Focus+Lesson+Narrative

The American Literature Curriculum is broken up into sections based on Grading Periods: 1st grading period (1776-1860), 2nd grading period (1820-1914), 3rd grading period (1914-1959), 4th grading period (1960-Present). By the time that our class reaches Steinbeck in the 3rd grading period they have had a lot of background knowledge and are very comfortable with the types of things that we are having them do in __Of Mice and Men__.
 * Focus Lesson Narrative**

The 1st grading period, we studied Mary Rowlandson, Cotton Mather, and Olaudah Equiano and discussed the influence of the Puritan religion on Literature. For this unit we read __The Crucible__. The students were asked to create a body biography of a character for __The Crucible__. The students also had to write an essay based on the role of lies in this play. We then moved on to the Enlightenment with authors such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Washington Irving, and James Fenimore Cooper.

The 2nd grading period, is filled with many different famous authors Thoreau, Emerson, Dickinson, Whitman and Poe. The novel we read is __The Scarlet Letter__. For __The Scarlet Letter__ the students culminating project was to create movie trailers. The movie trailers they made were depicting an alternate ending to the book or a simple summary highlighting major plot points. We then move into Romanticism where we look at Poe’s use of the gothic and also Whitman’s __Leaves of Grass__.

The 3rd grading period, we move into readings from the first half of the 1900s including T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Earnest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck. This is where our Unit Plan fits in. The first week of our lesson plan we are introduced to John Steinbeck. The first week read a short work from their textbook called __The Leader of the People__. We then move from this to his nonfiction such as his Noble Prize Acceptance Speech (1962). We perform a close reading to discuss how his speech appeals to his audience, shows respect to his competitors and how his allusions help make his point. This is where our focus lessons begin. We move through __Of Mice and Men__. Our focus lessons are sequential and last for two weeks. In this two weeks, the students will be focusing on the relationship between Lennie and George and they will be doing body biographies which display the relationship between the two of them. Along with this reading, there will be an essay that demonstrates the student’s understanding of the relationships that are present in __Of Mice and Men__.

After our Focus Lessons, we will be reading a selection from __The Grapes of Wrath__ in our textbook. The students will be working through the life of Tom Joad and how he changes based on the relationships and decisions that he makes (including killing a police officer). We will also be discussing the relationship the portrayal of migrant workers and The American Dream. The culminating video trailer project the students will work on is similar to __The Scarlet Letter__ project. This video trailer project however ranges over two novels and discusses the historical significance of The Great Depression on Literature. Our Focus Lessons work with the ideas of The Great Depression, migrant workers, and portraying relationships (between Lennie and George). These lesson give the students the background knowledge to complete at least four of the proposed movie trailer topics. The students will be working in class and out of class on this assignment. During the last week of the unit there will be time for students to work together in class to use school cameras to film and computers to edit their trailer. Students are expected to take full advantage of the time in class.

After Steinbeck, we move to the Harlem Renaissance. From there, we continue to progress through the mid 1900s and will be working with other authors such as Tim O'Brien, John Updike, Phillip Roth, and Norman Mailer.