Nagelkirk Reading Schedule 1
AMERICAN LITERATURE
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
Week 1
Monday
Syllabus Overview, Policies and procedures
Q&A
Discussion of Puritans and the concept of the American Dream
HW:
American Dream Essay
Wednesday
Discussion of Puritans and the concept of the American Dream
HW:
American Dream Essay
Course Intro. and The New World
The American Dream
Friday
YOUR American Dream
Read essays and discuss our American dreams as compared to our forefathers’
Intro to Hawthorne
HW:
Read “Ethan Brand” (BB) and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” (Vol. B – 1332)
Week 2
Monday
The Unpardonable Sin
Discuss Ethan Brand and the Unpardonable Sins of him and Rappaccini
HW:
Read “The Birthmark” (Vol. B – p. 1320)
Wednesday
Finding Textual Support
Quotes exercise and analyzing the symbolism in preparation for reading The Scarlet Letter
HW:
Write Ups from Group Work
Friday
Learn individual roles for small group discussions on novel
HW:
Read Letter Chaps 1-8 (Vol. B – p. 1377)
Week 3
Monday
HW:
Lit. Circle policies and procedures (including grading)
Prep for Lit. Circle #1
Literature Circle Roles
Literature Circle Procedures
Wednesday
Literature Circle Meeting #1
HW:
Letter Chaps 9-19 (Vol. B – p. 1415)
The Scarlet Letter –
The Proper Response to Sin in the World
Friday
Large Group Debrief
HW: Prep for Lit. Circle #2
The Scarlet Letter
Nagelkirk Reading Schedule 2
Week 4
Monday
Literature Circle Meeting #2
HW:
Letter Chaps 20-24 (end) (Vol. B – p. 1466)
Wednesday
Intro to Literature Based Writing and Thesis Statements
HW:
Paper Topic Paragraph
Prep for Lit. Circle #3
The Scarlet Letter –
Romance or Tragedy
Scarlet Letter –
“The most perfect novel in the English
Language”
Friday
Debrief on the Hawthorne whirlwind
Lit. Circle Mtg. #3
Paper assignment (2-3 pgs.)
HW:
Preliminary Outline including plan of support/development
Week 5
Monday
Wednesday
Intro to MLA style
Direct and indirect quotation
Avoiding plagiarism
Small Group conference on prelim if time
HW:
Revise prelim outline, due Fri.
No Class – Labor Day Holiday! 
MLA Citing and Referencing
Friday
Drafting day
Work day in class
HW:
First draft of Hawthorne paper
Read selections from Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (Vol. B – pg #s TBA)
Week 6
Monday
Annotated Bibliographies due today
Discuss “Self-Reliance”
Return of Prelim outlines
HW:
Hawthorne Paper – first draft due Friday
Wednesday
Civil Disobedience, Walden, Thoreau’s American Dream
Background info Emerson, Transcendentalism, Thoreau
HW:
Finish first draft
“Civil Disobedience” (Vol. B – p. 1857)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson and Thoreau
Friday
Living Emerson’s Ideas
First draft of Hawthorne paper due today. Final due Fri., Sept. 28
Read and discuss selections from Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience
HW:
Read Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener” (Vol. B – p. 2363)
Nagelkirk Reading Schedule 3
Week 7
Monday
Discuss Bartleby and make comparisons
Workshop Hawthorne papers in class
HW:
Final Draft due Friday, Sept 24
Civil Disobedience
Wednesday
Nature essays assignment
Mini “fieldtrip”
HW:
Begin Nature essay
Communing with Nature
Friday
Final draft of Hawthorne paper due today
Intro to Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby, and Fitzgerald
HW:
???
Historical Context
Week 8
Monday
First day of Gatsby
HW: Read Gatsby (novel)
The Great Gatsby
Wednesday
Discussion on Gatsby
The Embodiment of the Am. Dream
Friday
Discussion on Gatsby
Gatsby
Week 9
Monday
Discussion on Gatsby
Review for exam
Gatsby
Wednesday
Gatsby Exam
Unit Exam
Friday
Watch “The Great Gatsby”
Film
Week 10
Monday
NO CLASS – FALL BREAK
Wednesday
NO CLASS – PSAT
Friday
Nature Essays Due today!
Whitman
Nagelkirk Reading Schedule 4
Week 11
Monday
Read selections from Whitman (Vol. C – p. 30)
HW:
Write your own “Song of Myself”
Whitman – Song of Myself
Wednesday
I sing…
Songs of Myself due
COFFEE HOUSE
HW:
Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” (www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/)
Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby,” (www.pbs.org/katechopin/library/desireesbaby.html )
Friday
First Wave Feminism
Discuss Chopin
HW:
Chopin, “At the Cadian Ball,” www.vahidnab.com/ball.tm
Chopin, “The Storm,” (Vol C – p. 531)
Week 12
Monday
Literary Realism
Discuss Chopin
HW:
Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Vol. C – p. 808)
Wednesday
Discuss Gilman
HW: Jewett, “The White Heron” (Vol. C – p. 522)
A Respectable Woman
The INSTITUTION of Marriage
Friday
A Woman’s Bold Voice
Discuss Jewett
HW:
Crane, “The Open Boat,” (Vol. C – p. 1000)
“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” (htt://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modengl/;public/CraBrid.html)
Week 13
Monday
Discuss Crane
HW:
“Hands” (http://www.bartleby.com/156/2.html)
Classic Man Versus Nature
Wednesday
Discuss Anderson
HW:
James: “Daisy Miller”
A Challenge for You!
Friday
Genres of Literary Criticism
HW:
James: “Daisy Miller”
Scholarship
Nagelkirk Reading Schedule 5
Week 14
Monday
Americanism Versus Europeanism
Discuss James
HW:
Cather: “A Wagner Matinee” (www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1945/)
Wednesday
What Might Have Been…
Discuss Cather
HW:
Hemingway: “Hills Like White Elephants”
(http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~conreys/101files/Otherfolders/Hillslikewhitepg.html)
Friday
Discuss Hemingway
HW:
Text Commitment
Week 15
Monday
Research Paper Assignment
HW:
Preliminary Outline
The Embodiment of The Intentional Fallacy
And So It Begins…
Wednesday
Go over Prelims in class
HW:
Revise Prelims
Research
Friday
Prelims due in final form
HW:
Begin researching
Research
Week 16
Monday
Research Paper Assignment
HW:
Preliminary Outline
And So It Begins…
Wednesday
Go over Prelims in class
HW:
Revise Prelims
Research
Friday
Prelims due in final form
HW:
Begin researching
Research
THANKSGIVING BREAK!
Nagelkirk Reading Schedule 6
Week 17
Monday
No Class – Writing Conferences
HW:
NO CLASS – WRITING CONFERENCES
Work like mad on your research paper
Wednesday
First draft of research paper due
In class conference day
HW:
WORKSHOP
Friday
HW:
No Class – WRITING CONFERENCES
Work like mad on your research paper
Work like mad on your research paper
Week 18
Monday
Research Papers due
Wednesday
Class evals
Friday
Finals
Dec. 14 –Dec. 17
FINALS WEEK