American Literature: January 2012

Rubric: Essay Questions

Clearly synthesizes the content from several literary texts dealing with a single issue/theme, paraphrasing the ideas and connecting them to other sources and related topics to demonstrate comprehension
Demonstrates a thoughtful, comprehensive grasp of the text/s.
Accurately and coherently provides specific examples to support thesis and main ideas from at least two sources.
Thoughtfully anticipates and addresses the reader’s potential misunderstandings, biases, and expectations ( provides counterargument/s).
Provides a variety of sentence types and uses precise, descriptive language.
Contains few, if any, errors in the conventions of the English language.

American Literature Final Exam Review 2012

Literary Terms

Allegory
Alliteration
Allusion
Characterization Using STEAL Elements
Conceits
Connotation
Denotation
Dialect
Diction
Folk Tale
Foreshadowing
Figurative Language
Free Verse
Imagery
Tone
Mood
Meter
Theme
Dramatic Irony
Verbal Irony
Situational irony
Metaphor
Simile
Hyperbole
Personification
Point of View 1^st Person 3 Person Limited 3^rd Person Omniscient
Imagery
Parallel Construction/ Parallelism
Pronoun-antecedent agreement
Genre
Rhetoric
Satire
Sound Devices (alliteration, rhyme, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia)
Symbolism
Syntax
Vernacular
Hook/Attention Grabber
Introduction
Topic Sentence
Body Paragraph
Conclusion
Clincher
Call To Action
MLA Format Works Cited List Basic Requirements

Questions, Concepts, and Ideas for review

1. What does it mean to be an American?

2. In what ways are Americans the same or different from one another?

3. What was the Great Exchange?

4. What is the purpose of an Origin Story?

5. What is an Oral Tradition?

6. How does religion affect people’s relationships and community life?

7. What does it mean to have freedom of religion and freedom of ideas?

8. What was the First Great Awakening and how did it affect religious belief in Colonial America?

9. Explain the characteristics of religious belief associated with the First Great Awakening.

10. Who was Thomas Paine and what particular impact did he have on the American Revolution?

11. What are the main ideas of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and how did they influence the people in England's 13 North American colonies?

12. Analyze the ideas, beliefs, and practices of the Puritans, the Romantics, and the Transcendentalists.

13. What were the advantages and disadvantages of shared traditions and beliefs for the early Puritan Colonists?

14. What message does Arthur Miller’s Crucible send through Danforth about power? Why did this resonate in late 1950’s/early 1960’s America?

15. How does Poe portray Human rights abuse and torture?

16. Compare and Contrast the Mood in the Raven to the Mood in the Pit and the Pendulum?

17. Why is Walt Whitman considered the great poet of selfhood and American Individuality?

18. Discuss Irony in the Wayfarer and A Man Said To The Universe.

19. Discuss the tension between individualism and community, material vs. spiritual, progress vs. preservation.

20. Detect and discuss bias and tone as expressed in El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez, Gold Mountain Poems, and My Heart feels Like Bursting.

Texts and Authors Covered in the Final Exam

Text	Author	Date/Era
How the World Was Made
Newly Created World
Dream Song
Before They Got Thick
La Relacion
The Life of Olaudah Equino
The Diary of Samuel Sewall
Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God
The Crucible
The American Crisis
The Declaration of Independence
Self-Reliance
Walden
Civil Disobedience
Ain’t I a Women
Devil and Tom Walker
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Raven
I hear America Singing
Song of Myself
There was a Child Went Forth
Sympathy
We Wear The Mask
The Wayfarer

Punctuation

Week 18	Class work	Homework
Monday (Print out syllabus and turn in by Tuesday at beginning of class for 100 points extra credit if work turned in on time).	Discussion of El Corido de Gregorio Cortez by Americo Paredes, My heart feels like bursting by Satanta, and Gold Mountain Poems pp.397-399	Study for Final Exam
Tuesday	Finals Review Literary Themes	Study for Final Exam
Wednesday	Finals Review	Study for Final Exam
Thursday	Finals Review	Study for Final Exam
Friday	Finals Review	Study for Final Exam

American Literature