Summer Reading and Writing / Course Overview

For Students and Parents 

“I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. 

I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the

course of my life.  As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me

some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”

                                                  —Malcolm X

Welcome to eleventh grade Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. This course is an exciting opportunity to study English at the college level while still in high school. If you are curious and passionate about the power of language to inspire and ignite the imagination, if you want to learn more about the mysteries and magic of words, you are in the right place.

Summer Reading and Writing Assignments

All of the assignments described below are due the first day of class in September. They will become your first graded work.

What is due the first day of class?

• The first day of class in September you will pass in your Norton Reader journal responses. They must be typed, double-spaced. Handwritten responses will not be accepted for credit.

• There will be written, in-class examinations on Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, by Ronald C. White Jr. and In Dubious Battle, by John Steinbeck. The format of these two exams will be a combination of multiple choice questions and essays.

If you cannot be in school for the first class, email the teacher to make arrangements to take the test and submit your work before the first class. No work will be accepted late. Please note that the successful completion of your summer reading and writing assignments is a prerequisite for continued work in this course. All existing course level recommendations are tentative pending the evaluation of your summer assignments. A 70 average is considered a passing grade on your summer reading and writing. If you do not earn that grade, or if you decide to take a different course, please notify your guidance counselor immediately. 

Directions for Writing About Norton Reader essays:

You should write about each selection in a response journal or notebook suitable for this purpose. In it you should reflect upon your readings in honest and intellectually substantive ways. Do not merely summarize the passages.

While the following list of suggestions is not inclusive of everything you might write about, it should give you some ideas about the kinds of approaches available to you. The type of essay, too, will affect your approach.

In essays that are primarily argumentative, it’s appropriate to define the writer’s major assertions. Do you agree or disagree with the writer’s views? Why do you hold the position you maintain? What fundamental assumptions does the writer make? Are the assumptions warranted or unwarranted? Why? What are the implications of the writer’s assertions if they are given assent? Are these implications important or unimportant? Why?

How are any of the essays interconnected? Make connections with your own experience. What does the reading make you think about? Do you see any similarities between this material and other books you have read?

Ask yourself questions about the text: What perplexes you about some passage or some point that the writer is making? Try beginning, “I wonder why. . .” or “I’m having trouble understanding how. . .” or “It perplexes me that. . .” or “I was surprised when. . .”

Try agreeing with the writer. Think of all the things you can say to support his or her ideas. Or try arguing with the writer. Think of your journal as a place to carry on a dialogue with the writer or with the text. Speak to him or her. Ask questions, and have the writer answer back.

Write down words, images, phrases, details that strike you. Speculate about them. Why are they there? What do they add? Why did you notice them? You might try dividing your notebook page in half, and copying words from the text onto the left side, writing your own responses on the right. On a first reading you might simply put checks in the margin where the passage intrigues you; on the second reading you can choose the most interesting to speculate about.

How do matters of style such as sentence length, diction, syntax, metaphor, imagery, symbol and tone affect meaning?

Required Summer Texts

In Dubious Battle

Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural

The Norton Reader (Please note that we have two different editions of The Norton Reader. The page numbers on the left are for the ninth edition; page numbers on the right are for the tenth edition.)

Reading / Writing Assignments for The Norton Reader:

“On Dumpster Diving,” by Lars Eighner, p 13 / 15

“How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading,” by John Holt, p. 254 / 228

“Of Youth and Age,” Francis Bacon, p. 365 / 314

“The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” by Terry Tempest Williams, p 412 / 356

“From Realism to Virtual Reality,” by H. Bruce Franklin, p 487 / 434

“The Morals of the Prince,” by Niccolo Machiavelli, p 536 / 484

“Letter From Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr., p. 562 / 503

“The Allegory of the Cave,” by Plato, p. 747 / 652

“The Mystery of Zen,” by Gilbert Highet, p. 753 / 658

“Existentialism,” by Jean-Paul Sartre, p. 762 / 666

“We Do Not Quarrel about Religion,” Address to White Missionaries and Iroquis Six Nations, by Seneca Chief Red Jacket (online at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/nativeamericans/chiefredjacket.htm); alternate link: (http://www.churchstatelaw.com/historicalmaterials/8_2_4.asp)

Remember, the journal is a place where you respond to your readings. In this way you will begin to connect them to your own experience. As you reflect, ruminate and question, listen carefully to yourself and attempt to describe the effect(s) the writings have on you. Write honestly, respond deeply, expand on the author’s ideas, and—most importantly—attempt to discover your own. Each journal entry should be about 250 words.

Evaluation of your journal responses will be based upon a variety of factors such as depth and originality of thought, clarity of expression, organization, and how thoroughly and cogently you develop and support your ideas. 

As previously stated, the journal responses are due the first official day of class in September. No work will be accepted late for any reason. I strongly recommend that you begin these assignments early in July. You must respond to all the Norton essays. If you choose not to respond to one or more essays, you will not be allowed to continue in the AP English class.

Suggested Reference Work

A Dictionary of Literary Terms, ed. by J. A. Cuddon (Penguin)

There is also a great site called The Forest of Rhetoric at Brigham Young University: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm that you should explore.

A Brief Overview of the Course and Other Helpful Information

FAQ: Is AP English Language and Composition a good class for me if I need a lot of help with my spelling, punctuation, and grammar? 

ANSWER: It would probably be a good idea to work on developing your spelling, punctuation, and grammar before taking this course. This is a college level course in advanced rhetoric, writing, and reading, and civic discourse. Students should possess a mastery of grammar, spelling, and punctuation basics before signing up for this class. The students for whom this course is recommended are those that have spent a good deal of time reading widely and deeply in both fiction and non-fiction genres. You should be reading books about history, music, math, science, art, philosophy, and so on. Without a strong background in reading significant books it is likely that when the time comes to write essays, especially persuasive ones, students will find that they have nothing to write about to support their ideas. Thus, if you are wondering whether this course is appropriate for you, ask yourself this question: Do I know much about the world beyond that which I might encounter locally or on television? If you attempt to create a quick inventory list of your knowledge and find, save for a few scattered references to the vestiges of pop culture, that it’s blank, then this course might not be for you 

This course has two major goals: (1) to help you write more powerfully and effectively, and (2) to help you read with deeper understanding. 

Our writing assignments include rhetorical analyses, personal essays, argumentative essays, expository essays, evaluation essays, journal entries, and more. 

Occasional weekend, evening, and after school meetings are required and will be announced in advanced by the teacher. Units on SAT and AP test-taking skills are included in this course. 

Homework assignments will generally require 1-3 hours of your time to complete for each class meeting. This means that you might have to make some choices. Select extracurricular activities judiciously. Having access to a computer where you might save essay drafts for later revision is absolutely essential. You are welcome to use the computers in room 411 for this purpose.

If you plan to miss a lot of our classes because of other commitments such as field trips during school time or vacations beyond regular school dates, you should select a class more in keeping with your busy schedule. Each missed class dramatically reduces your chances of mastering the complex material contained in this course curriculum. 

Parents and students will find important information on the teacher’s faculty Web site, especially in the 11 AP section. The links to AP Central, non-fiction reading list, non-fiction student reviews, Introduction to Modern Literary Theory, American Rhetoric, and the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation are particularly helpful. 

Units of Study

Introductory Unit: The Researched Essay

Summary

The primary goal of this unit is to teach students how to use the Modern Language Association format as a method for citing sources. To that end, students will learn how to use the MLA style as it is outlined in Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference. Students will also learn to use the MLA formatting engines available as links on the instructor’s website (e.g., IMSA 21st Century Digital Information Fluency Project, RE: Writing). As part of this unit students will learn methods of finding, evaluating, and using digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically.

The lesson requires students to write a researched essay in response to question 3 from the 2001 AP English Language and Composition exam. As part of their response, students must cite a minimum of six sources to support their arguments. Three sources must be print-based. The remainder may be cited from digital sources. All formatting will use the MLA style.

Unit Title: Rhetorical Analysis 

Summary

The students in this class are preparing to take the AP Language and Composition test in May. This unit will help them prepare to write an essay effectively analyzing a writer's rhetorical methods and strategies. In addition, students become skilled readers of a variety of prose styles. To meet these goals, students will learn, as Roskelly and Jolliffe say, to “read carefully and critically,” “to conceive good, compelling ideas to write about; to elaborate those ideas in full effective papers; and to produce correct, standard English.”

Print Materials

• Additional selections from The Norton Reader

• Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Custom House”

• Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory

• Stephen King, On Writing

• Diana Hacker, A Writer’s Reference

• Lee A. Jacobus, A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers

• Joseph Mitchell, Up in the Old Hotel

•  Lawana Trout, Native American Literature 

Teacher Resources

• Teacher's Guide AP English

• Roskelly and Jolliffe; Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing; Pearson, Longman; 2005.

Internet Resources

• AP Web Site: Writing prompts, as well as scoring guidelines and student models essays, including those by Gary Soto, Eudora Welty, Jamaica Kincaid, and Mary Oliver.

• American Rhetoric Top 100 Speeches (www.americanrhetoric.com)

• Silva Rhetoricae: Forest of Rhetoric. (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm)

• Additional Web resources available on Mr. Sharkovitz’s Web site.

Massachusetts ELA Standards   

Composition

#19 Focus and Support

#20 Genres, Modes and Styles

#21 Organization, content, detail, diction

#22 Standard English Conventions and Usage

#23 Asking questions, taking notes, summarizing, outlining 

Understandings

• Authors use a wealth of rhetorical strategies to convey their messages.

• Authors use a variety of stylistic elements like diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone and detail to convey their feelings and opinions.

• Using the techniques of formal criticism can enhance the reader's enjoyment and understanding of a text.

• There are many ways to explore and analyze a text besides formal criticism.

• The analytical and expository writing skills developed in this course will be helpful in college and the real world. 

Essential Questions

• What are the essential stylistic strategies for writing a formal analytical essay?

• What are the conventions used in writing a formal analytical essay?

• What is the personal value of studying and writing about "the other literature" (essays, not poetry, fiction and drama)?

Knowledge and Skills

• Students will know the various types of literary criticism, including historical, formal, feminist, psychological, archetypal, philosophical, and reader response; various strategies for effective analysis; and the conventions of formal analysis and AP writing.

• Students will be able to examine critically a text for its meaning; analyze how an author achieves an effect through stylistic choices; and write effectively and fluently about a variety of texts.

 

Key Evidence

• Students will demonstrate continual improvement in their in-class analytical writing assignments.

• Students will use appropriate writing process strategies to produce final drafts of their  analytical essays.

• Students will provide helpful criticism of each other's analytical essays in peer conferences.

• Students will use teacher conferences and the teacher's written comments to improve their writing.

• Students will display evidence of self-evaluation in the improvement of their writing.

 

Assessment Summary: Students will perform successfully on the AP Language and Composition Test.

Writing Assessment Guide

• Thesis/Purpose

        Clearly stated

        Clearly developed

• Understanding/Organization

         Clear understanding is displayed

         Ideas are clearly developed

• Evidence/Details

          Strong use of supporting

          Evidence and details

          Effective use of quotes and

          References to source materials

• Usage

          Correct spelling

          Correct grammar

          Correct punctuation

• Style/Structure

          Correct format

          Effective introduction

          Proper paragraph structure

          Effective conclusion

          Effective use of language

Learning Activities

• Students will read essays from The Norton Reader by authors including Maya Angelou, Lars Eighner, Alice Walker, H. Bruce Franklin, and Eudora Welty and respond to them in their reading journals.

• Students will read and understand sophisticated works of fiction and nonfiction and demonstrate through reading quizzes and class discussions, as well as their essays, the ability to analyze these works closely and effectively.

• Students will read and analyze short pieces by authors such as Richard Rodriguez, Francis Bacon, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and others.

• Students will practice writing under AP conditions from prompts from real AP tests including pieces by Soto, Oliver, Kincaid, Welty, and others. Students will improve these essays through subsequent drafts.

• The teacher will provide mini-lessons on the various types of literary criticism.

• The teacher will provide lessons and practice on writing introductions, conclusions, and thesis statements, employing the conventions of formal writing, using syntax correctly, and incorporating quotations seamlessly.

• A unit on preparing for the Writing section of the SAT I will also be incorporated into this unit, including lessons on identifying sentence errors, and improving sentences and paragraphs.

• Students will learn vocabulary and literary terms, which will help them write effective analytical essays.

Additional rubrics are available at teacher’s faculty Web site.

Unit Title: Writing a Persuasive Essay

Summary

The students in this class are preparing to take the AP Language and Composition Test in May. This unit will help them to write persuasively. This is one of the most important skills we can teach our students. It is essential for success in college and in society. “Developing an argument requires a range of critical thinking and communication skills, the imagination to see multiple viewpoints on a single issue, a repertoire of ways to support and illustrate a point, and a keen sense of audience.” (AP English Language and Composition 2005-6 Workshop Materials, p. 5)

Print Materials

• The Norton Reader (including “Is America Falling Apart?” by Anthony Burgess, and “Between the Sexes, A Great Divide,” by Anna Quindlen.

• 40 Model Essays, ed. Jane E. Aaron (including “The Tipping Point,” by Malcolm Gladwell.)

• Handouts on persuasion, argumentation and dialectic, terms of logic, including induction, deduction, the inductive leap, syllogism, the distributed middle term, Ockham’s Razor and Hanlon’s Razor, logical fallacies, the rhetorical triangle, ethos, pathos and logos, and types of evidence.

• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

• “Speech to the Graduates,” by Woody Allan

• “Harvard Commencement Speech,” by Conan O’Brien 

Teacher Resources

• Advanced Placement Course Description English

• Teacher's Guide AP English

• Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing, by Hepzibah Roskelly and David A. Jolliffe.

• AP Language and Composition, 2005-6 Professional Development Workshop Materials

Internet Resource Links

• AP Web Site: Writing Prompts, scoring guidelines, and student model essays

Massachusetts ELA Standards

Composition

#19 Focus and support

#20 Genres, modes and styles

#21 Organization, content, detail, diction

#22 Standard English conventions and usage

#23 Asking questions, taking notes, summarizing, outlining 

Understandings

• A persuasive essay must express a clear and logical opinion (thesis statement).

• A persuasive essay needs compelling evidence to support opinion: scholarship, effective quotes from appropriate sources, historical information, as well as personal experience when required.

• A persuasive essay follows certain conventions while using a lively style.

• An effective AP writer is a well-read person.

• There are differences between writing a successful AP essay, and using writing process strategies to produce ready-for-publication work. 

Essential Questions

• What are the basic conventions and literary elements of a persuasive essay?

• What constitutes an effective opening and closing to a persuasive essay?

• Where would you use a persuasive essay in the real world?

Knowledge and Skills

Students will know:

• The principles of argument and persuasion, including terms of logic, such as induction and deduction and logical fallacies

• How to write an effective thesis statement

• How to write an interesting and imaginative introduction and conclusion to an argument

• How to use multiple types of evidence to support an argument, evidence from history, current events, and the arts, as well as personal experience

• How to use logical, moral, and emotional appeals to an audience in an argument, and how to distinguish among the three

Students will be able to:

• Employ the conventions of argumentation, such as the “basic move of all effective rhetorical texts (which) is claim-plus-support” (Everyday Use, p. 13)

• Anticipate and criticize opposing points of view

• Create a distinct and appropriate persona, or voice, when they write persuasively

• Feel confident and comfortable when taking the AP test 

Key Evidence

• Students will demonstrate continual improvement in their in-class 40-minute persuasive writing assignments.

• Students will use the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing to produce polished persuasive essays.

• Students will helpfully critique their peers' writing.

• Students will use teacher conferences to improve their writing.

• Students will display evidence of self-evaluation in the improvement of their writing. 

Assessment Summary 

Students will perform successfully on the AP Language and Composition Test. 

Persuasive Essay Rubric

• The AP writer presents a clear and articulate thesis that is thoughtful, insightful and relevant. The thesis will usually defend or oppose the author's statement, rarely qualify it, unless a compromise solution is called for. The thesis statement should appear in the last sentence of the first paragraph.

• The AP writer demonstrates a strong understanding of the subject at hand.

• The AP writer's argument uses strong evidence from the passage and other appropriate sources (from his/her reading and knowledge of history, etc.) to support a point of view.

4. The AP writer displays a mature style, and correct usage of the conventions of Standard Written English. 

Learning Activities

• Students will read persuasive essays from the Norton Reader as models.

• Students will write persuasive essays in class and at home from actual AP prompts, including passages by Neil Postman, Henry James, James Baldwin, and Barbara Tuchman. These will be carried through to the final draft stage.

• The students will write essays based on the 2005 AP prompt on a “controversial local, national, or global issue.”

• As part of the “controversial issue” unit, students will do the lesson, “The Morgan Horse Revisited: Using AP Samples for Revisions” by Mary Jo Potts from the 2005-6 Workshop Materials.

• The teacher will provide individual conferencing.

• The teacher will provide a unit on logic.

• The teacher will provide a unit on satire.

• Students will learn vocabulary and terms of logic.

Unit Title: Writing an Essay of Evaluation

Summary

The students in this class are preparing to take the AP Language and Composition test in May. This unit will prepare them to evaluate another writer's argument.

Print Materials Needed

• The Norton Reader, including essays by John Holt, William Hazlitt, Chief Seattle, Machiavelli, Plato, and Sartre

• Famous speeches, including Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty,” Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” Lucy Stone’s “ Disappointment is the Lot of Women,” FDR’s “Declaration of War,” JFK’s “Inaugural,” George W. Bush’s first “Inaugural,” and Churchill’s “We Shall Never Surrender.”

• “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau.

• The New Yorker (various ed.)

• The Boston Globe.

• Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut.

Teacher Resources

• Teacher's Guide AP English

• Everyday Use: Rhetoric at work in Reading and Writing, by Hephzibah Roskelly and David A. Jolliffe.

Internet Resources

• AP web site: Writing Prompts, scoring guides, and student models

Other Resources

• Videos of effective speeches including Bono’s Harvard Commencement speech and Henry V’s St. Crispin Day speech

Massachusetts ELA Standards

Compositions

#19 Focus and support

#20 Genres, modes and styles

#21 Organization, content, detail, diction

#22 Standard English conventions and usage

#23 Asking questions, taking notes, summarizing, outlining

Understandings

Students will understand that the evaluation essay on the AP exam requires skills and techniques from both analysis and argumentation. The basic standards of formal writing must be observed in an evaluation essay, including maintaining a scholarly tone, and using an appropriate vocabulary, the active voice, parallel structure, figurative language, and varied sentence length. It is important to avoid using clichés, slang, redundancy, and verbosity.

Essential Questions

• How can one distinguish between logical argumentation and unfounded or illogical appeals?

• Where and how can one use evaluation in the real world?

• Can they be used in evaluating advertisements and other elements of the print and electronic media?

• How does one identify assumptions and fallacies?

Knowledge and Skills

Students will know how to distinguish between fact and opinion, and how to distinguish between appeals to emotion and appeals to reason. Students will be able to summarize the main issues in an essay and the writer's position on these issues, weigh the validity of an author's assertions, listing the strengths and weaknesses of each assertion, decide whether to support, negate, or qualify an author's assertion, determine and evaluate an intended audience, and organize evidence and arguments in the most compelling and efficient manner.

 

Key Evidence

• Students will demonstrate continual improvement in their in-class evaluative writing.

• Students will use multiple drafts to improve and polish initial in-class essays.

• Students will be able to help their peers improve their evaluations.

• Students will use teacher comments on their essays to improve their writing.

 

Assessment Summary

Students will perform successfully on the AP language and Composition Test.

Evaluation Essay Rubric

(Based on the MCAS Writing Assessment Guide)

• Purpose: Purpose (thesis) is conveyed in a clear and unambiguous manner.

• Organization: The essay shows mastery of organization, focus, and fluency.

• Evidence: The essay uses vivid, explicit and compelling evidence to support its thesis.

• Standard English Conventions: Essay shows mastery of spelling, sentence structure, grammar, and usage.

Learning Activities

• Students will read and evaluate essays in The Norton Reader by authors including John Holt, George Orwell, Francis Bacon, William Hazlitt, Chief Seattle, Machiavelli, Plato, Sartre, and Gilbert Highet.

• Students will read and evaluate John F. Kennedy's “Inaugural Address” and compare their analyses with published articles from “The New Yorker” and other sources.

• Students will read and evaluate a number of other famous speeches.

• Students will view and evaluate television advertisements using the SMELL Method (sender, message, effect, logic and language).

• Students will read and evaluate newspaper editorials, including "Smokers Get a Raw Deal" from the “NY Times,” and a student's analysis of that essay.

• Students will read and evaluate articles from magazines and newspapers including “The New Yorker” and “The Boston Globe.”

• Students will write evaluation essays based on AP prompts, including Adlai Stevenson's statement regarding his veto of the "Cat Bill,” letters of correspondence between executives of the Coca Cola Company and the Grove Press, George Orwell on Gandhi, and Lord Chesterfield’s letter to his son.

• Students will write quarterly book reviews of significant nonfiction books, which will be shared with the class.

 

Unit Title: Writing a Synthesis Essay

Summary

According to the College Board, beginning in May of 2007, the AP English Language and Composition Exam will contain a new type of free response question called the synthesis essay. In this essay, students will be require to use information from a variety of sources (e.g., printed material, graphs, editorial cartoons, etc.) to help them fashion an argument / analysis in response to a prompt. Students will need to think critically about the information as they use what is appropriate to support their arguments. In addition, some multiple choice questions will require student responses that reflect an ability to understand and interpret information cited as part of a text.

Print Materials

• Sample synthesis essays

• Editorial cartoons from various magazines and newspapers

• A Writer’s Reference, Diana Hacker

• Statistics for Dummies, by Deborah Rumsey (excerpts)

• How to Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff and Irving Geis (excerpts)

• Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss (excerpts)

• The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar

Teacher Resources

• Roskelly and Jolliffe; Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing; Pearson, Longman; 2005.

• Teacher’s Guide to AP English (College Board publication)

Other Resources

• “Balance” (10-minute animated video. The setting is on a floating platform where a group of evenly and carefully placed men live apparently suspending by nothing in nothing. Directed by Christoph Lauenstein and

Wolfgang Lauenstein. Found in DVD, “The World’s Greatest Animation.”

• “I, Borg,” excerpt from “Star Trek” episode.

• Commencement speeches by various individuals including Bono (U2), Rod Paige, Pres. Clinton.

• Assorted television commercials, both professional and student created

Internet Resources

• Professional Cartoonist Index (http://cagle.com/)

• Interpreting Statistics Tutorial (http://tutorial.lib.umn.edu/geviewer.asp?geid=17)

• AP Central

• American Rhetoric (www.americanrhetoric.com)

• The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation (http://www.grammarbook.com/)

• The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/content/index)

• Adbusters (http://www.adbusters.org/home/)

• Poynter Institute (http://www.poynter.org/default.asp)

Understandings

• Writing effective researched essays and analyses means more than cutting and pasting information into a composition; the process requires thinking critically about the source materials being used and cited.

• Visual and media literacy skills are essential for participating fully in a democratic society.

• Thinking critically about source materials requires that any potential information user think deeply about the material.

Essential Questions

• What specific bias, point of view, or perspective does the creator of the source possess?

• How does the bias, p-o-v, perspective affect an individual’s interpretation of the information?

• Are there any fallacies of logic that affect the validity of the information?

• What methods of visual rhetoric govern the presentation, meaning, or origin of the photograph, graph, chart, editorial cartoon?

• What ideologies does the alphabetic or visual information support?

• Has the information originated in any known think tank?

• Is the information connected to the talking points of any political party?

Knowledge and Skills

• Students will learn the distinction between inductive and deductive reasoning.

• Students will learn to detect fallacies in arguments and how to avoid them in their own.

• Students will learn to ask questions about the validity of information found on the Internet (e.g., Who posted the information? How recent is it? Etc.)

• Students will learn how to use appeals of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos in their writings.

• Students will learn how to interpret the connotations of symbols, images, diction, and syntax.

Key Evidence

• Students will demonstrate continual improvement in their in-class synthesis writing assignments.

• Students will use appropriate writing process strategies to produce final drafts of their synthesis essays.

• Students will provide helpful criticism of each other's essays in peer conferences.

• Students will use teacher conferences and the teacher's written comments to improve their writing.

• Students will display evidence of self-evaluation in the improvement of their writing.

Assessment Summary

Students will perform successfully on the AP Language and Composition Test.

Key Learning Activity

All students will write a successful in-class synthesis essay that demonstrates mastery of the concepts and skills studied.

 

Student-Created Non-Fiction Bibliography

Summary

Each student will read a minimum of one non-fiction book of her or his choice per quarter and present it to the class. Students may read any non-fiction book, but it must first be approved by the teacher. Some non-fiction books are more appropriate for this course than others.

In addition to the AP Central Web site, which has recommended lists of authors students are encouraged to read, below students will find short, student-written reviews of non-fiction books that they have read and found worthwhile. No list is ever complete. These suggestions should, however, give you a sense of the type of book that you should be thinking about. Consider this an evolving list, one that you will contribute to in the future. Check teacher Web site for additions.

Short Book Reviews written by Mr. Sharkovitz AP English Class (2005-2006)

1776, by David McCullough

            This book is about the journey and adventures that the men of the Continental Army experienced in the year 1776.  It also focuses on George Washington and his role in the success of the American Revolution.  McCullough shows both sides of the story and uses many primary sources to illustrate his points.  McCullough’s language and depth of research help to make the story much more enjoyable.  A good read for anyone that likes history or wants to learn more about American history.

Active Liberty, by Stephen Breyer

               This book identifies the democratic nature of the constitution, and further discusses its ability to be a guide to solving current problem.  Associative justice Stephen Breyer addresses the need for public debate and political participation.  Only 135 pages, Active Liberty is short, powerful, and instructive.

Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of Personality, by Gordon Allport  

            Becoming is a book, published in 1955, which explores the basics of the then emerging science of Psychology.  Allport explains and compares popular psychology traditions, delves into theories explaining the driving forces of man, and analyzes the influential factors of a developing personality, or "becoming."  I was very interested in this book, and found it for the most part, engaging.  There were brief parts which did not hold my attention, but I found this did not interfere with my understanding of the text.  This book allowed me to apply my own life and experiences to the concepts, thus there is a great connection between the text and the reader.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the study of the human mind and its workings.

Blog!, by David Kline and Dan Bernstein

         Blog! takes a look about how individuals use the internet as a medium to express their views to the masses.  People such as politicians and activists “blog” their opinions and share their ideas with the rest of the world.  This book analyzes how this means of expression is changing American businesses and culture.  This book would be interesting to people who like to read about the constantly-changing American culture and how people find new ways to express themselves.

A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking

         The book examines the different views of the universe and time as they have been seen and understood throughout history up until the modern day.  There is a lot of detail, and everything is thoroughly explained.  There are also many analogies to help the average reader understand some of the more complicated concepts.

The Cheating Culture, by David Callahan

            This book is an analysis of the rise of cheating in American society since the 1980's and how it has come to shape American morals.  He addresses cheating amongst students and the dishonest workings of the educational system in dealing with the issue of cheating.  He looks at cheating from a predominantly statistical standpoint, making numerous references to surveys and the results of think-tank research.  Mr. Callahan looks at the corruption in the stock marker, journalism, accounting, and amongst major CEO's of America's fortune 500 companies and leading American athletes.  The book also looks at cheating amongst the average person and how they justify their actions.  He addresses the incapability of the IRS to properly manage tax evasion and how the rich take advantage of it.  The book also presents resolutions that Mr. Callahan believes would help pull America out of its cheating nature.  The book was written clearly with only minor deviations from his overall argument and conclusions, but provided a clear look at the decomposition of the fabric of American morals and work ethic.

The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

            The Communist Manifesto was printed in 1884, as a formal declaration of the communist party and was a lay out of what the communist party stood for and its intentions.  The document is only about 12000 words in length making it less of a book and more of a document which has become influential in shaping the idea of a classless society.  In the communist manifesto Karl Marx lays out his plans for a mass class overturn and defines his view of history as a struggle amongst classes, first in the feudal societies of the medieval and age and following the discovery of America the working class vs. the bourgeoisie.  Marx presents the overall goals of the communist party to create a classless society where the proletariat (working class) have risen in the ranks and created a society free of government and the struggle between classes.  He also compares the communist goals and ideals to previous renegade parties which challenged the social status quo and how the communist differed.  The document is essentially a plea for the working classes of Europe to rise up and take away the power of the bourgeoisie (capitalist).

Cosmos, by Carl Sagan

            The book was mainly about important, noteworthy scientific achievements and discoveries throughout history.  It gives the reader an in-depth look at obscure scientific theories and ideas in an easy to comprehend manner.  Although the book spends a lot of time looking into the history of science it also focuses on scientific issues of the present and future.  I found this book to be worthwhile.  It was difficult at times to understand some of the more obscure theories but Carl Sagan truly captivated me and continually made me rethink what I had previously believed to be the truth.  This book was also useful during AP English 11 when writing essays, argumentation in particular.

Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville

         De Tocqueville, a Frenchman, explains in detail the workings of democracy in the USA.  The author makes sure not to give too much opinion, but rather attempts to present the facts and perhaps draw conclusions from there.  Most, if not all of the facts, have their sources cited.  Having been written in the early stages of the development of the country, the book may portray certain aspects of the government in an entirely different manner than they are viewed today; for instance, in the text, the president is shown as a position with little power. 

Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff

            This book gives deep insight into the ways in which language and words affect our everyday lives and politics.  It describes how a word or group of words is able to trigger many inherent ideas in people’s minds which, unconsciously, influence their decision making process.  I think that reading this book is vital.  Every assertion that is made is supported in great detail and the assertions are of extreme relevance to today’s society and politics.  This book was extremely useful during AP English 11 in almost every assignment given and on the AP exam itself.

The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, by Daniel C. Matt

            This book is recognized as an anthology of the Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah.  It is about the many aspects and poignant details of this mysticism that Daniel Matt (an author and retired professor of Jewish spirituality) feels are most significant.  He briefly discusses the history of Kabbalah but focuses more on its major concepts, including the so-call plot of Kabbalah, the Ten Sefirot.  In reading The Essential Kabbalah I sometimes found myself wishing I could read this book with no time pressure because it was so intensely informative, as Matt condenses complex concepts into relatively short chapters.  I found the book to be educational, interesting, and I would even go as far to say enlightening.  I think that Matt summarizes Kabbalah thoroughly considering its complexities, and he seems to capture the essence of it all, hence The Essential Kabbalah.

Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, edited and composed by Walter Kaufman

         The book is a compilation of various works of some of the big names in existentialism.  It may be interesting to note that none of the thinkers whose works were put in this book considered themselves to have anything in common with each other.  All of the excerpts, however, have a bit of an existential tone and delve into the workings of the philosophy, if even doing so not for the sake of the philosophy. 

The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis

            The Four Loves is a book about the four types of human love: affection, friendship, eros (or erotic love), and charity.  In the book, C.S. Lewis explores each kind of love with great explanations and examples.  He also explores the nature of love and our nature as humans.  Lewis analyzes love in many ways; he divides the general state of love into need-love and gift-love, for example.  I found the book both interesting and engaging; however its overt Christian influence was a huge part of all his assertions as he explains that the ultimate love is that of God.  I would recommend this book not because its subject is especially helpful throughout AP English 11, but because the way Lewis analyzes love creates great arguments that I used on the AP Exam!

The Fragile Species, by Lewis Thomas 

            The Fragile Species is a book of numerous essays written by scientist Lewis Thomas, mostly about the human species, and it's relatively new place here on the Earth. Thomas explores puzzles of the natural world, such as cooperation as its driving force, and the condition of the human race.  He also examines many modern problems, such as pollution, urbanization, AIDS, and drug abuse.  Although I have never been very interested in the realm of nonfiction writing having to do with science or biology, I enjoyed this book very much.  Although some of the essays at times became somewhat dull, the majority of them were attention-keeping and contained useful information.  I would definitely recommend this book to those interested in biology, or just anyone interested in the condition of the human race.  This book was relatively short, but contained a lot of worthwhile information.

Guns of August, by Barbara w. Tuchman

               Guns of August is a detailed account of the first month of WWI and the time and conflicts between countries that lead to the war.  It is a historical book and is made up of facts; it doesn't include the author's personal views or ideas.  I thought it was kind of hard to read because it had so many facts and there was too much information but I recommend it to those who like historical facts, events and wars.

Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, by Ronald C. White, Jr.

            This book is one that critically analyzes Lincoln's second inaugural address.  His speech was a rhetorical masterpiece.  He appealed to many different classes of people to firmly support his antislavery avocations.  He used strategies such as parallelism and alliteration to consciously make his speech a beautiful thing to be heard.  The book would commonly go into great detail about historical happenings of the time and the possible influences that were drawn upon in the speech.  It was sometimes tangential but that was what held the book together because 100 pages praising Lincoln's rhetoric with no outside explanation would have been very dull.  It was also informative about the time period.  It gave me a new respect for Lincoln's intellect.

On Violence, by Hannah Arendt

            This book is an analysis of the nature, causes, and significance of violence in the second half of the twentieth century. The book addresses and argues against Marxist views of violence and the statement: "power grows out of the barrel of a gun." She writes about the difference between violence in the hands of the state versus violence in the hands of extremist groups or individuals. Where her overall thesis is that violence is a reaction to the absence of power, they are opposites of each other and cannot coexist. She establishes a clear definition of power, violence, strength, and authority, to make it clear that they are not synonyms for each other; each has its own identity. Ms. Arendt looks at violence from a historical and political standpoint, with references to the French and American Revolution, and surge of communism. She spends only a small portion of the book looking at violence from a psychological standpoint. Overall the book is written unambiguously and her argument is well supported and clear throughout.

Parallel Worlds, by Michio Kaku

            Parallel Worlds is about the possibility of the existence of universes other than our own.  It deals with several different topics such Newton’s laws of gravity, Einstein’s theory of relativity, as well many other theories and works of other astronomers and cosmologists who have studied the universe.  This book would most likely appeal to people who have an interest in astronomy and would like to learn more about it.  Although it deals with complex material, it is easily broken down and explained to make it easier to understand.

The Republic, by Plato

            The Republic is a recorded series of conversations all taking place on the same day between Socrates and various others such as Thrasymachus and Drionius.  Plato is present but does not speak.  The book starts when Socrates is asked to define Justice.  He asks the others present what they think justice is and gets fallacious answers such as "the benefit of the stronger," and "helping friends and harming enemies."  His process for deduction is a way in which he makes impossible for the other to argue back because at every step he asks "would you not agree..." or "is it not true..." and continues to do so, stopping only when he is opposed from one of the "is it not true's."  Socrates' definition of justice is long and winding and leads into the requirement of a just state to have a just person.  This leads him to define what a perfectly just state is which in effect leads him to deduce all the in's and out's of the perfect state or republic.

Reviving Ophelia, by Mary Pipher

               This is a book written in the 1990's about teenage girls during that time and how they were and still are influenced by pressure from peers and the media.  It was interesting and had a lot of studies done to learn the mentalities of girls with disorders induced by these pressures, it was easy and interesting to read and also included accounts and stories from girls and their interviews with the author and psychologist.  It reminded me of Slaying the Mermaid by Stephanie Golden.

Slam Dunks and No-Brainers, by Leslie Savan

            This book is about the influence of pop language in the American society and where many slang terms originated.  It also discusses how people in the media use pop language either to their advantage or disadvantage.  This book was an eye opener, as I did not know where many slang words came from.  Savan clearly identifies all of this in detail. She also mentions the influence of the media on our everyday lives.  Not the easiest read, but enjoyable all the same.

Slaying the Mermaid, by Stephanie Golden

               Slaying the Mermaid is a study of feminist ideas, applied to modern day America and the idea of female sacrifice expected from women today society. This was an interesting look on the American society and how it views women's roles.  It read well because it mixed the author's ideas with accounts and real stories from real people.  It also has references to movies and plays on the similar subjects incorporated into the book.

Stephen Hawking’s Universe, by John Boslough

            Stephen Hawking’s Universe by John Boslough is, "an introduction to the most remarkable scientist of our time."  It's a book that summarizes Stephen Hawking’s life, research, and theories.  It talks about Galileo and Einstein, black holes, the big bang vs. the bubble theory, proton decay, and it presents some of the more profound ideas and principles behind the creation of the universe.  John Boslough writes in such a way that one, who isn’t knowledgeable in the field of math, or theoretical physics, will still know what is going on.  The book keeps ones attention and causes one to think about a variety of principles and theories.  I would recommend this book to everyone, but especially to someone who enjoys reading about concepts behind human existence.

Today’s Isms:  Communism Fascism Capitalism Socialism, by Alan Ebenstein, William Ebenstein, and Edwin Fogelman

               Today’s Isms is a book about communism, fascism, capitalism, and socialism and how these different forms of government affect our society today.  The author goes into depth on all of the subjects; giving the history of when the ism began, to how it currently exists.  The book was an interesting read because although the material may not have been the most exciting to read about, the facts and ideas behind each ism was presented by the author in such a way that it kept ones attention.  Anyone interested in politics, history, or someone who enjoys a quick, factual read would enjoy this book.

The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, edited by Richard C. Leone and Greg Angrig, Jr.

               This collection of essays, published in 2003, discusses how the war on terrorism has consequently reduced our freedom at home.  Each essay presents evidence of the infringement of our civil liberties.  This book is informative, and well reasoned. Though a little dated, The War on Our Freedoms is a great reference in understanding the social and political struggles of our age.

The World Is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman

            This book is about the flattening of the world, not literally but in terms of technology and business.  It is about the advancement of technology in the world and its effects on business, politics, education, and individual’s everyday lives.  I thought that this book was extremely informative about changing technologies in our world.  The points that Friedman brings to life are present in the world and he brings a balanced viewpoint to the table. This is a good read for anyone who wants to stay one step ahead of everyone else.

Non-Fiction Books Available in our Library

Among Schoolchildren, Tracy Kidder (1989)  

An elementary school teacher tells about the children and events during one school year.

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman (1985)

The author believes that TV, which turns important issues into mass media entertainment, is degrading the act and art of public discourse.

Anasazi: Ancient People of the Rock, David Muench and Donald G. Pike.          

Archeological evidence and the written records of Spanish explorers reveal the history of an ancient people.

Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape, Barry Lopez.

            Real life and dreams of the Arctic, its animals, and its people are celebrated.

Art as Image and Idea, Edmund Burke Feldman (1967).

The functions, styles & structure of art, as well as the interaction of medium & meaning are examined. 

Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski (1973).

            This is a scientist’s history of the human mind & human condition.

Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women, Susan Faludi; 1991.

            Faludi offers an unflinching analysis of the current status of American women.

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, Bryan Burrough & John Helyar.

            Wall Street’s largest takeover reveals greed, deceit, and clever maneuvers.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, James McPherson (1988).

From the Mexican War to Appomattox, the political, military, and economic aspects of the Civil War are examined.

Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human origin, Roger Lewin.

The description of a series of episodes in paleoanthropology brings to light the ongoing debate about the origin of humans.

Break-Up: The Core of Modern Art, Katherine Kuh (1965).

Analyzes modern art in terms of the attempt to present life in its structural elements rather than in its wholeness.

Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Stephen Hawking.

Cosmology becomes understandable as the author discusses the origin, evolution and fate of our universe. 

Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History, Stephen Jay Gould.

            Essays offer thoughts on evolution and other scientific principles.

Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick (1987). 

            Chronicles the development of chaos, the complex new science.

Civilization: A Personal View, Kenneth Clark (1970).           

Explores history throughout he works, impulses, & beliefs of the great creative individuals of Western Civilization.

Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom.     

            Western Civilization is in crisis because its intellectual tradition has been abandoned.

Cognitive Computer: On Language, Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, Roger Schank.

            AI experts put computers into perspective and indicate future uses, especially in education.

Control of Nature, John McPhee

            This describes Alaska as the last American frontier.

Cosmos, Carl Sagan.

            Universal history of the galaxy presents choices for the future.

Cultural Literacy: What every American Needs to Know, E.D. Hirsch Jr. (1987)

An educated “cultural literate” member of contemporary American society must understand certain key terms & concepts from history.

Cycles of Fire: Stars, Galaxies & the Wonder of Deep Space, Wm. Hartman.

Explores the formation of stars, characteristics of the Milk Way, & the possibility of other worlds in deep space.

Dark side of the Marketplace: The Plight of American Consumer, Magnuson

            A consumer advocate works within Congress to counter abuses.

Darwin’s Century: Evolution & the Men who Discovered It, Loren Eisely.

            Evolutionary theories from the Renaissance to the 20th Century.

Day One: Before Hiroshima and After, Peter Wyden.

            The race to develop the atomic bomb and the aftermath of its first use.

Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville.

This classic examines American society from the viewpoint of a leading French magistrate who visited the US in 1831. 

Desert Smells like Rain: A Naturalist in Papgo Indian Country, Gary Nabhan.

            Nature plays a vital role in Papago Indian culture.

Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Barbara Wertheim Tuchman.

A single feudal lord is traced through the history of the 14th century.

Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of Domestic Family Life, Steven Mintz.

            American family changing its structure and purpose.

Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, James Watson.

This recreation of the momentous discovery reveals to the nonscientist how the scientific method works.

Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Iyer Raghaven.

            Gandhi discusses the philosophical underpinnings that guided his nonviolent life.

Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, edited by Walter Kaufman.

Primary readings excerpted from many of the great existentialist thinkers.

Fate of the Earth, Jonathan Schell. (1882) 

            Fear of human extinction by a nuclear holocaust is discussed

First Freedom: The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America, Nat Hentoff.

Historical study of the 1st Amendment includes important court cases.

Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard, Norri Epstein (1993).

Perspective of Shakespeare’s works through these sidelights, interpretations, anecdotes, and historical insights.    

Gateway to History, Allan Nevins.

Scope and variety of the field of history & outlines his views on history’s objectives, science and art.

Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972, Wm. Manchester.

            Major calamities to minor trivia, exploration of modern America.

Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women, Jean Shinoda Bolen.

            Women have many roles in contemporary every day life

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Dougas Hofstadter.

            Math, computers, art, music & puzzles combine in a fugue on minds & machines.

Gods, Graves, and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology, C.W. Ceram.

Archaeological discoveries of the last 2 centuries in Pompeii, Troy, Crete, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Sumeria, and the Yucatan.

Gorillas in the Mist, Diane Fossey.

            Observing & defending the endangered mountain gorilla in Africa.

Stiffed: the Betrayal of the American Man, Susan Faludi.

            Explores cultural structures harmful to men and women.

Taking on the Press: Constitutional Rights in Conflict, Melvyn Zerman.

Freedom of the press is examined through a discussion of landmark cases that cause controversy over whose rights should prevail.

Terrorism: A Special Kind of Violence, Margaret Hyde.

Origin of terrorism that discusses the political, religious, and psychological implication of this type of violence.

Theory of Literature, Rene Wellek.

This theory of criticism examines the nature, functions, form and contents of literature, rather than the environment that influences its creations.

Thirty Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary, Wilfred Funk.    

            English vocabulary of educated people can be mastered with these useful techniques.

Today’s Isms: Communism, Fascism, Capitalism, Socialism, Wm. Ebenstein.

            Approach to various social systems and analyzation of the psychological appeal of each

Walden and Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau.

            Celebration of nature and independence.

War Clouds in the West: Indians and Cavalrymen, 1860-1890, Albert Marrin.

            Native Americans fight to survive in the late 19th century when increasing numbers

            of pioneers settle on their land.

What is Sociology: An Introduction to the Discipline & Profession. Alex Inkeles.

Issues facing sociology & many methods, interpretations, & conceptions of man and social processes.

What to listen for in Music, Aaron Copland.

Composer provides a basic intro to the mysteries of musical composition & music appreciation based on a series of lectures.

Who’s to Know? Information, the Media and Public Awareness, Ann Weiss.

            Who decides what is reported on TV and in the papers?

World History, Wm. McNeil.    

History of the world.

Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, R. Heilbroner.  

Lives and doctrines of David Ricardo, The Utopians, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen and John Maynard Keynes are explored.

Annotated Native American Literature Bibliography (fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, and poetry)

This bibliography contains information from a variety of sources. Participants in Lawana Trout's 1993 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute offered many helpful suggestions and annotations. Dr. Trout's handouts and institute comments about various books have also found their way into this bibliography. A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff's work, especially her indispensable book, American Indian Literatures: An Introduction, Bibliographic Review, and Selected Bibliography (New York: Modern Language Association, 1990), has been especially valuable as has Louis Owens' Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1992). I have also added information from my own reading and research.

Guide to Reading Levels:  1--primary through elementary, 2--middle school through sophomore, 3--sophomore through senior, 4--senior or above

Narrated life histories are designated by *; for these works the name of the author is given first followed by the name(s) of the collaborator(s).

Allen, Paula Gunn (Laguna/Sioux, b. 1939). Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Source Book. Boston: Beacon, 1991. Allen's reinterpretations of traditional narratives.  3

______. The Woman Who Owned the Shadows. 1983. One of only two novels since Mourning Dove's Cogewea (1927) to be both by and about American Indian women. (See Hale, Janet Campbell) The novel features a mixed-blood protagonist at odds with her surroundings and self. Protagonist puts the pieces of her identity back together  through discovery of her Indian self. Fiction.  4

Apess, William (Pequot, b. 1798). On Our Own Ground: The Complete Writings of William Apess. Ed. Barry O'Connell. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1992. The first autobiography to be published was A Son of the Forest (1829) [might be available as a separate volume],  by Apess. Apess, who claimed to be descended from King Philip, was one-quarter white. In Son he gives a moving account of the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his alcoholic grandparents. He uses the experience to introduce an attack on Indian alcoholism, a condition for which he holds whites responsible. After a severe beating, Apess was taken in by a white family and bound out from age five to a series of masters, a common practice in dealing with orphans and foster children. He was one of the most forceful Indian protest writers of the early nineteenth century. Apess converted to Methodism, ran away to join the army during the War of 1812, and was ordained in 1829. He describes his perilous journey to salvation, fall from grace, and subsequent rededication to Christianity. He also strongly criticizes whites' treatment of Indians. The whites with whom Apess lived as a child taught him to be terrified of his own people.  3

*Black Elk (Sioux). John G. Neihardt. Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux. 1932. Introduction, Vine Deloria, Jr. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1979. This book is a powerful, moving expression of the substance that under girded Plains Indian religious beliefs. As Deloria writes in the introduction, "If any great religious classic has emerged in this century or on this continent, it must be judged in the company of Black Elk Speaks." [For background reading see DeMallie, Raymond J., ed. The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt. Foreword Hilda Neihardt Petri. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1984, and Rice, Julian. Black Elk's Story: Distinguishing its Lakota Purpose. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1991.] Autobiography.  4

*Black Hawk (Sauk). Antoine Le Claire and John B. Patterson. Black Hawk, an Autobiography. 1833. Ed. with a new introduction by Donald Jackson. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1955. Autobiography. 

*Chona, Maria (Papago). Ruth Murray Underhill. The Autobiography of a Papago Woman. 1936. New York: Holt, 1979. Autobiography.  2

Conley, Robert (Cherokee). Windsong. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1992. An historical novel focusing on the love story of a couple separated by the Trail of Tears.  3

Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth (Sioux). From the River's Edge. New York: Arcade, 1991. Chronicles the attempts by a Dakota cattleman to reconcile the unavenged thefts of culture and honor, his traditional way of life and his cattle, and his relationship with his wife. Powerful evocation of the dilemmas faced by contemporary Sioux. Fiction.  4

Deloria, Ella C. (Sioux). Waterlily. Biography by Agnes Picotte. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1988. Deloria's only novel, completed in draft form by 1944 but not published until 1988. An invaluable portrayal of nineteenth-century Sioux life told from a woman's perspective. Traces the life of a girl from childhood through womanhood. The reader is introduced to Dakota camp life, rituals, kinship systems, and customs. Fiction.  2

Dorris, Michael A. (Modoc). A Yellow Raft on Blue Water. New York: Holt, 1987. New York: Warner, 1988. What does it mean to be Indian--or mixed blood--in contemporary America? This novel helps to define and expand this literature, introducing the first dual-minority protagonist in the person of Rayona, his half-Indian and half-African American protagonist. Fiction.  3

Eastman, Charles A. (Sioux, 1858-1939). From the Deep Woods to Civilization. 1916. Introduction by Raymond Wilson. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1977. This was Eastman's second autobiography. It describes his experiences in the white world. His writings inspired other Sioux writers, such as Luther Standing Bear and Zitala-Sa, to write their personal narratives. Eastman was the most influential and widely read Indian autobiographer from the 1890s to the early part of the twentieth century.  He was one of the first Indian doctors. He met Matthew Arnold, Longfellow, Emerson, Francis Parkman, and Theodore Roosevelt. Until he was fifteen, Eastman led the life of a traditional Santee Sioux boy, isolated from contacts with whites. He attended Dartmouth College (class of 1887) and Boston University Medical School. Married Elaine Goodale, a Massachusetts writer and teacher on the Great Sioux Reservation. In 1939, after a teepee fire, he suffered smoke inhalation and later contracted both pneumonia and a heart condition, which killed him. Autobiography.  3

_____. Indian Boyhood. 1902. In this book Eastman chronicled his life as a Santee Sioux from childhood to age fifteen. He depicts the traditional life of the Sioux before the reservation period. The opening lines express the spirit Eastman hoped to transmit to his readers: "What boy would not be an Indian for a while when he thinks of the freest life in the world? This life was mine. Every day there was a real hunt. There was real game." Autobiography.  3

Erdrich, Louise (Ojibwa). Tracks. 1988. New York: Harper, 1989. This novel is set in 1912-1919 in North Dakota when the Chippewas were coping with the effects of allotment. (The General Allotment Act --1887, sponsored by Senator Dawes. The Act established a way for dividing reservations into individual homesteads and assigning these to tribal members. Following receipt of allotments Indians would become citizens. This policy was part of a larger attempt to assimilate Indians into the dominant white culture. The unfortunate reality, however, was that Indian homesteaders fell into poverty and economic dependency. For an excellent essay see Frederick Hoxie's "The Curious Story of Reformers and the American Indians" in Indians in American History: An Introduction.) Focuses on Fleur Pillager, who seems to possess shamanistic powers and is fiercely tied to the land; Nanapush, an old man of lusty wit named after that tribe's culture hero and trickster; and Pauline, a jealous, venal mixed-blood. Fiction.  4

Hale, Janet Campbell (Coeur d'Alene/Kootenai, b. 1947). The Jailing of Cecelia Capture. 1985. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1987. One of only two novels since Mourning Dove's Cogewea (1927) to be both by and about American Indian women. The protagonist attempts to define her identity as a woman and mixed-blood while combating alcoholism and separation from her husband and children. Fiction.  4

_____. Owl's Song. 1974. New York: Avon, 1976. Hero is an adolescent Indian boy who must deal with reservation alcoholism and teenage suicide. One of the few books to deal with Indians on the reservation and in the city. Fiction.  2

Harjo, Joy (Creek, b. 1951). She Had Some Horses. New York: Thunder's Mouth P, 1983. One of the most important poets writing today. Poetry.  3+

_____. In Mad Love and War. Hanover: Wesleyan U P, 1990. Beautiful, moving...primarily prose poems including many eulogies to the victims of racial injustice. Poetry.  3+

Maria De Jesus, Carolina. Child of the Dark. New York: New American Library, Inc., (Signet) 1960. Translated by David St. Clair. Poignant account written on scraps of paper found in a trash can. Autobiography.  2+

McNickle, D'Arcy (Cree/Salish, 1904-77). The Surrounded. 1936. Afterword by William Towner. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1978. McNickle was sent to Indian boarding school in Oregon, attended the University of Montana but left just short of graduation. He served as the first Director of the Center for the History of the American Indian, Newberry Library, Chicago. The protagonist of this fast-paced novel, Archilde Leon, is a young man, half Spanish, half Salish. He returns to the reservation for what he expects will be a brief stay only to find himself forced to confront the complex issues of life there and the fact that his Indian mother and Spanish father have grown so distant from each other that they live in separate homes. A difficult book to put down. Fiction.  3+

_____. Runner in the Sun. 1954. This novel is written for middle school readers. Set in the pre-contact Southwest, this story evokes the life, customs, and beliefs of the ancient cliff dwellers of Chaco Canyon in what is now northwestern New Mexico, as they battle the forces of nature and society that threaten to destroy them. Fiction.  2

Menchu, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. Ed. Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. New York: Verso, 1983. The Noble Prize (1992) winning author's life has been threatened and members of her family killed for disagreeing with government policies. This is a powerful, at times violent book by a person reared in the peasant class who has become an important voice for her people. Autobiography.  4+

Momaday, N. Scott (Kiowa). House Made of Dawn. New York: Harper & Row, 1968. This important novel won the Pulitzer Prize and received more critical acclaim than any previous Indian novel. In fact, only nine novels by American Indians had been published before this one--the first was John Rollin Ridge's Joaquin Murieta in 1854. Momeday portrays a mixed-blood's quest for a sense of place, tribe, and self. The protagonist is a returning World War II veteran, Abel, trying to find his place in relation to the land and his home community, Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. (See the attached Teacher Guide for more background information.) Complex narrative structuring. Fiction.  4+

_____. The Way to Rainy Mountain. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1969. In this book Momeday weaves together story, myths, history and personal remembrance as he recounts his own journey to understand the historic journey of the Kiowa people. A particularly fine book rich in examples for students who might want to write about and uncover meanings in their own lives. For background reading see James Mooney's Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, Mildred Mayhall's The Kiowas, Alice Marriott's The Ten Grandmother's: Epic of the Kiowas, Approaches to Teaching Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain edited by Kenneth M. Roemer, or Maurice Boyd's Kiowa Voices: Ceremonial Dance, Ritual and Song (volume I). Autobiography, myth, history.  3

Mourning Dove [Cristal Quintasket] (Colville, 1888-1936). Cogewea, the Half Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range. With notes and biographical sketch by Lucullus Virgil McWorter. 1927. Introduction by Dexter Fisher. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1981.  First novel by an Indian woman. Focuses on the identity problems of a mixed-blood heroine who initially rejects and then accepts her tribal heritage. Stresses the importance of oral tradition. Fiction.  3

Occom, Samson (Mohegan, 1723-92). A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian. New London: T. Green. 1772. Written and preached at the request of Paul, a friend of Occom's. The sermon so impressed the audience that after it was published, it became the first Indian bestseller. Occom was a Methodist missionary to the Indians and pupil of the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, who sent him to England from 1765 to 1768 to raise money for his Indian Charity School in Hanover, NH, which became Dartmouth College. Nonfiction.  3

Ridge, John Rollin (Cherokee, 1827-67). The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murietta, the Celebrated California Bandit. 1854. Introduction by Joseph Henry Jackson. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1977. This is the first novel by a Native American. It portrays the famous bandit who turns to crime after he is victimized by white miners. A fast-pace story. Fiction.  3

*Sekaquaptewa, Helen (Hopi). Louise Udall. Me and Mine: the Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1969. Autobiography.  2

Silko, Leslie Marmon (Laguna, b. 1948). Ceremony. 1977. New York: Penguin, 1986. This novel describes the ritual journey of Tayo, a mixed-blood, to wholeness after he suffers battle fatique during World War II. Fiction.  4+

_____. Storyteller. 1981. New York: Arcade, 1989. Poetry and short fiction, interspersed with personal commentary.  3

*Standing Bear, Luther (Sioux). Land of the Spotted Eagle. 1933. Foreword by Richard N. Ellis. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1978. Autobiography.  2

Walters, Anna Lee (Otoe/Pawnee, b.1946). Ghost Singer. Flagstaff: Northland, 1988.  A novel that blends mystery and history that focuses on Navajo-white relations and on whites' inhumane practice of storing Indian skeletons and body parts in museums. Indian ghosts emerge in a museum to rage against the storage and display of artifacts that prevent their souls from resting. Fiction.  4

Welch, James (Blackfeet/Gros Ventre, b. 1940). Fools Crow. New York: Viking, 1986. Historical novel about the Blackfeet before the reservation period. Powerful evocation and vivid description of the impact of white settlement on a Montana band in 1870. A sampling of reviews from 1986: "The novel is like finding a lifestyle preserved for a century and reanimated for our benefit and education."  "The most significant event in the development of Native American Literature. In telling the story of one Blackfoot warrior Welch has evoked the total culture of a tribe." Writer and scholar Louis Owens writes of Fools Crow that it is the first novel to "grant privilege and authority to an Indian discourse by demanding that the reader adapt to, or assimilate, a Blackfoot world-view." As the novel opens the Blackfeet have regained their strength from two smallpox epidemics--in 1781, when over half the population died, and again in 1837 when two-thirds perished. They are a powerful and confident people. White Man's Dog, as the protagonist is at first called, is a member of the Lone Eaters band of the Pikuni tribe. Two major sources of historical background information can be found in John C. Ewers' The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains and George Bird Grinnell's Blackfeet Lodge Tales: The Story of a Prairie People. Fiction.  3+

Winnemucca, Sarah [Hopkins] (Paiute, 1844-91). Life Among the Piutes. Ed. Mrs. Horace Mann. 1883. Bishop, CA: Chalfant, 1969. The first two chapters are powerful accounts of her childhood and of customs pertaining to the rearing of boys and girls as well as the roles of men and women. Later chapters chronicle her activities as a liaison between the Paiutes and whites during the period 1844-1883. Winnemucca was the only Indian woman writer of personal and tribal history during most of the nineteenth century. Born near the Sink of the Humbolt River in Nevada, she was the granddaughter of Truckee, who she claimed was chief of all the Paiutes. Autobiography and nonfiction.  3

Young Bear, Ray A. (Mesquakie). Black Eagle Child: The Face Paint Narratives. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1992. A powerful and moving fictionalized autobiography.  3