What is taught: Skills aligned with Common Core English Language Arts Standards for American Literature and Composition This course will follow the chronological sequence of American Literary movements as defined by the common core standards. The class will use American Literature to teach the standards and will also include writing components. 
STRUCTURE/ METHODLOGY:  Lesson plans will be posted to the classroom in advance. Warm-Up: Writing Warm-Up Activity. (5 – 7 minutes); classroom instruction: text examination and discussion (20 – 25 minutes); reflection visual activity self (5 minutes); reflection visual activity share-out (5-7 minutes); Closer: reading or writing activity depending on the day (15 minutes); recap lesson and objectives (5-7 minutes) 

WEEK 1: Native American Oral tradition : understanding power of spoken word
Source Material: excerpt from Olaudah Equiano & "Earth on a Turtle's Back" Iroquois
(https://cdn5-ss1.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_10640642/File/bugge/Chapter%201/Iroquois%20Creation%20Story.pdf) 

WEEK 2 &3: Colonial Period & The Crucible : what happens when theocracy and fear goes unchecked 
Source Material: The Crucible by Arthur Miller (https://www.cusd80.com/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain/4860/The%20Crucible_full%20text_adobe_format.pdf ) 
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
(https://minio.la.utexas.edu/webeditor-files/coretexts/pdf/174120sinners20angry20god.pdf )

WEEK 4 & 5: Founding Fathers: Locke, Hobbes, Paine : how do we create a democracy from a former colony?  Source Material: Second Treatise of Government by John Locke; A Treatise of Human Nature by Thomas Hobbes; The Crisis by Thomas Paine
(https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/23128/Locke_s_2_Treatises_1778_1956_BJHP.pdf?sequence=1) (https://www.rcboe.org/cms/lib/GA01903614/Centricity/Domain/10616/the-complete-works-of-thomas-paine.pdf )

WEEK 6: American Slavery: excerpts from slave narratives, abolitionists Source Material: "God's A-Gwineter Trouble de Water": The Middle Passage. excerpts from  William Grimes, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, New York, 1825. Solomon Bayley, A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America, 1825. Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, London, 1831. Story of Robert Smalls (audio) 
(pdf provided by instructor ) 

WEEK 7-9: American Romanticism Literary Movement: Author Study: Emily Dickinson poetry mini-unit Source Material: Madwomen in the Attic by Gilbert and Gubar; Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson by Edward Johnson and Collected Works of Emily Dickinson by Thompson (https://ia803202.us.archive.org/32/items/TheMadwomanInTheAttic/The%20Madwoman%20in%20the%20Attic.pdf) (https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/3985124/mod_resource/content/1/EMILY%20DICKINSON%20THE%20COMPLETE%20POEMS.pdf ) 

WEEK 10:  American Transcendentalist Literary Movement: Author Study: Emerson, Thoreau, Walden, Alcott Source Materials found : American Romanticism 1800-1865.  McDougall Littel (https://www.cusd80.com/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain/7314/Walden-Excerpt.pdf) 

WEEK 10-11: American Gothicist Literary Movement: Author Study: Edgar Allen Poe short story and poetry; Collected works of Edgar Allen Poe put out by Schruber Press (https://poemuseum.org/poes-complete-works/) (Cask of Amontillado, Telltale Heart, The Black Cat)

WEEK 12-13: Regionalism, Modernism and the American Dream: Mark Twain, Jack London's "To Build a Fire";  The Great Gatsby and modernist art and poetry (and project overview) Source Material: The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64317/64317-h/64317-h.htm ) (https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/price/frog.htm) 

WEEK 14: Philosophical overview and review of time periods as well as culminating project all previous texts 
(https://www.britannica.com/list/periods-of-american-literature ) 

Any required experience or knowledge learners need? No experience needed!
Learning Goals 
Students will learn how to: 
analyze how a work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types 
cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text
analyze how a theme from a literary work develops
analyze how a work of nonfiction uses persuasive techniques to convey an idea
determine the meaning of words and phrases and how they are used in a text