This blog is an open forum for the students of Ms Karvunis's American Literature class. We are looking at American Literature in class that chronicles slavery in America. We will read parts of "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman (stanzas 1, 2, 10), "The Slave Auction" by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, excerpts from the memoir 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup, and excerpts from Toni Morrison's Beloved to help students visualize the life of an African-American slave. We will view small portions of the movies 12 Years a Slave and Amistad to further aid students in the visualization of slavery.
Students have recently read To Kill a Mockingbird and will read Langston Hughes's poem "Let America Be America Again" to further question the struggles of black Americans throughout American history.
Lastly, students will be given an current events article each night for homework discussing the current movement BlackLivesMatter# to connect the past to the present.
In alignment of the common core state standards, we will be analyzing multiple texts to determine craft choices, rhetoric, bias and persuasive techniques used by each writer. As the audience, we will find main ideas and evidence that supports the main idea. We will also examine the purpose of the text and the techniques used.
Prior students of Ms Karvunis are welcome to post and comment respectfully, understanding the age and experience of my 11th grade students.
One statement which seemed to have resonated within me from "To kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee was when Atticus Finch averred to Jem "when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins".This idea was quite prevalent in my independent reading book "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave " in which Douglass stated "to be accused (by a white man ) was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished. Its quite sad to know that for more than a 100 years this continued.
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