Ms. Q: The Beginning

For me, planning for next year will begin with previewing the new textbooks we are getting this year. For me, this is the second year in a row of receiving new textbooks (two different subjects). I feel privileged to be able to have enough texts for a class set AND one for kids to have at home! However, as our two new schools are built and opened, this perk will surely go away. My hope is, by the time this happens, more of our students will be connected to technology and we can offer CD-ROM or online textbooks.

Even though I have textbooks, it is not the end all and be all for my resources. In fact, I used the text only twice last year. However, since we are getting brand new ones, I do plan to use them (the stories in them) more, as I feel it has many poems/stories/etc. in it. The area we are lacking in resources is novel sets. For some reason, they ordered Huck Finn, which is not bad--in fact I teach it and will continue to teach it, but we already have over 130 copies of this novel. They really could have broadened the horizon a bit more. There were a couple other novels ordered, but we already have some of each. My guess is they were trying to get enough for class sets for multiple teachers, but I would rather have had more of a choice. Because of the lack of collaboration within the department (which I, technically am not part of, long post for another day), the department head went ahead and did what she deemed as best fitting the curriculum. These are the novels for this year:
Catcher in the Rye *Not sure if I will teach this one.
The Great Gatsby *I have taught what was excerpted in the text and shown the video, but look forward to teaching the whole thing.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn *I already teach this
The Red Badge of Courage *I have to teach this for Academic Decathlong

Whereas Redkudu has her entire year lain out and the first 6 weeks already planned, I am nowhere near this at the moment. So instead of showing my year plan-- I will show what I think must be covered this year in the form of goals. We are on a nine-week grading period. I am also teaching AP US History on alternate A/B days with the same kiddos, so I want the two curriculums to match up as closely as possible.

1st 9 Weeks
Will cover colonization, independence, and the new democracy.
Suggested works:
Some Native American Creation Myths
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
City Upon a Hill
Poetry of Anne Bradstreet
Common Sense
Federalist Papers

2nd 9 Weeks
Will cover sectionalism, the Civil War, and the rise of big business/immigration.
Suggested Works:
Huck Finn
Red Badge of Courage**
Trancendentalist works
Whitman

3rd 9 Weeks
Will cover nationalism, imperialism, WWI, 1920s, and Great Depression.
Suggested Works:
Great Gatsby

4th 9 Weeks
Will cover WWII through present (or Reagan at least!)
Suggested Works:
The Crucible

This is obviously nowhere complete and here is where I want to go next:
Flesh out the langauge and literature skills focused on each quarter. I need to cover both the literary rhetoric and writing essentials. I want to avoid narritive writing and focus more on literary analysis. Students must write a research paper, but I think I will tackle this through the year-long project on the election they will be working on as part of both courses (which means I also need to build this into the plan).