The American eXperience
English 11-12 Selective
Menu of Resources:
- American Experience Class Blog: For those of you who can't remember that tricky address...here it is!
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Online Grades - This encrypted site is the place you can check on your grades, assuming you have the appropriate user-name, password, and classword, which I will hand out in class.
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October-November 2009 Assignment Calendar - A day by day look at class agenda and assignments for the listed months.
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The Film Vault: All sorts of links to each film we study in class and others that I find of important social significance to the American Identity. This is a great resource as you begin your film write-ups. It has character sheets, links for images, sounds, reviews, characters, some symbols, quotes, and the like. Please feel free to e-mail me good links that you find!
Subscribe to The American Experience
Visit this group
The Search for Self Identity in the American Stewpot
Unit Focus Sheet with Essential Questions - A look at the focus of the unit and what particular questions you should be paying attention to while using the Post It note method to read.
Reading Options for this Unit: The Color of Water by James McBride, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Into the Wild by John Krakauer, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picault, and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Film Option for this Unit: The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith
The Color of Water Discussion Questions - This is one of the titles for the unit. You will be responsible for some of the knowledge questioned here.
The Color of Water Social Change Web Based Project - An alternative activity for the book write-up for The Color of Water.
The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini
Isabel Allende: "A wonderful work... This is one of those unforgettable stories that stay with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extraordinary novel: love, honor, guilt, fear redemption...It is so powerful that for a long time everything I read after seemed bland."
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from the final days of Afghanistan’s monarchy to the atrocities of the present.
Middle East and Asia Minor Project - Forget what is due for this project? Here is the overview.
Blank Maps for the Middle East Poster Project
Official Website for The Kite Runner - Worth checking out if you have some free time.
Discussion Questions from The Kite Runner - In the event that your book does not have these in the back, they will be used for our blog...often.
American Dream vs. American Nightmare
Millions have flocked to the Americas in search of freedom from oppression, persecution, poverty, starvation and disease. Many looked to have better living conditions for their children or safer and better paying jobs. But not all of them found the American Dream. For some, those who were sold into prostitution, beaten regularly, forced to assimilate and abandon their culture, the American Dream was more the American Nightmare. This unit will allow us to investigate how differing people who live in America have realized, or failed to realize, the American Dream. We will also be investigating a story from your past, or that of your family's including when they came to the United States and other cultural nuances of their (and your) experience.
Film Write-Up Overview - Overview of what I am asking you to do for critical film study.
Film Write-Up Example ("The Green Mile") - Format for film write-ups. Be sure to remember when you are assigned each part:
October-November 2009 Assignment Calendar - A day by day look at class agenda and assignments for the listed months.
How to Access Your Server From Home - Instructions to access your school server from home using Windows XP.
Is Your Internet Source Reliable? - How to judge if the validity of your internet source for research (and for class discussion...don't be "bringing the noise" with a faulty source!)
If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me.