This American Literature course is designed to meet the requirements for one semester of a year-long 11th-grade English course. Throughout the 14 weeks, students will be guided through a variety of texts (short stories, poems, essays, novels, nonfiction, etc.) from American history. The content is designed in chronological order to help coincide with an on-level U.S. History or APUSH course. Live sessions take place once per week. New material will be provided during each class. 

📚Students will also learn grade-level appropriate vocabulary, grammar, writing skills.
📚Homework will consist of a weekly journal entry that includes elements of research, analysis, and synthesis (generating new ideas based upon what they just learned). 
📚One original reflective essay will also be required during the course.

🎓Units of study:

Unit 1- Pre-Colonial & Early Nationalism
Unit 2- Romanticism & Transcendentalism  
Unit 3- Realism, Naturalism, & Nationalism

📅Scope and Sequence:

Week 1--Native American Literature and Creation Stories
Week 2--Exploration Literature
Week 3--Pilgrims & Puritans
Week 4--The Crucible, Pt. 1
Week 5--The Crucible, Pt. 2
Week 6--Olaudah Equiano 
Week 7--Rhetorical Strategies & The Declaration of Independence 
Week 8--David Walker’s Appeal & Maria Stewart
Week 9--Intro to Romanticism & Transcendentalism (Essay #1 due)
Week 10--Edgar Allan Poe
Week 9--Whitman, Emerson, & Thoreau 
Week 10--Frederick Douglass & John Brown
Week 11--Slave Narratives & Harriet Jacobs
Week 12--Intro to Realism, Naturalism, & Nationalism
Week 13--Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Ambrose Bierce, & Jack London: Student Choice
Week 14--Midterm Review (Final Presentation due)


Notes: 
👀 The texts presented in this course are not intended to assert the instructor's expertise on specific marginalized peoples. Rather, the texts (both historical and contemporary) will be analyzed through a variety of literary theories. Both primary and secondary sources will be used to provide an evidence-based, holistic approach to analysis. In this way, the texts serve as artifacts through which a variety of viewpoints can be observed. 
👀 With an emphasis on equity, all cultural viewpoints and perspectives will be centered and equally respected in this space.

💜My teaching style is interactive. I am not the sage on the stage. Instead, I am a facilitator and guide. Therefore, lecture time is limited to no more than 20 minutes of each class period. The remaining class time is allocated to whole-group discussion and Socratic Seminar. In this course, we learn and grow together. Let's go!