Week of December 1st - December 5th

• read The Crucible
• students need to continue to work on their semester challenge book and final project.

Week of November 24th - 26th NO SCHOOL THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, THANKSGIVING BREAK

• turn in American Dream essay
• read Holt Pages 1197 - 1218 (beginning of The Crucible)
• Vocabulary sheet #1
• 1 page summary: 1) who is Joseph McCarthy? 2) What is McCarthyism? 3) What was the "red scare"? 4) What contemporary historical event could you connect to the hysteria and "witch hunt" of the Senate Hearings on Un-American Activities and the Salem Witch Trials? 
• begin reading The Crucible

HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week of November 17th - 21st

• 6th and 7th period classes split
• Finish written draft of essay. Computer lab on Friday to type up.
• Read Holt Elements of Literature pages 11-26, 44-50 and questions on P. 51 1 and 6. Also writing piece "The Tone of the Time" 
• college readiness survey in computer lab on Friday

Week of November 10th - 14th.

End of the first quarter. No school Monday, Tuesday and Thursday (ICE DAY)

• Began in class synthesis essay on The American Dream

Week of October 27th - November 1st

"Follow your inner moonlight; don't fight the madness" - Allen Ginsberg 

There will be a splitting of classes next week (November 3rd - November 7th) so all assignments from the year thus far must be turned in for credit by October 29th.

"Man is a stream whose source is hidden" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Week of October 20th - 24th finishing Raisin in the Sun

• Assignment on tone from poems by Walt Whitman, Gail Tremblay, and e.e. cummings
• Vocabulary and beliefs from literature of; The Puritans, The Revolutionaries, and The Transcendentalists

PSAT's October 15th - some juniors are scheduled to take the test, other's (as well as seniors) will be on a Wednesday regular schedule (period's 5-8)

Class Reading"s and Viewing's

Reading's

The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

I,Too, Sing America, and A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes 

America by Allen Ginsberg

Topography by Sharon Olds

Country Music by Matthew Dickman

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Brown v. The Board of Education

Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry 

assorted reading's from Sam Shepard
"I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman
"Indian Singing in Twentieth Century America" by Gail Tremblay
"next of course god america i" by e.e. summings
"The Trial of Martha Carrier" by Cotton Mather
"Moral Perfection" from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"Saying of Poor Richard" by Poor Richard's Almanack
from "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Where I Lived and What I Lived For" from Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Viewing's

Madhi Bahti Mu(sick)

The Declaration of Independence (read by celebrities)

Eyes on the Prize parts 1 and 2

Raisin in the Sun

Sam Shepard on Family
Profile Theater's Sam Shepard Performance (Oct 7th)

October 7th in school field trip Profile Theater presents works from Sam Shepard

American Lit. Assignments

First Quarter

• Personal Perspective of America (1-2 page essay)
• Jefferson, Hughes, and Ginsberg's perspectives on America
• Notes from Part 1 and Part 2 of Eyes on the Prize
• Act I character chart Raisin in the Sun
• class free-write Raisin in the Sun
• Quiz Act I Raisin in the Sun
• Raisin in the Sun essay question on Walter
• Test Preparation Packet - grammar
• Act II and III character chart Raisin in the Sun
• Challenge Book Assignment for First Semester (3-5 pages) Due by End of Semester
• Take home essay Sam Shepard and the American Dream and Raisin in the Sun and the American Dream (due 10/13)
• Character Analysis - Raisin in the Sun Due November 3rd
• Quiz covering Act II and III Due Monday 10/20
• Journals Due 10/22
• America's Voices/poems 
• American Philosophies (Puritans, Revolutionaries, and the Transcendentalists)

Daily Entries

First Quarter journal entries

Entry #1  If I didn’t care what people thought I would….
Entry #2  “Music is the language of the spirit” - Kahil Gibran, watched  Madihi Bhati’s Mu(sick) respond to video  - what is her perspective of rap/hip hop music? Why does she choose the Kahil Gibran quote?
Entry #3  What is your current perspective of America?
Entry #4 What is Matthew Dickman’s "Country Music perspective of America? Sharon Olds “Topography"
Entry #5 what is the American Dream?
Entry #6 As the moon…
Entry #7 What information from Part 1 of Eyes on the Prize was surprising to you? What didn’t you know about this time in history?
Entry#8 What didn’t you know about the integration of schools in Little Rock Arkansas?
Entry #9 What is your dream?
Entry# 10 Where does your road lead?
Entry #11 Choose one of the characters that has a challenge or a problem you can identify with. Who is the character and what is the problem? What do you see as the possible outcomes or solutions to these problems?
Entry #12 Thinking about the scene with the rat, what effect does it have on different characters? What does this scene reveal about these characters and their struggles? P. 59
Entry #13 After the scene where Asagai is introduced, how would you compare him to George Murchison? Which would be a better fit for Beneatha? Why?
Entry #14 Shapes like stars
Entry #15 Write a piece inspired from one of Sam Shepard's lines (in class readings)
Entry #16 Write about ashes
Entry #17 What stood out for you from the performance of the Sam Shepard material on Tuesday Oct 7th?
Entry #18 In Act II scene II, Beneatha says, “there are two things (black Americans) have got to overcome, one is the Klu Klux Klan – and the other is Mrs Johnson” What does she mean?
Entry #19  What is a dream deferred? Have you ever experienced this? What was your reaction?
Entry #20 discuss how Langston Hughes’ “A Dream Deferred” ties into A Raisin in the Sun. Does the dream explode? If so, how? Explain in regards to the family and in regards to African Americans in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Entry #21 What is your religious/spiritual foundation or belief? Where do your beliefs come from?

·         Entry #22 How does your belief connect you to the American Dream?

      Entry #23 Write about the full moon

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