American Literature/Composition Honors Syllabus
SY 2013-2014
Mrs. Carrie Swiderski
Woodville Tompkins Technical and Career High School
Course Description:
Honors American Literature /Composition is a study of the major literary topics and themes across
the history of the United States from pre-colonial times to present day. Students will focus on the
major literary forms of the emerging nation, analyze the literary themes and trends, research and
compose several papers, speeches, and presentations using representative forms of discourse.
Students are expected to be active readers as they analyze and interpret textual detail, establish
connections among their observations, and draw logical inferences toward an interpretive conclusion.
The course will also include a writing component that focuses on persuasive, informational,
explanatory and argumentative writing about the literature through both discussion and essay format.
Summary of Standards:
SCCPSS and the State of Georgia now use the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards
Curriculum, a nationalized set of academic standards that require the students to think, read and
write rigorously. The standards can be found at https://www.georgiastandards.org/CommonCore/Common%20Core%20Frameworks/CCGPS_ELA_11-12_Standards(AmerLit).pdf
As an Honors course, these standards will be extended and/or enriched by regular class discussions
using the Harkness discussion method, which puts the students in control of the conversation, as
they seek, as a team, to come to consensus on a specific questions or issues. Information about this
methodology can be found at
http://learn.quinnipiac.edu/teaching/gettinghelp/documents/Harkness_Discussion.pdf
Curriculum and Texts:
The major works Honors American Literature/Composition students will read are listed below, along
with their supporting, smaller texts. As a department, we at WTTCHS *strongly* encourage parents to
provide individual copies of the starred texts, as there are not enough copies of the books for each
student. In addition, having a personal copy of the book allows the student to more easily practice
annotation skills required in active reading.
Theme
Fear and
persecution in
Early American
literature
Major works
The Crucible, by
Arthur Miller
Supplementary Texts
(provided by teachers)
Creation Myths:
“When Grizzlies Walked Upright”
“The Earth on Turtle’s Back”
Puritan Influence Poetry and
Sermons:
“Huswifery”
“to My Dear and Loving Husband”
Excerpt from Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God
Informational Texts:
Excerpt from “Of Plymouth
Plantation”
Excerpt from The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin
Writing Focus
Expository
American Literature/Composition Honors Syllabus
SY 2013-2014
Theme
The Individual
Versus Society:
Exploring a New
Frontier
(Romanticism /
Transcendentalism
/AntiTranscendentalism
/ Gothicism /
Poetry)
The Aftermath of
Destruction:
Reconstructing the
American Dream
(Civil War /
Realism /
Regionalism /
Naturalism /
Modernism /
imagism / The
Harlem
Renaissance / The
Jazz Age)
Modern Times,
Modern Issues
Major works
Walden by Henry
David Thoreau
The Scarlet Letter
(video)
****The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Freakonomics by
Steven D. Levitt &
Stephen J. Dunbar
Supplementary Texts
(provided by teachers)
Short Stories:
“The Devil and Tom Walker”
“The Masque of the Red Death”
Poetry selections by:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
William Cullen Bryant
John Greenleaf Whittier
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
Poetry selections by:
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
Stephen Crane
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Countee Cullen
Carl Sandburg
Edgar Lee Masters
Short Story:
“The Story of an Hour”
Informational Texts:
“Sullivan Ballou’s Letter to His Wife
“How it Feels to be Colored Me”
Short Stories:
“A Worn Path”
“The Lottery”
Poetry selections by:
T. S. Eliott
Robert Frost
Informational Texts:
Inaugural Address of John F.
Kennedy
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Writing Focus
Informative
Explanatory
Informative
Explanatory
Argumentative
Instruction will be extended for this honors course with extended timed writing, double-entry journaling,
analysis of related images, Harkness-style discussions, Socratic Seminars, close reading, annotation and
collaborative annotation.
Contact Information:
Carrie Swiderski, Room 619
Work: (912) 395-6750 Extension 754619
carrie.swiderski@sccpss.com
Tutorial: Thursday, until 4 PM