Class, I'm glad to have each of you join me for this journey into American history, literature, art, and music. Our goal this year is to gain a broader sense of our American culture, its major events and movements, our greatest artists and musicians, and the influences and shifts that have shaped our nation into what it is today. There is a great deal of information to cover, but I want to emphasize to you that we will not be experts by the end. In fact, learning is a lifelong pursuit. What I hope we can accomplish this year is to lay a healthy foundation, introducing you to the major players and events. We will break history down into units. Those units will have many sub-topics. Your task is to pick a couple of those sub-topics each week and research them more in-depth and prepare yourself for both class discussions and debates. You have some freedom here with your choices. If you are more interested in battles, then you can focus there. If you are more interested in the political changes, your focus will be there. If battles and politics bore you to tears, maybe you're more interested in researching biographies or stories or philosophical debates, or even the progression of fashion or the roles of women. I hope to have many of you looking into different areas within the same unit, helping to expand and inform our class discussions.
There are many pieces to this puzzle of history. Do not look at our list and worry! Instead, try to see the subtopics as options for you to explore. We will put the pieces together in class. Our weekly readings will help you to pull the information together and the discussions in class will hopefully help it all to make sense. You will quickly understand how each topic helps us to gain a better picture of the whole scene. In addition to our readings, I will have several debates throughout the unit for you to research. Many of you have taken my English Composition class and have developed an understanding of rhetoric. If you are new, don't worry! We'll get you caught up quickly! We will take what we have learned about rhetoric and begin to expand our study into research, analysis, and debate. This is where the fun comes in. I hope to take a more holistic approach to studying history. What happened? Why did this happen? What are the implications today? Or Why does it even matter? In this same manner, I do not give tests, per se, but I do use weekly quizzes to gauge comprehension and study habits. I believe you learn more through writing and discussion, so these will always be my greatest focus in class. Again, do not worry about your writing ability. This will get better with practice! And you will have plenty of practice in my class! :)
In addition to studying history, we will be reading American literature that follows the historical timeline. In the beginning, these texts will be difficult. It's okay if you are struggling. I do not expect you to understand everything written in these 17th-century documents. We will break them down in class. Also, some documents are longer than we will read. I will let you know how much I want you to read and I may even post some links during the week to websites that will help you to gain a better understanding. Wikipedia is our friend! As the class progresses to more modern literature, you will enjoy the readings much more. Just hang in there. We are going to familiarize ourselves with some of the original documents in American history, like the letter from John Smith concerning Pocahontas, powerful sermons that shaped the Puritan beliefs (and our country!), Native American mythology, accounts of those captured during King Phillip's War and testimonies in the Salem Witch Trials. Some of our readings are disturbing and heartbreaking. History often is.
Our literature will also include fiction and poetry. For the first couple of months, I will primarily use documents, poetry, and short stories and a play. I will gradually increase your readings to novels beginning in November when we tackle The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
There will also be short writing assignments with our literature, usually an academic paragraph (I'll explain in another post), or a short response paper of 1-2 pages, double-spaced.
Finally, I will link our history and literature together with the study of music and art. These mediums are very powerful and have left their influence on our culture, politics, and ideologies. We cannot ignore their influence. We will study art as propaganda, landscape, protest music, and national identity through art and music. Think of Woodie Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, and many more.
Some of our debate topics will include gun control (historical to present), religious freedom, freedom of speech and the Sedition Acts, comparisons between the North and South, the Civil War as an exercise in states' rights or abolishing slavery, the legacy of Andrew Jackson, and the effects/disadvantages of the Progressive Era.
Class participation will be critical for success. You will be broken into debate teams. Each person on the team plays an important part, either in the defense or argumentation, or research and data collection. This is your education. I can only facilitate and guide you in this journey. It is up to you to gain as much from this experience as you can.
I am available for questions and concerns both after class and throughout the week. I will give each of you my contact information on the first day of class. Feel free to email me or text me and I will get in touch with you as soon as I can. Parents are always welcome to check-in and ask questions.
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