CORE WORKS AND SUPPLEMENTARY OPTIONS: 11TH GRADE ENGLISH
COURSE DESCRIPTION
English 5-6 is a study of American Literature and the forces that have contributed to
American culture. In addition to specific literary works, the course will emphasize both
American literary history and specific literary movements. A close textual analysis of all
works of literature will be emphasized through discussion, small group study, and
writing. Students will maintain portfolios and use them as a tool to reflect on their
progress in writing. Students will also be expected to complete various research
assignments throughout the year.
CORE LITERARY MOVEMENTS
Colonialism
Puritanism
Classicism
Romanticism
Transcendentalism
Realism (Required: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
Naturalism
Modernism (Required: The Great Gatsby)
COURSE OBJECTIVES
As a result of completing English 5-6, a student will be able to:
- identify and discuss important features of the various genres in American literature.
- identify and discuss the works of significant writers in American literature.
- understand the significance of various literary movements and their historical context.
- write clear, unified essays including process papers, times writing and other styles of
writing.
- exhibit oral language skills in collaborative learning groups, presentations, and
discussions.
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UNITS
I. COLONIAL AMERICA
This unit explores the religious and secular ideologies of early America and chronicles
the challenges early settlers faced.
Core: None
Supplementary:
Of Plymouth Plantation (excerpts)- Bradford
History of the Dividing Line (excerpts)- Byrd
II. PURITAN CONSCIOUSNESS
This unit emphasized the conflict between personal freedom and society’s desire for
conformity. It explores how ignorance and fear often lead to intolerance and persecution.
Core: None
Supplementary:
The Crucible- Miller (required summer reading for Honors)
The Scarlet Letter- Hawthorne
“Journey to The Crucible”- Miller
The short stories of Hawthorne (see Romanticism)
“We Aren’t Superstitious”-Benet
“Three Sovereigns for Sarah” (video)
“The Salem Witch Trials” (video)
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”- Edwards
Dogville- von Trier (film)
III. CLASSICISM/THE ENLIGHTENMENT
In this unit, students examine the principles of the Age of Reason and the 18th century
literary movement of Classicism with its emphasis on tradition, structure, society, nature,
and social progress.
Students will understand the Classicist world view that reason and logic perfect man and
reform the community.
Core: None
Supplementary:
“Moral Perfection” from The Autobiography of Ben Franklin
Selections from Poor Richard’s Almanac
“Indecent Proposal”- Paine
The Declaration of Independence
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IV. ROMANTICISM
This unit focuses on the emerging characteristics of American literature as it developed
independently from European influences. Students will explore how Romantic writers
rebelled against the previous literary movement of Classicism. The Romantic period
emphasized imagination, emotion, the past, the importance of the individual, the mystery
of nature, and a sense of idealism.
Students will understand the Romantic world view that emotion, the individual, and the
imagination are key to the elevation of the human spirit.
Core: None
Supplementary:
The short stories of Poe including, “The Single Effect in a Work of Short Prose”
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“The Tell-Tale Heart”
“The Cask of Amontillado”
“The Black Cat”
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
“Ligera”
The short stories of Hawthorne
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“Young Goodman Brown”
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
“The Birthmark”
“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”- Edwards
The poetry of Dickinson and Longfellow
“Thanatopsis”- Bryant
“The Devil and Tom Walker”- Irving
V. TRANSCENDENTALISM
The focus in this unit will be studying the important ideas of transcendentalism. This
short-lived but significant outgrowth of Romanticism believed in the goodness of
humanity, the glory of nature, the importance of free, individual expression and the
necessity of rebelling against social conformity. The central tenet of transcendentalism
philosophy emphasized intuition as opposed to reason as a method of attaining truth.
Students will understand the Transcendentalist world view that, when man combines
intuition with a close observation of nature, he can achieve a high level of spiritual truth.
Core: None
Supplementary:
“Self-Reliance”, “Nature”- Emerson
“Walden”, “Civil-Disobedience”- Thoreau
The poetry of Whitman
Excerpts from Star Wars- Lucas (film)
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VI. REALISM
Both before and after the Civil War, writers in the period of realism rebelled against the
idealization and the glamorization of the Romantics. They believed that the world should
be portrayed with accurate, objective detail. Subject matter of the Realists increasingly
portrayed the brutality of war and the grimness of urban life.
Students will understand the Realist world view that the truth of experience should be
expressed through an emphasis on objective detail, the common man, and vernacular
language.
Core: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Twain
Supplementary:
Pap- Clinch
The short stories of Twain
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“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
“Story of the Bad Little Boy”
“A Rescue” from The Deerslayer- Cooper (used as transition piece)
“Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”- Mark Twain (essay)
“Muck-a-Muck”, “The Outcasts of Poker Flats”- Harte
Excerpts from Narrative of a Life of Fredrick Douglass- Douglass
Excerpts from The Souls of Black Folk- W.E.B. DuBois
“Up From Slavery”- Booker T. Washington
Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain- Video
VII. NATURALISM
As an extension of realism, the naturalists were heavily influenced by the ideas of
Darwin, Freud, and Marx, and the rise of the machine age. They portrayed man as victim
of both society and nature—a helpless animal devoid of free will.
Students will understand the Naturalist world view that man is a victim both of nature
and society and is engaged in a brutal struggle for survival.
Core: None
Supplementary:
Ethan Frome- Wharton
The Red Badge of Courage- Crane (also a 1 hr. video)
The short stories of Crane
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“A Mystery of Heroism”
“The Open Boat”
“The Upturned Face”
“Episode of War”
Excerpts from The Spoon River Anthology- Masters
“Richard Cory”- Robinson
The short stories of Bierce
 “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
 “Chickamauga”
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 “The Coup de Grace”
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”- Bierce
“To Build a Fire”- London
Grizzly Man- Herzog (documentary)
VIII. MODERNISM/THE HARLEM RENNAISANCE
Writers in this period struggle to come to grips with post World War I alienation and the
fragmentation of urban life. Modernism is characterized by experimentation in both
content and style.
Students will understand the Modernist world view that human experience is
characterized by alienation, fragmentation, and loss and that no universal higher power
exists to give meaning to life.
Core: The Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald
Supplementary:
Winesburg, Ohio- Anderson
As I Lay Dying- Faulkner
A Moveable Feast- Hemingway
The short stories of Fitzgerald
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“Bernice Bobs her Hair”
“Babylon Revisited”
“Winter Dreams”
The short stories of Faulkner
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“A Rose for Emily”
“Dry September”
“Barn Burning”
“That Evening Sun”
The short stories of Hemingway
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“In Another Country”
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
“The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber”
“Indian Camp”
“Hills Like White Elephants”
“A Clean Well-Lighted Place”
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Excerpts from Joyce, Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein (Expatriate Writers)
The poetry of e.e. cummings
“The Lost Generation” (Documentary)
The Poetry of Langston Hughes
IX. POST-MODERNISM/CONTEMPORARY
Contemporary writers are concerned with the radical changes taking place in post-war
American society. Their work reflects changes in social institutions and racial relations
as well as fears about the prospect of the future. As writers in the first two decades of
this century, they continue to experiment with language and syntax.
Core: None
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Supplementary:
The Accidental Tourist
All My Sons
All the King’s Men
Angle of Repose
The Armies of the Night
Autobiography of a Face
Beloved
The Big Sleep
The Bird and the Machine
Blue Highway
Cathedral
Come Back, Little Sheba
The Crucible
Death of a Salesman
Distortions
The Duke of Deception
Elmer Gantry
The Fifties
Friday Night Lights
The Glass Menagerie
Go Tell it on the Mountain
The Great Santini
Growing Up
Woods
Independence Day
Invisible Man (Ellison)
Net of Jewels
One Writer’s Beginnings
Prince of Tides
Ragtime
A Raisin in the Sun
Rich in Love
Seize the Day
The Sportswriter
A Summons to Memphis
The Things They Carried
A Tidewater Morning
A Thousand Acres
This Boy’s Life
To be Young, Gifted and
Black
Truman
The Way West
The White Album
Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?
Woman Hollering Creek
The Zoo Story
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
House Made of Dawn
In the Country
In the Lake of the Woods
Jazz
The Jungle
Machine Dreams
The Magic Barrel
The Natural
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