Week of February 23 - 27

• Student Path Survey's
• Library to check out Literary Circle book (Animal Dreams, A Lesson Before Dying, Love Medicine, On the Road, The Dharma Bums)
• Go over all questions from Romanticism and Transcendentalism and overview of unit.
• Read Elizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man and complete one page in class essay (use as writing sample)

Week of February 17 - 20 NO SCHOOL MONDAY 2/16

We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds - Ralph Waldo Emerson

• hand-out with all reading and q's for Romanticism and Transcendentalism unit
• read Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" p. 213, 232-246 q's p. 247 & 248
• Entry #11 under what circumstances would you be willing to rak a fine, punishment, or even jail for a moral or political principle? Can you name anyone that has endured physical suffering in order to demonstrate their commitment to an idea?
• discuss chart on page 247
• read "The Last American Man" by Elizabeth Gilbert and one page essay connecting Eustace Conway to Emerson and Thoreau's philosophy - use examples...

Week of February 9 - 13

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

• Edgar Allan Poe packets due
• watch The Tell-Tale Heart
• watch Edgar Allan Poe documentary
• 10 facts from documentary notes
• turn in "Understanding, Interpretation, and Analysis"
• Entry #10 What does it mean to be 'self-relient'? Are you?
• read excerpts from; Self-Relience and Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson p. 203-212
• answer q's p. 212 and 213 write about 'aphorisms' or Emerson's Philosophy

Week of February 2 - 6

You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. - Anthony Robbins

• Entries #5 Have you ever found yourself at a crossroad? A fork in the road?
• Entry #6 - 9 from Kokology
• The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving (q's p. 186 & 187 1 - 11)
• Robert Johnson and the "curse of the crossroad"
• scene from Dr. Faustus
• discuss "selling your soul to the devil" theme in literature and movies
• Entry # 10 from Kokology
• Read and listen to The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, and Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
• Poe packet
• hand-out "Understanding, interpretation, and analysis"

Week of January 26th - 30th FINALS WEEK

UNFORTUNATELY I WAS OUT BOTH MONDAY AND TUESDAY OF THIS WEEK.

• FINAL UNIT QUIZ FOR The Crucible
• ALL ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE FIRST SEMESTER MUST BE TURNED IN BY THURSDAY JANUARY 29TH. GRADES POSTED ON MONDAY.
• Read "American Romanticism" in orange Holt. Pages 156 - 186 includes "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving. Questions page 186 & 187 1 - 11

Week of January 19th - 23rd NEXT WEEK IS FINALS!!

JANUARY 19TH/MONDAY IS MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY

• Reading from the Holt pages 67 - 77 "from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" questions page 77 1-8.
• Reading from the Holt pages 157 - 185 questions pages 186 & 187 1 - 11 and Writing "stereotypes"
• catch up on assignments
• assignments returned
• Character Analysis due 1/23 Friday
• journal entries due by 1/26 (#1 - #7)

January 12 - 16 CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT DUE

• watch movie Guilty by Suspicion 
• notes on movie and connection to The Crucible
• re-read "Why I Wrote The Crucible"
• work on completing assignments
• Witchcraft article
• CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT DUE AND QUIZ

January 5 - 9

Happy New Year 2015

"She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, leaning against the railing, holding the universe together". JD Salinger "A Girl Knew"

• TEDtalks "The Puzzle of Motivation"
• Entry #4 what motivates you?
• Entry $5 why is reputation so important to John Proctor? Why doesn't he want to sign his name?
• finish The Crucible
• finish the movie
• Questions Act 4
• Vocabulary sheet #3
• character analysis assigned (due 1/23)
• CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT DUE JANUARY 16TH (must take quiz over your book and get 70% on quiz to receive credit for challenge assignment)
• DIALOGUE JOURNALS FOR The Crucible DUE 1/12
• FINAL JOURNAL CHECK BY 1/28
• FINAL ASSESSMENT 1/28

December 15 - 19 PROGRESS REPORTS DUE TUESDAY DECEMBER 16TH

• Read Act 3 watch movie and read up to Act 4
• questions Act 3
• vocabulary #3
• character motivation chart
• character retrieval chart
• character analysis assigned after the break

HAPPY WINTER BREAK

December 8 - 12

• Reading The Crucible and watching the movie (Act 1 and Act 2)
• questions for Act 1 and Act 2
• vocabulary sheet #1 and #2
• entry #1 word bomb (island, butter, stench, cranberry, time)
• entry #2 word bomb (coffee, ashes, purple, horn, waves)
• entry #3 reputation is a major theme in The Crucible. How might you see this being played out in the story? what might you predict may happen in terms of the characters?

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)