American Literature

Year at a Glance

First Semester:

First Nine Weeks: Founding of a Nation—Beginnings to 1800

Early Historical writings (Drama – The Crucible, Novel – The Scarlet Letter)

The Writing Process, narratives, analysis of persuasion

Grammar:

-Superlatives/Comparatives

-Subject/Verb Agreement

-Pronoun Referent

-Plurals

Vocabulary—Greek and Latin Root Words, Affixes

Second Nine Weeks: Rise of a Nation—1800 – 1860

Poetry / Short Story (Romanticism and American Renaissance) *Civil War Era writings

Expository Writing / Writing in response to literature

Speaking / Listening / Oral Reports

Grammar:

-Internal Punctuation

-Sentence Structure

-Fragments and Run-ons

Vocabulary—Using Context Clues

Second Semester:

Third Nine Weeks: The Rise of Realism--*1865 – 1950

Novel / Non-Fiction, Poetry, Short Stories of the Period

*Harlem Renaissance, WWI, Depression, WWII, Holocaust

Descriptive / Persuasive / Argumentative Writing

Grammar:

-Verb Tenses

-Capitalization

-Confused Words

-Spelling Problems

Vocabulary—Using Context Clues

Fourth Nine Weeks: Contemporary Literature—1950 – Present

Poetry, Short Stories, Novels, Drama

*Viet Nam Era to Present

Research Papers and Business Writing

Grammar:

-Active / Passive Voice

-Dangling Modifiers

-Parallel Structure

Vocabulary—Words from the ACT/SAT tests

Test Taking Strategies and Grammar Review for ACT

*US History End of Instruction Test covers these time periods