American Literature & Composition 2012-2013  FAQ

Q. Can you explain the difference in the “honors” and “non-honors” track?

A. Students who elect to earn an “honors” designation on their grade reports (“A in Honors American Literature”) will be required to do extra reading and writing.

Q. Are these 2 different classes?

A. All students will be attending the same class.

Q. Does the “honors” designation have anything to do with intelligence?

Q. Absolutely not! There are many instances when a family might decide that this is not the year, for example, to take on a harder reading load. Perhaps there are many demands on time from extra-curricular activities. Perhaps you are focusing your energies on shoring up skills in another subject and are looking for “just the basics” in this class. At the same time, I recognize that not all students are wired the same way and there might be reasons for choosing the standard route instead of honors to allow them to spend more time on the core works and major papers.

Q. When do I have to let you know our choice?

A. You have until the beginning of the class year to let me know which course your student will be pursuing. Take a look at the book lists for starters and see if you think this is something your child will benefit from.

Q. Will you be making a big deal in class about which student is on which track?

A. I will not. That is not public information. I can’t help the chatter that goes on between the students but my teaching and lessons will be for everyone.

Q. How much extra reading and writing are we talking about?

A. All students will read the same core books, take the same quizzes each week, take the same tests in class, write the same major papers, and deliver a presentation once per semester.

Honors Track students will write longer major papers (3 pages minimum instead of 2), read extra novels and poetry, and will write additional shorter (1 page) papers throughout the units. These short papers are usually an author biography and a paper having to do with either the historical period or the novel itself.

Q. How will the grading percentages be weighted?

A.         Discussion/Participation (includes required highlighting  in books) – 15%

Commonplace Book – 5%

Quizzes – 10%

Tests – 25%

Semester Final 10%

Papers – 35%

Q. Will there be tests on the extra reading? How will this be tracked/graded?

A. I expect the students who are committing to the extra reading to be on their “honor” to complete it. They will have a section in their Commonplace Book devoted to their extra reading. Title, date completed, and a brief “why I did/did not like this book” will let me know that the reading is complete. As the students prepare to enter college, this reading list will help them along their way. It is something to be proud of!

Q. I’ve noticed that the author of the Excellence in Literature series, Janice Campbell, has her own definition of “honors.” Who is right? Where do you get your criteria?

A. That’s a great question! Originally, I determined that my PREP  high-school classes would be called “honors” based on the amount of reading and writing we do plus the fact that the students are required to work responsibly and independently outside of class. Over the past several years I’ve come to see the need to offer some options to accommodate different learning styles and levels of family activity and time available. My hope and prayer is that this will allow for students who desire a challenging workload to be challenged, at the same time providing a good basic foundation in American Literature for all students.

Q. Will this class help prepare my child to take the AP or the CLEP test?

A. It is my understanding that only AP-trained teachers may offer an AP (Advanced Placement) class. We will not be studying test taking strategies or specific AP question types. The CLEP (College Level Examination Program) offers a test in American Literature that I believe will be passable by a student who takes this class. I would be happy to schedule some extra study sessions at the end of the year for those who are interested in taking the CLEP for college credit.

Core Reading List, All Students:

(*need to be purchased by parents, all others available online)

Selections from Jonathan Edwards, Anne Bradstreet

*Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Short stories by Washington Irving, poems by Longfellow

*Last of the Mohicans (Cooper)

*Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)

*Billy Budd (Melville)

*Huckleberry Finn (Twain)

*The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

Short stories by Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, other “local colorists”

*The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)

*Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)

*Peace Like a River (Enger)

*Excellence in Literature: American Literature (Campbell)

*Write for College (Skrbanek et al)

Additional Reading, Honors Track

Letters From an American Farmer (selections)

Of Plymouth Plantation (selections)

Various extra poems throughout the units

*Walden (Thoreau)

*Bartleby the Scrivener (part of the volume containing Billy Budd)

American Speeches: Douglass, Lincoln, Lee, Joseph

Short Stories: Faulkner, O’Connor, Welty, Jackson

*My Antonia (Cather)

*The Pearl (Steinbeck)

Drama (choose 1): Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie, A Raisin in the Sun

(I’m experimenting with a new idea. I thought parents might like a glimpse into what we did at PREP this week. Feedback welcome!)

Reading & Writing 1: Celebrated our end of the My Side of the Mountain unit with some snacks that Sam Gribley would approve of: Sassafras Tea and (not-so-wild)Blueberry Muffins. The cub reporters did a spectacular job on their newspapers describing Sam and his adventures.

Reading & Writing 2: We heard a snippet of a lecture from The Tolkien Professor as we dug in a little deeper with Bilbo and his gang of treasure hunting dwarves. The Hero’s Journey is an archetype (ask your student what that means!) and we evaluated the books we’ve read this past year in light of that. Fascinating!

Classic Lit: Walking around in Henry Fleming’s shoes. Is Naturalism a philosophy you’d like to base your life on? Henry finds redemption but alas…it might not be lasting. Where is the only place we can look?

American Lit: A different sort of Hero’s Journey as the class took the final exam over Fahrenheit 451. The students are working on their final persuasive essay, discussing the intersection of technology and humanity. This class is full of talkers and this novel has provided much fuel for conversations.

I will be conducting a free webinar through CIRCE to discuss the purpose of division in an essay. I’d love to have you join in! If you are curious about what your students are learning in my classes, this would be a fun way to get a glimpse.

Details here: http://circeinstitute.com/free-webinar-division-identifying-the-disagreement-to-clarify-the-discussion/

http://circeinstitute.com/2012/04/classically-educating-the-regular-child/

Sometimes, on Mondays, it’s nice to know that normal is just fine! Hope these words from my friend Cindy are an encouragement to you as they were to me.

Blessings,

Renee

(Somewhere in a conference room of SchoolKidsBooks, Inc.)

Potter is old news. We need something to take Wizard Boy’s place.

You’re right, but how about a girl this time? We need to appeal to the girls.

Can do. Strong, fighter, hunter, determined. She will save the world!

Uh…back the truck up. Who in the world will believe that?

Oh, she won’t be in this world – we’ll have to make a few changes first.

Ok fine. But do you think boys will buy it?

Of course not; so that’s why we’ll make sure there is so much fighting, blood, guts, and ooze that they won’t be able to put it down. How many ways can we make kids die?

Kids? Did you say kids?

Remember it’s not this world – we’ll need a dystopian one. Bring the issues home to roost, down to earth, hit ‘em where they live: in their stomachs!

Ok, the boys will love the strategy and weapons, but won’t that turn away the girls?

Not necessarily! All we have to do is figure out what teenage girls want and make sure it’s in there. Ready? Affirmation and love.

You’re not selling me but I’ll all ears.

Think about it. Every girl wants to be beautiful. How many dollars do they spend on clothes and products? We’ll give this character her very own stylist, no– her very own team of stylists! We’ll give her a fashion designer whose job is to present her breathtakingly beautiful. We can’t turn this into a love story or we’ll drive away the boys, but we can put in just enough to keep the girls happy. Our main character won’t engage in anything more than being held in her hero’s arms while they sleep.

Whoa – that’s quite a throwback compared to what they watch on TV these days. Will they buy it?

Not only them, but their teachers. Marketing, merchandise, media, and movies! The tie-ins are endless.  Hogwarts will be history. All we have to do is throw in enough literary references to keep the schools awash in busy work for years! Shakespeare, symbolism, and some classical allusions will have the English teachers lining up to teach this stuff!

Let me get this straight. We turn stereotypes around by having a kick-butt action hero for a girl. So how do we balance her out?

Well Fighter-Girl is a little non-traditional, so we’ll make Hero-Boy a modern, sensitive soul. Artistic, good with words, gardener. Wouldn’t harm a flea if he didn’t have to.

Hmm, I see where you’re going, but aren’t we sure to offend someone?

That’s the beauty of it! We keep out every single reference to God, Christ, Allah, the Bible, or any other religious philosophy or writing. We don’t mention a single political party or recent historical reference. The world as we know it is a mess, but everyone will think the other guys did it! It’s genius!

And we can fit all of this into one book?

Of course not! Who wants to sell just one book? People don’t think just one book is important any more. Let’s spread the story out over 3 books.

Who on earth can we get to write this mashup?

Find me someone who writes for television.

This past week my high-schoolers studied alliteration. Notice it here?

Also, the bookshop! I want to visit this place!

Enjoy the story and enjoy your spring break.

-Mrs. Mathis

After reading William Gibson’s play, my middle-school class had a project. They were to work their own “miracle” and teach someone how to do something. These novice teachers learned some important lessons themselves.

-“I decided to associate names with each step…(she) began to make progress.”

-When things aren’t working, sometimes it’s the student. “He was watching me and not the ball.”  Sometimes it’s the teacher. “I was just throwing too hard for him.”

-Sometimes you have to be resourceful. “I got out one of my old theory books…”

-Motivation is important: “With the help of a pretty pink costume and some sugar cookies…”

-Motivation, part 2: “Mom motivated him more by threatening to ground him if he did not cooperate.”

-Teaching is “nearly impossible without skill and patience.”

-“Speaking slowly and carefully….I asked her to do it once more…I inspected her work…”  (This kid is going to put me out of a job!)

-“I know for a fact it can be much harder to learn something by just watching and not participating in the project.”

-“You have to be willing to work at the pupil’s pace, even if you have done what you are teaching many times before!”

Finally, every teacher needs a sense of humor. A few sentences that made me smile:

“Next, I asked my mom to do a cartwheel. She stood there in resistance.”  (That’s exactly what I would have done too.)

“Time after time he tried it again and time after time he fell over.” (This willing subject gets an A for effort; hopefully not a B for bruises.)

“We taught (my dog) to speak, much to my mother’s dismay.” (Sorry Mom.)

“Mom truly is a miraculous student.” (Moms are a popular choice for this project and I salute them all for being such good sports!)

“Overall, the lesson was successful.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Please see your individual class pages for homework and handouts. I would hate for you to be bored just because we canceled classes!

Blessings,

Mrs. Mathis

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”

-Samuel Johnson

http://www.imaginativeconservative.org/2011/11/in-praise-of-commonplace-book.html

I encourage you to read this article. If you haven’t already started a Commonplace Book, why not put a beautiful bound journal on your Christmas list? Those of you who have, I pray you’ll carry the tradition long past this school year.

Blessings,

Mrs. Mathis