The Reader’s Journey, Volume 1

Syllabus

© 2010 Duke University Talent Identification Program Page 1 of 4

Lesson 1: Identity, Justice, Progress & Zeitgeist

Readings:

o “My Name” by Sandra Cisneros, from The House on Mango Street o Emancipation Proclamation o 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the United States Constitution

Lesson 2: The Literary Canon

Readings:

o Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain o Emancipation Proclamation o 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the United States Constitution

Lesson 3: Pre-reading & Characterization

Readings:

o Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain o “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer Adler

Lesson 4: Engaging & the Literary Review

Readings:

o Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Lesson 5: Identity & Memoir

Readings:

o Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals o "The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock" by Gwendolyn Brooks o The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell

The Reader’s Journey, Volume 1

Syllabus

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Lesson 6: Conflict & Progress

Readings:

o Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals o Uncle Toms’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe o “Black and Blue” by Louis Armstrong o “Hope Springs Eternal” by Anna Quindlen

Lesson 7: Family Influences, Setting & Summary

Readings:

o “The Copycat Syndrome” by Meghan O’Rourke o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lesson 8: Justice & Civic Duty

Readings:

o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee o “The Ballot or the Bullet” by Malcolm X o “Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Lesson 9: Group versus Individual Identity

Readings:

o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee o “The Drum Major Instinct” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lesson 10: Bias, Point of View & Truth

Readings:

o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee o Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

The Reader’s Journey, Volume 1

Syllabus

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Lesson 11: Progress & Universal Suffrage

Readings:

o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee o “Testimony Before the Credentials Committee” by Fannie Lou Hamer o “Declaration of Sentiments” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton o United States Declaration of Independence o United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Lesson 12: Ladies, Leaders & Hypocrisy

Readings:

o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee o "[the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls]" by ee cummings o “Leaders and Revolutionaries” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lesson 13: Zeitgeist & the Economy

Readings:

o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee o “Why I Live at the P.O” by Eudora Welty

Lesson 14: The Question of Progress, Part 1

Readings:

o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee o “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol, sung by Billie Holiday o "The Courthouse Ring: Atticus Finch and the Limits of Southern Liberalism" by

Malcolm Gladwell

The Reader’s Journey, Volume 1

Syllabus

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Lesson 15: Defined by Dreams

Readings:

o A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry o “Harlem: A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes

Lesson 16: Justice, Power & the American Dream

Readings:

o A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry o “The Ballad of the Landlord” by Langston Hughes

Lesson 17: Foreshadowing Tragedy

Readings:

o Night by Elie Wiesel

Lesson 18: Justice at Home & Abroad

Readings:

o Night by Elie Wiesel

Lesson 19: Seeking Justice & Progress after Tragedy

Readings:

o Night by Elie Wiesel o “Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander o Nobel Prize acceptance speech by Elie Wiesel

Lesson 20: The Question of Progress, Part 2

Readings:

o “Address to the Women’s Rights Convention” by Sojourner Truth o “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes