Literature Syllabi

This resource bundle is designed specifically for teaching education courses at the college level. It includes editable Google Slides and Canva templates, allowing you to tailor the materials to the specific needs of your courses within the College of Education. These versatile slides can be seamlessly integrated into your existing curriculum, serving as an engaging and motivational tool for future educators.

The resources are thoughtfully created to:

• Enhance engagement: The visually appealing slides, videos, icebreakers and templates help capture students' attention and facilitate active participation.
• Support instructional flexibility: With fully editable content, you can adapt the slides to suit various topics, learning objectives, and instructional methods.
• Promote critical thinking: The materials are designed to challenge future educators to think deeply about teaching practices, strategies, and pedagogical theories.
• Develop practical teaching skills: The templates include real-world scenarios, case studies, and reflective activities that prepare students for the classroom.
• Foster collaboration: The slides encourage peer discussion and group work, helping students learn from one another’s experiences and insights.

This bundle is a valuable tool for molding the next generation of exceptional teachers by providing interactive and thought-provoking content that aligns with the goals of teacher education program

Please e-mail me with any questions or concerns @ heather.schrage@gmail.com

I created and currently teach a Children's Literature online course at a local community college. This is a multicultural Children's Literature Syllabus for you to get started on your own course or the get an idea of the acitivites and assignments to use in your own course. We are using Literature and The Child (2016) as the main textbook. Also, this is an editable Children's Literature Syllabus Community College Microsoft Word Document.

UPDATED for the 2024-2025 School Year: This syllabus is for a year-long course in AP® English Literature and Composition. The curriculum features 10 units on works of literary merit written by diverse authors — works which appear frequently on the AP Literature Exam.

Core Texts: The literary texts featured on this syllabus — from Macbeth and Frankenstein through The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God — are guaranteed to motivate high engagement from modern-day teenagers! The curriculum was designed to be inclusive and intersectional with respect to race, class, and gender. Each unit features higher-order discussion questions, frequent writing tasks, literary device exercises, and longer writing assignments which amount to rehearsals of the FRQ essays on the AP Lit Exam.

Skills Objectives: This curriculum focuses on the six "big ideas" — as well as the advanced reading and writing skills — which the College Board has identified as the core components of AP Literature and Composition. It equips students with the terminologies and techniques for analyzing how six formal elements — character, setting, structure, narration, figurative language, and literary argumentation — deepen the content of a literary text.

Organization: The 10 units on this syllabus are organized chronologically, with the various texts corresponding to important literary movements: Renaissance, Romanticism, Modernism, Harlem Renaissance, Postmodernism, etc. But please feel free to re-organize and/or replace the units at your discretion. Because the syllabus is fully editable, you'll be able to customize the materials to suit your own literary tastes and/or the interests of your students — year after year!

Below is a list of the ten units and core texts featured in this AP Lit syllabus. Click on any link to view the complete teaching unit for that literary text....

Unit 1: The Renaissance

• William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1601) or Othello (1603) or Macbeth (1606)

• Stations Activity: Figurative Language in Shakespeare

• Discussion-Based Teaching Toolkit

Unit 2: Romanticism

• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1831)

• How to Write an Analytical Essay

• How to Embed Evidence

Unit 3: Traditional Verse Forms

• The Sonnet: Shakespeare, Keats, Rossetti, McKay, & Angelou

• FRQ1 Practice: How to Write a Poem Analysis Essay

Unit 4: Modernism & the American Dream

• F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

Unit 5: The Short Story: Minimalist Realism

• Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants" (1927)

Unit 6: The Harlem Renaissance

• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1938)

Unit 7: Transnational Fiction

• Jhumpa Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter" (1999)

• Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (2003)

Unit 8: Contemporary Fiction: Diverse Voices & the Polyphonic Novel

• Tommy Orange, There There (2018)

Unit 9: Modern & Contemporary Poetry

• American Poets: Dickinson, Frost, Hughes, Bishop, & Brooks

Unit 10: Exam Prep

• Figurative Language Stations

• FRQ1 Practice: How to Write a Poem Analysis Essay

If you like this syllabus, you'll love the full-year AP Literature Curriculum — a mega-bundle of teaching resources to get you through the entire school year! The year-long curriculum features over 1,500 pages of printable teaching resources: reading quizzes, higher-order discussion questions, detailed answer keys, and FRQ writing prompts for every book. And it's currently on sale for over 50% off!! Click to learn more about the AP Literature Curriculum!

For what it's worth, every literature unit in my store was designed with rigor suitable for AP Literature. So feel free to assemble a curriculum which features the texts you're most excited about. After all, it's your passions that will prove most inspiring to your students! How about Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1599)? Willa Cather's My Ántonia (1918)? Nella Larsen's Passing (1929)? J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951)? Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959)?

Rigorous Resources is your one-stop shop for top-quality resources on complex literature by diverse authors. Every resource was created by a Ph.D. in English who has taught for 20+ years and published award-winning essays on authors like Sylvia Plath and James Baldwin. If you have any questions about this syllabus or any of the unit plans, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I love hearing from fellow teachers who share a passion for great literature. And I'll be eager to do everything I can to make sure you have an amazing experience with teaching AP Literature!

Happy teaching,

Adam Jernigan

adamjernigan@gmail.com

P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!

P.P.S. This syllabus will always be free — so please don't hesitate to share the link with your colleagues and friends. If you'd be willing to leave a brief review of this free resource, I'd be sincerely grateful for your support!

This syllabus is for a high school English course on American Literature. The syllabus features 10 units that focus on canonical literary texts written by diverse American authors. The units in are organized chronologically, with each core text corresponding to an important period or movement in American history. The syllabus makes an excellent choice for an 11th-grade English course in American literature.

Because the syllabus is fully editable, you'll be able to customize the materials to suit your own literary tastes and/or the skill levels of your students — year after year!

Here are the 10 units featured in this chronological course on American literature:

1. Native Americans: History, Culture, & Modern Identity

• Tommy Orange, There There

2. Colonial America: The Puritans & Salem Witch Trials (1630-1776)

• Arthur Miller, The Crucible

3. Slavery & Emancipation (1800-1865)

• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

4. New England Poetry (1860s-1900s)

• Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems

• Robert Frost, Selected Poems

5. The American Dream & Roaring Twenties (1918-1929)

• F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

6. Modernism: The Minimalist Short Story (1918-1939)

• Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants"

7. The Harlem Renaissance (1918-1939)

• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Langston Hughes, Selected Poems

8. World War II & the Holocaust (1939-1945)

• Art Spiegelman, The Complete Maus

9. The Civil Rights Movement (1945-1969)

• Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

• Gwendolyn Brooks, Selected Poems

10. New Immigrant Literature (1965-2000)

• Jhumpa Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter"

• Poetry on Cultural Identity

Writing Instruction Tools

• Introducing Quotations: How to Properly Embed Textual Evidence

• How to Write an Analytical Essay

• How to Write a Personal Narrative (College Essay)

Discussion Tools

• Discussion-Based Teaching Toolkit: Socratic Seminar Rubrics

First-Day Lesson Plan

• Poems about "America"

Syllabus

• American Literature Syllabus

If you like this syllabus, you'll love the full-year American Literature Curriculum — a mega-bundle of teaching resources to get you through the entire school year! The year-long curriculum features over 1,500 pages of printable teaching resources: discussion questions, writing prompts, and answer keys for every book. And it's currently on sale for over 50% off!! Click on this link to learn more about the American Literature Curriculum!

Rigorous Resources is your one-stop shop for top-quality teaching resources on great literature by diverse American authors. Each unit was created by a Ph.D. in English with a research specialization in American literature. He has taught courses in American literature for over 20 years and published award-winning academic essays on American writers like Sylvia Plath and James Baldwin.

Finally, if you have questions about ANYTHING related to American literature, please don't hesitate to get in touch via the email address below! I LOVE hearing from fellow teachers who share a passion for American writers. And I'll be eager to do everything I can to make sure you have an amazing experience with American literature!

Happy teaching,

Adam Jernigan

adamjernigan@gmail.com

P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!

P.P.S. This syllabus will always be free — so please don't hesitate to share the link with your colleagues. And if you'd be willing to leave a brief review, I'd be sincerely grateful for your support.

This syllabus is for a 9th-grade English course on World Literature. The syllabus features literary texts guaranteed to keep modern-day teenagers highly engaged. For the syllabus is focused on a topic which globally connected teenagers find intrinsically interesting: namely, coming-of-age literature from around the globe. In this 9th-grade English course, students learn about how the experience of growing up is shaped by social conditions and cultural traditions which are specific to countries like Afghanistan, England, Iran, and the United States — all while reading amazing literature!

Skills Objectives: The curriculum is designed to build foundational skills in the analysis of literary form. It equips students with the tools and techniques for analyzing the formal elements of various literary genres: novels, plays, poems, and graphic novels. It also prepares students to identify and analyze a wide range of literary devices: various types of imagery, figurative language, etc.

Because this syllabus fully editable, you'll be able to customize this syllabus to suit your own literary tastes and/or the skill levels of your students — year after year!

Here are the 8 units featured in this World Literature course focused on coming-of-age fiction from around the globe:

1. The Coming-of-Age Novel (United States)

• J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

2. Friendship & Ethics: Doing What's Right (Afghanistan)

• Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

3. Love vs. Duty: Teenage Romance & Generational Conflict (England)

• Introduction to Shakespeare

• William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

4. Poetry Unit: Formalist Analysis (Various)

• Sensory Imagery in Poetry

• Figurative Language in Poetry

• Figurative Language Stations

• Love Poetry: Traditional vs. Modern

• Sonnets: Traditional vs. Modern

5. Coming of Age in a Revolution (Iran & Austria)

• Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis

6. Poetry Unit: Thematic Analysis (Various)

• Poetry on Ethical Dilemmas

• Poetry on Family Dynamics

• Poetry on Cultural Identity

7. The Feminist Bildungsroman: Finding One's Voice (U.S.)

• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

8. New Immigrant Literature (Post-1965 U.S.)

• Gene Luen Yan, American Born Chinese

Writing Instruction Tools

• Introducing Quotations: How to Properly Embed Textual Evidence

• How to Write an Analytical Essay

Discussion Tools

• Discussion-Based Teaching Toolkit: Socratic Seminar Rubrics

Syllabus

• 9th-Grade English Syllabus

If you like this syllabus, you'll love the full-year 9th-Grade English Curriculum— a mega-bundle of teaching resources to get you through the entire school year! The year-long curriculum features over 1,400 pages of printable teaching resources: reading quizzes, discussion questions, and writing prompts for every book. And it's currently on sale for over 50% off!! Click to learn more about the 9th-Grade English Curriculum!

Rigorous Resources is your one-stop shop for top-quality teaching resources on diverse authors. Every resource was created by a Ph.D. in English who has taught for 20+ years and published award-winning essays on fiction and poetry.

If you have any questions about the syllabus or curriculum, please don't hesitate to get in touch via the email address below. I love hearing from fellow teachers who share a passion for great literature. I'll be eager to do everything I can to make sure you have an amazing experience with 9th-grade English!

Happy teaching,

Adam Jernigan

adamjernigan@gmail.com

P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!

P.P.S. This syllabus will always be free — so please don't hesitate to share the link with your colleagues and friends. If you'd be willing to post a brief review for this free resource, I'd be sincerely grateful for your support.

This syllabus is for a course on African-American Literature. The year-long course features literary texts by some of the best African-American novelists, playwrights, and poets: Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, and more.

The curriculum is organized chronologically and was designed to highlight several important African-American literary and cultural movements: slave narratives, the Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Literature, Black Arts Poetry, etc. The curriculum is deliberately diverse in its representation of gender and brings an intersectional approach to the study of literary characters.

In addition, the curriculum features works by African-American authors written in a wide range of literary genres: novels, memoirs, plays, and poems. The daily lesson plans equip students with the terminologies and techniques for analyzing texts written in those different genres.

The units for each book listed on the syllabus can be found via the links below:

• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)

• Langston Hughes, Selected Poetry

• Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)

• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1938)

• Gwendolyn Brooks, Selected Poetry

• Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (1959)

• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1972)

• Octavia Butler, Kindred (1979)

• Writing Analytical Papers

Rigorous Resources your one-stop shop for top-quality teaching resources on complex literature by diverse authors. Each unit was created by a Ph.D. in English who has taught for 20+ years and published award-winning essays on American literature.

Because this syllabus fully editable, you'll be able to customize this syllabus to suit your own literary tastes and/or the skill levels of your students — year after year! If you have any questions about the syllabus or any of the unit plans, please don't hesitate to get in touch via the email address below. I'm eager to do everything I can to make sure you have an amazing experience with teaching African-American Literature!

Finally, this syllabus will always be free — so please don't hesitate to share the link with your colleagues. If you'd be willing to leave a brief review, I'd be sincerely grateful for your support. I love hearing from the amazing teachers who share a passion for great literature!

Happy teaching,

Adam Jernigan

adamjernigan@gmail.com