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Throughout our study we will
examine literature from a variety of genres and time periods.
We will not only discuss traditional American literature,
but we will also explore a wide range of American experiences
from a variety of perspectives. This course is demanding and
requires a great deal of analysis, writing, and oral communication.
Student
Work
By Mahli Brister 2005
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The end of the year is always
a hectic time, but among the chaos we try to find
the time to reflect as a class and as a community.
We end the year by reading The House on Mango
Street by Sandra Cisneros.The House on
Mango Street is about a young girl's observations
about the world in which she lives. The students
in my class try to model Cisneros' writing style
and capture the themes that make The House
on Mango Street a unique book. They also
write about the world, their lives, and thier
community as they see them. The books have become
a wonderful American Lit. tradition.
2002 Class- The
Fields on Rt. 2
2003 Class- Anytown, USA
2004 Class- City Life
The students assignment was
to create a visual interpretation of the "great
tree." Janie is the main character in the
story and saw her life in the branches of a
tree. They had to think about thier owns lives
and represent the branches that they feel are
important in their own journey.
"Janie
saw her life like a great tree in leaf with
the things suffered, things enjoyed, things
done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches."
-Thier Eyes Were Watching
God by Zora Neale Hurston
By Kylee Snow 2005 |
By Isadora Snapp 2005 |
"Warm hands opened,
the little seed tumbled and swirled and
fell until it was cradled by the earth
and covered from the sky. It waited;it
sat, it curled in a ball, it stood, it
kicked, it squirmed in all directions,
it flipped upside-down, right side-up,
it wiggled and twisted, and fought for
air."
This is an excerpt taken
from Lisa Chodorkoff's story about her
tree.
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By Mahli Brister 2005 |
By Hope Metcalf 2005 |
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Below is Tony Caccavo's
transcendentalism project. His photo essay connects photographs
that he has taken with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson
and Henry David Thoreau. Please click on each picture
to read his analysis of each quotation.
"The setting sun is reflected
from the windows of the almshouse as brightly
as from the rich man's abode."
-Thoreau
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"Do not go where the path
may lead, go instead where there is no path and
leave a trail." - Emerson
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"The callous palms of the
laborer are conversant with finer issues of
self-respect and heroism, whose touch thrills
the heart, than the languid fingers of idleness."
-Thoreau
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"The sea-shore is a sort
of neutral ground, almost
adventurous point from which to contemplate
this world. It is even a trivial place. The
waves
forever rolling to the
land are too far-traveled
and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along
the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the
foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the
product of
sea-slime."
-Thoreau, "The Sea
and the Desert" in Cape Cod
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The following represent some of the
work that the students have done while studying slavery.
We focus on slave narratives and spirituals. Click here
to see a copy of the slavery
project.
By Mahli Brister
2005 |
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By Vanessa Wynkoop 2003
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Emma
Kopecky's favorite part of the project was studying
the music.
She complied an array of spirituals that are sung
by modern musicians and made a CD. Click the song
titles to listen to Wade
in the Water by Eva Cassidy, This
Little Light of Mine, and Amazing
Grace by Louis Armstrong.
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By Sonja Good Stefani 2002
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The following are creative
connections to The Color Purple written by
Alice Walker.
By Sophie Bielenberg 2004 |
By Vanessa Wynkoop Fisher 2003
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.
By
Austin Whipple 2003 |
By
Elyse Bellamy 2003 |
By
Emma Kopecky 2003 |
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The following is a list of
some of the major texts that are read in Honors American Literature.
If you click on the related assignments you will find a copy
of some of the creative connections that the students will
have this year.
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Trimester
Two
The Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglas
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl
Related Assignments:
Slavery
Project
Stephan Crane Poetry
The Red Badge of
Courage
Walt Whitman's Song
of Myself
Emily Dickinson Poems
The Color Purple
Related Assignments:
The Color Purple
pre-reading activities
Everyday Use
Independent Book Choices:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Catcher in the Rye
Coming of Age in Mississippi
The Grapes of Wrath
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Jungle
Last of the Mohicans
Moby Dick
My Antonia
Native Sun
Song of Solomon
The Sun Also Rises
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Fahrenheit 451
Related Assignments:
Independent
Book Project
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Trimester
Three
Earth
and Sky
Our Town
A Farewell To Arms
Hemingway Short Stories
Hills Like White Elephants
A Clean Well-Lighted Place
The Great Gatsby
Death of a Salesman
Independent Book Choices:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Catcher in the Rye
Coming of Age in Mississippi
The Grapes of Wrath
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Jungle
Last of the Mohicans
Moby Dick
My Antonia
Native Sun
Song of Solomon
The Sun Also Rises
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Fahrenheit 451
House On Mango Street
Related Assignments:
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