English 11

Unit 1 - The American Dream

The Works:

Use the attached websites and media to assist you in learning about the following stories.

Please draw an outline for each of the following works for the unit. Analyze each work and give your opinion on if it is worthy of literary merit or not.

• Roosevelt’s speech on the 50th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty

• America and I by Anzia Yezierska

• What Is an American? from Letters from an American Farmer (1781) by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur

• Growing Up Asian in America by Kesaya E. Noda

• Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

• From The Four Freedoms by Franklin D. Roosevelt

• The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States

• WHAT IS Freedom? by Jerald M. Jellison and John H. Harvey

• Ellis Island by Joseph Bruchac

• Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666 BY ANNE BRADSTREET

• The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

Literary Terms:

Write Literary Terms with examples from the text:

• Speech

• Oratory

• Poem

• Preamble

• Imagery

• Theme

Important Questions:

1. What does the Raven say in the poem?

2. What is the theme of Let America Be America Again?

3. What is Roosevelt talking about in "The Four Freedoms"?

4. What are the "The Four Freedoms"?

5. "Growing up Asian" is about what...?

6. What is the theme of "Ellis Island"?

7. The tone of Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" is ...

8. What is an American is about what?

9. In section 8 of the Preamble what does congress have the power to do?

10. What is freedom is about what?

Assessment/Final Exam:

Embedded Assessment #1:

Your assignment is to write a multi-paragraph essay that defines your interpretation of what it means to be an American. This essay should use the strategies of definition and different perspectives from the unit to help you develop a complex and thoughtful definition. If possible, incorporate an iconic image into your essay.

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Embedded Assessment #2:

Your assignment is to synthesize at least three to five sources and your own observations to defend, challenge, or qualify the statement that America still provides access to the American Dream. This question requires you to integrate a variety of sources (three to five) into a coherent, well-written argumentative essay. Your argument should be central; the sources and your observations should support this argument.

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Compare and contrast the following two poems:

• I Hear America Singing Walt Whitman

• I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes

Be sure to annotate both poems and explain why they are similar and why they are different.

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Take final on https://testmoz.com/class/16400

Unit 2 - The Power of Persuasion

The Works:

Use the attached websites and media to assist you in learning about the following stories.

Please draw an outline for each of the following works for the unit. Analyze each work and give your opinion on if it is worthy of literary merit or not.

• Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible (Intro)

• The Crucible Act 1

• The Crucible Act 2

• The Crucible Act 3

• The Crucible Act IV

• The Crucible Epilogue

• Why I Wrote The Crucible: An artist’s answer to politics by Arthur Miller

• Salem Witch Trials

• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards

• The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe)

• from Nature (Emerson)

• From Resistance to Civil Government (Henry D Thoreau)

• The Minister’s Black Veil (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

• "the River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter"

• Ars Poetica

• The Garden

• Declaration of Conscience by Margaret Chase Smith

• The Devil and Tom Walker (Washington Irving)

• Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln given Saturday, March 4, 1865, one month before the end of the Civil War

• Speech to the VIRGINIA CONVENTION March 23, 1775 by Patrick Henry

• Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy January 20, 1961

Literary Terms:

Write Literary Terms with examples from the text:

• Play

• Act

• Scene

• Epilogue

• Dialogue

• Soliloquy

Important Questions:

1. In "Ars Poetica" and "Poetry" by Archibald MacLeish and Marianne Moore: American poets found inspiration in-

2. In "Ars Poetica" and "Poetry" by Archibald MacLeish and Marianne Moore: What aspect of a poem should carry its meaning and emotions:

3. In "the River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter", "The Garden", "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste" the following question can be answered: the line "Like a skein of loose silk" describes-

4. Explain this Crucible quote:

• • I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!

5. Explain this Crucible quote:

• Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!

6. What rumor is circulating about Reverend Parris’s daughter Betty?

7. For what does Reverend Parris condemn his niece, Abigail?

8. What does Reverend Parris fear?

9. Explain The Garden.

10. What does it mean to "give me liberty or give me death"?

Assessment:

Embedded Assessment #1:

Your assignment is to write an original dramatic script in which you make a statement about a conflict that faces society. By doing so, you should be able to demonstrate your understanding of how Arthur Miller spoke out about a contemporary issue (persecution of suspected communists) while setting his drama in a time period with corresponding events (persecution of suspected witches).

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Embedded Assessment #2:

Your assignment is to write an original, persuasive two- to three-minute speech that addresses a contemporary issue. It should include a clear claim, support, counterclaim, and conclusion/call to action. Incorporate rhetorical appeals and devices to strengthen your argument and to help you achieve your desired purpose.

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Take final on https://testmoz.com/class/16400

Unit 3 - American Forums: The Marketplace of Ideas

The Works:

Use the attached websites and media to assist you in learning about the following stories.

Please draw an outline for each of the following works for the unit. Analyze each work and give your opinion on if it is worthy of literary merit or not.

• The Role of the Media in a Democracy by George A. Krimsky

• How the Rise of the Daily Me Threatens Democracy Financial Times, January 10, 2008 by Cass Sunstein (See below for article)

• The Newspaper Is Dying—Hooray for Democracy Macleans, April 7, 2008 by Andrew Potter

• Facebook Photos Sting Minnesota High School Students The Associated Press

• Abolish high school football! NJ.com, September 20, 2007 by Raymond A. Schroth

• Facing consequences at Eden Prairie High from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune

• Pro and Con: Raising Graduation Requirements for High School Students Time to raise the bar in high schools by Jack O’Connell

• New Michigan Graduation Requirements Shortchange Many Students by Nick Thomas

• Girl Moved To Tears by Of Mice and Men Cliffs Notes from The Onion

• In Depth, but Shallowly by Dave Barry

• The Feather Pillow

• Winter Dreams

• Letter to His Daughter

• Advice to Youth (1882) by Mark Twain

• The War Prayer by Mark Twain

• Gambling in Schools by Howard Mohr (See below for article)

Literary Terms:

Write Literary Terms with examples from the text:

• Theme

• Tone

• Paradox

• Symbol

• Primary Source

• Secondary Source

Important Questions:

1. In "The Feather Pillow": The doctors-

2. In "The Feather Pillow":What do the feathers have to do with her death?

3. In "Winter Dreams" and "Letter to His Daughter":Dexter quits his job as a caddy when-

4. In "Winter Dreams" and "Letter to His Daughter":What happens to Judy and Dexter-

5. In "Winter Dreams" and "Letter to His Daughter":Fitzgerald confesses in "Letter to His Daughter" that he is:

6. In "Winter Dreams" and "Letter to His Daughter":at the end of the story tears stream down Dexter's face because-

7. What is the theme of The War Prayer?

8. Do you agree with "time to raise the bar"?

9. What are the consequences in Eden Prairie?

10. How is the newspaper dying?

11. Explain the humor of the girl crying while reading the Mice and Men synopsis (cliff notes) from The Onion?

12. Should there be an exam to graduate high school?

13. Should football be eliminated? Why?

14. What are 3 things mentioned in the Dave Berry article?

15. Explain Mark Twain's advice to youth...

Assessment:

Embedded Assessment #1:

Your assignment is to plan, develop, write, revise, and present an informational article on a timely and debatable issue of significance to your school community, local community, or national audience. After you complete the article, you will individually develop a variety of editorial products that reflect your point of view (agreement, alternative, or opposing) on the topic. Be creative with your editorial products and include at least two different pieces, such as cartoons, editorials, letters, posters, photos, and so on.

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Embedded Assessment #2:

You have been studying how opinions are expressed and perceived in a democratic society through a variety of rhetorical formats including satire. Your assignment is to develop a satirical piece critiquing some aspect of our society.

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Take final on https://testmoz.com/class/16400

How the Rise of the Daily Me Threatens Democracy

Financial Times, January 10, 2008

by Cass Sunstein

More than a decade ago the technology specialist, Nicholas Negroponte, prophesied the emergence of the Daily Me—a fully personalised newspaper. It would allow you to include topics that interest you and screen out those that bore or annoy you. If you wanted to focus on Iraq and tennis, or exclude Iran and golf, you could do that.

2Many people now use the internet to create something like a Daily Me. This behaviour is reinforced by the rise of social networking forums, collaborative filtering and viral marketing. For politics, the phenomenon is especially important in campaigns. Candidates in the US presidential race can construct information cocoons in which readers are deluged with material that is, in their eyes, politically correct. Supporters of Hillary Clinton construct a Daily Me that includes her campaign’s perspective but offers nothing from Barack Obama, let alone Mitt Romney.

3What is wrong with the emerging situation? We can find a clue in a small experiment in democracy conducted in Colorado in 2005. About 60 US citizens were put into 10 groups. They deliberated on controversial issues, such as whether the US should sign an international treaty to combat global warming and whether states should allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. The groups consisted of predominantly either leftwing or rightwing members, with the former drawn from left-of-centre Boulder and the latter from Colorado Springs, which tends to be right of centre. The groups, not mixed, were screened to ensure members conformed to stereotypes. (If people in Boulder liked Vice-President Dick Cheney, they were cordially excused.) People were asked to state their opinions anonymously before and after the group discussion.

4In almost every group, people ended up with more extreme positions. The Boulder groups favoured an international treaty to control global warming before discussion; they favoured it far more strongly afterwards. In Colorado Springs, people were neutral on that treaty before discussion; discussion led them to oppose it strongly. Same-sex unions became much more popular in Boulder and less so in Colorado Springs.

5Aside from increasing extremism, discussion had another effect: it squelched diversity. Before members talked, many groups displayed internal disagreement. These were greatly reduced: discussion widened the rift between Boulder and Colorado Springs.

6Countless versions of this experiment are carried out online every day. The result is group polarisation, which occurs when like-minded people speak together and end up in a more extreme position in line with their original inclinations.

7There are three reasons for this. First is the exchange of information. In Colorado Springs, the members offered many justifications for not signing a climate treaty and a lot fewer for doing so. Since people listened to one another, they became more sceptical. The second reason is that when people find their views corroborated, they become more confident and so are more willing to be extreme. The third reason involves social comparison. People who favour a position think of themselves in a certain way and if they are with people who agree with them, they shift a bit to hold on to their preferred self-conception.

8Group polarisation clearly occurs on the internet. For example, 80 per cent of readers of the leftwing blog Daily Kos are Democrats and fewer than 1 per cent are Republicans. Many popular bloggers link frequently to those who agree with them and to contrary views, if at all, only to ridicule them. To a significant extent, people are learning about supposed facts from narrow niches and like-minded others.

9This matters for the electoral process. A high degree of self-sorting leads to more confidence, extremism and increased contempt for those with contrary views. We can already see this in the presidential campaign. It will only intensify when the two parties square off. To the extent that Democratic and Republican candidates seem to live in different political universes, group polarisation is playing a large role.

10Polarisation, of course, long preceded the internet. Yet given people’s new power to create echo chambers, the result will be serious obstacles not merely to civility but also to mutual understanding and constructive problem solving. The Daily Me leads inexorably also to the Daily Them. That is a real problem for democracy.

Gambling in Schools by Howard Mohr

1[When Minnesota jumped into legalized gambling, it was off the deep end without a lifeguard. First it was Canterbury Downs, a clean, well-lighted horse track that seemed more like a Lutheran church with betting windows. Then came Powerball, Daily Three, Gopher Five (named after the official state rodent), and Scratch-Offs. At the same time Native American casinos were springing up in the land of sky blue waters, raking it in with blackjack and slot machines and high-stakes bingo. What could possibly be next?]

2Parents and teachers who have been worried sick about finding enough money just to maintain public schools at a minimal level, worry no more. The Minnesota Legislature last week approved the Education Gambling Bill. The bill allows Video Gaming Devices (VGDS) in K-12 classrooms. Only two machines per classroom will be permitted, unless the class size exceeds thirty, in which case one additional VGD machine will be permitted for each additional ten students. Class size, however, will not be a problem once the gambling revenue begins pouring in.

3Students in math classes will be instructed in probability, statistics, and hot streaks. The VGDs in kindergarten classrooms will operate with nickels only. All students will be expected to do their assignments and homework before gambling, unless they’re on a roll.

4Powerball and Gopher Five tickets will be sold only in the lunchroom during the noon hour. But the attractive neon Minnesota lottery signs will be permitted at the main entrance of the school and near the scoreboard at games.

5Pulltabs and Scratch-Offs are specifically outlawed in the bill because they make a big mess, according to the powerful Janitor’s Lobby.

6Off-track horse betting will be handled in the Principal’s office, with a $2 and $5 window initially, but with the option of a $100 window after the first year. Race results will be available in convenient locations. The first half hour of the school day will be a “handicapping homeroom,” but students will be encouraged to arrive early if they are psyched up and have the feeling that this is the day.

7Each school system may publish and sell its own Tip Sheet or it can hire a professional tipster, such as “Gimp” Gordon or “Fast-Forward” Freddy, to be a counselor and role model.

8Betting on high school sports will be forbidden, but the morning line for collegiate and professional sports will be broadcast on Channel One and posted in the principal’s office near the sports betting window. As a safeguard, students will not be allowed to bet on sporting contests unless they have successfully passed Math II, “Point Spreads and Injuries.”

9Poker games will be operated as an extracurricular activity from the final bell until four a.m. The School will be the “house” and provide the dealers. There will be a 10 percent rakeoff for each pot up to a maximum of $10 per hand. Only Five-Card Draw, Stud, and Hold-Em will be permitted. Midnight Baseball, Spit in the Ocean, or Mission Impossible will not be permitted because they are silly games of chance and would send the wrong message to students.

10Gambling will obviously bring new life and big money to the schools, but there are other advantages:

1. Students will be prepared for jobs in the gambling industry after graduating.

2. Part-time jobs will be created in the schools for change walkers, dealers, security officers, and so on.

3. A wider variety of people will be attracted to the teaching profession.

4. Discipline will be better because the hope of getting something for nothing is one of the oldest drives for excellence.

11A bigger gambling issue faces the Legislature soon: Should gaming be permitted in hospitals and medical centers? And if so, how much and what kind? Would patients be able to bet the ponies from their beds? Could nurses deal blackjack in the sunroom? Could you go double or nothing with your physician?

Unit 4 - The Pursuit of Happiness

The Works:

Use the attached websites and media to assist you in learning about the following stories.

Please draw an outline for each of the following works for the unit. Analyze each work and give your opinion on if it is worthy of literary merit or not.

• “from Self-Reliance”by Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” from Walden by Henry David Thoreau

• In the Depths of Solitude by Tupac (2Pac) Shakur, 1971-1996

• Remember by Joy Harjo, b. 1951

• A Light Exists in Spring by Emily Dickinson

• Credo from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

• Songs of Myself (Walt Whitman)

• A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim (WW)

• Specimen Days

• from Hospital Sketches (Louisa Alcott)

• Full Powers (Neruda)

• The Soul Selects her own Society (Emily Dickinson)

• If you were coming in the Fall (ED)

• Because I could not stop for Death

• I heard a fly buzz- when I died

• Much Madness is Divinest Sense (ED)

Literary Terms:

Write Literary Terms with examples from the text:

• Simile

• Theme

• Imagery

• Poetry

• Metaphor

Important Questions:

1. What is a simile?

2. What does theme mean?

3. Explain the term imagery...

4. In Songs of Myself Whitman states: "I am large, I contain multitudes." (Section 51)

This means...

5. In Dickenson's "Because I could not stop for Death" Why might the speaker not fear death?

6. Emily Dickinson's “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—...” is about the...

7. Emily Dickinson's "Much Madness is divinest Sense" utilizes what contrary literary term in the title of the poem?

8. Full Powers is about ________

9. Why is Tupac mentioned in this unit?

10. What is Fulghum saying in All I need to know I learned in kindergarten?

Assessment:

Embedded Assessment #1:

Your assignment is to write a and present multi-paragraph reflective essay about a significant personal experience that involves the pursuit of happiness and/or transcendental ideals, being sure to describe the experience and your immediate response to it, as well as to reflect on the significance of the experience.

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Embedded Assessment #2:

Your assignment is to create a mutli-genre research project that expresses your research and perspective on a person, event, or movement that embodies the American ideal of the pursuit of happiness.

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Take final on https://testmoz.com/class/16400

Unit 5 -An American Journey

The Works:

• Tableau (Countee Cullen)

• Incident (Countee Cullen)

• America (Claude McKay)

• The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Hughes)

• The Weary Blues (Hughes)

• Harlem (Hughes)

• Heyday in Harlem (Hughes) see below

• The Mississippi river empties into the gulf (Lucille Clifton)

• from Dust Tracks on A Road (Zora Neale Hurston)*

• from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas

• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Harriet Jacobs)

• from My Bondage and My Freedom (Douglass)

• Go Down, Moses

• Follow the Drinking Gourd

• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

• The Most Remarkable Woman of This Age (Commonwealth & Freeman News Article)

• A Mystery of Heroism (Crane)

• War is Kind (Crane)

• Letter to His Son (Robert E. Lee)

• Gettysburg Address (Lincoln)

• from A Diary from Dixie (Chesnut)

• from Men at War: Shelby Foote (Ken Burns)

Literary Terms:

• Write Literary Terms with examples from the text:

  • internal conflict

  • external conflict

  • situational irony

  • verbal irony

  • oratory

  • biography

  • autobiography

  • rhythm

  • mood

  • metaphor

  • repetition

  • refrain

  • blank verse

Important Questions:

1. What is a simile?

2. What is war poetry?

3. Describe the lost poets?

4. Describe the life and tone of Fredrick Douglass?

5. What did Robert E. Lee tell his son?

6. What is the theme of Go Down Moses?

7. Harlem is about...

8. What is the meaning of swing low sweet chariot?

9. Follow the drinking gourd is about______?

10. Go Down Moses is a spiritual. What is it talking about?

Assessment:

Embedded Assessment #1:

Your assignment is to create an interactive multimedia research presentation about a topic related to the Harlem Renaissance. This should include a variety of media and must also include an annotated bibliography. Your presentation should focus on some aspect of the era that represents the values and ideas of the Harlem Renaissance, such as historical context, philosophy and beliefs, the arts, or daily life.

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Embedded Assessment #2:

Write an analytical essay in which you discuss how Zora Neale Hurston’s writing is both a reflection of and a departure from the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. Include aspects of the Harlem Renaissance that you see reflected in Hurston’s writing as well as characteristics of Hurston’s writing that are departures from selected aspects of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Take final on https://testmoz.com/class/16400