This junior-year English course invites students to delve into American literature, from early American Indian voices through thoughtful contemporary works. Students will engage in literary analysis and inferential evaluation of great texts, the centerpieces of this course. While critically reading fiction, poetry, drama, and expository nonfiction, students will master comprehension and literary-analysis strategies. Interwoven in the lessons across two semesters are tasks that encourage students to strengthen their oral language skills and produce creative, coherent writing. The literature featured represents diverse voices and experiences. Students will read a range of short but complex texts, including works by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michio Kaku, Emily Dickinson, Sojourner Truth, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Mark Twain, Langston Hughes, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Naomi Shihab Nye, Amy Tan, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.