Literature Guides for self-made American Lit?

[Scuff]

Where do I look to find guides if I'm piecing together my own curriculum. DS is doing some American Lit at co-op, but I also want to add our own as what he's doing there doesn't seem very full and I want some things to add to his history. So far I've found Progeny Press and Memoria, but I'm not finding all the books I want. Where else should I look? Not everything has to be in depth, since it's a supplement to co-op. And some of them are just to enhance history. But I don't want to tackle a few of these books without some guidance. We're planning to read: 

 

Up From Slavery

All Quiet on the Western Front

Of Mice and Men

Night

The Chosen

I Dared to Call Him Father

 

[Garga]

Have you tried some online lit guides? You might have to type up some information to pass out to your students, but it could get you going:

 

Sparknotes

Shmoop

[klmama]

Also pinkmonkey.com  (SWB mentioned that in one of her audio lectures)

 

 

[Lori D.]

Side note: In case you were planning to do just American Lit. -- 2 of the works on your list are not American (All Quiet on the Western Front = German author, WW1, and Night = Polish author, WW2 Holocaust). Also, don't know what age your student is, or how sensitive, but both of those above works are very intense and brutal, so you may wish to preview.

 

Second side note: In case it matters, two of the works below are autobiography (Up From Slavery, I Dared to Call Him Father), which typically can't be analyzed in the same way or depth as fiction Literature (novels, short stories, plays, poetry). So autobiography is often more used as a primary source supplement to History, rather than playing a large role in Literature studies.

 

But from your OP, it sounds like enhancing History is part of your plan, so disregard the above side notes if not pertinent.  :)

 

 

Up From Slavery

Penguin teacher guide (free guide)

NovelGuides (for a fee online guide)

Book Rags (for a fee online guide)

e-Notes (for a fee online guide)

Sparknotes (free chapter by chapter summaries and analysis)

Best Notes/Pink Monkey (free chapter by chapter summaries and analysis)

Wikipedia article (free background info on author/work; basic plot, major themes, chapter summaries)

 

All Quiet on the Western Front

Glencoe Literature Library (free online guide)

Novel Unit - student pack, teacher guide (for a fee print guide)

Novel Ties (for a fee print guide)

CliffsNotes (free chapter by chapter summaries and analysis)

Course Hero (free chapter by chapter summaries and analysis)

Sparknotes

Pink Monkey

Novel Guide

e-Notes

Wikipedia article

 

Of Mice and Men

(Google search of "study guide for of mice and men" brought up many free teacher-made resources -- usually comprehension and discussion questions)

Great Works Instructional Guides for Literature (for a fee print guide)

Novel Units - student pack, teacher guide

Novel Ties

Sparknotes

CliffsNotes

The Best Notes/Pink Monkey

Course Hero

 

Night

(Google search of "study guide for night by elie wiesel" or "literature guide for night by elie wiesel" brought up many other resources)

PBS Teaching Guide (free online, list of resources and 3 activities)

Standards-Based Literature Guide (for a fee print guide)

Glencoe Literature Library

Sparknotes

CliffsNotes

Pink Monkey

Book Rags

e-Notes

 

The Chosen

Holt, Rinehart & Winston guide (for a free print guide)

Random House publishers teacher guide (plot summary, comprehension & discussion questions)

Glencoe Literature Library

Sparknotes

CliffsNotes

Pink Monkey

Novel Guide

Book Rags

e-Notes

 

I Dared to Call Him Father

Wikipedia article on author Bilquis Sheikh

Book Rags

Edited September 23, 2017 by Lori D.

[Scuff]

Oh awesome, that's quite a list! Thank you!

 

Yeah, the autobiographies are more for the history side. He'll be reading poetry, a play and all that at co-op. They're also reading for class: Huck Finn, to Kill a Mockingbird and something else I can't remember. I want to do our own lit analysis with some of the books we do on our own. But they don't all need to meet that criteria.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I know Night isn't going to be pleasent reading. But, I do want him to read it. I picked Western Front from book lists and to try and have something boy-friendly that he would enjoy. Maybe that wasn't the best choice! I'll have to rethink that. Any suggestions?

Edited September 23, 2017 by Scuff

[happypamama]

I've found SparkNotes to be really useful.

 

I'm using some modules from Excellence in Literature World and British this year, and their American looks good too.

[Lori D.]

On 9/23/2017 at 11:51 AM, Scuff said:

...Yeah, the autobiographies are more for the history side. He'll be reading poetry, a play and all that at co-op. They're also reading for class: Huck Finn, to Kill a Mockingbird and something else I can't remember. I want to do our own lit analysis with some of the books we do on our own...

Sounds great! 🙂

On 9/23/2017 at 11:51 AM, Scuff said:

Thanks for the heads up. I know Night isn't going to be pleasent reading. But, I do want him to read it. I picked Western Front from book lists and to try and have something boy-friendly that he would enjoy. Maybe that wasn't the best choice! I'll have to rethink that. Any suggestions?

I just noticed your signature -- looks like DS is 16yo? I think he'll be fine. 🙂

We did All Quiet... with our DSs in high school, and while it was very sobering, it was a very good experience for them. It really is a very powerful, work and makes you realize that fighting war is horrific and physically/mentally/spiritually devastating -- not necessarily heroic and exciting, the way video games and movies can make it appear for teen boys. 😉

American classics ideas that are boy-friendly:

novels
Last of the Mohicans (Cooper)
Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury)
The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury)
A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin)
I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Craven)
The Outsiders (Hinton)
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller) -- and possibly Neal Stephenson's Anathem, as a similar follow up

novellas
The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)
Call of the Wild (London)
The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
The Pearl (Steinbeck)

short stories
Rip Van Winkle; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving)
The Minister's Black Veil (Hawthorne)
Bartleby the Scrivener (Melville)
Fall of the House of Usher; The Black Cat; Cask of Amontillado; Tell-Tale Heart (Poe)
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Bierce)
The Luck of Roaring Camp; Outcasts of Poker Flats (Harte)
Bride Comes to Yellow Sky (Crane)
The Open Boat (Crane)
To Build a Fire (London)
The Ransom of Red Chief (Henry)
The Most Dangerous Game (Connell)
Thank You Ma'am (Hughes)
The Catbird Seat (Thurber)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Thurber)
There Will Come Soft Rains (Bradbury)
Sound of Thunder (Bradbury)
The Lottery (Jackson)
The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas (LeGuin)

YA novels
The King's Fifth (O'Dell)
Walk The World's Rim (Baker)
Across Five Aprils (Hunt)
Sing Down the Moon (O'Dell)
The Great Wheel (Lawson)
Dragon's Gate (Yep)
Little Britches (Moody)
The Great Brain (Fitzgerald)
Summer of the Monkeys; Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls)
Bud Not Buddy (Curtis)
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry (Taylor)
Maniac Magee (Konigsburg)
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff) -- fun go-along read with Huckleberry Finn for discussing censorship
The Pushcart War (Merrill)
The View From Saturday (Konigsburg)
The Hunger Games (Collins)

Non Fiction to go with your history
To Be a Slave (Lester)
Black Like Me (Griffin)
Why We Can't Wait (MLK, jr.)
The Jungle (Upton) -- fiction, but heavily based on the facts of the horrible working conditions in U.S. meat-packing factories in Chicago at the turn of the century
Ernie Pyle, WW2 war correspondent
October Sky -- also called Rocket Boys (Hickam)
The Brendan Voyage (Severin)

These are great non-fiction works about WW2:
- The Colditz Story (Reid) -- British soldier attempts to escape German POW camp
- The Forgotten 500 (Freeman) -- attempt to rescue 500 American soldiers stranded behind enemy lines in the European theater
- Dunkirk -- the recent film by Christopher Nolan, showing the events of 400,000 British soldiers trapped on the French beaches at Dunkirk, and the massive civilian boat rescue that crossed the channel to bring them home

Edited August 3, 2020 by Lori D.

[Scuff]

Ok, you've convinced me- Going to keep All Quiet on the Western Front.  ;)  (And he'll actually be 17 by the time we read it. Needed to update my signature) I'm going to switch out Night for something a little lighter. I've got a lot of other WW2 stuff planned in the history portion. We don't need to bog him down with heavy, sad history the whole time. :)  Thanks for all the suggestions and talking me through all this!

[Lori D.]

On 9/23/2017 at 4:09 PM, Scuff said:

Ok, you've convinced me- Going to keep All Quiet on the Western Front.  😉 (And he'll actually be 17 by the time we read it. Needed to update my signature) I'm going to switch out Night for something a little lighter. I've got a lot of other WW2 stuff planned in the history portion. We don't need to bog him down with heavy, sad history the whole time. 🙂  Thanks for all the suggestions and talking me through all this!

Totally agree about the importance of balance (i.e., not all heavy/sad lit.). But in case you do want to do both, Night is quite short, and if you balance out with other WW2 works with a different focus, it shouldn't bog down. For example, The Hiding Place is quite inspiring, while The Colditz Story is more adventure-based and rather humorous at times, and really quite interesting to see how clever and creative these men were in coming up with elaborate escape plans.

For more ideas for lighter, or humorous, or inspiring Lit check out these threads below. Note -- there are a lot of not-American Lit. works in there, if that makes a difference. BEST of luck as you plan! 🙂 Warmest regards, Lori D.

Need North American novels that are not depressing!!
OK, last one for today… I promise: American Lit, favorite light, funny...
American Literature -- happy/uplifting
Happy, inspiring feel good book recs
S/O Steinbeck thread: I need novels that don't have a tragic/fatalistic worldview
High School Literature suggestions that aren't so dark and depressing
Help! Need some modern wold literature that is not depressing
High Literature which is encouraging
Suggestions for meaty but not depressing classics for teenagers
Looking for upbeat literature selections
Classics which are the most inspiring

Edited August 3, 2020 by Lori D.

[Deee]

Night is superb. Don't skip it. I read it with my sensitive DS last year when he was 15. It is dark, but so beautifully and economically written, with such clarity and lack of self-pity that it really is a must read. I read it when I was 14 and its stayed with me for 30 years. The relationship between father and son is beautiful, and perfect for your son's age group. It opens up a world of discussions about the human spirit, sacrifice, survival and love.

D

[GoVanGogh]

Agree with above: keep Night.

I read it in a college class almost 30 years ago. It is one of the few books I specifically remember reading. Very haunting, but so powerful.

[Scuff]

lol No more opinions! I have to finish planning this!  :lol:  Actually, thanks everyone for helping me think through this. And for sharing your vast knowledge, Lori D! I've decided to stretch out history another couple weeks so that I can add in a little more. We're starting in the Civil War, anyway, to allow for more depth. So, it works to add more time. (will review early American briefly next year with government.) So! Up From Slavery, Silas Marner, All Quiet on the Western Front, Of Mice and Men, Evidence Not Seen, Night, The Chosen, and I Dared to Call Him Father. For summer reading, I'm assigning the Giver, Lost Moon and October Sky. (I love the Hiding Place. It was on his summer reading for last year.)

Edited September 24, 2017 by Scuff

[mirabillis]

Oh awesome, that's quite a list! Thank you!

 

Yeah, the autobiographies are more for the history side. He'll be reading poetry, a play and all that at co-op. They're also reading for class: Huck Finn, to Kill a Mockingbird and something else I can't remember. I want to do our own lit analysis with some of the books we do on our own. But they don't all need to meet that criteria.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I know Night isn't going to be pleasent reading. But, I do want him to read it. I picked Western Front from book lists and to try and have something boy-friendly that he would enjoy. Maybe that wasn't the best choice! I'll have to rethink that. Any suggestions?

I read All Quiet back in high school and really liked it. Maybe 10th grade I read it? It was definitely gritty and realistic - but very thought-provoking, I thought.