We will be creating a literary community through reading, writing, and blogging; discovering classic literature from the past and present through voices from around the world. I want you to learn how literature makes us know that we are not alone; we are spiritually connected and can feel safe.
How will we do this?
Survey of British Literature has traditionally been a preparatory course, culminating in an exam to be taken in the spring for college credit. However, to those of us who teach language arts, this course is more about teaching students to read and write with greater insight, as well as a chance to help students develop a genuine sense of empathy through literature.
This course hopes to re-examine the entire idea of “rigor” by implementing global citizenship into every aspect of the curriculum, making it a richer experience and creating a model for curriculum at Andover High School. Each section of the unit will have three components:
1) Global Citizenship
2) Well-chosen literary selections which connect to the former and an element of fiction
3) Experiences where students find connections in literature to themselves and the world.
The framework of the course will consist of a series of existential questions from Dr. William Gaudelli’s research. Each question, piece of literature, and overall learning experience will build on the next. Toward the end of term two, students will be having experiences where they combine all these elements and have direct contact with students from another country, students from an adjoining city, and share their work in a public forum.
In addition, I reworked “grading” last year and students found it highly rewarding. My grading system focuses on the big picture, student personal growth, enthusiasm, participation, authenticity, and passion for the ideas we discuss.
I hope you enjoy the course, and I look forward to sharing in this journey with all of you!
Unit One: Becoming Jane & Why Fiction Matters
- “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Pride and Prejudice (1995)
- “The First Hour” by Sharon Olds
- "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
- “Happy Marriage” by Taslima Nasrin
- "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere by Francesco Petrarch, translated by Anthony Mortimer
- “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Lady Susan by Jane Austen
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
- Becoming Jane by Jon Hunter Spence
- Becoming Jane (2007)
- “Why Do We Hate Love” By Robert W Firestone Ph.D.
- “Advice to the Newly Married Lady” by Samuel K. Jennings
- “Everyday Life as a Learning Experience” by Sarah A. Chrisman
Unit Two: Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human
Unit Three: Aestheticism & Life Imitates Art
Unit Four: Humanism, the Brontë Sisters, and the Reinvention the Novel
Unit Five: Storytelling and Defining Our Experience
Assessments:
Class Participation, Blogs, Daily Meditation Journal, and Homework 70%
Every night you will read a selection from the works above and compose a blog response. If you are absent, please view the blog and respond when you are able. Criteria and rubrics for the above will be made available. At the beginning of every class, I will read a piece of literature to bring you in the present followed by a five minute free write to be composed in your meditative journal. I will check these at the end of the term.
Writing & Major Assignments 30%
This category includes all major writing assignments, in-class essays, and final projects. Criteria and rubrics for the above will be made available.
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Macbeth (2015)
- Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
- Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
- Selections from Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom
- “Holy Sonnet X: Death be not proud” by John Donne
- “Holy Sonnet V: If poisonous minerals” by John Donne
- “Unholy Sonnets” by Mark Jarman
- “Morality as Anit-Nature by Friedrich Nietzsche
- “Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature” by David Hume
- Shakespeare of the Day: Selections from Henry V, Titus Andronicus, and Twelfth Night
- “Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever” by William Shakespeare
- “After Us” by Connie Wanek
Unit Three: Aestheticism & Life Imitates Art
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
- “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka
- “Sonnet 94: A woman’s face” by William Shakespeare
- “Sonnet 53: What is your substance” by William Shakespeare
- The Decay of Lying: An Observation by Oscar Wilde
- "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young" by Oscar Wilde
- "A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated" by Oscar Wilde
- “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde
- “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde
- An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
- “A Dialogue Between the Body and Soul” by Andrew Marvell
- “When You are Old” by William Butler Yeats
- De Profundis by Oscar Wilde
Unit Four: Humanism, the Brontë Sisters, and the Reinvention the Novel
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- The Tennent of Wildfwell Hall by Anne Brontë
- “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy
- “Hope is a Thing With Feathers” by Emily Dickinson
- “I’m Happiest When Most Away” by Emily Brontë
- “On the Death of Anne Brontë” by Charlotte Brontë
- “Love and Friendship “by Emily Brontë
- “Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Browning
- “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John Keats
- “I, Being Born a Woman, and Distressed” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Unit Five: Storytelling and Defining Our Experience
- Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- “Mid-term Break” by Seamus Heaney
- “The Death of a Toad” by Richard Wilbur
- “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold
- Excerpts from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
- “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye
Assessments:
Class Participation, Blogs, Daily Meditation Journal, and Homework 70%
Every night you will read a selection from the works above and compose a blog response. If you are absent, please view the blog and respond when you are able. Criteria and rubrics for the above will be made available. At the beginning of every class, I will read a piece of literature to bring you in the present followed by a five minute free write to be composed in your meditative journal. I will check these at the end of the term.
Writing & Major Assignments 30%
This category includes all major writing assignments, in-class essays, and final projects. Criteria and rubrics for the above will be made available.
Turnitin.com
Class ID: 22103888
Enrollment Key: janeausten
Aspen:
Grades and progress reports will be consistently posted on Aspen. It is your responsibility to track your progress.
Classroom Behavior:
Students must adhere to the rules of conduct outlined in the Andover High School Student Handbook 2018-2019 edition. If you act like an authentic adult, you will be treated in kind.
No cell phones, ever. I do not want to see them.
Class ID: 22103888
Enrollment Key: janeausten
Aspen:
Grades and progress reports will be consistently posted on Aspen. It is your responsibility to track your progress.
Classroom Behavior:
Students must adhere to the rules of conduct outlined in the Andover High School Student Handbook 2018-2019 edition. If you act like an authentic adult, you will be treated in kind.
No cell phones, ever. I do not want to see them.
