Early American Writings
From the early creation myths of the Iroquois to the speeches and documents of the American Revolution...
Pre-Colonial through the First English Settlers
The World on the Turtle's Back
The Way to Rainy Mountain
Genesis
Odin and Ymir
Japan and Her People
La Relacion
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
"Almost an Englishman" (article questioning Equiano's story)
"Almost an Englishman" (handout with ten questions)
Of Plymouth Plantation
The General History of Virginia
Evaluation Essay Direction handout
Puritans
Puritan ideals were simple and straightforward...
· God rules all.
· Everything is predetermined by God.
· God directly intervenes in the world.
· All men are born in sin and deserve damnation.
· The “Elect” are saved by God’s grace.
· Man should reform himself, not social institutions.
· God is revealed in the Bible.
Their literature contains a few basic themes/features that reflect these ideals...
· Serious (life is a moral struggle)
· Every event has a double meaning (literal and God-sent)
· Writing was true-to-life (honest, logical)
Puritan Poetry
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
"The Witches Curse" WebQuest
5 Pages to read:
About this Episode, Linda Caporeal Interview, Background, Clues and Evidence, Interactive: Explore Salem
From the early creation myths of the Iroquois to the speeches and documents of the American Revolution...
Pre-Colonial through the First English Settlers
The World on the Turtle's Back
The Way to Rainy Mountain
Genesis
Odin and Ymir
Japan and Her People
La Relacion
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
"Almost an Englishman" (article questioning Equiano's story)
"Almost an Englishman" (handout with ten questions)
Of Plymouth Plantation
The General History of Virginia
Evaluation Essay Direction handout
Puritans
Puritan ideals were simple and straightforward...
· God rules all.
· Everything is predetermined by God.
· God directly intervenes in the world.
· All men are born in sin and deserve damnation.
· The “Elect” are saved by God’s grace.
· Man should reform himself, not social institutions.
· God is revealed in the Bible.
Their literature contains a few basic themes/features that reflect these ideals...
· Serious (life is a moral struggle)
· Every event has a double meaning (literal and God-sent)
· Writing was true-to-life (honest, logical)
Puritan Poetry
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
"The Witches Curse" WebQuest
5 Pages to read:
About this Episode, Linda Caporeal Interview, Background, Clues and Evidence, Interactive: Explore Salem
Revolutionaries
Around the mid 1760s, the colonists became angered at the heavy-handed British rule. They wanted freedom to make their own laws and governing body, so they decided to break off from Great Britain and form an independent country.
Henry's "Speech to VA Convention"
Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence"
Wheatley's "Letter to Samson Occum"
Adams's "Letter to John Adams"
Franklin Web Search
Franklin's "Moral Perfection"
Franklin's "Advice to a Young Man"
Franklin's "Royal Academy..."
Franklin's "Words of Wisdom"
Franklin Prezi, "Inventor Extraordinaire"
Around the mid 1760s, the colonists became angered at the heavy-handed British rule. They wanted freedom to make their own laws and governing body, so they decided to break off from Great Britain and form an independent country.
Henry's "Speech to VA Convention"
Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence"
Wheatley's "Letter to Samson Occum"
Adams's "Letter to John Adams"
Franklin Web Search
Franklin's "Moral Perfection"
Franklin's "Advice to a Young Man"
Franklin's "Royal Academy..."
Franklin's "Words of Wisdom"
Franklin Prezi, "Inventor Extraordinaire"
The Early Romantics:
Key words: emotion, imagination, nature
William Cullen Bryant ("Thanatopsis")
Washington Irving ("The Devil and Tom Walker")
Primus video ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia")
Charlie Daniels Band video ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia")
James Fenimore Cooper ("Deerslayer")
Early Romantics assignment
Key words: emotion, imagination, nature
William Cullen Bryant ("Thanatopsis")
Washington Irving ("The Devil and Tom Walker")
Primus video ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia")
Charlie Daniels Band video ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia")
James Fenimore Cooper ("Deerslayer")
Early Romantics assignment
The Fireside Poets
Key words: morality. reform, enlightenment
"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
"The Chambered Nautilus" (Holmes)
"The First Snowfall" (Lowell)
"A Psalm of Life" (Longfellow)
"The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" (Longfellow)
Fireside Poets assignment
Key words: morality. reform, enlightenment
"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
"The Chambered Nautilus" (Holmes)
"The First Snowfall" (Lowell)
"A Psalm of Life" (Longfellow)
"The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" (Longfellow)
Fireside Poets assignment
The Transcendentalists:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Margaret Fuller
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
They believed in these basic truths:
Live simply.
Find truth in nature.
Find spiritual well-being within yourself.
Embrace independence.
Don't rely on "organized religion."
Link to their works here:
Self-Reliance (Emerson)
Nature (Emerson)
Walden (Thoreau)
Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)
Woman in 19th Century (Fuller)
Dickinson poems
Whitman poems
Revolutionary Biographies: Choose one of the following people and submit a brief biography of the individual. DO NOT COPY AND PASTE. You are to write this after finding information about his or her life. Your focus must be on why this person was revolutionary in his or her day. What did he or she do that was so against the norm and how did they shake up society and their communities?
Annette Lu, Corazon Aquino, Joan of Arc, Dr. Alex Comfort, Muhammed Ali, Joan Baez, MLK Jr., Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Copernicus, or Benjamin Franklin.
Submit via Google Docs, using your school-assigned account. Share with me at [email protected]
Rhetoric and Thoreau Web Activity
Sample Transcendentalism Presentation (Mrs. Garrett's. Don't steal.)
The American Gothics:
Elements of Gothic Literature:
Rational vs. Irrational
Guilt
"Monsters"
"Das Unheimliche"
Themes in Gothic Literature
A preference for the irrational
Puritan Hell (sin, shame, guilt)
Destruction of family/comfort
Lovecraft's Inspiration (click, complete, and submit form)
"The Minister's Black Veil" (Hawthorne)
"The Raven" (Poe)
"The Tell-Tale Heart" (video)
"The Masque of the Red Death" (Poe)
"What the Moon Brings" (Lovecraft)
"The Cats" (Lovecraft)
"Sorry, Right Number" (pdf file)
"Here There be Tygers"
"The Word Processor of the Gods" (video)
Elements of Gothic Literature:
Rational vs. Irrational
Guilt
"Monsters"
"Das Unheimliche"
Themes in Gothic Literature
A preference for the irrational
Puritan Hell (sin, shame, guilt)
Destruction of family/comfort
Lovecraft's Inspiration (click, complete, and submit form)
"The Minister's Black Veil" (Hawthorne)
"The Raven" (Poe)
"The Tell-Tale Heart" (video)
"The Masque of the Red Death" (Poe)
"What the Moon Brings" (Lovecraft)
"The Cats" (Lovecraft)
"Sorry, Right Number" (pdf file)
"Here There be Tygers"
"The Word Processor of the Gods" (video)
The Civil War
From April 1861 - April 1865, the United States was divided over slavery, states' rights, and sectionalism. Many of the documents, speeches, diaries, and letters from this era are studied today as the most accurate accounts of that conflict. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" (NOTE: if using the attached "Narrative" pdf, only read
p. 51 - 63 (until "but was never whipped.") "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" "The Gettysburg Address" "The Emancipation Proclamation" "Voices from the Civil War" "Surrender at Appomattox" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" Civil War - Final Assignment |
Brave New World
Research Articles:
"The Bill of Rights" - human rights vs. government control
"How Class Works" - American social/economic classes
"How to Learn in Your Sleep" - hypnopaedia
"Columbine, Killing, and You" - desensitivity to violence
"Self-Mortification" - self-inflicted punishment in name of religion
"Classical Conditioning: Its Use in Marketing" - Pavlovian conditioning
"Eugenics and IVF" - designer babies
"Emerson's Obituary of Thoreau" - views on solitude and free thinking
"Brave New World Revisited" (1958) - Huxley reflects on his book, 30 years later
BNW Final Analysis Assignment
Sample Paper based on "Macbeth"
MLA formatting information (text)
MLA formatting information (videos)
Research Articles:
"The Bill of Rights" - human rights vs. government control
"How Class Works" - American social/economic classes
"How to Learn in Your Sleep" - hypnopaedia
"Columbine, Killing, and You" - desensitivity to violence
"Self-Mortification" - self-inflicted punishment in name of religion
"Classical Conditioning: Its Use in Marketing" - Pavlovian conditioning
"Eugenics and IVF" - designer babies
"Emerson's Obituary of Thoreau" - views on solitude and free thinking
"Brave New World Revisited" (1958) - Huxley reflects on his book, 30 years later
BNW Final Analysis Assignment
Sample Paper based on "Macbeth"
MLA formatting information (text)
MLA formatting information (videos)
Class Notes
If you miss a class presentation or are absent, or simply need to fill in the blanks, here they are!
If you miss a class presentation or are absent, or simply need to fill in the blanks, here they are!