American Literature/Composition Honors Syllabus
SY 2013-2014
Mrs. Carrie Swiderski
Woodville Tompkins Technical and CareerHigh School
Course Description:
Honors American Literature /Composition is a study of the major literary topics and themes across the history of the United States from pre-colonial times to present day. Students will focus on the major literary forms of the emerging nation, analyze the literary themes and trends, research and compose several papers, speeches, and presentations using representative forms of discourse. Students are expected to be active readers as they analyze and interpret textual detail, establish connections among their observations, and draw logical inferences toward an interpretive conclusion. The course will also include a writing component that focuses on persuasive, informational, explanatory and argumentative writing about the literature through both discussion and essay format.
Summary of Standards:
SCCPSS and the State of Georgia now use the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards Curriculum, a nationalized set of academic standards that require the students to think, read and write rigorously. The standards can be found at
As an Honors course, these standards will be extended and/or enriched by regular class discussions using the Harkness discussion method, which puts the students in control of the conversation, as they seek, as a team, to come to consensus on a specific questions or issues. Information about this methodology can be found at
Curriculum and Texts:
The major works Honors American Literature/Composition students will read are listed below, along with their supporting, smaller texts. As a department, we at WTTCHS *strongly* encourage parents to provide individual copies of the starred texts, as there are not enough copies of the books for each student. In addition, having a personal copy of the book allows the student to more easily practice annotation skills required in active reading.
Theme / Major works / Supplementary Texts(provided by teachers) / Writing Focus
Fear and persecution in Early American literature / The Crucible, by Arthur Miller / Creation Myths:
“When Grizzlies Walked Upright”
“The Earth on Turtle’s Back”
Puritan Influence Poetry and Sermons:
“Huswifery”
“to My Dear and Loving Husband”
Excerpt from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Informational Texts:
Excerpt from “Of PlymouthPlantation”
Excerpt from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin / Expository
The Individual Versus Society: Exploring a New Frontier
(Romanticism / Transcendentalism /Anti-Transcendentalism / Gothicism / Poetry) / Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Scarlet Letter (video) / Short Stories:
“The Devil and Tom Walker”
“The Masque of the Red Death”
Poetry selections by:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
William Cullen Bryant
John Greenleaf Whittier
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman / Informative
Explanatory
The Aftermath of Destruction: Reconstructing the American Dream
(Civil War / Realism / Regionalism / Naturalism / Modernism / imagism / The Harlem Renaissance / The Jazz Age) / ****The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald / Poetry selections by:
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
Stephen Crane
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Countee Cullen
Carl Sandburg
Edgar Lee Masters
Short Story:
“The Story of an Hour”
Informational Texts:
“Sullivan Ballou’s Letter to His Wife
“How it Feels to be Colored Me” / Informative
Explanatory
Modern Times, Modern Issues / Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dunbar / Short Stories:
“A Worn Path”
“The Lottery”
Poetry selections by:
T. S. Eliott
Robert Frost
Informational Texts:
Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” / Argumentative
Instruction will be extended for this honors course with extended timed writing, double-entry journaling, analysis of related images, Harkness-style discussions, Socratic Seminars, close reading, annotation and collaborative annotation.
Contact Information:
Carrie Swiderski, Room 619
Work: (912) 395-6750 Extension 754619
Tutorial: Thursday, until 4 PM