American Literature Course Description—2015-2016
Dr. Taylor
Office: 3D in the English Office
Email: rebeccataylor@claytonschools.net
Phone: 314-854-6769
Essential Questions for the Humanities:
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What forces—human and non-human--shape our identity?
What is truth? What is beauty?
What is good? What is evil?
What is the nature of a good life? What gives life meaning?
Essential Questions for the Discipline of English:
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What value does literature have for our lives?
What can we learn about ourselves and others from literature?
How does one judge the value of a literary work?
What determines a literary canon?
What are the elements of effective oral, written, and visual communication?
Essential Questions for American Literature
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What is an American? What is an American literature?
What is the American Dream? How does American literature reflect and shape the
definition of success and failure in America?
What is the place of the nonconformist, or rebel, in American society?
How are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” present in Americans’ dreams and in
American literature?
How do Americans encourage or resist equality for all? How does justice manifest itself
in America? How does injustice manifest itself in America?
Where do Americans look for salvation? What value do places such as the West or the
North hold for Americans?
How do American authors use stylistic elements in order to achieve their purposes?
Semester I
Unit I—The Foundation: Where have we been, and where are we going?
Calvinism and the American Character.
Several Views of Puritanism
 The Crucible, Arthur Miller
 Selected Poems of Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor
 The Puritan Legacy: selected short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne
o “Young Goodman Brown”
o “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
Witches in the Modern Political Realm
 “I am not a Witch,” Christine O’Donnell (2010)
Another Tale of Evil (sort of)
 “Taibele and Her Demon,” Isaac Bashevis Singer (1961, Nobel Prize 1976)
The Enlightenment (a contrast)
 “The Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson (1776)
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o A Response: The Seneca Falls Resolution (1848)
Unit II—Romanticism and Transcendentalism: Borrowing from and reworking
European Models
 Preliminary reflections on English Romanticism: Dorothy Wordsworth and
William Wordsworth
 Selected works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville
 Selected works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau
 Selected works of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman
Semester II
Unit III—Realism and Naturalism: Slavery and the Civil War
 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, escaped slave and internationally
known abolitionist
 Selected poems by Robert Hayden (1913-1980): “Runagate, Runagate”;
“Frederick Douglass”; “O Daedalus, Fly Away Home”; “Death, Night, and
Mississippi”
Unit IV—More Realism and Naturalism: The westward expansion, regionalism and
local color, emerging African-American and women’s voices.
 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
 Selected short works by Willa Cather, Charles W. Chestnut, Kate Chopin,
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, etc.
Unit V—Modernism and The Lost Generation: World War I, disillusionment,
industrialization, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the dark
side of the American Dream and American materialism
 Modern American poets, especially those of the Harlem Renaissance: Langston
Hughes, Countee Cullen, Arna Bontemps, Claude McKay, etc.
 Selected short stories by Ernest Hemingway (1954, Nobel Prize)
 The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Unit VI—Post-modernism: Technology, alienation, dehumanization, and fear of nuclear
war produce radical changes in America’s literary, philosophical, and artistic identity.
 Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison (1993, Nobel Prize)
 Selected short stories by William Faulkner (1949, Nobel Prize), Flannery
O’Connor, etc.
Independent Reading Assignments, Projects, and Presentations
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Students will read one independent selection (IRA) each semester. The choices for each
semester will be forthcoming.
Over the course of the first three quarters, students will create a pastiche using the theme
“My American Dream.” The model for this pastiche will be Robert Hayden’s poem
“Runagate, Runagate” (1962).
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Over the course of the year, students will keep notes on class discussions and readings,
and in the fourth quarter, prepare an essay investigating a theme of American literature.
This essay will incorporate references to several of the class’s texts.
Organization:
 Keep an organized, loose-leaf notebook for American Literature; please use this
binder only for American Literature.
 Follow the order of the list of handouts written on the poster board in the
classroom. Number and date each handout in the upper RIGHT hand corner.
 For each completed unit, keep a folder at home for the unit’s handouts. For
example, after we finish The Crucible and have our exam, transfer your
assignment sheets, etc., to your home folder. In this way, you will have an
archive of handouts to study for the final exam.
 Keep an extra paper copy of your preliminary essays and your revisions so you have a
back up. You should also save your written work on your hard drive at home, on a
flash drive, and/or to your CHS server account.
Grading and Assessment—Classwork, Homework, Tests:
Please be aware that getting a grade and getting an education are two different goals. The
principal academic objective of this class is that students receive an education, not just a
grade.
 Grade Percentages:
Academic Work:
80%
Participation:
10%
Final Exam:
10%
 Participation: Participation points will be occasionally be assigned on in-class
work days. Wednesday After-school English Study Hall is a good time to make
up participation points. Remember that make-up work is your responsibility.
 Homework: Homework must come in the day it is due and be turned in at the
beginning of class. (Please staple your essays before class.) Unless the student
devotes an hour’s time to the NEXT After-school English Study Hall (see below),
late work will not be accepted.
 Excused Absences: Assignments and tests missed because of an excused absence
must be turned in/made up within the same number of days as the days missed;
for example, if the student missed one day (e.g., Wednesday), he or she has one
day to complete the makeup work, so the make-up work would be due on Friday.
 Unexcused Absences: The consequence of an unexcused absence is that the work
missed cannot be made up and no credit will be given.
 Wednesday After-school English Study Hall—Library Lab A: In order to turn in
late work, the student must attend an after-school make-up session on the next
designated Wednesday. Each make-up session will last from 3:05 to 4:00.
(Arrivals after 3:10 will lose the opportunity to make up the work.) After
attending the study session, students can earn up to 85% of the credit lost. In order
to regain their credit, students must exhibit proper behavior during the study
session.
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Prewriting: Essay drafts (preliminary or final) must be typed (12 point) and be
accompanied by prewriting: brainstorming, free writing, mapping, early drafts.
Please staple these pages to the back of the draft you are turning in. I will not
accept drafts unaccompanied by evidence of earlier work. In other words, all
drafts should be polished and shaped before I see them.
Conferences: American Literature is a conferenced English course, and each
student is responsible for five conferences per semester. Missed conferences must
be made up, and rescheduling is the student's responsibility. Each conference is
worth 20 points; a missed conference will result in a deduction of 10 points.
Students who have an unexcused absence from a conference will be assigned an
after-school detention in the Detention Room.
Study Buddy: Pick a homework partner (a study buddy); if you are absent, call
your partner to find out what went on in class. Have your partner pick up
handouts for you when you are absent.
Emailed assignments: Please note that I do not accept emailed assignments. It
is the student’s responsibility to print out and turn in a hard copy of each
assignment.
Grading Scale
98 and above
93-97
90-92
88-89
83-87
80-82
A+
A
AB+
B
B-
78-79
73-77
70-72
68-69
63-67
60-62
<60
C+
C
CD+
D
DF
“No Excuses":
The Clayton High School English Department has chosen 12 grammar and punctuation
rules that all students need to be aware of. Please see the Clayton High School Writers’
Contract on bright purple paper and begin, right away, to proofread for these basic rules.
Conferences
 You will have the amazing educational opportunity to attend five 20-minute
conferences each semester. In these conferences, we will discuss ways to
improve your writing.
 Attend your conference on the right day at the right time. Remember that an
unexcused absence from a conference will cost you 10 points and an after-school
detention. Use your planner!
 Please knock on the door at the time of your appointment so that I know you are
there. (Don’t worry about interrupting—it’s your conference time!!!)
 All papers (both preliminary drafts and revisions) must be typed, double-spaced,
and produced in MLA format. Please use 12-point, Times or Times New Roman.
 Print out two copies of each draft. Hand in one to me on the due date and keep a
copy for yourself. To prepare for your conference, re-read your paper, mark it,
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respond to comments from your peer review, and bring the paper with you. Write
questions in the margins, circle words/phrases you may want to revise, underline
shaky sentences, etc. Interact with your paper! Be ready to communicate what
you want to do to make your paper even better.
Conduct
 Organize your out-of-class schedule so that you get enough rest, get your
homework done, and are prepared to participate in class. Remember that a rested,
well-nourished body makes for a lively mind.
 Come to class with your materials, books, and assignments.
 Be on time. Be in your seat and ready to work when the bell rings. If you are not
in your seat at the bell, you are tardy.
 Be ready to stay in class the whole period, stay in your seat, and concentrate on
the class's intellectual tasks.
 At no time may you put your head on your desk. If you are ill, ask for a pass
to the nurse.
 Focus on the class activities and limit your talking to contributions to class
discussion.
 Speak and act with courtesy at all times. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.
 Except for water, food and beverages are not permitted in the classroom.
 Turn off and put away your cell phone BEFORE you enter the classroom. Also
put away your iPad, calculator, etc. I will confiscate any technological gadget
that I see in the classroom. On the first and second offenses, I will keep the item
until the end of the day. On the third offense, you will have to ask one of your
parents to pick it up from school.
Class Don’ts
 Do not get out of your seat during lectures and discussions.
 Do not bring food and drink into the classroom. You may bring a water
bottle.
Class Do’s
 Do come to class with your materials, books, assignments and a pencil.
 Do be in your seat at the bell.
 Do respect the opinions of others.
 Do respect yourself.
 Do use correct grammar.
 Do proofread all papers.
 Do take notes.
 Do keep your head up at all times.
 Do participate. When you ask questions, you are participating.
 Do respect the right of others to learn.
 Do turn in work on time.
 Do—absolutely--your own work.
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Do help keep the room clean and attractive.
DO YOUR BEST ALWAYS
Tardies, Bathroom Breaks, Visits to the Nurse, etc.
 Each student will have two freebie tardies per quarter. Students who earn a third
tardy will be assigned an after-school detention in the Detention Room. All
subsequent tardies will merit an after-school detention. Please note that freebie
tardies do not exempt the student from pop quizzes given at the beginning of
class.
 Trips to the nurse will be limited to one per quarter. Save your trip for a time
when you really need it!
 In other words, students should come to class on time, get into their seats, and be
prepared to stay in class. We will be engaged in serious academic work!
Proud Class of 2017!!! Go, Hounds!!!
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