American Literature

Course length: 4th Quarter 2014-2015

Prerequisite: English 10 or approval

Time: period three-four

Teacher: Mr. Duane Hannan

Office hours: periods one and five, and before and after school; best to make an appointment

Phone: school--274-6111, home--274-5453; email: hannan@wwgschools.org

Materials required: black pen, note/assignment/journal notebook

Grading: daily work (30%), achievement (70%)

A:  95                A-:  92                 B+:89

B:  86                 B-: 83                C+: 80

C:  77                C-:  74                 D+:71

D:  68                 D-: 65                F: <65

Keeping notes is required--a dated daily summary of activities and a once weekly reflection on the class.  Notebooks will be checked periodically with the grade added to the “daily work” category.  

Discipline: you must respect yourself, each other, the teacher, and the building and equipment.  See the school discipline policy regarding the consequences for transgressions.  No pop, candy, or gum in class.  Students must be on time, prepared, and take part in class activities.  No cell phones.

Goals/objectives: students will read and respond to a variety of literature reflecting a variety of American perspectives and literary movements.  Readings will include such authors as Bradstreet, Taylor, Edwards,  Bryant, Holmes, Longfellow, Whittier, Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Lincoln, Crane, Miller, native narratives passed down to us orally, slave narratives, and immigrant narratives.  Activities will include reading and written response, and may include oral presentation and graphic art or video interpretation.

Several state standards will be addressed:

11.5.2.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

11.5.3.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text. Craft and Structure

11.5.5.5 Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

11.5.6.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

11.5.7.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

11.5.8.8 Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses).

March 16, 2015