Middle Grade American History and Literature, Semester One Syllabus

This course should be thought of as two courses in one. It serves as the first half of a complete introductory American History survey course, covering prehistory to just before the civil war (semester two will cover the civil war through the internet age). It also serves as a complete semester-long English Literature course, with significant writing practice.

This course expects you to already be reading at a 5th grade level and writing at a 3rd grade level. Students with strong middle school level writing skills may want to do additional writing work, but will still find it a complete history and literature course.

This course will be academically intense. It contains approximately 2x the reading material that would normally be assigned across both a typical 5th grade English class and 5th grade history class (which is to say that it is four times as much work as a single typical elementary school class). If you are a strong reader taking the course in a classroom setting, you should expect to spend 5 hours per week in class, 3-7 hours on independent reading, and 1-4 hours on the writing component (depending on how much practice you need at writing).

You will be given time to complete this work during the school day, but you may find that you sometimes need to finish your reading or writing work up at home. This may be the first time you’ve taken such an intense course, and the first time you’ve had to juggle assignments across multiple days. PLEASE talk to the instructor about any difficulties you have in completing your work, even if you think it didn’t get done because you simply forgot or decided not to! One of the big reasons to take such a difficult course while still in elementary school is to practice time management and homework skills that will be essential for you to succeed in middle and high school. Managing your time in order to complete your work is part of what we’re learning.

This course may be emotionally intense for some students. If you are at least eight years old and don’t consider yourself particularly sensitive (for example, you enjoy series like Animorphs or A Series of Unfortunate Events), I think you will probably be fine with most of the books in this course. However, it’s important to understand that we’re going to talk about a lot of pretty disturbing things in this course.

Pay attention to how you feel while reading each book. A good book should make you feel things, and it might even make you feel upset. However, if you notice yourself feeling extremely upset or scared, or like you should not be reading the book, it’s okay to put the book down or ask an adult to read ahead and tell you when the upsetting part ends. Being a mature reader means being willing to stretch yourself a little bit, but it also means being able to notice and stop when you’re reading something that is hurting you.

Because this course is so difficult - both academically and emotionally - you are allowed to entirely skip up to two books and their accompanying writing assignments each semester, for any reason or no reason, with no penalty to your grade (not even a requirement to make it up with extra credit work, which is what you should do if you feel the need to skip more than two books). Good reasons to skip a book include:

- You found it really upsetting or scary.

- You gave the book a good try - reading the first 20-30 pages - but you found it really boring, confusing, or annoying, and still didn’t want to read it after talking to an adult about why.

- You have other obligations during a specific week - though in this case, you might also choose to read ahead. I encourage reading ahead by up to two or three weeks, but not more than that. We want to remember the books when it’s time to discuss them!

All students who come in with a 5th grade reading level and a 3rd grade writing level can get an A in this course, though it might take a lot of work. In most courses, there is a specific amount of work assigned, which must be completed correctly to get the highest grade. If enough of this coursework is completed incorrectly, that’s usually it - it’s no longer possible to get an “A” grade.

I don’t think this is a good system, especially for the early grades. Instead, I think that a student who is struggling can almost always learn the material with more practice. Because of that, this course contains unlimited extra credit opportunities. In addition to your two free skips, every week, the classroom will contain additional books that focus on the same time period as the primary book. If you find yourself unsatisfied with your grade on one or more writing assignments, you can and should also complete the weekly assignment for additional books.

Good responses to a grade that you're unhappy with are:

- Rewriting old assignments. IF you turned in an assignment on time and got at least a 40% on it, you may rewrite and resubmit the assignment as many times as you want until the end of the semester it belongs to, in order to get a better score. ALL of the books we will be reading this year were rewritten many times. We will talk about rewriting during the course.

- Completing the same weekly assignment for one or more additional suggested books. Extra assignment scores will be added to the others for that period. If you got a 50% on every single assignment, but also got a 50% for an extra book every single week, you would receive a 100% for the writing component of this course. (This is very unlikely to happen, because if you do that much writing, you will improve, and begin getting more than 50% credit.)

Your grade for this course will be 30% in-class participation and 70% writing assignments.

Grade scale for this course: A: 100-90% B: 80-89% C: 70-79% D: 69-60% F: 59-0% Scores above 100% will earn you higher grades, with an additional + added for each 10% band. For example, a 127% is an A+++. Intermediate grades (eg, C+) will not be assigned.

Grades will be reported separately for each historical period. This means that you cannot entirely skip the colonial period and then get full credit by reading twice as much about the revolutionary war. That would be silly.

Course Calendar, Middle Grade American History Literature

Note: ALL primary writing assignments are due the Friday AFTER the week devoted to reading and discussing the relevant book. Late work will not be accepted. You should get in the habit of turning something in, even if it’s terrible or unfinished; you will only have the opportunity to fix it if you turned it in on time in the first place. Extra credit assignments may be turned in up to one week after the end of the period they belong to, and may be rewritten like other assignments if desired. All writing assignments may be handwritten or typed, but they should be double spaced to allow your teacher to make corrections.

Pre-Contact & Contact Period

1: Week of August 11th

Textbook reading: The First Americans, pages 11-68 (chapters 1-13)

Primary book: Turtle Island, by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger

Writing assignment: Write one paragraph about what the book teaches about history.

2: Week of August 18th

Textbook reading: The First Americans, pages 69-112 (chapters 14-21

Primary book: Morning Girl, by Michael Dorris

Writing assignment: Write a one paragraph summary of the book. This summary must include a sentence explaining what kind of book it is.

3: Week of August 25th
Textbook reading: The First Americans, pages 113-167 (chapters 22-39)
Primary book: Around the World in a Hundred Years, by Jean Fritz

Writing assignment: Write one sentence explaining what kind of book this is, then write one paragraph discussing what makes it a good or bad example of that kind of book.
Colonial Period

4: Week of September 1st
Textbook reading: Making Thirteen Colonies, pages 9-50 (chapters 1-12)
Primary book: Blood on the River: James Town 1607, by Elisa Carbone
Writing assignment: Write one sentence explaining what kind of book this is, then write one paragraph explaining the book’s themes and messages.

5: Week of September 8th
Textbook reading: Making Thirteen Colonies, pages 51-116 (chapters 13-30)
Primary book: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
Writing assignment: Write one sentence explaining what kind of book this is, then write one paragraph explaining why you think it is a good or bad example of that kind of book.
6: Week of September 15th
Textbook reading: Making Thirteen Colonies, pages 117-159 (chapters 31-42)
Primary book: The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano, adapted by Ann Cameron
Writing assignment: Write one sentence explaining what kind of book this is, then write one paragraph explaining the book’s themes and messages.
Revolutionary Period
7: Week of September 22nd
Textbook reading: From Colonies to Country, pages 9-38 (chapters 1-7) Primary book: The Winter People, by Joseph Bruchac
Writing assignment: Write one sentence explaining what kind of book this is, then write one paragraph explaining what the book teaches readers about the past.
8: Week of September 29th

Textbook reading: From Colonies to Country, chapters 8-17
Primary book: Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes
Writing assignment: Write one sentence explaining what kind of book this is, then write one paragraph summarizing the book.
9: Week of October 6th
Textbook reading: From Colonies to Country, chapters 18-33
Primary book: One Dead Spy, by Nathan Hale
Writing assignment: Write one sentence explaining what kind of book this is, then write one paragraph explaining who you would recommend this book to, and why.
10: Week of October 13th
Textbook reading: From Colonies to Country, chapters 34-42
Primary book: The Constitution of the United States (simplified and original versions will be read in class together)
Writing assignment: Select one of the books you have read so far in this course and write a complete five-paragraph book report for it.
Early America
11: Week of October 20th
Textbook reading: The New Nation, pages 9-75 (chapters 1-14)
Primary book: Fever, 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Writing assignment: Write a three-paragraph book report: a one-paragraph summary, one paragraph explaining what you think makes this book a good or bad example of its genre, and one paragraph explaining why you would recommend it to and why.
12: Week of October 27th
Textbook reading: The New Nation, pages 76-123 (chapters 15-23)
Primary book: Meet Josefina, by Valerie Tripp
Writing assignment: Write a three-paragraph book report: a one-paragraph summary, one paragraph explaining the book’s themes and messages, and one paragraph explaining why you would recommend it to and why.
13: Week of November 3rd
Textbook reading: The New Nation, pages 124-179 (chapters 24-36)
Primary book: Mary and the Trail of Tears, by Andrea L. Rogers
Writing assignment: Write a three-paragraph book report: a one-paragraph summary, one paragraph explaining what this book teaches readers about the past, and one paragraph explaining who you would recommend it to and why.
Antebellum Period
14: Week of November 10th
Textbook reading: Liberty for All?, pages 9-68 (chapters 1-11)
Primary book: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer*, by Mark Twain
*We strongly recommend the NewSouth edition of Tom Sawyer for younger students. This edition removes the slurs present in Mark Twain’s original work, but leaves the text otherwise completely unchanged. We believe that reading the real words that authors really wrote is an important part of studying history, but we also believe that Twain wrote Tom Sawyer as an adventure novel meant to be enjoyable by children. We believe that removing the slurs allows children too young to responsibly handle slurs to continue to appreciate the work in the spirit with which it was intended. We assure everyone that there will be plenty of time in later grades to grapple with completely unedited examples of Twain’s work.
Writing assignment: Write a three-paragraph book report: a one-paragraph summary, one paragraph explaining what you think makes this book a good or bad example of its genre, and one paragraph explaining why you would recommend it to and why.
15: Week of November 17th
Textbook reading: Liberty for All?, pages 69-119 (chapters 12-19)
Primary book: By The Great Horn Spoon!, by Sid Fleischman
Writing assignment: Write a three-paragraph book report: a one-paragraph summary, one paragraph explaining what this book teaches readers about the past, and one paragraph explaining why you would recommend it to and why.

FALL BREAK - NO SCHOOL

16: Week of December 1st

Textbook reading: Liberty for All?, pages 120-155 (chapters 20-29)
Primary book: Lyddie, by Katherine Patterson
Writing assignment: Write a three-paragraph book report: a one-paragraph summary, one paragraph explaining what this book teaches readers about the past, and one paragraph explaining why you would recommend it to and why.
17: Week of December 8th
Textbook reading: Liberty for All?, pages 156-192 (chapters 30-37)
Primary book: Meet Addy, by Connie Porter
Writing assignment: Write a complete five-paragraph book report. 18:
Week of December 15th

There is no additional reading or writing assigned this week. Students can spend this week rewriting past assignments, reading supplemental materials, or reading ahead for next semester. (The first books on return to school after winter break will be Bull Run, by Paul Fleicshman, and Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. Little Women is the longest book we will be reading all year, so students who intend to read the unabridged version may wish to read it over winter break. It does have some significant Christmas scenes!)

Book Report Format Guide
There’s no such thing as a perfectly standard book report format. Once you’re an experienced writer, you will be able to write thoughtful reviews for books (and lots of other things!) without needing to adhere to a specific form. However, when you’re first learning, it can be very helpful to stick to a specific format, so you don’t get stuck. This page is a guide to the format we will be working towards in this course. For the first half of this course, we will learn to write pieces of book reports. For the second half of this course, we will write a full book report for each book. Our full book reports will be five paragraphs:
- The first paragraph should summarize the book. A summary “sums up” what the book is about, or what the most important things that happen in it are. This paragraph should also give the title and author, and should explain what kind of book it is.
- The second paragraph should discuss whether the book is a good example of that kind of book, and why. You can talk about the writing (whether the words sounded nice), the plot (what happens in it), the characters (the people in it), the setting (where it happens), the pacing (whether it moves along at a good speed, as opposed to rushing or dragging), or anything else that you thought was good or bad about the story. The rule is, though, you have to judge the book as what it is - you can’t criticize a nonfiction book for not being a novel, or a mystery novel for not being a romance. Unless you were completely blown away or you hated every minute, try to give at least one piece of praise and one piece of criticism.
- The third paragraph should discuss the book’s primary themes and messages. What do you think the author wants you to take away from the story or the information presented? Do you agree with that theme, or do you disagree with it?
- The fourth paragraph should discuss what the book teaches readers about the past, and what you learned from it or what you came to understand better. (If you really didn’t learn anything, you can think about what the book might teach someone who knew less than you. But for a thoughtful reader, with books of the level we’re reading, this should be pretty rare, even for grownups - a mark of a thoughtful reader is that he or she always learns something.)
- The fifth and final paragraph should say who, if anyone, you recommend this book to (age range, interests, etc), and whether you believe the book should be included for students the next time this course is taught. Sum up your thoughts on the topic - if you think it should be included, summarize what makes it worthy of inclusion. If you think it shouldn’t, explain why it wasn’t worth your time. Complete five-paragraph reports will need to be a minimum of 15 sentences long, since a complete paragraph ought to be at least three sentences. However, because this is a serious composition course, meeting the length requirement will not always be enough to get full credit. You may find that it takes you significantly more sentences to say everything that you need to say, or to say it well. In general, 1-2 typed pages is an appropriate length to shoot for in this course.