Planning your high school American literature curriculum? Whether you’re building an American literature syllabus from scratch or looking for fresh ideas for your existing course, these seven units offer a starting point. Below, you’ll find suggested texts, essential questions, and teaching ideas—plus a free editable curriculum map to help you put it all together.
In my decade-plus of teaching, I’ve taught everything from 4th to 12th grade. Hands down, my favorite grade to teach is 11th. They’re old enough to realize they should start taking school seriously, but senioritis hasn’t kicked in yet.
English III is my teaching sweet spot. In most places, English III = American Literature.
This is perfectly fine because that’s one of my favorites to read – especially the darker authors like Poe and Hawthorne. (I have a little bit of a dark side, but you never guess looking at pale, green-eyed, blonde-haired 5’3 me).
After a few years away from American lit, I once again found myself with my favorites – juniors and seniors. Since then, I’ve started moving from chronological units toward thematic ones. The suggested American literature curriculum outlined below combines literary periods with novels, poetry, nonfiction texts, and more. Organize chronologically or connect texts from different periods through shared themes and essential questions.
Planning Your American Literature Syllabus
There are plenty of texts you could include in an American literature class. The harder part? Choosing which ones deserve a spot in your syllabus when you also need time for discussion, writing, testing, and the roughly 82673 interruptions that come in any typical school year.
Suggestion: Start with your required texts and the skills you want students to develop. Then choose readings that give students opportunities to practice those skills while exploring different voices and perspectives. Short stories, poetry, speeches, and longer works can all contribute to a high school literature curriculum.
You don’t have to teach every selection below. Use these seven units as a flexible outline, choosing the texts and activities that fit your students, your schedule, and your course requirements.
Unit 1 - Native American Origins
I always started off with the first unit in the textbooks, which in the school usually consisted of Native American origin/creation stories as well as early journals. I’d usually break this up into two units – one for the creation stories and one for the nonfiction journal pieces.
This is typically the shortest – maybe a week (based on 85ish minutes 5 times a week).
We’d start with “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” by the Onondaga tribe and then move into “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” by the Modoc tribe.
After reading, students compared and contrasted the two stories. One year, I had them make a foldable featuring the title, an illustration, summary, and … comprehension questions? Theme? I don’t quite recall (and of course, that’s one thing I have thrown away 🤦🏻♀️) but you get the idea.
Both stories serve as great mentor texts for students to use when writing their own origin stories.
If you’re looking to incorporate more contemporary Native American/Indigenous People’s texts into your curriculum, let me suggest a video interviewing three Native Americans about their experiences and passions. The video can be found on TeachFlix. In addition to this “virtual field trip” of sorts, I also am making a more conscious effort to expand my Native American texts beyond just the origin myths.
Possible EQ: What is America’s story, and who gets to tell it? (This is what I’ve used).
Unit 2 - A New Nation/Early America
I always found it helpful to provide students with some background information on the time period. Visual notes are a great way to engage students in the otherwise drudgery of notetaking. This is usually done at the beginning of each unit.
Working chronologically typically brings you to Early America (often referred to as “A New Nation” in textbooks). While normally full of boring, dry texts information texts (I’m looking at you William Bradford), this unit is the perfect place to incorporate other marginalized voices and perspectives.
Some texts to consider:
– Native American creation stories (if you didn’t dedicate a full unit to them)
– Phillis Wheatley poetry
– Olaudah Equiano
– Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention”
– The Declaration of Independence (this, along with Henry, is perfect for rhetorical analysis)
– Puritan writings such as Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God or Anne Bradstreet poetry
Unit 3 - Foundational US Documents + Speeches
Keeping in chronological order – the next up is “foundational” US Documents.
The Constitution. The Emancipation Proclamation. The Gettysburg Address. Frederick Douglass “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Whatever documents you choose.
Here is a great place to build in some mini-lessons on rhetorical devices – especially if you’re covering Douglass or King. Check out this post on 4 Ways to Analyze Rhetorical Devices in MLK’s “I Have a Dream”. Have students track the use of rhetorical devices through charts, rhetorical pyramids, and/or a rhetorical precis.
Check out these Lesson Plans on the United States Constitution from History.com. Practice close reading of the Constitution with this lesson from Linda R. Monk: “Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution.”
Possible EQ: To what extent is rebellion required for progress? (This is typically my first unit EQ. Shoutout to Amanda at Brave New Teaching for this one.)
Unit 4 - Romanticism/American Gothicism & Transcendentalism
When I taught chronologically, this was my favorite unit to teach. I love Poe, Hawthorne, Irving – all those guys.
Ideas for teaching this time period:
- begin with an introduction covering the major events and authors of the period
- introduce Gothic literature
- choose a literary device (or two or three) to focus on & find stories that exemplify that device
Most students have read “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Cask of Amontillado”, so I suggest venturing into some lesser-known works. My go-tos are “The Black Cat” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”; although it’s a bit longer and the vocabulary and syntax are more complicated, it’s an excellent example of Gothic writing.
Other favorites of mine included Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” – great for discussing allegory – as well as “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily”.
Unit 5 - The Novel
Choosing a novel for your American literature curriculum gives students the opportunity to follow character development, trace themes, and analyze an author’s choices across a longer text. They’re also a fantastic starting point for an essential-question-driven unit. Here are a few options organized around themes you could explore:
Possible EQ topics:
The American Dream: Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby.
- Of Mice and Men: Explore different characters’ versions of the American Dream, and whether or not it’s realistic. (Check out this post for ideas for each chapter).
- The Great Gatsby: Besides containing one of my favorite lines – “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – Gatsby is a great study in what happens when people let the desire for the American dream consume them.
Adversity & Resilience:
- Their Eyes Were Watching God: Admittedly, I may be a bit biased, since I live about 20 minutes from where Hurston’s buried. But there’s something inspiring about the way Janie overcomes one battle after another – societal expectations and gender norms and unhappy marriages – to finally come into her own.
- Purple Hibiscus – Kambili’s struggles with an overbearing father and her quest to find herself is a masterpiece in resilience.
Unit 6 - The Crucible
Another favorite is The Crucible. I finally got to teach it again after several years and the students had some strong opinions – especially about the whole John and Abigail affair.
Start with background material on Miller, the Salem Witch Trials, and McCarthyism to front-load the necessary information. My focus tends to be on the rhetorical devices used in the play, but you can also focus on character development.
The Crucible can go several places when teaching American literature chronologically – in the “modernism” period (since it’s written in the 1950s) or an Early American period (since it’s based on Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s).
One of my favorite memories was when my cooperating teacher left mid-semester and I was left to teach the class. I had several boys literally fighting over who was going to get to read Reverend Hale. The Crucible will always hold a special place in my heart for that reason alone.
Possible EQ: How is language used to establish and maintain power? (This was the one I used – with a focus on rhetoric.)
Unit 7 - 20th Century
Leave room in your American literature syllabus for twentieth-century and contemporary voices. This section of the course can include a longer study of a novel or play, a Harlem Renaissance poetry unit, or short readings that bring earlier essential questions into new contexts.
If you’ve already taught The Great Gatsby, Their Eyes Were Watching God, or The Crucible in a separate unit, use this time to broaden the range of voices students encounter. Poetry, short stories, speeches, and contemporary excerpts give you plenty of options.
I tend to pepper in a mini poetry unit, focusing largely on American poets such as Langston Hughes and comparing and contrasting some of his poems to other poems with similar themes. (Want to try this yourself? Check out 18 Poetry Pairings for Secondary Students for poetry pairing ideas.)
Other options include MLK and dystopian short stories, such as Kurt Vonnegut’s “2BR02B.” Or other popular YA authors such as Jason Reynolds, Elizabeth Acevedo, or Tiffany Jackson.
So there you have it—seven units to help you build or refresh your high school American literature curriculum. Start with the texts your students need, connect them through meaningful questions, and leave room to adjust as you discover what works for your classes.
What about you? What are your favorite high school American literature curriculum texts? Hit “Leave a Comment” and let me know.
Want an editable outline to help plan your American literature syllabus? Grab my free American Literature Curriculum Map, complete with links and teaching ideas.
Looking for a done-for-your full year American literature curriculum? Grab all the activities mentioned above (and more) in the American Literature Curriculum: Literary Movements, Unit Plans + Activities bundle!
I love your curriculum plan for 11th American Lit!
Thanks 🙂 I’ve switched schools since this post was initially written and have a lot more freedom, so I’ve been playing around with updating my curriculum. I hope to write a post about that soon.
I purchased the 11th grade literature pack from TPT but can not download the pacing guide from this site and can not find the pacing guide on TPT, please help!
Hi Sue! Try this: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1mPXo3HiFieleAxFL3gzUBhiw-Sh9_xML