Course Description

English 3 gives students the opportunity to explore the American identity by reading American texts that span the period from the late eighteenth century through the late twentieth century. During this journey through American literature, students will examine a variety of texts, including documents, speeches, poems, short stories, and novels. As they read these texts, students learn about the themes, characteristics, and concepts that delineate the American identity and examine how literature both reflects and defines these ideas. This work culminates in a project in which students research the American literary canon throughout history and then choose a modern text that they believe should be part of the literary canon. By the end of the course, students should be able to describe the defining characteristics of American literature and explain how those characteristics have evolved over time.

Course Breakdown

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop
• “The Sculptor’s Funeral” by Tillie Olsen
• “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett
• “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
• “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg
• “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
• “Demeter’s Prayer to Hades” by Rita Dove
• “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
• “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe
• “Jazz Fantasia” by Carl Sandburg
• “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes
• “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams
• “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
• “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” by Emily Dickinson
• “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson
• “The Death of the Hired Man” by Robert Frost
• “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
• “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
• “Out, Out” by Robert Frost
• “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold
• Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 06 by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 02 by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 141 by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 97 by William Shakespeare
• “A Conversation with Jeanne” by Czeslaw Milosz
• Songs of Innocence by William Blake
• Songs of Experience by William Blake
• “Daybreak” by Stephen Spender
• “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln
• Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln
• “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
• “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
• “Little Things Are Big” by Jesús Colón
• “The Brave Little Tailor” by the Brothers Grimm
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Course Goals

1. Write a research paper on a historical topic.
2. Read and analyze The Great Gatsby.
3. Create and deliver a podcast on the American Dream and its cultural impact.
4. Read poems and examine their form and use of literary devices.
5. Write a poetry analysis that examines an author’s use of literary devices.
6. Read and analyze A Doll’s House.
7. Create an original script on gender equality with effective historical characters, a clear setting, and strong dialogue.