Reading with Tim (our second year!)

Literature of retellings 

(Summer reading!) 

By the Skin of Our Teeth by Thorton Wilder 

[Note: great intro piece! With wit and wisdom and a great deal of fun, Wilder brings the Antrobus family to the stage. They hang on through the eons although plagued by the ice age, great flood and wars of the 20th century. What will come next?] 

The literature of the story and space  

Mythology, poetry and sacred writings 

Linda Sue Park A Single Shard (children’s literature) 

Dave the Potter poetry (Slavery and literature // pottery and poverty)

The literature of recovery/text loss/ask Tim [where there has to be reimagining]

Optional: opportunity to work with Mrs Walsh and terra cotta 

The King Must Die by Mary Renault 

Paired with Theseus Myth (Green’s Tales of Greek Heroes)

The literature of the macabre, gothic (and of saints) 

Edgar Allan Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado”

The Complete Short stories by Flannery O’Connor (TBD selection)

Optional: Viewing of Poe short stories at JMAC November 12 

Optional history: saints coexisting at the same time as Poe in Philadelphia and Baltimore

The literature of place  

Russian Fairy Tales by Aleksandr Afanasyev

The Cherry Orchard or Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov 

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card 

Optional history: Russian Century: A History of the Last Hundred Years by Brian Moynahan 

Optional: opportunity to work on art project with Mrs Traylor 

The literature of the English master retold 

Grendel by John Gardner

Paired with Beowulf (perhaps the new 2020 translation here, unless objections)? 

Hamlet by William Shakespeare 

Performance of Hamlet (JMAC on April 14th) 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Optional: performance of Hamlet at JMAC

Literature of Saints - retellings reprised 

The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain 

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw 

Optional idea for writer’s teas - rewrite or retelling 2x throughout the year 

Optional year end field trip - Mark Twain’s house, Connecticut 

Calendar: 

Monday early American history

 These texts will be for early American history for lower forms

 
- Alice Dalgliesh’s The Courage of Sarah Noble 

- Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire’s Benjamin Franklin 
- Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire’s George Washington 
- Marguerite Henry’s Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin 

- Genevieve Foster’s The Year of the Horseless Carriage 

Human-it

We will follow the scope and sequence and prompts from the Beautiful Feet Books Guide 

History with Jackie Penny

Early American history 

Text: American Origins (volume 2)

Spring semester 2025

February 27

Reading due: Chapter 29

Question: 1

In-class we will be discussing chapters 25-26 // partial lecture

March 6

Reading due: Chapter 30

Questions: 1, 4, 9

In-class we will be discussing chapter 31

March 13

Reading due: Chapter 32

Questions:

March 20 

March 27

April 3

April 10

May 1

May 8

May 15

May 22

May 29

2025 classes 

[To be added]

Second Term (Spring 2025) proposed trips:

American Antiquarian Society 

Reading with Tim

 Reading List for American Literature class for 2024-2025

Library List: https://holden.cwmars.org/MyAccount/MyList/13619

Text: Writing New England: An Anthology from the Puritans to the Present (WNE) ed. by A. Delbanco (can get on used market too) Amazon link

Pre-American roots 

• 9/9, 9/16, John Bunyan one edition here The Pilgrim’s Progress 
• 9/23, Indigenous Writers (mostly Nipmuc and Wampanoag) reference From Dawnland Voices pages 374-375, 423-424, 435-438 packet “Chief Powhatan's Address to Captain John Smith” pages 5-6 “Big Mouth, Onondaga Chief to De la Barre, Governor of Canada”(from Great American speeches for young) pages 7-8 packet 
• 9/30, 10/7, Pocahontas by Joseph Bruchac
  

Seventeenth century

• 9/23, William Bradford (selections - take out of Humanitas) Of Plymouth Plantation selection on page 139-154 (no page 143, is timeline) - email 
  
• 10/21, John Winthrop (in WNE) Model of Christian Charity and Letter to His Wife p. 3 p. 259
• 10/21, Anne Bradstreet  (in WNE) Poetry:  Before the Birth of One of her Children p. 115, --(will email copies of following): The Prologue, The Author to her Book, The Flesh and the Spirit, To My Dear and Loving Husband, Upon the Burning of Our House 
• 10/28, Mary Rowlandson A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson (library?)
• 11/4, 11/18, Elizabeth George Speare here Witch of Blackbird Pond (library?)
• 11/25, Lydia Maria Child Selections from: Hobomok (supplied) 

Eighteenth century 

• 12/2, Olaudah Equiano Interesting Narrative (library?)
  
• 12/9, Benjamin Franklin Autobiography (library?)
• 12/16, William Apess (in WNE) Eulogy on King Philip (selection) p. 346
• 12/16, Phillis Wheatley Poetry: On being brought from Africa to America, On the Death of a young And Lady of Five Years of Age, Letter to John Thornton (finish Ben Franklin Autobiography and Writer's tea)

Revolution and First Fruits 

• January 13 and January 27: Jean Lee Latham Carry on, Mr. Bowditch

• February 3: George Washington “First Inaugural Address” (Living Book press - pdf will be provided) and “Observe Good Faith and Justice towards all Nations”
  
  
• February 3: Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin excerpt 
• February 10: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetry “Jewish Cemetery,” “Hiawatha,” “Evangeline” “Wreck of Hesperus” and “the Village Blacksmith" (Harp & Laurel)

• February 24, March 3 and March 10: James Fennimore Cooper Selection from Leatherstocking Tales (eg Last of the Mohicans). 
  
   
• March 17: Ralph Waldo Emerson (in WNE) from Nature + poems: Earth-Song and Fable (from Boston History book) or selections from his Essays 
  
  
• March 17: Henry David Thoreau Walden selections
  
  
• March 24: Washington Irving Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow
  
  
• March 24, March 31, April 7, April 28: Louisa May Alcott Eight Cousins
  
  
• May 5:  Nathaniel Hawthorne Twice Told Tales or/with “Young Goodman Brown”
  
  
• May 5/12: Herman Melville “I and my Chimney” (TBD)

Planned Dates (Mondays 12:45-2:15 in the Fall; in the Spring term 2:30-4): 

September 9, 16, 23, 30

October 7, 21, 28

November 4, 18, 25

December 2, 9, 16

Monday holidays, 10/14, 11/11 could be field trip dates (if open)

January 13, 27

February 3, 10, 24

March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

April 7, 28

May 5, 12 (snow date)

Monday holiday/Field trip dates: 1/20, 2/17, 4/14 and possible End of Year wrap up Lunch May 12th or 19th.