11th Grade EnglishMr G A White

American History and Literature    whiteAGE@AOL.com

Syllabus—Tentative—213

American History & Literature

Leveraged buyout, bailout, naked insider trading, stimulus public option, whatever…added to your vocabulary! Learn where Cleveland's baseball team and Washington's football team got their names — thanks to a wolf named Two Socks.  Find out why the Puritans burned old ladies, what Shakespeare might have thought and felt about a woman named Olivia when young, why a déclassé French aristocrat is your best guide to American identity, eat a bread roll sauntering down Philadelphia's Market Street with Ben Franklin, learn how Hester got her 'A,' become a transparent eyeball with Emerson, sail before the mast with Richard Henry Dana, get bummed out listening to a raven croak 'nevermore,' find your own Walden with Thoreau, tarry a while with Goodman Brown loaf & invite your soul with Walt Whitman, learn why Tom Sawyer is Bob Dylan’s ‘poor immigrant boy,’ dance all night under the stars to jazz with Jay Gatsby, order the universe at Key West with Wallace Stevens, Howl with Ginsberg, burn a new Cadillac with Ellison, fight 'ghosts' with the Woman Warrior and the “modern” war with Black Hawk Down, transform yourself, body & soul, with Malcolm X.  Very heavy but exciting, too.

Goals for Students

•develop close reading and analytic writing skills through central texts and other media

•relate written and other forms of communication to their historic context

•appreciate both celebratory and critical aspects of the American experience

•learn from self and others by individual, group, and electronic means

•gain a personal awareness of the diversity which has created our American identity and potential conflicts between 'self and society'

American Literature is explored by — working through certain established 'character types' and 'Americanist' themes. Since de Tocqueville observed that in America every political question  (and we see now moral one) sooner or later becomes a legal one, we will begin with and continue to explore how American writers and American culture represent truth and falsehood, reality and illusion, from John Smith to Jane Fonda.

Texts

Dances with Wolves, film (Kevin Cosner, et al); visual text, to be decoded

Term 1, outside reading**The Autobiography,

Benjamin Franklin

Selections, John Smith

Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford

Alexis de Tocqueville, in “A Reporter at Large: American Journey," Richard Reeves in The New Yorker

Puritan commentary, by Richard Schlatter and Gordon S Wood

Puritan Poetry selections; Anne Bradstreet, Michael Wigglesworth, Edward Taylor

Term 2, outside reading,**Two Years Before the Mast,

Richard Henry Dana

***The Tempest, William Shakespeare; Shakespeare's theatre & sonnets; film clips ( Elizabeth ) and film, Shakespeare in Love

"Declaration of Independence," Thomas Jefferson

American Oratory: “Gettysburg Address &  2nd Inaugural Address,” Abraham Lincoln

"Nature,"  "The American Scholar," "The Divinity School Address," Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walden [selections] & "On Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau

Term 3, outside reading **Huckleberry Finn,

Mark Twain

"Young Goodman Brown," "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux," "Ethan Brand," Nathaniel Hawthorne

Stories & Poetry, Edgar Allen Poe

Selected Poetry, Herman Melville

Poetry selections, Emily Dickinson

Leaves of Grass [selections], Walt Whitman

**Term 4 Outside Reading: The Great Gatsby,

F Scott Fitzgerald

“Big Two-Hearted River,” Ernest Hemingway

"Flying Home,"  Ralph Ellison

"Defender of the Faith," Philip Roth, from Goodbye, Columbus

The Woman Warrior, Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts,( selections ),  Maxine Hong Kingston

Other Conflicts: Vietnam - (selections from The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien; selections from Dispatches, Michael Herr), Somalia – selections from Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden).

Poetry selections, from Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams,  Denise Levertov, Galway Kinnell, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Wilbur.

Plus, assorted 50s classic comedy;  sitcoms; talk shows; documentaries; radio, TV, film; rock 'n roll.

Final Exam:  *The Autobiography of Malcolm X (read it now, read it later, but have the book in hand)

T H E   F O R M A T

1Students receive careful instruction in the use of dictionaries (including OED), and other basic research tools in the humanities Dictionary of American Biography ( DOAB ), with particular emphasis upon the newer technologies such as the World Wide Web (WWW) and search engines such as Google.

2Vocabulary is identified early and often, explained in context of what students are actually reading. Students are encouraged to make vocabulary notes as they read, and keep a computer database of vocabulary both by text and as a cumulative whole.

3Note-taking, outlining, and test-taking skills will be reviewed and, as necessary, strengthened. Student's English notebooks will be examined for accuracy and detail, and they will be given several lectures in order to check  note-taking skills.  Oral presentation skills are honed as a consequence of constant discussion between student(s) and teacher, students and each other. Additional assistance in public speaking and presentations available during J-Block. Students are encouraged to write for both school newspapers and/or South's yearbook and literary magazine. Projects and extra credit involving multi-media, or telecommunications welcomed.

4Outside readings are often accompanied by study and vocabulary sheets, although one goal is to enable students to build each for themselves as the year progresses. Like all their readings, students are encouraged to seek out maps so as to locate these works in time and space.

5All students will receive grammatical skills appropriate to grade level and as outlined in the NSHS "English Program" course of study. Remedial work may be accomplished through J-Block appointments. The Little, Brown grammar Handbook by H Ramsey Fowler is available for review.

6Writing-—in all forms-—is stressed throughout the entire school year, and forms a major part of a student's grade.* You will write primarily analytic and descriptive essays; "close reading" and accurate appraisal of character and scene are emphasized. Students have at least one "creative" assignment a term, and may always suggest and submit assignments for extra credit.

7Geographical background appropriate to each text is provided by room maps, filmstrips, slides and individual handouts.  Students are encouraged to range widely in parallel historical reading; your American history teachers are aware of this literature syllabus.

8Any special interests students have in American Civilization/American Studies. may be shared with their instructor. These may include (certainly not limited by) photography, architecture, popular culture (including music), technology, fine arts, biography and creative writing. Outside projects including site visits and/or museum work acceptable for extra credit.

9*Grades—please read at least twice—are not abstractions but a function of mutually-agreed upon levels  of achievement.

The process usually takes at least a term, as it is not strictly numerical. While reading and writing are "assessed" through frequent quizzes, tests, in-class and outside essays, the teacher's chief aim is not only conveying essentially inert data in an engaging manner, but stimulating young minds to make these rich texts their own, and to make connections between their own young lives and the lives of those who have struggled to make art.

10Watch your back, Jack! Two special cautions.

A: Everyone gets caught short, so many pedestrians and so little time...the Boston mantra. But using Mr Monarch or Mr Cliff or Billy Sparknotes is a bad way to set yourself up for either college or that Big Job. They are crutches and a time will come - probably sooner than you think - when you can't get your hands on one. Guess who is left holding the bag? Solution: get into the habit of budgeting your time, doing your own work, and making detailed notes you can refer to later.

B: It's a very bad idea to take something that's not yours. It applies to writing and research as much as hot-wiring someone's new Porsche. Plagiarism comes in many forms but you will be tossed from college for the three basic ones - direct quotation(s) without citation; paraphrase (obvious) without giving credit of another's work, whether paragraphs, sentences or a single idea; 'invention,' making up or substituting false reference or citation of the two previous instances. The Web and word processors make it easier to make 'mistakes' than before - Ask Pulitzer prize-winning professors Ambrose or Goodwin. Q: If they toss you, do you get unused tuition refunded? And: If you believe they will, I've got a great bridge to sell you in Brooklyn, NY.

***

Your teacher wants to provide opportunities for many kinds of success, many occasions where students can grow and gain increasing confidence in themselves, the better to become productive individuals and responsible and engaged citizens in a democracy ("Self Reliance"). Extra-credit, therefore, is always available...and you may suggest readings, activities, and projects along the way. But "extra" credit is no substitute for the credit you receive in the course of mastering the material set before you. Meaning? Do the regular stuff first.

Grades are based upon that writing, testing and quizzes. Active and co-operative class participation; regular attendance; obvious preparation; seeking extra help where necessary, are positive additions.

So as to better budget your time and energy, here’s what’s coming, in order of importance: You will write a minimum of four (4) essays each term, usually two in class and two-three out; take a full class test on each Term's Outside Reading (40-50 questions, plus one or two essays) the last day of Term, unless altered by prior class negotiation, and, usually begin assessment of Outside Reading with a mid-Term biographical Quiz or Test, with one or two follow-up Quizzes or Tests on that text; complete 10-14 quizzes, worksheets, vocabulary drills. The closing Outside Reading test is preceded by one and usually two days of discussion, and, each term’s text is a constant point of reference. It is best to have at least half the Term text read, and noted, by mid-Term.

11Thematic  and Character Type Considerations

While the class - course - proceeds chronologically, from the Puritans to 21st Century, the conversation with half a dozen themes and well-established character types is constant. It is a good idea to keep these in mind, making notes where they occur in your readings and in our class discussions. Their outline means little at the beginning but as we read and discuss, each theme will acquire more - and varied - mass and weight.

Americanist Character Types

Native American

Puritan

Yankee

Romantic

Frontiers (wo/man)

Modern

Post-Modern ( us )

Americanist themes

God Land

American Experiment

Made Land

People of Plenty

The Garden

American Eve / American Adam

American Exceptionalism

PS

These are by no means original, I wish I could say I invented them but if you go to the Web for any American Studies / Civilization department here or in the UK you will find them...

Keep in touch by—using Class Discussion; J-Block; email, blog.  If AOL continues to jam, you and your parents will receive notices from my gMail account.

You can almost always find me during the day and late afternoons in 9202, the (new) Front-of- School  Denebola /  Journalism Room. During Denebola paste - up periods ( a week to ten days ) I am usually in the Room until 10.30 pm; Denebola’s direct dial number is 617.559.6572, mine is 559.2085

new Web address for syllabus materials is what you are reading if you want to see what your teacher does in his non-existent spare time, some of it, try photography on www.whizzer.smugmug.com

9.2009