Syllabus

MIDDLE SCHOOL
2012-2013
Subject: Literature
11th

Grade:

Teacher: Patty Rodriguez

TOPICS
1st Semester
Introductory Unit
Unit 1: An Emerging
Nation

Class project:
Organization and
preplanning
charts:Timelines

SUBTOPICS
Main concepts:
Focus: Creation Myths, Folk Literature,
Native American Values, Primary Sources,
Figurative language, Persuasion,
Rhetorical Devices,

Literary essentials workshop: Early

American Writing
W. Skills: Persuasive Essay, Pp 279-290

Focus literary piece (s):

o The world on the turtles back Pp
36-46
o La relacin Pp 72-82
o To my dear and loving husband /
upon the burning of our house /
huswifery 114-122

RESOURCES &
MATERIALS
Smart board
Markers
Kraft paper
Glue
Coloured paper
History channel Videos

 Early American Writing 16001800, Pp 18

-35
The Native American Experience,
Pp 36 - 66
Exploration and the Early Settlers, Pp 70113
The Puritan Tradition, Pp 114 -225
Writers of the Revolution, Pp 226-279
Unit 2: Celebrating the
Individual

Main concepts:

Class project:
American Short
story

Literary essentials workshop: Poetry,

Focus: Imagery, Analyze poetry, Essay,

paraphrasing, complex sentences,
Essay, Short Story
Writing essentials workshop: Short Story,
Pp 486.

Focus literary piece (s):

o The devil and Tom Walker Pp 318336
o A psalm of life/ The tide rises, the
tide falls Pp 342-350
o On civil Disobedience, from India,
Mohandas Ghandi speech Pp 400443
American Romanticism 18001855
The Early Romantics, Pp 318-341
The Fireside Poets, Pp 342-365
The Transcendentalists, Pp 366-401
American Gothic, Pp 410-485

Smart board
Coloured paper
Markers
Printouts
Bond/Poster paper
Cardboards
History channel / National
Geographic Videos

Unit 3: An Age of
Transition

Class Project:
interpret Poetry
imagery/quotes/all
usions (graphic
nature)

Main concepts:
Focus: Imagery, Analyze poetry, Essay,
paraphrasing, complex sentences,

- Literary essentials workshop: Poetry,

Essay, Short Story
- Writing essentials workshop:
Comparison, Quotations, online Articles,
Pp 557, 620.

Focus literary piece (s):

o Poetry I hear America singing/Song
of myself/Noiseless patient spider/
Beat, Beat, drums! Pp 530-539
o Because I could not stop for
death/Success is counted
sweetest/Much madness is divinest
sense/ My life closed twice before
its close/ the soul selects her own
society/ I heard a fly buzzwhen I
died/ My life had stood a loaded gun
Pp 546-554
From Romanticism to Realism 18551870,
Pp 512
Brilliant Mavericks: Whitman and
Dickinson, Pp 528-557
Literature of the Civil War, Pp 558-618

Smart board
Markers
Craft Paper
BBC/ History channel Videos
Media Centre

2nd Semester
Unit 4: Capturing the
American Landscape

Class Project:
finding stories
about the
suffragists fight.

Main concepts:
Focus: Regional Literature, Drawing
conclusions, theme analysis.

- Literary essentials workshop: Historical

essay, Primary sources, first person
narrator.
- Writing essentials workshop: Synthesize,
Compare, Analytical Essay, Pp 730, 779,
833, and 834.

Focus literary piece (s):

o The autobiography of Mark Twain Pp
658-673
o Standards Focus Regionalism,
meanings (history channel
partnership videos)
o The law of life 768-779
Regionalism and Naturalism 18701910,
Pgs 656-730
Regionalism and Local Color Writing, Pp
656-730
The Rise of Naturalism, Pp 734-779
A New Role for Women, Pp 780-820

Smart board
Markers
My HRW Videos
History channel
Media Centre

Unit 5: A Changing
Awareness

Main concepts:
Focus: Figurative and literal Language,
Characterization, Narrative poetry,

- Literary essentials workshop: Historical

Essay, New poetry, Modern Short Story,
journalism.
- Writing essentials workshop: Analysis,
Synthesis, Journalism, evaluation. Pp 915,
975, 1091, 117, 118.

Focus literary piece (s):

o Selected Poetry By Langston Hughes
Pp 878-885
o How it feels to be colored me By
Zora Neale Hurston Pp 898-907
The Harlem Renaissance and Modernism
19101940
The Harlem Renaissance, Pp 878-908
The New Poetry, Pp 920-968
The Modern Short Story, Pp 976-1078
Journalism as Literature, Pgs 1092-1112

Smart board
Markers
Cardboards
National Geographic/BBC
Videos

Unit 6

Main concepts:
Focus: Figurative and Literal Language,
Characterization, Narrative poetry,

- Literary essentials workshop: Historical

Essay, New poetry, Modern Short Story,
journalism.
- Writing essentials workshop: Analysis,
Synthesis, Journalism, evaluation. Pgs
915, 975, 1091, 117, 118.

Focus literary piece (s):

o Harlem / The Negro speaks of Rivers
/ I, Too / the weary blues Pp 878-884

Contemporary Literature 1940present

Modern American Drama, Pgs 1162-1168
Responses to War, Pgs 1170-1194
Civil Rights and Protest Literature, Pgs
1202-1250
A Mosaic of American Voices, Pgs 12601309

Smart board
Markers
My HRW Videos
National Geographic History
Channel videos

Unit 7: Investigation and

Discovery

Class project:
Digital story telling
& produce a video
documentary.

Main concepts:
Focus: Research Strategies, Research
Paper
The Power of Research and producing a
documentary, Pg 1342-1378

Media Centre
Smartboard
Markers
Coloured paper
Bond/Poster paper