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Middle School American Literature - PLEASE SUGGEST


mom4sons
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I will be teaching at a home school coop. I will be teaching 5th - 7th grade students literature. I am hoping to focus on American literature.

 

Can some of you share your suggestions for books and short stories?

 

Right now I have:

 

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

setting 1836 - 1846 - St. Petersburg (southern town)

 

Mama's Bank Account

setting 1900 - San Francisco, CA

 

I would like pieces set during colonial america, the great depression, and exploring west.

Short stories would be nice too.

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Hawthorne wrote some short stories, which are easier to get through than trying to do the full-blown Scarlet Letter.

 

Walden (yeah...it's annoying, but a good exemplar of numerous things).

 

A Norton Anthology should give some good ideas.

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Hawthorne wrote some short stories, which are easier to get through than trying to do the full-blown Scarlet Letter.

 

Walden (yeah...it's annoying, but a good exemplar of numerous things).

 

A Norton Anthology should give some good ideas.

 

 

I did Walden with a group of high school sophomores and juniors this year. I would not try to tackle this one for 5th-7th grades. Same with Scarlet Letter.

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Are you looking for literature *from* those time periods or *set in* those time periods?

 

Little Britches -- western ranching in early 1900s

By the Great Horn Spoon -- California gold rush

Sarah, Plain and Tall -- settlers in the West

Old Yeller -- post-Civil War, in the west (I think)

 

Except for Little Britches, which is autobiographical, these are modern historical fiction books.

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I did Walden with a group of high school sophomores and juniors this year. I would not try to tackle this one for 5th-7th grades. Same with Scarlet Letter.

 

Um, yeah, that's why I suggested something by Hawthorne that wasn't Scarlet Letter.

 

Walden isn't difficult. He talks about buying boots and watching his pond when he falls asleep. You don't have to read the whole thing to get the point. I found Emerson much more obtuse.

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for clarity, I am looking for literature "set in" these time periods.

Oh, ok. I don't agree. Just letting you know. :)

 

Huh? You don't agree that that's what she's looking for? How can that possibly be something to agree or disagree with?

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