Welcome to the American Experience
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The traditional and often artificial walls that separate “literature” and “rhetoric” from “history” have been removed in The American Experience; consequently, this course acquires a unique edge and focus, in that politics, economics, literature, philosophy, social trends, and religion in America are all taught as part of a continuous organic narrative story of American culture.
From the perspective of the American Experience, this course focuses on the principal areas essential to understanding through integrated educational experiences in the language arts and social science strands. Emphasis will be on representative American literature and history, with its varied cultural influences, from the Colonial Period to the present, highlighting the major genres, themes, subjects, and historical influences associated with each literary and historical period. The idea is to integrate the American humanities into one interdisciplinary class, thereby taking the learning deeper as ideas, events, and persons can be examined from a multiplicity of complex interrelated different angles without repetition, contradiction, or gaps. Such is the plan.
This class is ambitious and challenging, both for student and instructors. But as Hellen Keller claimed, “Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing!” One must commit to this class both in English and in history – or in neither. There are no half‐ways. Jump in with both feet or don’t jump in at all.
The American Experience encourages junior students to appreciate the richness and diversity of the United States by exploring its culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. Through an inquiry-based study of American narratives using artifacts (novels, films, poems, primary source documents, short stories, and others), The American Experience integrates the disciplines of English and Social Studies. Key questions about the American experience help unify the course by erasing disciplinary distinctions between Social Studies and English; attempting to answer these key questions, students - and instructors - pursue a larger understanding of what it means to be an American. Learning activities include reading, research, composition, reflection, and oral presentation, in both individual and collaborative modes. As the instructors seek to create an integrated experience for students, many assessments will be common between the two disciplines.
From the perspective of the American Experience, this course focuses on the principal areas essential to understanding through integrated educational experiences in the language arts and social science strands. Emphasis will be on representative American literature and history, with its varied cultural influences, from the Colonial Period to the present, highlighting the major genres, themes, subjects, and historical influences associated with each literary and historical period. The idea is to integrate the American humanities into one interdisciplinary class, thereby taking the learning deeper as ideas, events, and persons can be examined from a multiplicity of complex interrelated different angles without repetition, contradiction, or gaps. Such is the plan.
This class is ambitious and challenging, both for student and instructors. But as Hellen Keller claimed, “Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing!” One must commit to this class both in English and in history – or in neither. There are no half‐ways. Jump in with both feet or don’t jump in at all.
The American Experience encourages junior students to appreciate the richness and diversity of the United States by exploring its culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. Through an inquiry-based study of American narratives using artifacts (novels, films, poems, primary source documents, short stories, and others), The American Experience integrates the disciplines of English and Social Studies. Key questions about the American experience help unify the course by erasing disciplinary distinctions between Social Studies and English; attempting to answer these key questions, students - and instructors - pursue a larger understanding of what it means to be an American. Learning activities include reading, research, composition, reflection, and oral presentation, in both individual and collaborative modes. As the instructors seek to create an integrated experience for students, many assessments will be common between the two disciplines.