Halftime Hope Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 (edited) Lori D. provided some great input to my American Lit question: what to use instead of the Notgrass selections (Thanks, Lori!!), but I'd like to ask my question a different way, starting from a broader perspective, and then narrow our choices down. If you were to make a list of top ten or fifteen choices that Shouldn't. Be. Missed. in an American Lit survey class, what would they be? Choices can include any genre and many different kinds of works, everything from short stories to novels. (Speeches and non-fiction works that are important to Am Hist are already covered.) Thank you! (Again, thanks to all who gave input on my other thread! It was wonderful. My asking is a reflection of my wondering if I had asked the *right* question to begin with.) Edited June 1, 2011 by Valerie(TX) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 We just finished American Literature. We used Scott Foresman U.S. in Literature. We really liked it. You can pick and choose what you read, and if you like a piece, then you can read the whole book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 Thanks, Susan C. We could use the BJU textbook; it is adequate. I'd just prefer complete works, even if they are short ones. Anyone else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southcarolinamom Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Just throwing this out there, here's the list of Sonlight American Lit books: http://www.sonlight.com/430-00.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 (not in order) Selections from Washington Irving Scarlett Letter Selections from Poe Huck Finn Red badge of Courage Great Gatsby Our Town The Awakening To Kill a Mockingbird selections from Flannery O'Connor Walden Of Mice and Men Gone w/the Wind One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Raymond Chandler novel & Louis L'Amour novel (quick reads) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 nt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memphispeg Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 The things that my dd got the most out of were Hemingway short stories, Faulkner, The Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, Hawthorne, Melville (stories), Washington Irving, Edith Wharton and Henry James. We used the Norton Anthology as a text and guide. For more modern fiction we ended up purchasing separate volumes. BTW - I was looking at something called Perrine's Literature or some such last night. He had loads of Am. Lit. with suggestions for writing assignments. I thought his short story and poetry selections were excellent. Some nice hand-holding through literary analysis techniques too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooooom Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Let me preface it to say that our course will be entitled 20th Century American Lit and the it will be only a 1/2 year course (it's senior year, there;s so many other cool things to fit in). Keep in mind also that my kids are pretty well read already, so they have already read a lot of what other's might include. And I probably read 3x the amount of books before coming up with this list. For instance I really liked The Bell Jar (Plath) but thought Catcher in the Rye was more effective. And I chose Fahrenheit 451 over 1984 for the same reason. I really thought we should add Death of a Salesman, as it appears to be a highschool classic, but I could not get through it, and it seemed very irrelevant for highschoolers. I was going for a large variety in genre 'The Great Gatsby As I Lay Dying Our Town Cannery Row The Glass Menagerie Catcher in the Rye The Old Man in and the Sea Fahrenheit 451 Slaughterhouse 5 The Lords of Discipline (because I wanted something modern and I think Conroy can be wonderful) We will also be using the Teaching Company's Masterpieces of Short Fiction and reading the 24 short stories that are included, which should be a very well rounded We will also spend time discussing Banned Books which will fit in well with the course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liza Q Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 When I did Am Lit for the second time, I found myself choosing some different books. There was some overlap, though - here are the titles that I used both times. Moby Dick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas Huckleberry Finn Up From Slavery The Glass Menagerie Fahrenheit 451 The Chosen Autobiography of Malcolm X I should mention, though, that when I sat down to make my list for my younger daughter, I found that she had already read some of the books my eldest had read, like Washington Square, The Great Gatsby and Our Town. She also beggggeeeddddd me not to make her read The Scarlet Letter and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (both books I had assigned to her sister) - so I didn't! There are also some great books that I didn't *assign* because I knew they would be happy to read them on their own time, like everything we could find by Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald. If they were not such happy readers, I suppose I would have had to make some harder choices! hth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Grapes of Wrath Old man and the sea Great Gatsby Huckleberry Finn To Kill a Mockingbird Uncle Tom's Cabin Farenheit something by Faulkner - I find Light in August the most accessible some short stories by EA Poe short stories by Jack London, or Call of the Wild something by Thornton Wilder (not necessarily Our little town - I prefer The 8th Day) something by Tennessee Williams (Glass menagerie, Streetcar named desire) Poetry! Emily Dickinson, Longfellow, Frost, Walt Whitman... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 If my student were only going to read 15 total across their education, so none during the middle school years, then I guess I would prioritize these books although I'm not going to list them in a top-down order. On Plimouth Plantation - William Bradford Autobiography of Ben Franklin The Scarlett Letter - Nathanial Hawthorne The Federalist Papers Anti-Federalist Papers The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas - Frederick Douglas Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe On Walden's Pond - Henry David Thoreau selected essays by - Ralph Waldo Emerson Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain Paul Revere's Ride, Song of Hiawatha, & Evangeline - H.W. Longfellow The Education of Henry Adams - Henry Adams The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald or A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway (I would have a hard time choosing between the two.) Selected tales of Edgar Allen Poe Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck Faith, still not certain if this is her "best" list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted June 4, 2011 Author Share Posted June 4, 2011 If my student were only going to read 15 total across their education, Nah, the question is how much American Lit should we schedule for next year, not that we haven't done any. I've done two four year rotations through history with corresponding lit, including some Pretty Darn Good Books, and a few bonafide classics/Great Books last year that went well with modern world history and this time we're going to shake it up a bit and do American Lit, to go with American Only history, and with American government. We've read four or five of the books that keep appearing on lists, so it's not that we haven't done any American Lit at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 The problem with not doing an anthology (along with whole books if you wish) is that you don't get exposure to authors in their time periods, or who the all the authors are. There are literary periods that parallel to the historical periods. I didn't know this, and studying this made literature really come together with our history. And we really enjoyed the samplings of each author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Nah, the question is how much American Lit should we schedule for next year, not that we haven't done any. I've done two four year rotations through history with corresponding lit, including some Pretty Darn Good Books, and a few bonafide classics/Great Books last year that went well with modern world history and this time we're going to shake it up a bit and do American Lit, to go with American Only history, and with American government. We've read four or five of the books that keep appearing on lists, so it's not that we haven't done any American Lit at all. Gotcha! Thanks...I was on the fly and my brain didn't compute properly! Courtesy of Allegra D and Benadryl in an attempt to stem the pollen attack. :tongue_smilie: Thanks again for catching that and setting me straight!:) Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted June 4, 2011 Author Share Posted June 4, 2011 The problem with not doing an anthology (along with whole books if you wish) is that you don't get exposure to authors in their time periods, or who the all the authors are. There are literary periods that parallel to the historical periods. I didn't know this, and studying this made literature really come together with our history. And we really enjoyed the samplings of each author. Yup, that's why I'm still thinking of using an older edition of a textbook, alongside our actual lit selections, for the value of having a "spine." Easy access, good explanations of the foundational teaching for the "schools" of writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted June 4, 2011 Author Share Posted June 4, 2011 Gotcha! Thanks...I was on the fly and my brain didn't compute properly! Courtesy of Allegra D and Benadryl in an attempt to stem the pollen attack. :tongue_smilie: Thanks again for catching that and setting me straight!:) Faith You exactly answered my original question, which I forgot to thank you for. :001_huh: Belatedly, thank you! The only difference is in the scheduling. (I'm clear as mud these days...end of year.) Hope you're feeling better today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liza Q Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 The problem with not doing an anthology (along with whole books if you wish) is that you don't get exposure to authors in their time periods, or who the all the authors are. There are literary periods that parallel to the historical periods. I didn't know this, and studying this made literature really come together with our history. And we really enjoyed the samplings of each author. I never thought of this! Hmmm....I may add an anthology and use a few less books next time around - thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 World Book Encyclopedia has a nice article on American Literature that can be used as a spine. If you get a cheap older software version of WB, you can print out articles as spines for a variety of situations, when you are wanting to use real books instead of textbooks and anthologies. I think Ernest Hemingway is important to cover. I really like How to Write Like Hemingway to accompany some of his short stories. It's available at Borders and fairly cheap when they are giving out 40% off coupons. I like to focus on how writing styles changed, more than the individual authors and their works. So for me, I pick a work that represents a shift away from what was being commonly done before that. Hemingway was a big shift. High school English can be WAY too heavy on fiction reading in my opnion, so if I was wanting to appear to be traditional, I'd be making sure to have another underlying agenda. Since this is supposed to be an English class I'd be looking to teach as many English SKILLS as possible and pick my reading selections accordingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdarling Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Any Mark Twain Red Badge of Cougage Christy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momma aimee Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galtgrl Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Huckleberry Finn Civil Disobedience Poe - Short stories To Kill A Mockingbird Up From Slavery The House of the Seven Gables Uncle Tom's Cabin Robert Frost - Poetry Little Women The Red Badge of Courage 1 Hemingway Atlas Shrugged Emily Dickinson - Poetry :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 On Plimouth Plantation Autobiography of Ben Franklin Democracy in America The Federalist Papers (and Anti-) The Scarlett Letter Uncle Tom's Cabin Adventures of Huck Finn The Great Gatsby Of Mice and Men ' To Kill a Mockingbird Grapes of Wrath The Old Man and the Sea House of Mirth Our Town poetry by Poe and Dickinson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter's Moon Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 My top three (in order starting with favorite) would be: Fahrenheit 451 The Scarlet Letter To Kill a Mockingbird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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