Ms. Drew

  Bring a 3-ring binder, writing utensil, and a 70-count notebook to class tomorrow  Carefully read the course description, policies and procedures tonight. You will take a short quiz on these tomorrow (Wednesday)  The East of Eden reading check (60 points) will be Monday, 9/13  You will complete a take-home written reflection on your selected honors reading due Wednesday, 9/15. Class Announcements

  Studying a nation’s literature, how it has grown and developed  How does American literature and an understanding of its chronology and themes show how we as a people came to be who we are today?  Who am I as an American? Who do I want to be? How can a study of literature aid me in developing my identity?  What is the American Dream? How has it changed over time? What is its role in American literature? What is its role in my life? What are the problems with the American Dream? To what extent is it achievable for all Americans? Course Highlights

  Core works: The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, and Fences.  Writer’s notebook  Writing modes:  Personal narrative  Persuasion  Literary analysis  Comparison/contrast  Research Course Highlights

  Be prepared – everyday, no excuses.  Be respectful – lots of peer feedback and discussion; do your discussing with your classmates at appropriate times  Have INTEGRITY – on all fronts (state your opinions, back them up; don’t sit back passively and wait for others to do the discussing; keep cell phones and mp3 players off and away during class time; when you’ve been absent, contact me to make up the work or check my website; no nonsense bathroom visits.. Policy Highlights

  Be prepared – everyday, no excuses.  Be respectful – very unpleasant when we’re not.  Show INTEGRITY through your words and actions in class. Policy Highlights

  Late work is marked down 10% for each day it is late. The research paper is the only exception.  If a paper is not printed and ready to be turned in at the beginning of class, it counts as late.  I expect you to approach me about missed tests, quizzes, etc. as soon as you return.  Check the website! Contact me with questions. Late Policy

 American Literature

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.”

Walt Whitman

"I cannot live without books."

Thomas Jefferson

“A guy needs somebody – to be near him…a guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya…I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”

John Steinbeck Crooks, Of Mice and Men

"Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not."

Nathaniel Hawthorne Author of The Scarlet Letter

”We hold these truths to be self- evident: that all men and women are created equal."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton History of Women’s Suffrage

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

“If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the “F*&^ you” signs in the world. It’s impossible.”

J.D. Salinger Holden Caulfield, in Catcher in the Rye

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

Anne Bradstreet Puritan Poet

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.”

J.D. Salinger Holden Caulfield, in Catcher in the Rye

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."

Mark Twain

"When the sins of our fathers visit us We do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness As God, in his His Largeness and Laws."

August Wilson In his epigraph to Fences

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald Nick Carraway, in The Great Gatsby

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away."

Henry David Thoreau from Walden

"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness."

Allen Ginsberg Modern Poet

"A character is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from. And by those he has walked away from that cause him remorse."

Arthur Miller Playwright, The Crucible

“Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.”

Ben Franklin

“And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero.”

Walt Whitman

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

Toni Morrison Author of The Bluest Eye

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self- confidence."

Robert Frost Poet

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”

Ben Franklin

"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."

Toni Morrison Author of The Bluest Eye

“A man, after he brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean, questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well – or ill?”

John Steinbeck East of Eden