Final Discussion 2010

We have covered a lot of territory this year in junior English, and to finish this semester we will have a rich and informed conversation about what it means to be an American.

To prepare for this discussion I would like you to write four discussion questions in advance that you will bring to the exam. You will bring two copies, one that you will turn in to me prior to the discussion and the other for the discussion tin.

Look over the course themes in preparing your questions and consider the list of titles as well in preparing your questions.

Guiding Framework:

• At least one of your questions should use a quotation from a major work. For many major works, you can find quotes online if you have handed in all of your novels.
• One of your questions should be about House on Mango Street. This will serve as a way for us to wrap up the novel.
• One of your questions should make a connection between various pieces we have read this year, creating a thematic thread.
• One of your questions should be grounded in a piece or pieces we have read but also make a societal connection (showing how literature is a mirror of our world.)

Major themes in junior English:

• What it means to be an American- what are the defining qualities of the American character?

• Self Reliance- pursuit of finding oneself (gaining identity within the context of cultural change- why is this so important in knowing and understanding oneself)
• Individualism and/or the corruption of society
• The frontier and how available land shapes the American identity
• Puritan values
• Manifest Destiny
• Connecting to the past and how it relates to the present (the significance of our heritage)
• Materialistic vs. spiritualistic values
• The American Dream
• How race and gender might shape our experience of the land of opportunity

Literature studied this year:

• Thoreau and Emerson- Nature, Self-Reliance, or quotes from Walden
• Into the Wild
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Catcher in the Rye
• The Crucible
• Selected work by Poe, Hawthorne, Faulkner, and Irving- Gothic pieces
• The Tortilla Curtain, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, or Mona in the Promised Land
• The Great Gatsby
• Hoop Dreams
• House on Mango Street

Final Discussion

We have covered a lot of different themes and ideas this year in junior English and to round out the semester I would like to have a conversation about what it means to be an American.

To prepare for this discussion I would like you to write three discussion questions in advance that you will bring to the exam. You will bring two copies, one that you will turn in to me prior to the discussion, and the other for the discussion tin.

I want you to look over the course themes in preparing your questions, and consider the list of titles as well in preparing your questions.

• At least one of your questions should use a quotation from a major work.
• One of your questions should be about House on Mango Street. This will serve as a way for us to wrap up the novel.
• One of your questions should make a connection between various pieces we have read this year, creating a thematic thread.
• One of your questions should be grounded in a piece or pieces we have read but also make a societal connection (showing how literature is a mirror of our world.)

Major themes in junior English:

• What it means to be an American

• The myth of the American dream
• Self Reliance- pursuit of finding oneself (gaining identity within the context of cultural change- why is this so important in knowing and understanding oneself)
• Search for values
• How the individual connects with nature
• Connecting the past and how it relates to the present (the significance of our heritage)
• Materialistic vs. spiritualistic values
• Multiculturalism

Literature studied this year:

• Selected essays from Emerson and Thoreau
• Into the Wild
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Catcher in the Rye
• The Crucible
• Selected work by Poe, Hawthorne, Faulkner, and Irving
• The Tortilla Curtain
• The Great Gatsby
• House on Mango Street

Road Scholar