Are you searching for a meticulously crafted, comprehensive American Literature curriculum to engage your high school juniors and seniors? Look no further! I’m thrilled to introduce my year-long curriculum tailored specifically for grades 11-12. This curriculum covers the best in both American literature and rhetoric in chronological order while covering every 11-12.RL and RI standard.
From the colonial period to contemporary voices, offer students a deep dive into the evolution of American literature and culture. This curriculum is not just a series of lesson plans but a journey through the heart of the American literary tradition. Throughout this post, I’ll have links to FREE roadmaps, so you can take a look at what I consider to be the essential texts in American literature. Each roadmap contains links to all of my products or you can purchase my entire curriculum for a discounted price of $99.99!
Quarter 1: From Revolution to Transcendentalism
Begin the year with a in-depth rhetorical analysis of the most impactful Revolution era speeches. From Franklin to Henry to Paine, students will learn about foundational American values while exploring a wide variety of rhetorical devices.
Moving into the Romantic period, students will study the origins of the American short story through the works of Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is the perfect way to assess your students proficiency in RL standards at the beginning of the year.
Conclude your first quarter with a thorough study of the Transcendentalist period. From the essays of Thoreau and Emerson to the poetry of Whitman and Dickinson, you can teach and assess almost every RL and RI standard in one unit! My curriculum recommends introspective activities to accompany Emerson and a poetry explication to assess their understanding of Whitman and Dickinson.
Quarter 2: Anti-Slavery Rhetoric, Realism and Early Feminist Literature
Begin the second quarter with links to the previous quarter with a brief study of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Students will demonstrate their growing proficiency in RL standards while also learning how the American short story started to evolve beyond social and political commentary.
A deep-dive into Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” is the perfect extension of the study on American rhetoric started in the first quarter. Students will refine their ability to analyze rhetoric while learning about Douglass’s immense impact on the anti-slavery movement.
No American literature curriculum can be complete without a study of Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce. This roadmap recommends two classic satirical stories from Twain: “Journalism in Tennessee” and “Cannibalism in the Cars.” These two stories are NEVER anthologized in the major textbooks, but are excellent examples of evolving American values and the power of satire. They are presented here in their entirety with several activities on satirical analysis to accompany them. Meanwhile Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is so foundational that it cannot be skipped.
Conclude your first semester with two great authors of the early feminist movement: Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In this curriculum I recommend a lesser known Gilman story: “The Giant Wistaria.” It’s shorter and easier to digest than “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and students always love this classic ghost story.
Quarter 3: The Harlem Renaissance and The Great Gatsby
Rhetoric, poetry, short stories: The Harlem Renaissance has it all. Begin your second semester with one of the most culturally significant and diverse artistic movements in America’s history. Your students will demonstrate their growth in every RL and RI standard. At the same time they’ll learn about W.E.B DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and more! My unit recommends an engaging research project with additional poetry explication.
Cover multiple authors of The Lost Generation as a lead up to The Great Gatsby. Hemingway, Eliot, and Faulkner cannot be skipped! As if The Great Gatsby needs any introduction: no American literature unit can be complete without it. This pacing guide demonstrates how to pack it all in while continuing to assess your students’ growth in the standards.
Quarter 4: The Crucible, Presidential Speeches and Contemporary Short Stories
Conclude your year with the best in 20th century rhetoric and literature. A short stop at the Southern Gothic with Flannery O’Connor and Joyce Carol Oates will demonstrate to your students how far American literature has come.
Then a thorough study of The Crucible allows you to connect past to present and bring a conversation on American values full circle. Picking up from the play, Rhetoric in the 20th Century recommends a careful analysis of Senator McCarthy’s infamous “Enemies from Within” speech. Perhaps the inspiration for The Crucible, students will enjoy picking apart McCarthy’s logical fallacies.
From there students will contrast McCarthy’s pessimism with the optimism of JFK’s Inaugural Address and LBJ’s “We Shall Overcome” speech on expanding voting rights. As a conclusion to a year-long study on American rhetoric, these texts will prepare students to critically think about the kind of political rhetoric they will encounter for the rest of their lives!
Finally, your students will enjoy a broad study of the expansive diversity of the modern American short story. From indigenous authors like Sherman Alexie and Leslie Marmon Silko, to African American authors like Toni Cade Bambara and Indian American authors like Jhumpa Lahiri, this final unit serves as a counterpoint to everything that has come before. The future of American literature is as diverse and unique as possible.
By adopting this curriculum, you’re not just providing your students with a set of lesson plans; you’re embarking on a transformative educational journey that will inspire a lifelong love of literature and critical thinking skills essential for success in college and beyond.