Syllabus for American Literature

Page numbers apply to regular textbook: Literature & Language.
AIAL = Adventures in American Literature Text

The First Americans: Native American creation stories, poetry, myths, and legends

title	author	genre	page number	Literary Terms
The Walam Olum	Delaware Indian	myth	P. 23	creation story, legend, myth, narrative poem
Song of the Sky Loom	Tewa Indian	poetry	P. 30	figurative language:
I Have Killed the Deer	Taos Pueblo Indian	poetry	P. 30	metaphor, simile, personification
How Can You Buy or Sell the Sky?	Chief Seattle	speech	P. 589	nbs

Plus other examples from other sources.

The Explorers & Immigrants &endash;

What is an American?	Jean Michel-Guillaume (French 1700)	nonfiction	P. 66	contrast
Americans Then and Now	(insight)	nonfiction	P. 68	nbs
From Africa to America (Slavery)	Olaudah Equiano (1745-?)	nonfiction	P.71	imagery - sensory details

Language Workshop: Using Verb Tenses Correctly P. 90-92

Video: Amistad (Extra credit for critical review of film)

The Puritans 1600's

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God	Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)	nonfiction	P. 101	purpose, audience, occasion, metaphor
We Aren't Superstitious (Salem witch trials 1691-1693 )	Stephen Vincent Benet (1898 -1943)	nonfiction	P. 121	irony: verbal & situational
The Crucible	Arthur Miller	drama	nbs	nbs
To My Dear and Loving Husband	Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)	nbs	P. 777	hyperbole, lyric poem
Upon the Burning of Our House 7-10- 1666	Anne Bradstreet	poetry	*AIAL p. 27	nbs

Videos:

The Cruicible

The Scarlet Letter

College Prep: Students will read "The Scarlet Letter" instead of "The Cruicible"

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

novel

nbs

1st Quarter Project related to The Crucible or The Scarlet Letter (see projects page)

Language Workshop: Common punctuation errors P. 140 - 142

Study Skills Workshop: Answering Essay Questions P. 297

Revolutionary Patriots 1700's

Poor Richards Almanac	Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)	nonfiction	P. 117	autobiography, aphorism
April Morning (Battle of Lexington Mass. 4-19-1775 )		fiction	P. 168	historical fiction, imagery
Letters of a Loyalist Lady	( Loyalist View)	nonfiction	P. 176

College Prep Class add

Speech in the Virginia Convention	Patrick Henry (1736-1799)	nonfiction	P. 145	allusion, persuasion
The Declaration of Independence	Thomas Jefferson	nonfiction	P. 153	parallelism
The Crisis (and "Common Sense")	Thomas Paine	nonfiction	P. 161	loaded language, anecdote, analogy

Writer's Workshop: Persuasive Speech P. 180 - 183

Speaking and Listening: Critical Listening P. 341

Language Workshop: Avoiding Fragments and run-ons P. 184-186

Thinking Skills: Propaganda Techniques P. 187

Visions of Darkness (Halloween)

Video: The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe (intro to unit)

Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (a macabre search for the fountain of youth)	Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)	fiction	P. 193	allegory, symbol, foreshadowing
The Cask of Amontillado	Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)	fiction	P. 210	mood, irony
The Raven	Edgar Allan Poe	poetry	P. 221	rhyme, alliteration, consonance
The Devil and Daniel Webster (tall tale)	(1782-1852)	fiction	P. 228	tall tale, dialect

College Prep Class add

The Fall of the House of Usher	Edgar Allan Poe	fiction	AIAL P. 136
The Bells	Edgar Allan Poe	poetry	AIAL P. 160

Videos: Simpsons' version of The Raven, clips from Poe film adaptations

Writer's Workshop: Creative Expression - Fantasy Story P. 245-248

Language Workshop: Figurative Language P. 249-251

The Transandentalists

Self-Reliance	Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)	nonfiction	P. 254	transcendentalism, essay, paradox
Walden	Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)	nonfiction	P. 261	observation, figurative language, aphorism
various poetry	Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)	poetry	P. 278-285	personification, metaphor, simile
When I Heard the Learn'd astronomer	Walt Whitman (1819-1892)	poetry	P. 272	style, free verse, parallelism, word choice

Language Workshop: Comparisons P. 294-296

Civil War &endash; 1861-1865 (Unit 4 The Tempest Outside 1850-1900)

Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge	Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)	fiction	AIAL P. 368	nbs
A Horseman in the Sky	Ambrose Bierce	fiction	P. 303	conflict, external & internal, irony
excerpts from Red Badge of Courage	Stephen Crane (1871-1900)	novel	nbs	nbs
The Gettysburg Address (1863)	Abraham Lincoln	non-fiction	P. 314	historical allusion, parallelism
"Beat! Beat! Drums!," "O Captain! My Captain!" (and other civil war poems)	Walt Whitman	poetry	AIAL p. 322	onomatopoeia

Videos: Glory, Gettysburg (Extra credit for critical review of film)

Abolitionists/ Suffrage Movement &endash;

Untie His Hands	Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)	speech	nbs	standard English
Ain't I a Woman?	Sojourner Truth (1797?-1883)	speech	p. 317	nonstandard English, rhetorical questions, repetion

Indian Wars & Tales of the Frontier

A Story Without an End	Mark Twain (1835-1910)	fiction	P. 343	visualizing, characterization, irony
Epigrams, (Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer)	Mark Twain	nbs	P. 351	nbs
The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky (satire)	Stephen Crane (1871-1900)	drama	P. 355	dialect, satire
Plainswoman (life on the Western Frontier)	nbs	fiction	P. 382	flashback, thme, internal conflict
Tears of Autumn (Mail order brides)	Yoshiko Uchida	fiction	P. 524	motivation, flashback, characterization

Videos:

George Armstrong Custer "Son of the Morning Star" (Extra credit for critical review of film)

Crazy Horse (Extra credit for critical review of film)

 

Ethan Frome Novel Unit (2nd Quarter Project related to Ethan Frome Novel see project page)

Women authors unit

Ethan Frome (good film version watch after reading)	Edith Wharton (1862-1937)	novel	P. 327	conflict, theme
The Story of an Hour	Kate Chopin (1851-1904)	fiction	P. 695	irony
Trifles (Midwestern farm setting early 1900's)	Susan Glaspell (1882-1948)	drama	P. 633	murder mystery, plot outline, symbol
A White Heron	Sarah Orne Jewett	fiction	nbs	conflict
The Revolt of Mother	Mary Wilkins Freeman	fiction	nbs	plot
The Yellow Wallpaper	Charlotte Perkins Gilman	fiction	nbs	point of view

Videos:

Ethan Frome

The Revolt of Mother (Video is good - available through ESD)

The Age of Innocence (1920) novel by Edith Wharton (Extra credit for critical review of film)

Classic American writers

Under the Biltmore Clock Baby Party Video : Bernice Bobs Her Hair	F. Scott Fitzgerald	fiction	Lit Calv	plot, character
The Bear The Hound	William Faulkner	fiction	AIAL P. 417	suspense, sentence structure
Big Two-Hearted River The End of Something Snows of Kilimanjaro	Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)	fiction	AIAL P. 472, p. 516	journalistic style, point of view, setting
To Build a Fire	Jack London	fiction	AIAL P. 505	conflict, suspense

The Modern American Dream &endash; The Great Depression - The American Worker

Henry Ford - Video which explains why the Great Depression occurred

The Grapes of Wrath (1930's great depression) show Video clips from movie	John Steinbeck	novel	P. 770	theme, diction, characterization
Jack in the Pot(welfare system, realities for the poor, making ethical decisions)	Dorothy West (1907- )	fiction	P. 662	climax, internal conflict
The First Appendectomy	William Nolen (1928-1986)	nonfiction	P. 419	jargon, first-person account, tone
Shorthand Grad is Shortchanged & Greed Has no Race or Creed	Mike Royko	nonfiction	P. 603-607	fact and opinion, informal English, slang
Martinez Treasure ($ doesn't bring joy) (parable)	Manuela Williams Crosno	fiction	P. 677	parable

Studs Terkel Working (excerpts from) find other selections related to modern working experiences, or the American dream as it is today.

 

A Raisin In The Sun/To Kill A Mocking Bird/Black Like Me

Video: A time for justice - use to introduce unit on Civil Rights issues

To Kill A Mocking Bird (1960)	Harper Lee	novel	nbs	theme, setting, plot, character, point of view, conflict
Black Like Me	Griffin	non-fiction	nbs	theme, setting, character, plot, conflict
The Movement	Anne Moody (1940- )	non-fiction	P. 713	conflict
Little Things Are Big (multi-cultural perspective/prejudice)	Jesus Colon	non-fiction	P. 441	conflict
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (excerpt from)	Maya Angelou	non-fiction	P. 806	allusion, theme, mood
A Raisin In The Sun	Lorraine Hansberry	drama	P. 844	conflict, dialect, mood, theme, symbol

(1930-1965) "To Be Young Gifted and Black" nonfiction P. 792 AIAL

Contemporary Issues/Writers

Everything Stuck to Him (Teen Pregnancy/teenage parents)	Raymond Carver (1938-1988)	fiction	p. 445	imagery
The Dancers (1952Growing-up/dating/choices)	Horton Foote (1916- )	drama	P. 459	resolution
How to Go on a Date	Delia Ephron (1944- )	nonfiction	P. 477	nbs
Balances	Nikki Giovanni (1943- )	poem	P. 520	nbs
It's Raining in Love	Richard Brautigan	nonfiction	P. 580	nbs

Relationships

A Delicate Balance	Jose Armas (1944- )	fiction	p. 583	character, contrast
from The Prince of Tides	Pat Conroy (1945- )	fiction	P. 563	motivation, conflict
Louisa, Please Come Home (runaways)	Shirley Jackson (1919-1965	fiction	P. 616	inference, suspense, mood

Science Fiction Unit

A Sound of Thunder	Ray Bradbury (1920- )	sci-fiction	P. 549	cause and effect, paradox, figurative language
Harrison Bergeron	Kurt Vonnegut, Jr	sci-fiction	P. 734	satire, fantasy, exaggeration, imagery
The Lottery	Shirley Jackson (1919-1965	sci-fiction	nbs	theme

Robert Frost

A Time to Talk	Robert Frost (1874-1963)	poem	p. 453	blank verse
Mending Wall	"	poem	P. 455	theme
The Death of the Hired Man	"	poem	AIAL	narrative poem
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening	"	poem	AIAL	imagery

(1961 Frost read a poem at the inauguration of JFK)

Dramatists

A Streetcar Named Desire	Tennessee Williams	drama	nbs	character, conflict
Death of a Salesman	Arthur Miller	drama	nbs	character

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