Cross-Curricular Proposal

Prepared by:

Dale Hawrlyczak,

Matthew Weiler, and

Kim Washburn

Application: It is the Cross-Curricular Committee’s recommendation that the English Curriculum for the 10th and 11th grades be flipped so that students will get the most out of the topics, readings, and activities presented in this proposal.

Month / Social Studies Topics / English Readings / Cross-Curricular Projects
September / Native Americans and Columbus / Native American Poetry and Speeches
The Puritans / Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God, Jonathan Edwards; The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Crucible, Arthur Miller
The American Revolution / The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin
Declaring Independence / The Declaration of Independence
October / The Articles of Confederation / The Articles of Confederation
The Constitutional Convention / The Constitution / Reenactment of the 1787 Convention (55 delegates, debating issues: representation, slavery, federalism, taxation, etc.)
See Assignment by Matthew Weiler
Launching the New Government (Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson)
Nationalism and Economic Growth (Louisiana Purchase, War of 1812, the Monroe Doctrine)
November / Jacksonian Democracy
Manifest Destiny
The Mexican War / Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Sectionalism
Slavery / Slave Narratives (Douglass, Jacobs); Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain; Ethnic Notions; Born To Trouble;
December / The Civil War / The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane;Glory
Reconstruction
The Western Frontier / American Legends and Mythology; The Searchers
January / The Guilded Age / Horatio Alger stories
Industrialization / The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Rise of Socialism, Populism
Immigration / The Gangs of New York
February / Progressivism / Kate Chopin stories; The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Booker T. Washington speeches; W.E.B. Du Bois
Imperialism
March / WWI / A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway; U.S.A., John Dos Passos; All’s Quiet on the Western Front
1920s / The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot; Inherit the Wind, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee / Gatsby Day!
School-wide celebration of the 1920s including workshops and demonstrations in dance (Charleston), music (Cole Porter and Gershwin), art (Modernism), drama and technical theater (Silent Screen Star Film Remakes) to be followed by a Fundraising Dance Marathon!
See Assignment by Kim Washburn
The Harlem Renaissance / Langston Hughes; Countee Cullen; Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The Great Depression / The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
April / The New Deal / Death of A Salesman, Arthur Miller
WWII / Hiroshima, John Hersey; Farewell to Manzanar, James A. Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, and James D. Houston; The Best Years of Our Lives
McCarthyism / The Crucible, Arthur Miller; The Communist Manifesto
The Cold War / A Street Car Named Desire, Tennessee Williams / Propaganda Film/Cartoon Project
See Assignment by Matthew Weiler
The Korean War / M.A.S.H.
May / 1950’s Domestic and Pop Culture / The Beat Generation: Poetry by Allen Ginsberg and On The Road, Jack Kerouac; The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath; Rebel Without A Cause / Poetry Slam!
See Assignment by Dale Hawrlyczak
The Civil Rights Movement / Letter From A Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; The Autobiography of Malcom X
J.F.K. Administration
Vietnam / The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
1970s and Richard Nixon’s Administration
Carter, Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush / Final Project: Decades Research Paper and Presentation