"What is an American?" essays

Tonight you will read two essays from the online course pack.

Based on the number you receive in class today, you will read the corresponding essays below.  You must be signed in to google with your school account to access the readings.  You should print out both essays and then make sure that you are reading actively as you go-identifying and annotating key, important quotations.  Then, when you are finished, write a thoughtful and thorough journal response to both essays.  Additionally, for tomorrow, please print out this essay by Howard Zinn and bring it to class as well.

1. Boorstin and Ali
2. Baldwin and  Reagan
3. Billington and Kushner
4. Kingsolver and Gregorian

Welcome and First HW

Greetings American Studies Scholars,
Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year.  We look forward to joining you on a productive and intellectually challenging journey.  The first step in this process and your first homework for this class is:

1. Bring in an artifact that represents something important about you or things that are important to you.  In your notebook write a response that describes what you brought and why you brought it.
2. Bring in a song that represents something about America (it does not necessarily need to use the word "America").  In your notebook write a response that states what song you chose, identifies the key lyrics, and describes what the song is saying about America.

Additionally, you will need to bring a notebook, pen, and binder everyday.  Further, looking ahead, the first books that you will need for this class are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The American Reader.

Good luck!

Mr. Kramer and Mr. Rigler