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Elizabeth Washington
Elizabeth Washington
(Gainesville - United States)

American Literature

American Literature Course Overview


Unit 1: Beginnings
Two weeks for classes that meet 90-minutes daily; one month for classes that meet 50-minutes daily.


Lesson 1 - Introducing Origin Myths of Native American Literature, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 2 - Virtual Museum Indians by Susan Power, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 3 - Explorer's Logs, three 90-minute class periods or six 50-minute class periods

  • From The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America
  • From A Description of New England by John Smith
Lesson 4 - Cultural Comparison/Contrast with A Key into the Language of America and from The Bloody Tenet of Persecution by Roger Williams, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods.
 

Lesson 5 - Argumentation and Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God by Jonathan Edwards, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 6 - Unmasking Textual Analysis in The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 7 - Pop Music and the Poetry of Anne Bradstreet, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Unit 2: The Crucible
Two weeks for classes that meet daily for 90-minutes; one month for classes that meet 50-minutes daily.

Lesson 1 - Overview, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 2- Act I, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 3 - Act II, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 4- Act III, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 5- Act IV, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 6 - "Reporting on the Crucible," ten 90-minute class or twenty 50-minute class periods (can be done during the reading of the text)

Unit 3: Revolution and Expansion
Two weeks for classes that meet daily for 90-minutes; one month for classes that meet 50-minutes daily.

Lesson 1 - Socratic Seminar with From Two Treatises on Government by John Locke; two 90-minute class periods or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 2- The Power of Propaganda, from Common Sense and The Crisis, No. 1 by Thomas Paine; three 90-minute class periods or six 50-minute class periods

Lesson 3 - Playing the Devil's Advocate with The Declaration of Independence, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 4 - Found Poetry with Phillis Wheatley and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; one 90-minute class period or one 50-minute class period.

Lesson 5 - Reader's Response to excerpts from The Journals of Lewis and Clark (online); one to two 90-minute class periods or two to three 50-minute class periods

Lesson 6 - Heading West by Miriam Davis Colt, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods.

Lesson 7 - Mixing Media with Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Unit 4: A Growing Nation
Four weeks for classes that meet 90-minutes a day; eight weeks for classes that meet 50-minutes a day.

Lesson 1 - Building Suspense with The Fall of the House of Usher and The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 2 - Storyboarding An Episode of War by Stephen Crane, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 3 - Changing Point of View in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce; one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 4 - Thematic Connections in Transcendental Literature; five 90-minute class periods or ten 50-minute class periods

  • From Nature and Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
  • "Song of Myself," "I Hear America Singing" and from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
  • "Success is counted sweetest," "There's a certain Slant of light" "I heard a Fly buzz-when I died," and "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson
  • "Psalm 123" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • "The Road Not Taken," "Birches," "Fire and Ice," "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost
Lesson 5 - The Transcendentalism Multi-Genre Project, ten 90-minute class periods, fifteen 50-minute class periods


Unit 5: The New Century
Four weeks for classes that meet 90-minutes a day; eight weeks for classes that meet 50-minutes daily.

Lesson 1 - Reflections on the Ellis Island Immigration Experience; one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 2 - Imagining the Rise of Cities; one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

  • From Here is New York by E.B. White
  • "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
Lesson 3 - Argumentative Speeches and Women's Fight for Equality, three 90-minute class periods or six 50-minute class periods

  • Speech to Woman's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio by Sojourner Truth
Lesson 4 - Writing World War I Letters, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

  • "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot
  • "In Another Country" by Ernest Hemingway
Lesson 5 - Speaking Out Against No Fear and The Great Depression, two 90-minute class period or four 50-minute class periods

  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Inaugural Address
Lesson 6 - The Elements of Modernist Poetry, two 90-minute class periods

  • "In a Station of the Metro," and "The River Merchant's Wife" by Ezra Pound
  • "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by e.e. cummings
  • "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams
  • others found by students
The Poetry Project, ten 90-minute class periods (if done during class) or 20 50-minute class periods
 

Unit 6: Post War America
Four weeks for for classes that meet 90-minutes a day, eight weeks for classes that meet for 50-minutes a day

Lesson 1: In Cold Blood By Truman Capote, The First Non-Fiction Novel, Introduction, one 90-minute class period or two 50-minute class periods

Lesson 2: Part I, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 3: Part II, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 4: Part III, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 5: Part IV, two 90-minute class periods or four 50-minute class periods

Lesson 6: Introducing the Great American I-Search Paper, one 90-minute class or two 50-minute classes

(In Cold Blood and The Great American I-Search will overlap)

Final Project: The Great American I-Search Paper, two weeks for classes that meet for 90-minutes and up to a month for classes that meet for 50-minutes, depending on how much work is done in class

North Carolina Standard Course of Study for English III

Links to the goals and objectives for English III, as referenced throughout the semester.

Unit 1: Beginnings

Unit 2: The Crucible

Unit 3: Revolution and Expansion

Unit 4: A Growing Nation

Unit 5: The New Century

Unit 6: Post War America