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Participants continue to deepen their exploration of adolescence and how the curriculum in the eleventh and twelfth grades both mirrors and fosters the transformation into young adulthood. The seminar focuses on literature blocks in these two grades, based on presentations that the participants have been preparing during their independent studies.
Student presentations constitute the culmination of year-long research projects. Each student presents a three-week main lesson plan and one sample class (45 minutes total). Presenters prepare copies of their research to give to members of the seminar as background material for teaching literature blocks, including an annotated bibliography supporting the research.
Eleventh grade is a year of inner and outer journeys, of quests and questions. We pay particular attention to Hamlet as a bridge from the Medieval Ages to the Modern Age. We touch upon Gilgamesh, The Canterbury Tales, and the art of preparing high school students to write a major comparison/contrast paper.
The twelfth grade focuses will be on the American writers of the nineteenth century who forged this country's cultural and literary identity -- Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, Dickinson. Their unique voices help seniors find their own voice. We also consider Goethe's Faust if time permits.
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