Learning Goals
Participants will continue to deepen their exploration of adolescence and how the curriculum in the eleventh and twelfth grades both mirrors and fosters the transformation into young adulthood. The seminar will focus on literature blocks in these two grades, based on presentations that the participants have been preparing during their independent studies.
Course Content
Week 1
Student presentations constitute the culmination of year-long research projects. Each student will present a three-week main lesson plan and one sample class (45 minutes total). Presenters should prepare copies of their research to give to members of the seminar as background material for teaching literature blocks. An annotated bibliography supporting the research should be included.
Week 2
Eleventh grade is a year of inner and outer journeys, of quests and questions. We will pay particular attention to Hamlet as a bridge from the Medieval Ages to the Modern Age. We may touch upon Gilgamesh, The Canterbury Tales, and how to prepare high schoolers to write a major comparison/contrast paper.
Week 3
The twelfth grade focus will be on the American writers of the nineteenth century who forged this country’s cultural and literary identity –Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, Dickinson. Their unique voices help seniors find their own voices. We may also consider Goethe’s Faust and aspects of Russian Literature, if time permits.
