What's Up in Alasandra's World

I loved Mother Crone's Whining Victims of Public Schools. We have all known parents like that. They would rather bitch, whine, and moan then actually do something to improve the situation. Although to be fair you pretty much either have to take your children out of the public school system or deal with the ***** the public school system forces on you.

Since I am one of the parents who had the good sense to take my children out of the public school system, rather then put up with their nonsense, I have been hard at work on an American Literature Outline for next year. This is what I have so far.

American Literature

Unit 1
The Lost History of Aztec & Maya by Charles Phillips (have students write a myth as well as do a research paper on either the Aztec or the Maya)
The log of Christopher Columbus – Christopher Columbus
Poor Richards Almanac – Benjamin Franklin
The House of The Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne (Study Guide)
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne (Lesson Plans)

Field trip to Emerald Mound

Unit 2
The Autobiography – Benjamin Franklin
Patriots: The Men who Started the American Revolution – A. J. Langguth
Common Sense – Thomas Paine
Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes (Teacher’s Guide, )

Unit 3
The Complete Tales of Washington Irving – Washington Irving (Lesson Plans, Vocabulary Words, Resources)
Age of Reason – Thomas Paine
The Praire – James Fenimore Cooper
The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict – Donald R. Hickey

Ice cream social

Unit 4
The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe -Edgar Allan Poe (Lesson Plans)
Democracy in America – Alexis De Tocqueville
The Age of Jackson – Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Moby Dick – Herman Melville (Lesson Plans)
American Education: The National Experience – Lawrence Cremin

Unit 5
A Taste of Freedom – Tommie Thompson
The Civil War Strange & Fascinating Facts – Burke Davis (Lesson Plans)
The Civil War Memories of Ulysses S. Grant – Ulysses S. Grant
The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
Letter to His Son – Robert E. Lee





Unit 6
Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
The Bible According to Mark Twain – Mark Twain (have students complete one of the unfinished manuscripts)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain (Lesson Plans)




Unit 7
I Will Fight No More Forever – Chief Joseph
The Iron Heel – Jack London
The Sea Wolf – Jack London (Study Guide)
Risen From The Ranks – Horatio Alger Jr.
Twenty Years at Hull House – Jane Addams
The Fountain Head – Ayn Rand (Teacher Resources The Ayn Rand Institute)
Anthem – Ayn Rand (Teacher Resources The Ayn Rand Institute)

Pizza Party

Unit 8
Autobiography – Theodore Roosevelt
The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
Of the Meaning of Progress – W.E.B. DuBois
The Financier – Theodore Dreiser
The Dreams in the Witch House – H.P. Lovecraft

Unit 9
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Babbit - Sinclair Lewis
For Whom the Bell Toils – Ernest Hemingway (Notes & Quizzes, Study Questions & Essay Topics, Quiz)
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (Teacher Guide)

Unit 10
The Grapes of Wrath –John Steinbeck (Lesson Plans)
East of Eden –John Steinbeck (Lesson Plans)
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (Lesson Plans)
Soldiers of the Republic – Dorothy Parker
Behind Barbed Wire: The Imprisonment of Japanese Americans During WWII – Daniel S. Davis
The Ponder Heart – Eudora Welty (Lesson Plans & Teacher’s Guide, PBS film available to watch)
As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner (Lesson Plans)



Unit 11
The Glass Menagerie – Tennessee Williams
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle (Study Guide)
Invisible Man –Ralph Ellison
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card (Study Guide, Lesson Plans)
Children of the Mind – Orson Scott Card
I Robot - Isaac Asimov

Unit 12
Where the Red Fern Grows –Wilson Rawls (Lesson Plans)
The Old Man and the Sea –Ernest Hemingway (Lesson Plans)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s–Truman Capote
Rabbit at Rest - John Updike

Chinese Party or eat at a Chinese Restaurant

Unit 13
The Language of God – Francis S. Collins
Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger (Lesson Plans)
F451- Ray Bradbury (Lesson Plans)
1984 – George Orwell (Lesson Plans)
Lord of the Flies – William Golding (Lesson Plans)

Unit 14
A Sand County Almanac – Aldo Leopold
Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut

This isn't written in stone, so if you have any suggestions feel free to make them, and if you know of lesson plans for the books listed please direct me to them.