rich history of Maine. At the high school level, many schools now offer at least an elective course in “Maine Studies” and Maine state standards require that local history is covered to a certain extent in high school history. Missing from theses courses, however, is a study of Maine’s literature. Literature puts a realistic face to the events of history in a way that helps students see through the eyes of the people from that time period. Literature reveals internal emotions and conflicts in a way that history cannot, adding depth to a student’s understanding of a time period, cultural group, or region. This project is a curriculum for a Maine Literature course intended to be taught to high school seniors. A key challenge to developing a course in Maine literature was developing a list of texts suitable to teach to high school students that really embraced the wide variety of works that Maine authors have created. Exploring the themes of identity and sense of place are the major focus of the course. To determine the list of texts that fit these themes, a series of surveys were sent out to teachers and librarians. Criteria such as length, reading level, and availability of books were applied to the lists of books drawn from these surveys to narrow them down to a list that could be covered in a year. While the bulk of the texts chosen for this class are fiction; nonfiction texts, poetry and short stories are sprinkled throughout the curriculum to cover a wider variety of perspectives and time periods in Maine literature. The curriculum is aligned to Common Core and Maine State standards and implements a wide variety of both formative (informally assessed for feedback purposes) and summative (formally graded) assessment methods. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my friends and family for supporting me through the ups and downs of working on this project. They inspired me to keep going and encouraged me when I was struggling the most. Without them I do not think this project would have ever been finished. I would also like to thank my advisor Kreg Ettenger for all his encouragement and support. It has not always been easy being an online student and studying at a distance, but he made the effort to reach out when I was struggling to make sure I did not give up. I would also like to thank the other members of my advisory committee, Mary Mahoney-O’Neil, who has been supportive since she helped me as my advisor as an undergraduate at the University of Maine, and Judy Hakola, whose “Maine Women Writers” class served as an inspiration for my path into Maine Studies. Along the way there have been so many other professors and colleagues, I could not possibly thank them all. I do want to give a special thank you to Kenneth Martin for inspiring me to be more creative as an educator. I also want to thank Jennifer Pickard for her patience with me as I was trying to meet the challenges of graduate level work. Her comments and encouragement helped me to see that I needed to step up to meet the challenge, which ultimately proved helpful. Last but not least, I would like to thank my students for pushing me to do my best and lead by example. I only hope that in challenging them to do their best I can return the favor. !ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .........................................................................................................ii LIST OF TABLES .....................................................................................................................v Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 2. METHODS .....................................................................................................................10 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................................................19 4. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 5. COURSE OVERVIEW AND UNIT PLANS ...................................................................9 Unit 1: The Different Faces of Maine, Exploring Identity .............................................. Overall Learning Targets with Links to Standards ............................................9 Description of Unit Assessments .....................................................................10 Description of Formative Assessments ............................................................10 List of Sequence of Lessons............................................................................. 11 List of Tools of Inquiry Used Throughout the Unit .........................................12 Text List ...........................................................................................................12 List of Websites and Resources .......................................................................12 Unit 2: The Influence of Identity ..................................................................................... Overall Learning Targets with Links to Standards ............................................9 Description of Unit Assessments .....................................................................10 Description of Formative Assessments ............................................................10 List of Sequence of Lessons............................................................................. 11 List of Tools of Inquiry Used Throughout the Unit .........................................12 Text List ...........................................................................................................12 List of Websites and Resources .......................................................................12 Unit 3: Maine Sense of Place Beyond Physical Locations .............................................. Overall Learning Targets with Links to Standards ............................................9 Description of Unit Assessments .....................................................................10 Description of Formative Assessments ............................................................10 List of Sequence of Lessons............................................................................. 11 List of Tools of Inquiry Used Throughout the Unit .........................................12 Text List ...........................................................................................................12 List of Websites and Resources .......................................................................12 !iii Unit 4: Still a Struggle: Modern Sense of Place and Identity .......................................... Overall Learning Targets with Links to Standards ............................................9 Description of Unit Assessments .....................................................................10 Description of Formative Assessments ............................................................10 List of Sequence of Lessons............................................................................. 11 List of Tools of Inquiry Used Throughout the Unit .........................................12 Text List ...........................................................................................................12 List of Websites and Resources .......................................................................12 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................173 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................176 Appendix A. Unit 1 Lesson Plans ..............................................................................176
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