Friday, January 31, 2014

The American Dream

COMING TO AMERICA!!! via blogspot!
You are to create a blogspot which will become a chronological record of your journey as you experience the American Dream. In this blog, you will record your reactions to the various works of literature, and this will chronicle your "coming to America".


We are working to understand another's point of view and to practice dialogue with our peers.
ASSIGNMENT

Underneath the title header for your blog, create and state your Essential Question that deals with the American Dream and community. My question reads, "What is an AMERICAN?"  You may ask: "What does it mean to be an American according to this literary writing?

For each literature entry noted below, please create a blog entry in the following order:


  1. Write the Author, Time Period and Title of work
  2. Ask:  What does it mean to be an American per this literary work?
  3. Thesis
  4. Copy/Paste a section of the work which most impressed you.
  5. Include the link after your selected passage.
  6. Write a reflection explaining why/how you were affected by the literary work.
  7. Write a diary entry (or as directed) assuming a similar role to that of the author.
  8. Partake in social "Blog" dialogue with classmates for each literary entry.
  9. Add a section with your notes or writings from this literary study.
A-E. Puritan Literature.
  • This becomes the Age of Faith as literature of the Puritans focuses on their faith and experiences as they arrive and settle in the New World. Issues include:
  1. separation from Anglican church of England, and
  2. religion as focus of life and writing
Likewise, the writing style of this era includes: sermons, diaries, and personal narratives, including slave narratives. Puritan style can be described as instructive, plain, or ornate.

Entry A. William Bradford - Of Plymouth Plantation
http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/bradford.html
1. What does it mean to be an American per Bradford's writing?
2.  Compose a thesis
3. Copy/Paste the passage that most impressed you.
4. Write a reflection as to why/how.
5. Diary entry as a persona from passage, or other journey.
6.  Add notes from readings

 EXTENSION ASSIGNMENT: Find a political cartoon focusing on immigration. Write a Paragraph analyzing connection of cartoon and literature. 



Entry B. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradhyp.htm
1. Read: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" - poetry chart - 8/27
2. Read: "Upon the Burning of my House" - poetry chart - 8/31
3. Read: "In Reference to her Chidlren " - poetry chart - 8/31
4. Choose the poem which most impressed you and write a reflection as to why/how.
5. Option 1:  Write a diary entry as Anne Bradstreet...today! 
    Option 2:  Rewrite a poem imitating Bradstreet's style using modern day scenario.                          Include similar literary devices and reflect the struggle to cope with                            human emotion in times of loss or missing someone and console                                  yourself through God

6. *EXTENSION: Find a political cartoon re: plight of women in USA, and write a paragraph analyzing how the cartoon reflects the message of one of Bradstreet's poems. 




Entry C: Edward Taylor (1645-1729) http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/taylor.htm
*Read "Huswifery". Post your thesis. 9/8/09.
Post your Reflection on what impressed you and why. 9/8/09.

Entry D : Jonathan Edwards - 1741
"Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God"
http://www.piney.com/JonEdwSinHands.html
1. Freewrite:  Fear - See Handout
2. Identify imagery and its effects in this "sermon" by creating note taking guide. See Handout.
3. In Groups of 2 - discuss and analyze the power of the figurative language per notetaking.
4. Identify passage that most impresses you .
5. Create a powerpoint (see handout) capturing images from sermon with textual reference.
NOTE:  You may choose a modern day sermon with new images that Edwards would use.
6.  One powerpoint per 2 member team.  5 slides only.
WORK DATES:  9/23, 24, 25


E: The Slave Narrative.
Olidah Equiano's account of the MiddlePassage.
** ANSWER YOUR ESSENTIAL QUESTION FOR EQUIANO'S NARRATIVE**


Witnessing Slavery:  Read scholary reflection on Olidah's narrative.  (see pg. 10)
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tVB_0dNaoMQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=slave+narrative+and+teaching&ots=mkEkKapzTc&sig=OXq9xA1md4f_NFZRiZHiP7Ysu2Q#v=onepage&q&f=false

ASSIGNMENT: find a political cartoon re: race and racial sensitivity, equal rights in USA.  Write a paragraph analyzing.
To highlight this literary period, we will examine MODERN DaY AdApTaTions:
  1. Film clip: Amistaad
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=amistaad
2. Film clip: Amazing Grace
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=amazing+grace

PROJECT:  Use Story Corps to record a live interview with a grandparent or other person who can recount what it means to be an American to them, and to define their version of the American Dream.



The Crucible by Arthur Miller
  1. The Crucible by Arthur Miller (drama) 
  2. http://asbamericanlit.edublogs.org/files/2011/10/21078735-The-Crucible-Arthur-Miller-2hmdzot.pdf
  3. http://www.janaedwards.com/AmericanLit.html
  4. See this site on Senator McCarthy (The Red Scare)http://www.fcps.edu/westspringfieldhs/academic/english/1project/crucible/mccarthy.html
  5. "Half Hanged Mary" by Margaret Atwood http://www.janaedwards.com/FCtexts.html



F. Native American Literature.The literature of the FirSt AMeRiCans, the Native Americans, includes:
Oral Tradition
Myths and Legends
Nature/Creation Stories



**ANSWER YOUR ESSENTIAL QUESTION FOR THIS PERIOD**


*EXTENSION: Visual Essay reflecting the progression/change of the Native American over time. This pre-empts the written essay.
ESSAY: How has America's response to the Native American changed over time? Be specific. Use factual references.
Include a gadget which reflects a news brief on immigrants to the US.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

..."So you say you want a Revolution?...well, ya know, we all want to change the world"

G. The Revolutionary Period -
Is the American Dream worth fighting for?

Here, we shall study persusion and look at how speeches use ethos(ethics)/logos(logic)/pathos(emotion) to win their audience.
Please refer to this site to refresh on ethos/logos/pathos
  • Known as the Age of Reason: 1750-1800
  • Focuses on American Revolution
  • Development of American character
  • Use of reason
  • Writing focused on political pamphlets, essays, travel writing,
  • speeches, and instructive documents

    F.1 Patrick Henry -"Give me liberty, or give me death!"
    http://www.liberty-page.com/foundingdocs/givemeliberty/main.html
    **REMEMBER: REFLECTION and DIARY ENTRY

    F.2 Thomas Paine - Selection from "The Crisis No. 1": http://www.puc.edu/Faculty/Rosemary_Dibben/English11/NewNation/PaineCrisis1.pdf
    **REMEMBER: REFLECTION and DIARY ENTRY


    ****APPLY ESSENTIAL QUESTION TO THIS SECTION for REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD

  • What do these men have in common?
  • Can you see how because these men gave so much, we benefit?
  • Can you make any connection/extension to today's political figures? How so?

Personal Extension:
How are you working to live out your American Dream?
What do you do when you hit an obstacle?


ASSIGNMENT:1. Interview - family/elders/teachers/coaches/employers and ask them "How have you lived the American Dream?"
**Please see my link to "story corps: recording stories of America".
Sample:


2. Create an Film Montage to reflect images and emotions connected with a Change testament to the social/political/emotional climate of the country.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Isn't it Romantic?...

H. American Romanticism 1800 - 1855
The Declaration of Independence takes us to a journey through the countryside as we study the Romantic writers: Irving, Cooper and Poe .
  • Expansion of book publishing, magazines, newspaper
  • Industrial Revolution
  • Abolitionist movement
  • Short stories, Novels, Poetry
  • Imagination over Reason; Intuition over Fact
  • Focuses on the FANTASTIC of the human experience
  • Gothic literature: use of supernatural, characters have evil and good sides, dark landscapes; depressed characters (the "Dark Side")
Washington Irving , Father of American Literature
"The Devil and Tom Walker".

James Fennimore Cooper, Father of the American novel -

 The Leatherstocking Tales,   The Deerslayer ,  film clip from Last of the Mohicans- 
                       the American Hero is introduced.
  • *Identify how the main character is a hero?
  • *How has the American hero changed from Cooper's novels?
  • * How has the American hero remained the same?
Poe, inventor of American Short Story -  (a dark romantic)
          "The Masque of Red Death", "The Fall of the House of Usher"..

 Assignment:  What does it mean to be an American based on the literature of
                      the Romantic  Period? 

WHERE ARE YOU IN YOUR JOURNEY? 
Do you like the literature of the  Romantic Period? Are you a romantic at heart????

http://www.wiziq.com/educational-tutorials/presentation/235-American-Romanticism


Monday, January 27, 2014

Transcendentalists! 1840-1855

This period coincides with the Romantic period and stresses:
  • INDIVIDUALISM
  • INTUITION
  • NATURE
  • SELF RELIANCE
My Antonia by Willa Cather.
  • This novel is full of beautiful imagery as Cather has Jim recall his life with Antonia and in doing so, recalls the awesome land of the Nebraska prairie.

  • This novel also deals with immigration, race, borders and boundaries.

  • For extension: we will study the concept of immigration  (into a country, into a place, into a group) and analyze similarities and differences in such journeys as one "comes of age". These cites refer to issues of mexican immigration:

CREATIVE EXTENSION CHOICES!!!  CHOOSE ONE -  
DUE:  MONDAY 2/3/14
  • Choose a chapter/section of My Antonia and mimic its narrative structure using issues connected to your choice of  immigration topic in today's time. Includes a rationale writing. 

  • Choose a poem by an American poet and mimic its poetic structure to capture the many emotions connected to immigration, race, borders and/or boundaries. Includes a rationale writing.

  • Create a visual map of Jim's journey to self, using textual landmarks along his journey. Includes a rationale writing.


  • Essay:  How does the novel parallel Jim's reaction to his environment with his coming of age?  In other words, explore how Cather uses the land(scape) to mirror Jim's journey to self.  
                       --------------------------------------------------------
Part 2

Ralph Waldo Emerson: His writing helps establish philosophy of individualism
  • See Emerson and "Nature" and Emerson and "Self Reliance"

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:  Who is the American reflected in Emerson's essays?

Henry David Thoreau: He resisted MATERIALISM and chose simplicity and individualism

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:  Who is the American reflected in Thoreau's  essays?

Begin reading Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons.
See also:
Walt Whitman: "Song of Myself", "I Hear America Singing", "
                        "O Captain My Captain", film Dead Poet's Society.
William Cullen Bryant: "To a Waterfowl", "Thanatopsis"
Edwin A. Robinson : "Richard Cory"
Frost:  "Birches"

CREATIVE ASSIGNMENT: THE TRANSPARENT EYEBALL PROJECT!
  • Based on our reading of My Antonia, and from Emerson's "Nature" and "Self Reliance", and Ellen Foster we will integrate ideas of transcendental philosophy by observing, reflecting and recording our experience of ourselves in nature. 

  • ASSIGNMENT:Please create your individual transparent eyeball which reflects your "unified" self when you are at one with nature. 

  • Photographs should CAPTURE those momentary glimpses of beauty that nature provides -  sunrise, sunset, twilight, a frozen pond, reflections of dew on a leaf, the trees against the sky.   

  • EYEBALL includes:  photographs and  1-2 Poems (that speak to transcendental philosophy)  chosen from the literature book.
  • Use excerpts from the poems and position photographs to incorporate into the "eyeball" to achieve "your" eye view! 
DUE 2/14/14***

----------------------------------------------
Part 3
  • "Civil Disobedience" http://thoreau.eserver.org/civil.html
  • View excerpt of Mahatma Ghandi's 'civil disobedience'.
  • Compare Gandhi with Thoreau
  • Read MLK's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail".
  • Read poem "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall.
  • Compare King to Thoreau to Ghandi

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Really it's REALISM! 1865-1915

Realism
  • Reaction against Romanticism; told it like it was
  • Focus on lives of ordinary people; rejected heroic and adventurous
  • Anti materialism; rejected "new class sysem"
  • View of nature as powerful and indifferent force beyond man's control
Naturalism
  • Like Realism, but a darker view of the world
  • Universe is unpredictable.
  • Fate is determined by chance.
  • Free will is an illusion.
  • Character's lives shaped by forces they cannot understand or control.
*Often aims to change a specific social problem
*Dominant themes: survival, fate, violence, nature as indifferent force
Civil War: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglas
The Fronteir: Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Jack London
Local Colorists: Bret Harte, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather

Anti-Transcendentalists

Nathaniel Hawthorne - "The Minister's Black Veil"

Herman Melville - excerpt from Moby Dick

Saturday, January 25, 2014

MODERNISM - 1915-1945

Time of overwhelming technological changes
WWI - first war of mass destruction
grief over loss of pas
fear of eroding traditions
rise of youth culture

dominant mood: alienation/disconnection
writing is experimental: use of fragments, stream of consciousness, interior dialogue
writers seek to create a unique style

Hemingway
Faulkner
Steinbeck
Fitzgerald

Most influential Poets: Ezra Pound - Imagism
TS Eliot - Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
The Wasteland (failure of Western Civilization)

Other Poets of period:
Robert Frost
e.e. cummings
Carl Sandburg
Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
Claude McKay
Jean Toomer
Countee Cullen
Zora Neale Hurston

Friday, January 24, 2014

CONTEMPORARY - 1945 - Present

Media saturated culture
People observe life as media presents it rather than experiencing it directly
Post WWII prosperity
Social Protest

Reality blurred
Fantasy mixed with non fiction
no heroes
concern with individual in isolation
detached, unemotional, usually humorless
ethnic and women writers emerge

Beat writers
Confessional Poets
Multicultural Literature
New Frontiers

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Sunday, September 20, 2009

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

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