I have spent the last two days working hard with Nanci and my new colleague, Sparker. Her first name is actually Sarah, but I can’t call her that here, because I already have a Sarah. I think this might be the first time someone ever asked me to help design rather than simply implement a curriculum. It is rewarding to feel like I have so much input into what I’ll be doing, as well as ownership over the whole deal. I’m worn out. Nanci is so energetic. She makes me feel tired. In a good way.

My task over the weekend is to scope out the bookstore for any books I’d like to get either as novel selections or supplemental materials (oh, twist my arm). I have never had the luxury of actually getting everything I really want for my students. In fact, I’ve rarely had the luxury of getting everything they need. I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven.

I also need to do a draft of the CP 2 curriculum. Daunting. But I have some examples of the regular CP and Honors curriculum as well as the ones Randal wrote.

I am supposed to finalize a list of novel selections, plays, anthologies, and supplementary materials. So far, this is what I’ve decided I would like:

9th Grade Novels

• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, CP 2 only
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers, CP only
• The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
• Night, Elie Wiesel
• The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou (maybe — it’s on the 10th grade list, which could be a problem; I need to remind Nanci)
• Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns

10th Grade Novels (American Lit.)

• Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (Honors only)
• The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
• The Awakening, Kate Chopin (Honors only)
• The Optimist’s Daughter, Eudora Welty (CP only)
• The Color Purple, Alice Walker (CP Only)
• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Sula, Toni Morrison

Supplementary Texts, Professional Literature, Teacher Guides

• The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois
• In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Alice Walker
• Teaching Grammar in Context, Constance Weaver
• Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Folger Shakespeare Library

I have also decided which plays we’re doing in each grade. They’re all in their text books, except The Crucible, Arthur Miller. The other two plays not included in their texts are required summer reading, so I didn’t bother counting them here. I’m doing Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, and Antigone, Sophocles with 9th and The Little Foxes, Lillian Helman and The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams for 10th.

My brain hurts. I need a bath.