Harper's Academy U.S. History and American Literature

Parents and Students, I have posted our public open house information for April 24, 3-5 PM, but I wanted to keep our own event private. We will be having our projects on display and our performances ready by 2PM for all of our family, friends, and current students. We invite you to come in and visit on our last day of class and to see some of the special projects our students have taken on in addition to their regular studies. There will be musical performances, spoken word poetry, samples of creative writing, photography, videography, and more. I will also be available to meet and discuss with you about your child's progress this year. I hope you will join us. Afterwards, we will open the doors to the public, at 3PM, to come in and visit our school, see the kinds of classes we have available, and to sign up for summer and fall classes. I will sign up any returning students first, giving you priority to reserve the slots you are interested in. If you have any question...

Last week, we looked at another short story "Marigolds" and the statistics on the Native American culture. I'm attaching the links in case you wanted to review them, and you left your copy on the table in class. I am also adding a link to the NPR interview we listened to.

We will be painting in class this next week, so dress appropriately!

We are in our final month of classes! I hope you have learned quite a bit of American history and have a deeper understanding of its connection with American literature. We are finishing the second third of our final book now. Please read up to page 167 for this next week's class. You will have your final essay due on April 17th over this novel. You can use any of the accompanying texts I gave you in class yesterday to help you write a more thoughtful or better-supported essay. You can also conduct your own research that matches the topic you'd like to discuss. As long as you can tie your discussion to the novel and provide a detailed analysis of a scene in the book to prove your point, you are on the right track. As far as history, we discussed the Cold War yesterday and its causes and its effects on American culture. One response included building up the military forces and increasing its budget. This had only previously happened during combat engagement. As Dwight Eisenhow...

We finished up our studies on WWII, looking at the Holocaust, the Atomic bombs, D-Day, Generals MacArthur and Eisenhower, Navajo Code Talkers, the Women in the War, the Economy, and the Tuskegee Airmen. You were all assigned research for this week's lesson as we start moving into the Cold War Era and McCarthyism. We are also moving into a fairly modern text, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This text, while not easy on the emotions, is an easier read than some of our previous books. Therefore, I've assigned the first 73 pages. You'll stop at the chapter titled "Tears of a Clown." Now before you become overwhelmed, this novel has illustrations and bigger font. :) And it's no more than 15 pages a day, which I think you can all manage just fine. You will be writing your final literary essay on this text, as it is the last one on our list. I am giving you the freedom to explore this novel however you feel inspired. Prepare fo...

Well, Spring Break is over, but at least spring weather is here! Still, time to soldier on and finish up this course. Can you believe we only have six weeks left? How fast this year has gone by! So, we've delved into WWII. We discussed fascism, dictators, isolationism, and intervention. We also looked at how quickly Germany's progression and takeover happened. It is really astounding! The Lightning warfare tactic allowed the Germans to move in so quickly and with so many devastating weapons operating at once, it's easy to see how difficult it might have been to stop them. We left off with the attack on Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt's call for action and war. This week, you are each to write a 1-2 page (at least 300 words) paper on one of the following topics: The Tuskegee Airmen Native Americans in the Military Women in the War Economic Controls Propaganda (both foreign and domestic) Japanese Internment Camps Dwight D. Eisenhower D-Day The Holocaust ...