Voice mail:  614-883-2604

Email:  gmeeks@worthington.k12.oh.us

“'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem to be confidences or sides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profound thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet, essayist and lecturer.

First Nine Weeks

First Quarter Novel: The Great Gatsby (Book and possibly video) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Introduction:  Looking at the American need for Expression through essays

                        “What Is an American?” by Jean de Crevecoeur  (page 290)

Origins and Journeys         2000 B.C. -  1620 A.D.

                        Native American literature: myths; :”The World on the Turtles’s Back”  ”The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Silko and

                                                                            “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by  Momaday

                        Stories of Travel to a New Land: 

“La Relacion,” by de Vaca and Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation”           

                        Historical Narrative by Equiano’s The Middle Passage

                        “Blue Highways” by Heat-Moon

            Personal essay on your journey (page 120-125)

From the Puritan Tradition  to Revolutionary  Era   1620   -    1775 

Puritan traditions: 

Bradstreet’s poetry,

“The Examination of Sarah Good” 

Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” 

The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Selections from and video)

                        Writers in a time of Revolution:

                                    Patrick Henry, Rodolfo Gonzales, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X

            Persuasive Speaking and Writing (pages 260 -261)

                                    Persuasive Essay

The Scarlet Letter (Video) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Time of Romanticism and Transcendentalism      1800-1855

Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life”

                        Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker”

                        Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”

                        Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,”

                        Gandhi’s “On Civil Disobedience,” 

                        Walden “I Hear America Singing” and “Song of Myself” by Whitman; 

                        Other poetry (contemporary)

                        Dead Poet’s Society

The Dark Side of Romanticism: American Gothic  1820  --  1855

                        Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of Red Death, ” “The Raven,” “ Fall of the House of Usher” 

                        Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”

                        Southern Gothic:  William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”

                        Flannery O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” (contemporary)

Second Nine Weeks

Second Quarter Novel:  Catcher in the Rye  by J.D. Salinger

A House Divided: Slavery and the Civil War   1850  -  1900

                        Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

                        Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

                        Stephen Crane “A Mystery of Heroism”   

                        “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln                            

1850 – 1925 Women’s Voices   

                        Emily Dickinson and her poetry (746-759)

                        “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

                        Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and others

                        Contemporary Poetry

                        Creative Writing on a Vision or an illusion

The Changing Face of America (continued):  1900  -  1940

                        The American Dream:  Illusion or Reality                   

                        Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Paul Dunbar, 

                        “The New Immigrants” by Yezierska

The Harlem Renaissance 

                        Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay,

                        Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored,”

                        James Baldwin (1962) , Gwendolyn Brooks (contemporary)

Modernism: 

                        Robert Frost and his poetry

                        T.S. Elliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

                        Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”

                        Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton’s poetry

                        Poetry Project

America in War and Conflict at Home:  1940 - Present

                        Literature from WWII and Vietnam: 

                                    Randall Jarrell

                                    John Steinbeck

                                    Tim O’Brien

                        Ernest Hemingway’s novel Farewell to Arms (Video)

                        Post-War Society:  Integration and Disintegration

                        Martin Luther King, Nikki Giovanni, Anne Tyler, John Updike, Pat Mora, Joyce C. Oates Sandra Cisneros, Amy Tan

Class Expectations

1.       Classroom rules:  Be on time and Be ready to discuss and write. Be Responsible and Respectful to All.

2.       Bring your book every day of class unless instructed not to bring it.

3.       Take Notes!

4.       We will continue to work on the writing process in this class.  All major papers will be written in MLA format.  All major papers need to have rough drafts.  All Final Papers need to be turned in to me on the date they are due.  If you attend any other classes that day, you are expected to hand your papers in.  The final grade for a paper will be reduced by one letter grade for every day it is late.  I do accept papers via email, but if they do not get to me for some reason they are still late.  Bring a hard copy to class as well to be sure you get them in on time.

5.       Written assignments may include: journals with citations from text, a literary analysis, research paper, poetry, creative stories, personal writing and persuasive writing.

6.       Possible class activities include: discussions, debates, speeches, group activities-film clips or videos, presentations, interviews.

7.       The 80% of your grade will be based on one major paper per nine weeks, one mid-term exam at the end of the first nine weeks, and a final exam at the end of the semester.  The other 20% of your grade will include a variety of other assessments: quizzes, writings, activities, group presentations, and, on occasion, a participation grade.

8.       Students are expected to keep a notebook portfolio of all work and notes from class arranged in chronological order.  It may be collected at any time during the semester for a grade so be sure to keep it neat and complete.

·          Come to class and be on time!  Attendance is imperative for understanding the reading and the assignments.

Ø       Tardy twice = a detention.  If you need to miss class, check with me to see what your homework will be so that you may get caught up with your work.  

·          Be prepared by doing your work and by reading your material with more than a cursory read.  If it doesn’t make sense, read it again.  We can’t discuss the authors or the readings if you have not read the material.

·          Bring a good attitude to class; show consideration for yourself, your classmates. 

·          Be prepared to work in groups with all classmates; be respectful of a divergent viewpoint. 

·          Bring your book and supplies to class unless you have been notified by me that it is not necessary.  (You may have open book quizzes to guarantee you are bringing your book to class.)  

·          If work is late, one letter grade is taken off for each class day it is late.  After three class days, no late work may not be accepted unless you have arranged with me to be given an extension. 

Ø       If you need an extension on an assignment, you must let me know ahead of the due date.  I appreciate students who come forward to ask for help.  For extra help, arrange to see me outside of class or get help from the English Academic Assistant.  

I’m really looking forward to working with you!