English 11 - US Literature
English 11 focuses on the triumphs of of literature in the United States, so our class will be looking at literature through the historical lens. Our units will be structured to take us on a journey through US History and examine how the time period affects the literature that comes from it and vice versa.
Coming to America Views and Theories
To begin our school year, we will discuss how the world viewed the colonization of America. In this unit, we will be comparing and contrasting the descriptions in Shakespeare's play The Tempest and the travel journals of Christopher Columbus.
Early America
Fast forwarding to the Founding Fathers, we will read early documents from American history to see how their impact has continued and changed the world today.
Industrialism
As we enter the era of industrialism, we will read excerpts from novels such as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and discuss how industry impacted the social structure of the world and opened the door for propaganda and the labor movement. We will end our semester with a close reading of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Turn of the Century
As our journey through American history continues into second semester, we enter the 1900s with a discussion of morality through the novel McTeague by Frank Norris.
The Roaring 20s and The Great Depression
This section of our year will discuss the highs and lows (along with the reality v. perception) of the 1920s as we read F. Scott Fitzgeral's The Great Gatsby.
Cold War Era
The mass hysteria of Arthur Miller's The Crucible will take us through McCarthyism in the context of the Cold War.
War and Y2K
Our finale to the year will end with your own exploration of a late 20th-century to early 21st-century movement of your choice.