ADVANCED AMERICAN AND WORLD LITERATURE

Class Expectations and Procedures, Course Syllabus

Course Overview Advanced American Literature

We will be reading a sampling from major American literary time periods and authors, both from the textbook and parallel texts.

You will also use and improve your writing skills to produce analytical essays about the literature. There will also be creative opportunities for you to write fiction and poetry.

You will complete the Wordly Wise 11 vocabulary lessons 1-10 this semester.

We will be utilizing the class website, wesleyde.wordpress.com, frequently for assignments. You may also access homework assignments here as well as from your calendar syllabus, which you will receive every 3 weeks.

Homework Expectations You will read an average of 15-30 pages per night for homework.

This may vary depending on the difficulty of the text. For example, 5 pages of “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving is equal to 20 pages of Native Son by Richard Wright when comparing difficulty of the text and time it takes to read and comprehend the material.

Approximately 35% of the six weeks grade is comprised of reading quizzes. It is important that you complete the reading assignments in order to be prepared for quizzes, class discussion, writing assignments, and further analysis of the literature.

You will write, on average, 2-3 full length, formal papers/essays per six weeks.

You will have a quiz every week on Wordly Wise vocabulary lessons (typically each Friday).

Tests will be given on Tuesdays and Thursdays; projects and writing assignments will generally be due on Mondays. Reading quizzes may be given any day of the week.

Course Syllabus Wordly Wise 3000 Grade 11, lessons 1-10 Writing:

Personal Narrative SOL practice essay Literary Analysis Argument/persuasion Compare/contrast Long essay test Research paper Creative opportunities

Course Syllabus Continued

American Literature: Literary Periods:

Encounters and Foundations (1600-1800) Colonialism (1600-1650)—narratives from textbook Puritan Period (1650-1750)

Textbook: Anne Bradstreet poetry; Jonathon Edwards essay

Play: The Crucible by Arthur Miller Parallel Reading: Excerpts from the Bible’s Genesis, Job,

and Daniel will be read in conjunction with study of the Puritans and The Scarlet Letter due to prevalence of Biblical allusions in the texts

Rationalism/Revolutionary Period (1750-1800) Textbook: Patrick Henry essay, Thomas Paine pamphlet,

Benjamin Franklin autobiography, The Declaration of Independence

Course Syllabus Continued American Literary Periods Continued:

19th Century: Romanticism (1800-1860)

Textbook: Washington Irving, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe

Novel: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Regionalism and Realism (1860-1914)

Textbook: Frederick Douglass, African-American Spirituals, Stephen Crane, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Kate Chopin, Ambrose Bierce

Novel: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

American Masters (1850’s) Textbook: Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman

Course Syllabus Continued

American Literary Periods Continued:20th Century:

Jazz Age (1919-1929) Novel: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Harlem Renaissance (1930-1939): Textbook: Poetry from Langston Hughes,

Countee Cullen Novel: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora

Neale Hurston Southern Literature (1930-1950)

Textbook: Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty Novel: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Contemporary Literature (1940-2000) Textbook: Poetry from Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath,

Rita Dove, Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein, Charles Bukowski, Ezra Pound, ee cummings, T.S. Eliot

Novel: Native Son by Richard Wright

Course Syllabus Continued

American Literary Periods Continued:21st Century Literature

Novel: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)

Possible Videos Shown The following is a list of POSSIBLE videos that

may be shown during the year: Into the Wild The Crucible HBO Series: John Adams A&E Biography: Edgar Allen Poe The Simpsons Season 2: Treehouse of Horrors:

“The Raven” The Great Gatsby Native Son Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet

Materials 3-ring binder with 3 sections:

calendar syllabus/rubrics warm-ups notes/handouts

Paper Pens/Pencils Wordly Wise book—check calendar syllabus for dates needed Textbook OR novel being studied—every day RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED:

3x5 index cards (for vocabulary flash cards—extra credit on Wordly Wise quizzes)

Jump drive white out pocket stapler

Expectations You are considered LATE if you are not IN YOUR

SEAT when the bell rings. Detention will be assigned for being late to class.

You have 3 restroom passes per six weeks. You are expected to show maturity and respect

during class. This means the following will not be tolerated: Profanity Shooting paper across the room or into the trash can Speaking when someone else is speaking or speaking

without permission Getting out of your seat during class without permission

Make-Up Work/Late Work

Refer to the syllabus to see what you missed if you are absent. This is your responsibility.

You have THREE DAYS to make up work after a missed test/quiz. After three days, you will receive a 0.

You are expected to turn in writing assignments on the day you return to school if you are absent on the due date.

Late homework is not accepted. Writing assignments will always have a due date.

10 points will be deducted for each day late on a writing assignment.

Grading Procedures Grades will be calculated on a

weighted scale: 35%--quizzes 55%--tests, writing, and projects 10%--homework and participation

Cell Phones and Electronic Devices

Must remain unseen and unheard. Texting during a test or a quiz is a serious

offense, and will result in a 0 for that test or quiz grade, as well as a referral.

Texting during any time in class, other than during a test or quiz, will result in a detention for the 1st offense. After that, the cell phone will be taken and a referral will be issued.

Ipods, MP3 players, etc. are not permitted during class.

School Policies—Cheating

Cheating is unacceptable. Cheating will automatically result in a 0 and a referral. The honor code applies to ALL work in this class:

“On my honor, I have neither given nor received help on this work.”

This honor code should be written and be accompanied by the student’s signature on ALL work.

Copying homework or worksheets is unacceptable. Sharing test/quiz questions or asking others about

test/quiz questions is unacceptable. Plagiarism in any form, whether copying from a classmate

or from an online source, is unacceptable. Remember that whatever grade you earn with your own

work will always be better than the 0 you will receive for copying.

Contact Information Visit the class website at

wesleyde.wordpress.com for information pertaining to assignments.

Students and parents may contact me anytime at wesleyde@lcsedu.net or mrs.dwesley@gmail.com