American Lit Syllabus

American Literature Syllabus

Mr. Haller

Phone: 303/982-2614

E-mail: bhaller@jeffco.k12.co.us

or Gmail through Google Classrooom

messages returned within 24 hours M-F, work hours only

Course Goals and Objectives

Your junior year at D'Evelyn presents you with the rich honor of studying your great nation's literary tradition while also examining, in your History curriculum, America's proud story. Like British Literature, 11th grade American Literature offers you an illuminating and varied tour of the aesthetic and philosophical accomplishments of a remarkable country. You will pursue this study in a methodical, chronological manner that will enable you to appreciate the development of American writing, beginning with works from the 17th century and concluding (in May) with the 20th century. We will explore literature, history and ideas, and will encounter dozens of authors and works representing many different literary movements, eras, genres and types.

During fall semester, we will begin by discussing Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (your summer reading) and then tour the literature of the colonial period and the early 19th century and spend a great deal of time with a phenomenon called the American Renaissance, including Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. As with second semester, you can expect a written unit test (described later) when we complete each time period. Spring semester will open with Dickinson and Whitman and continue with readings from the Civil War era. We will read Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and then begin our exploration of literature from the 20^th century, including F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Thornton Wilder's play Our Town. As with first semester, expect three or four major essays.

Our work with composition will encompass comparison/contrast, cause and effect, literary analysis using outside sources, logical argumentation, and timed writings. Throughout the year, you will also be held responsible for having completed the summer reading--through test questions, discussions and composition.

Your Success

The course work in American Literature is like that of British Literature, which means studying culture and history to illuminate our authors, and a constant yet varied reading load. With essays and unit tests, the course becomes intensive and demanding. Your success therefore depends upon your sincere and constant effort.

--Take notes! You are responsible for everything we read, discuss, or cover in lecture: always, everything.

--If you have questions, please ask them. I am glad to help you; in fact, I can't wait for the chance to talk more

about this wonderful material, so please ask me to clarify whatever seems unclear, to explain something in a new way, whatever you need.

--Check the online google calendar, postings in Google Classroom, and (in person) the boards for reminders and homework assignments. Complete your work on time and to the best of your ability.

--Submit all of your work. If you are missing one major assignment (an essay or a unit test), you will not earn above a D at term, assuming that you can pass without the assignment. If you are missing two or more major assignments, you will fail the class, regardless of your point total. Every teacher of high school English at D'Evelyn follows this policy.

--Submit your work on time. Major assignments (essays and unit tests) will be downgraded by 25% every day that they are late. Homework items like unit notes, reading quizzes or study questions damage grades because students so often show them late, not at all, or only after it becomes a zero in the gradebook. If you don’t you don't submit on time, you will forfeit points. Having your work on time means having it at the bell.

Your absences

An excused absence gives you certain rights, but you yourself are responsible for getting and completing your make-up work. That is a county rule, not an exclusive D'Evelyn one. Mr. Haller’s make-up calendar on his webpage, and linked to Google Classroom, records how we spent the day, what may have been checked for points, and what was assigned for a day or days ahead. Use that calendar—and use it while your makeup window is alive, not after you’re upset because your delay earned you a zero.

Makeup resources will be traditional, not a recorded google meet lesson. Thus, your makeup resources will be just as they were in all other pre-covid school years. That missed lecture on, say, Bryant and his poem “Thanatopsis” means reading and taking notes yourself, consulting a classmate’s notes and then getting any needed clarification from me. My google calendar will describe what was missed. But it will not repost videos of it all.

For every day you are absent, the school district gives you two school days to complete your makeup work--for all six of your teachers. And that rule holds only for newly assigned work, not for assignments you already knew about. If you were present when I made the class responsible for some assignment, you need to give it to me when it's due or immediately upon your return. If you miss a day or more before an essay is due, I still expect your essay on the due date. Or if you miss my class on the due date but are around for other classes, your essay is late unless you get it to me that day. Further, your coaches, music teachers and field-trip sponsors all know that D'Evelyn students must hand in their work before an absence caused by a school activity.

Your classroom

In Mr. Haller's class, on time means being in your seat and getting to work when the bell rings. At the bell, I will mark you tardy for not being in your seat, for not working, for being turned around, or for talking. Bring water to my room if you want. No other food or drink is allowed.

Do not cheat the rest of us by packing up early. Do not ask to leave the room during lecture or discussion unless it is truly necessary. Come to class prepared. If your book is in your locker, you're just without it, and you will not be looking off of someone else.

You will compile notes in a spiral notebook that you use specifically for my class. You should also have at least a section in a binder for handouts, graded essays, paper for in-class essays, etc.

Your Grade and the Course Requirements

I do not weight categories but assign points on the basis of relative task importance. Essays are worth 40 to 60 points each for in-class writings and 80 to 100 points each for out-of-class assignments. Unit tests will entail one to two class periods (50-90 minutes) of writing and will be worth 80 points. Our final exams (100 points) will cover all of the literary/cultural material we have covered as of the exam date, so that the finals in December and in May will both go back as far as August. There will also be random reading quizzes, points for rough drafts, etc. These are opportunities for you to earn points for doing work you must do anyway just to keep up with our material. Take advantage of them. These grades, like homework, will vary in point value according to their importance. I have no set point total in mind; we will simply keep accumulating. There are no extra credit assignments.

Cheating and Plagiarism

Cheating and plagiarism are very serious violations of the academic program at D’Evelyn Jr./Sr. High School. D’Evelyn holds high academic expectations for all students and academic integrity is an extremely important aspect of those expectations. Any student caught cheating on a quiz, test, homework, or any classroom assignment, or is found guilty of plagiarism (to pass off the ideas or works of another as one’s own without crediting the source) or giving homework to others will receive a grade of “zero” on that assignment or paper. Consequences for cheating/plagiarism will range from a detention to suspension in addition to a zero on the assignment. Plagiarism is a matter of having done it at all, anywhere in your paper, and is not a matter of amount or intentions.

If you ever force this choice upon yourself, please know that it is endlessly better for you, both ethically and for your grade, to hand in a terrible, embarrassing, clueless essay you wrote all by yourself than to steal and get a zero plus office and home drama.

Please notice how the D’Evelyn plagiarism policy also includes students who share their work with others. A peer who asks to see your essay (or other assignment) while everyone is working on it is endangering your grade. At that point, such a peer is no longer a simple friend but a selfishly destructive liability as well. And letting them see your paper may affirm your kindness and loyalty, but it also taints your academic integrity. My hope: may your friends and peers respect you so selflessly that they never make their own bad study choices into false responsibilities for you. And may all of you meet your future by having by having embraced your education, not by having combatted it.

Reading List for American Literature

In the pages below, you’ll find a copy of the American Literature reading list, which comes directly from the English department's scope and sequence document. The note at the top of the first page reads, "In addition to these selections, teachers may assign other readings to add to the course." Mr. Haller intends to do this occasionally, adding works to the required list in order to study American literature more deeply and fully.

This packet includes the reading lists for both semesters. Use the reading lists to keep yourself aware of where we are in the reading requirements. The reading load is uneven. There may be days when we only get through a couple poems while other days may involve many pages of unit introduction reading and note-taking, or a lengthy short story. Since you have the list now, you can help yourself by taking author notes or doing some reading some reading even before I assign it.

I will remind you of this, but every author listed on these reading lists comes with a little introduction in your book---information about her or his life and artistic aims. On the day we start discussing an author, you are expected to come to class with notes from that introduction. That is a standing assignment, even though I will remind you about it regularly. You will keep those notes in your English-specific spiral notebook, which will hold all of your notes for the entire year. For the big unit introductions, we will break down our note-taking into key terms, essential concepts that will help you organize your reading into good, clear, full notes that we will add to in class. We will have new key terms for many of the pieces of writing, too. The author intros, unit ideas, literary terms---all those key terms will give order to the tremendous amount of material this course explores.

How to contact me

e-mail: bhaller@jeffco.k12.co.us, or the Gmail function in Google Classroom

phone: 303/982-2614 I’m available for extra help in 7^th hour and posted office hours on our asynchronous Fridays. Important note: I will respond with 24 hours to emails or phone calls only during working days and hours, not on weekends or evenings. It’s fine to leave a message/email whenever you wish, truly. I just won’t respond until I return to my expected work hours.

Junior English Base Readings

The following listing represents the readings that will form the basis for Junior English at D’Evelyn. In addition to these selections, teachers may assign other reading to add to the course.

All textual selections are from Adventures in American Literature. For each author names a biographical selection is assigned.

SEMESTER ONE:

Twain, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, discussion of summer reading

Introduction: The Beginnings of the American Tradition

William Bradford from “Of Plymouth Plantation”

Anne Bradstreet, “Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666”

Edward Taylor, “Huswifery”

William Byrd, from The History of the Dividing Line, and handout passage evaluating

colonization

Jonathan Edwards, from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Introduction: The Revolutionary Period

Benjamin Franklin, from The Autobiography, from Poor Richard’s Almanac,

“Rules By Which a Great Nation may Be Reduced to a Small One” on handout

Patrick Henry, “Speech in the Virginia Convention”

Thomas Paine, from “The Crisis, Number 1”

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur, from Letters from an American Farmer

Introduction: The First Harvest

Washington Irving, “The Devil and Tom Walker”

James Fenimore Cooper, from The Deerslayer

William Cullen Bryant, “Thanatopsis” and “To a Waterfowl”

Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven” and “The Masque of the Red Death”

Introduction: The Flowering of New England

Ralph Waldo Emerson, from “Nature”, from “The Divinity School Address”, from “Self-

Reliance”, from “Fate”

Henry David Thoreau, from Walden

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener” on handout

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life”, “Nature”, “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Old Ironsides”, “The Chambered Nautilus”

(scroll down for second semester)

SEMESTER TWO:

Emily Dickinson, “This is My Letter to the World”, “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church”,

Success is Counted Sweetest”, “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”, “Apparently With

No Surprise”, “My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close”, “The Bustle in a House”,

“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass”

The Belle of Amherst (video)

Introduction: A House Divided and Restored

Walt Whitman, from “Song of Myself”, “I Hear America Singing”, “When I Heard the Learn’d

Astronomer”, “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, “Beat! Beat! Drums!”, “A March in the

Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown”, “Reconciliation”

Spirituals “Go Down, Moses”, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”

Frederick Douglass from “What the Black Man Wants” and 1845 Narrative selections about

learning to read, the fight with Covey, and Douglass’ escape, all on handout

Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address” and The Second Inaugural Address

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

Voices of Native Americans: “Song of the Sky Loom”, “The Blackfeet Genesis”

Black Hawk, “Black Hawk’s Farewell”

Chief Joseph, “The surrender Speech of Chief Joseph”, from “An Indian Views of Indian

Affairs”

Mark Twain, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calavaras County”

Bret Harte, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”

Introduction: Realism and Naturalism

The American Novel

Edwin Arlington Robinson, and all poems in book

Edgar Lee Masters, and all poems in book

Sherwood Anderson, “Sophistication”

Katherina Anne Porter, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”

James Thurber, “The Catbird Seat”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

William Faulkner, “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech”, “The Tall Men” on handout

Flannery O’Connor, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”

Bernard Malamud, “The First Seven Years

Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy

Evening”, “After Apple-Picking”, “Mending Wall”

Carl Sandburg, “Chicago”, “Prayers of Steel”, “Grass”

Wallace Stevens, “Anecdote of the Jar”, “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock”

T.S. Eliot, “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”

E. E. Cummings, “Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town”, “Pity this busy Monster, Manunkind”

Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, “As I Grew Older”

Countee Cullen, “Any Human to Another” and “From the Dark Tower”

Thornton Wilder, Our Town as filmed performance