Course Syllabus

Independent Study in Idaho

ISI Website | indepst@uidaho.edu | 208-885-6641

ENGL 278 American Literature II

Sponsoring Institution: Lewis Clark State College

3 Credits

Instructor Information

Course Instructor: Courtney Kammers

I'm Courtney Kammers (she/her). I earned my M.A. in English from the University of Idaho and have been teaching for six years. I currently teach ENGL 101 and 103 at LC State and have also taught at Moscow High School. When I’m not in the classroom, I’m usually out running or working through my yearly goal of reading a minimum of 150 books - usually made from a mix of novels, memoirs, nonfiction, and self-actualization.

My classes are built around a simple idea: do the least amount of work for the results you actually want—as long as those results are worthwhile. If your goal is just to check a box and earn credits, this course might not be the best fit. But if you're curious about how American authors wrote and shaped the culture, political systems, and ideologues of America from the 19th century to today, then welcome to class! Let’s dig in.

Course Description

Topics and issues in American literature, from the 1870s to the present. Writing integrated. Pre-requisite: ENGL-102 or ENGL-109.

Course Learning Outcomes

The course surveys representative works of American poetry, fiction, and criticism written from the 1870s to the present. These works are grouped into nine categories on the bases of chronology, authorship, and literary technique and theme. Each of these nine groups of works forms a lesson. Students are asked to study each work in light of (1) its intrinsic literary features, (2) its contribution to American literary history, (3) its reflection of outstanding ideas from the time, and (4) its concern with particular human experiences that may be viewed as universal to humankind. The course aims at balancing the acquisition of knowledge about American literature and American cultural history with the practice of the basic skills of literary analysis and criticism. Students will:

  • Understand significant developments in American literary history and their relation to broader cultural contexts.
  • Read exemplary works of American literature with insight, empathy, and aesthetic appreciation.
  • Apply personal, historical, and critical perspectives to the understanding of literary works.
  • Identify and analyze literary genres, their structural elements, and literary meaning.
  • Critically examine American cultural myths and the way they are represented in literature.
  • Develop strong analytical writing skills through structured responses to literary texts.

Required Materials

McMichael, George, general editor. Anthology of American Literature. Volume II, Realism to the Present. 7th ed. Prentice Hall, 2000. ISBN-10: 0130838152, ISBN-13: 9780130838155

Crane, Stephen. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. A library or paperback copy.

Course Rules and Requirements

This course includes 6 graded lessons and 3 exams.

Assignment & Lesson Guidelines

  • Submit 1 assignment at a time, max 2 per week.
  • Use instructor feedback to improve future work.
  • Do not batch submit assignments or journals. Label answers clearly by question number and restate the prompt.
  • Each lesson and exam is made up of two basic activities:
    • Participating in the experience offered by the literature and responding to it from your own personal perspective, i.e., reading and writing to and for yourself
    • Observing and reconceptualizing the literature from a critical perspective, which is necessarily more detached, social, and intellectual, i.e., rereading and writing to and for a broader audience.
  • For a student to gain a full and lasting understanding of either an individual work or a body of related literary works, both levels of reading and responding must take place.
  • The first provides the private dimension of meaning and the second provides the broader public dimension. Both dimensions of meaning are required before genuine understanding and knowledge are achieved.

Exam Guidelines

  • All exams require a proctor.
  • At least 2 weeks prior to taking your first exam, submit the completed Proctor/Exam Request Form to the ISI office.
  • ISI mails all exams directly to the proctor after receiving the Proctor/Exam Request Form.
  • You must schedule the examination time with your proctor prior to each exam.
  • The proctor administers the exam and returns it to the ISI office.
  • Wait for grades and feedback on lessons prior to taking exams.
  • Exams are closed-book except for the course textbook.
  • Students are NOT ALLOWED personal items or electronic devices, including cell phones. 
  • Graded exams will not be returned.
  • Each exam has 4 micro-essay questions.
  • Time limit: 80 minutes.

Personal Journal

Reflect on your reactions to readings. Submit your journals on Canvas with each exam. You can earn up to 12 extra points per exam based on journal quality. A thorough and thoughtful journal is critical to achieving an “A” grade on each of the exams. (See Grading for details on grading policy.)

Critical Reading Assignment

Write from an analytical/scholarly perspective. Evaluate authors’ perspectives, compare viewpoints, and support your insights with evidence.

Micro-Essay Assignment

Write a 200-word paragraph focused on a controlling idea supported by specific textual evidence. While you should use citations from course readings please avoid lengthy quotations.

Micro-Essay Grading Rubric

Characteristics for an "A"

  • Confident understanding of the question.
  • Consistent "critical" perspective.
  • Appropriate sense of the assigned "audience."
  • Ideas that reveal a clear understanding of the text(s), clear sense of the relationships between parts and wholes, and clear distinctions between literal and inferential meanings.
  • Perceptive controlling idea, broken down supporting ideas that develop the main idea with logical explanations and/or strategic examples/details from the text(s).
  • Supporting quotations which (if used at all) are succinct and strategic to development of the argument.
  • Sophisticated word choice and variety of sentences.
  • Almost no errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Characteristics for a "C"

  • Satisfactory grasp of the question, but with some misunderstanding, avoidance, or indirectness.
  • "Critical" perspective that is sometimes confused with "personal" perspective.
  • Sense of audience that is confused enough to partially interfere with the audience's learning the answer to the question.
  • Ideas that show satisfactory understanding of the text(s) and the relationships between parts and wholes, but weaker distinctions between literal and inferential meanings.
  • Satisfactory controlling idea, broken down into at least three supporting ideas.
  • Supporting ideas that satisfactorily explain and/or illustrate the main idea, but with some ambiguity or vagueness.
  • Quotations which (if used) show some weakness in relevancy or are too long to be strategic.
  • Correct sentences and word choice, but without variety or sophistication.
  • Some errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Characteristics for an "F"

  • Answer which avoids answering the question and/or shows little or no understanding of it.
  • Critical perspective that is confused entirely with personal perspective.
  • Absence of sense of assigned audience.
  • Ideas that show little attempt to understand the assigned texts.
  • Main idea either unfocused or so obvious as to justify little interest from a reader.
  • Supporting ideas, examples, or details disconnected or irrelevant; "tells the story" without any attempt to re-conceptualize it.
  • Quotations which (if used) are used as unrelated "padding."
  • Distracting number of errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, or sentence structure.
  • Claiming ideas that are not your own, either by plagiarism or AI use.

Grade Information

Journals are mandatory and contribute up to 12% of your exam grade. Journal and micro-essay scores combine for your final exam score. To count, journals must be submitted on the same day as you take your exam.

Grade Weights:

  • Lesson 1 = 8% of grade
  • Lesson 2 = 8% of grade
  • Exam 1 = 14% of grade
  • Lesson 3 = 9% of grade
  • Lesson 4 = 9% of grade
  • Exam 2 = 15% of grade
  • Lesson 5 = 10% of grade
  • Lesson 6 = 10% of grade
  • Exam 3 = 17% of grade

Grading Scale:

  • A = 90–100
  • B = 80–89
  • C = 70–79
  • D = 60–69
  • F = below 60

Course Policies

Academic Integrity

Acts of academic dishonesty, including cheating or plagiarism are considered a very serious transgression and may result in a grade of F for the course.

Plagiarism is the dishonest representation of language from another source as your own—phrases, sentences or paragraphs, without indicating in quotation marks and a citation in your text, what your source is, whether print or internet.

The penalty for plagiarism in this course is SEVERE. ONE example of your use of language from another source without acknowledging it in quotation marks and the citation of the source will earn you a failing grade in this course. Note: only one example is all it takes.

In case of such a determination, you will receive notice from your course instructor of a pending failing grade in the course. You will have 3 days to respond to this notice before your grade will become final.