Please Help First Time Teaching Brit Lit Please Help

[KDP]

Hey, I am a 5th year teacher and have taught middle school english. This year I have switched schools and am teaching 12th grade British Literature for the first time. I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction in reference to getting a head start (planning I mean). I believe I will cover Beowulf, Chaucer, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet or Macbeth, and Animal Farm; however, I'm a novice Brit Lit teacher, and need assistance. Any books out there that will help me get a foundation to starting? Should I purchase the Norton Anthology? Help is much appreciated. You guys are awesome!!!

Thanks,
KDP

[dafydd manton]

You could do worse than getting hold of the Penguin Popular Classics Canterbury Tales, with notes. Helps explain a lot of the language used, and shows students that ancient books aren't stuffy at all, but quite bawdy in parts and great fun.

ISBN 0 - 14 - 062207 - 1

[KDP]

Hey, I am a 5th year teacher and have taught middle school english. This year I have switched schools and am teaching 12th grade British Literature for the first time. I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction in reference to getting a head start (planning I mean). I believe I will cover Beowulf, Chaucer, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet or Macbeth, and Animal Farm; however, I'm a novice Brit Lit teacher, and need assistance. Any books out there that will help me get a foundation to starting? Should I purchase the Norton Anthology? Help is much appreciated. You guys are awesome!!!

Thanks,
KDP

[kelby_lake]

Hey, I am a 5th year teacher and have taught middle school english. This year I have switched schools and am teaching 12th grade British Literature for the first time. I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction in reference to getting a head start (planning I mean). I believe I will cover Beowulf, Chaucer, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet or Macbeth, and Animal Farm; however, I'm a novice Brit Lit teacher, and need assistance. Any books out there that will help me get a foundation to starting? Should I purchase the Norton Anthology? Help is much appreciated. You guys are awesome!!!

Thanks,
KDP

Do you already have a set curriculum for the books you have to do? If not, my suggestions would be (I've done A-Level English Literature, which is probably the rough equivalent of 12th grade Brit Lit. They used these sorts of teaching aids in our class, for different books, plus photocopied sheets from study guides and some critical essays):

- Yep, Chaucer's a good place to start. As a teaching aid, there's animated versions of the tales, plus a series of The Canterbury Tales by the BBC, which updates them and transfers them into the modern day (a bit like the ShakespeaRetold series).

- For Taming of The Shrew- you could play the film of/some of the music from Kiss Me Kate, which is based on the play. There's also an updated BBC version and of course the Zeferelli film. Because of the play's controversy, critical essays may come in handy.

- If you get to choose between Hamlet or Macbeth, Hamlet is probably a better choice, as there's more in there. We were taught Macbeth when we were fourteen and I'm sure the themes of revenge, incest, death, and mental illness would appeal more to seventeen/eighteen year olds. There's loads of films of Hamlet- 2 are particularly noteworthy: Lawrence Olivier's version cuts out Rosencratz and Guildenstein and emphasises the Oedipal element (which is debatable), and Kenneth Branagh's version has a starry cast and uses the entire uncut text. The David Tennant version is also good.

- I'm not sure how you'd teach Animal Farm. It'd probably be worth explaining the political elements early on.

I haven't taught and I don't know how they teach English in American schools so this is only my opinion.

[mal4mac]

The Norton Anthology looks a bit heavy, in every sense! If you are starting this Autumn, and want to have some kind of holiday, why don't you just get good, annotated versions of the set books and read them?

[Honest]

I would suggest Heart of Darkness and Gulliver's Travels.

[PeterL]

Hey, I am a 5th year teacher and have taught middle school english. This year I have switched schools and am teaching 12th grade British Literature for the first time. I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction in reference to getting a head start (planning I mean). I believe I will cover Beowulf, Chaucer, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet or Macbeth, and Animal Farm; however, I'm a novice Brit Lit teacher, and need assistance. Any books out there that will help me get a foundation to starting? Should I purchase the Norton Anthology? Help is much appreciated. You guys are awesome!!!

Thanks,
KDP

That could be great fun,or not. You may have to revise the course to accommodate the students. You probably should add "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (which I still think is a fragment), and someone mentioned Swift. Swift would be good, but not Gulliver's Travels; you might want to consider what the students are like and would like, but i think that some of his shorter pieces would be better.

[dfloyd]

you couldn't do any worse than the teacher I had for English lit 40 some years ago. Our study of Hamlet consisted of every class member memorizing the "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy, then getting in front of the class and stumbling through it. I was so paralyzed with this idiot teacher's rote method of teaching that it took me thirty years to approach Shakespeare again. Now I have read all 37 plays. Just do not try to teach anything you have not read beforehand. Remember, you are influencing young minds, so you don't want to turn someone off about the enjoyment of great literature.

[Jassy Melson]

Since you are teaching British Literature to a twelfth grade class I would advise picking out five or six authors and discuss works which are not that well-known to the students. I would pick Chaucer, Shakespeare, Swift, Dickens and Waugh. With Chaucer you could pick out some of the Canterbury Tales that are not that well-known; with Shakespeare pick a play that is relatively "unknown"; with Swift, he wrote a number of shorter works than Gulliver's Travels. His informal essay A Modest Proposal is a good essay for 12th graders. Dickens wrote a number of short stories besides his novels: and Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One is a good example of 20th century British literature; it's a short novel too--more like a novella.

[OrphanPip]

I don't think any of the tales count as well known when it comes to 12th graders. Personally, I think The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner's tales and prologues are pretty accessible and provide plenty to talk about.

The only problem I see with the choices above, is that the OP is skipping from Medieval and Renaissance literature straight to modern. The students aren't being exposed to major examples from three centuries of literature.

17th and 18th century prose is pretty painful to read often, if you want to teach prose from that period Swift is probably the best choice, Defoe and Fielding will bore them to death. What I would pick from this period is Pope's Rape of the Lock, it's relatively short, but you probably will have to walk the class through to understand it. As a narrative poem, it has a plot a reasonably funny one too; it's about a family feud that arises from a guy stealing a lock of hair from a girl, and most of the humor arises from how seriously everybody takes it. It's a reasonable example for the highly structured and complex poetry of the period.

19th century is overflowing with great examples. Lots of great poetry, the English Romantics are a must. Austen is a reasonably accessible novelist from the period. Also, if you want to include an example of later drama, Shaw provides a lot of interesting choices. Pygmalion was used as the base of a musical adaptation, My Fair Lady, which could be used as a sort of compare and contrast teaching aid. Mrs. Warren's Profession is good too, the issue of prostitution and the restricted position of women at the end of the 19th century provide for a good deal of discussion.

Major poets you should probably touch on are Shakespeare (sonnets duh), Donne (metaphysical poet), Milton (could be complicated), Dryden (I find him a bit boring), Wordsworth and some of the other Romantics (they're much more accessible than earlier poets), Tennyson, Browning (My Last Duchess is a staple), and Matthew Arnold. Yeats (technically Irish) might be good to teach also.

You obviously don't have the time to teach everything, but those are the authors I would choose from if you're going for a broad survey of British literature.

Edit: Just wanted to add, the fact that George Bernard Shaw wrote a lot about what his plays actually mean makes interpreting him for a class easier too. He kinda just tells you what you're supposed to take from the play, and if ever you're in doubt just ask yourself, "what would a socialist think in this situation."

[kelby_lake]

Oscar Wilde may not be a bad choice either.
I've read one or two of Dryden's poems- not really worth bothering with. Swinburne is quite fun.
Auden would be good if you're allowed to go 20th century.

If you're looking for a relatively 'unknown' Shakespeare play, try Measure for Measure. The plot and central idea are pretty easy to grasp but it raises lots of interesting issues relevant to today's society (a lot of students' main criticism of Shakespeare, apart from the language, is that he isn't 'relevant' and they try to impose modern ideas on it).

[mal4mac]

I will cover Beowulf, Chaucer, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet or Macbeth, and Animal Farm

Why are others making so many other suggestions when this is what the OP *has* to teach! With only a few weeks ago this is enough to focus on, surely.

As you need to get off to a good start, start with Shakespeare. I would go with Macbeth. Hamlet is too long and complex for a "first bash". Show them Polanski's film version of Macbeth if they start to get a bit bored.

Then you might want to go back to Beowulf and Chaucer. Both are problematic, I've never picked up enough motivation to read the original of either in full. I really enjoyed Ackroyd's re-writing:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article5945019.ece

Beowulf often makes the list of "wish I hadn't bothered reading", so try and find the best readable translation. Seamus Heaney's version is supposedly good, I keep on thinking of reading it...

Maybe do Animal Farm as light relief between Beowulf and Chaucer? Then finish with a bang - Taming of the Shrew.

Beowulf *and* Chaucer seem incredibly off-putting. Do *have* to do them? The science geeks will moan like hell (I was one and I would have - I loved Macbeth though!)... and as for the jocks...

Just for fun, what would everyone else choose as five books to give 12th graders their first introduction to British literature. My suggestions:

Macbeth
Emma
Nicholas Nickleby
1984
Romeo and Juliet

The error is trying to do British literature from the start - the start is just too boring and hard! It's for specialists, not twelfth graders. (Unlike American literature...)

[OrphanPip]

Macbeth
Emma
Nicholas Nickleby
1984
Romeo and Juliet

The error is trying to do British literature from the start - the start is just too boring and hard! It's for specialists, not twelfth graders. (Unlike American literature...)

That looks like a fine list, but they've probably read 1984 earlier in high school. Beowulf's influence on later English literature is minor, since it was rediscovered later. The Canterbury Tales, however, have been read consistently since their publication and shaped how English poetry was written for centuries. They're also fun, and I think it's a shame to leave them out. Some poetry in the class is also a necessity, even if it isn't everyone's cup of tea. (And I was a science geek too, after all that's what I went on to do in university)

I'm not sure the OP's list is set, since she/he says "I believe I will," although Shakespeare is probably set and no one would leave him off a list of Brit lit anyway.

[Niamh]

Ahem...
Shaw, Yeats, Swift and Wilde are all Irish regardless of when they were born. We were after all only a part of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for just over 100 years (act of union) not a very long time.
Seamus Heaney, although from Northern Ireland, has in the past given out stink for being called British and classes himself as Irish. and i quote "My passport's green. / No glass of ours was ever raised! To toast The Queen"

In saying that Heaneys Beowolf might be a good comparison to use with the original.

OP
If you do decide to do MacBeth, there is an interesting retelling done in the Shakespeare Retold series. Infact, they also did a Taming of The Shrew, and might make an interesting viewing for your students. :nod:

[PeterL]

Ahem...
Shaw, Yeats, Swift and Wilde are all Irish regardless of when they were born. We were after all only a part of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for just over 100 years (act of union) not a very long time.
Seamus Heaney, although from Northern Ireland, has in the past given out stink for being called British and classes himself as Irish. and i quote "My passport's green. / No glass of ours was ever raised! To toast The Queen"



ou are not completely wrong, but a substantial amount of Swift's writing was done before he went to Ireland, including essentially all of what was in the The Tatler and the Spectator, the Battle of the Books, and others. Certainly much of his best known writing was written in Ireland.

[Whifflingpin]

Likewise Yeats, Shaw and Wilde were born into families that actually were part of the Saxon yoke. And Shaw and Wilde escaped back to England as soon as they could - rarely, if at all, returning to Ireland.

Still, it is good to see that having lived in Ireland is sufficient to make one seen by the modern Irish as Irish, regardless of whether one was of "Saxon" or "Celtic" stock, an oppressor or one of the oppressed.

[Niamh]

ou are not completely wrong, but a substantial amount of Swift's writing was done before he went to Ireland, including essentially all of what was in the The Tatler and the Spectator, the Battle of the Books, and others. Certainly much of his best known writing was written in Ireland.


Likewise Yeats, Shaw and Wilde were born into families that actually were part of the Saxon yoke. And Shaw and Wilde escaped back to England as soon as they could - rarely, if at all, returning to Ireland.

Still, it is good to see that having lived in Ireland is sufficient to make one seen by the modern Irish as Irish, regardless of whether one was of "Saxon" or "Celtic" stock, an oppressor or one of the oppressed.

Most of my blood line is of "saxon yoke" but that doesnt make me "British" does it?

I think you will find that what makes them Irish is the fact they were born are raised here. Infact they are all Dubliners.
Oscar Wilde- Born on Westland Row in Dublin 2 (Oscar Wildes mother is in fact a very famous Irish Nationalist poet.)

Jonathan Swift- Born on Hoeys Court Dublin 7

William Butler Yeats- Born Sandymount Co Dublin (now Dublin 4)

George Bernard Shaw- Born Synge Street Dublin 2

And Speaking of Synge, John Millington Synge- born Rathfarnham Co Dublin

And while we are at it Bram Stoker- Born Clontarf Dublin 3

And last but not least James Joyce- Born Rathgar, Dublin 6.


Lord Byron moved from England to Switzerland but you dont see people calling him Swiss do you.


Back to the OP

If you do go with Hamlet i suggest getting your class to view the David Tennent version of Hamlet. By far one of the most spectacular performances of the role i've ever seen!

[PeterL]

Most of my blood line is of "saxon yoke" but that doesnt make me "British" does it?


When the Saxons moved to the British Isles, they became British.

Thanks for the location of Swift's birth. I had thought that he was born in England.

[Niamh]

When the Saxons moved to the British Isles, they became British.

Thanks for the location of Swift's birth. I had thought that he was born in England.

And through that logic when the the British of "saxon yoke" moved to Ireland and integrated with the natives they became Irish. So Just because those writers were of Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendency doesnt mean they are British.

You are welcome. :)

[WICKES]

Likewise Yeats, Shaw and Wilde were born into families that actually were part of the Saxon yoke. And Shaw and Wilde escaped back to England as soon as they could - rarely, if at all, returning to Ireland..

Do you know why the grass is greener in Ireland (as every misty eyed Irishman who doesn't actually live there tells us it is)? Because the Irish are all over here in England walking on ours. Wilde is held up as this great Irish hero and nationalist, yet he spent his entire career in England and set all of his major works here. Look at his plays- full of English aristocrats. He even said that the first thing he lost at Oxford was his Irish accent. The Irish make me laugh. They think they have this great rivalry with the evil English. Truth is most English people have no interest in Ireland, either positive or negative, and forget it's even there a lot of the time.

[kelby_lake]

Why are others making so many other suggestions when this is what the OP *has* to teach! With only a few weeks ago this is enough to focus on, surely.

As you need to get off to a good start, start with Shakespeare. I would go with Macbeth. Hamlet is too long and complex for a "first bash".


Hamlet's not that hard if you teach it well/have good teaching resources; it's easy to get criticism on and you can go at in from pretty much any angle you want to. And they must have encountered some Shakespeare before the 12th grade. If they're doing Old English literature, they can cope with Hamlet.

I'd second watching the ShakespeaRetold version of Taming of The Shrew- it's very funny and manages to deal with the controversial aspects of the play.

[Whifflingpin]

"So Just because those writers were of Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendency doesnt mean they are British."

That's fair enough - as long as all the oppressive things that the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendency are often blamed for can equally be classed as things that one group of Irish did to another group of Irish, and not as something the British did to the Irish.

[PeterL]

And through that logic when the the British of "saxon yoke" moved to Ireland and integrated with the natives they became Irish. So Just because those writers were of Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendency doesnt mean they are British.


I can understand your point about the designation as British, but I believe that many, and maybe most, people of the British Isles would disagree and say that all of the Celts, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norse, and Normans who settled in the British Isles are British. That doesn't mean that someone of Saxon ancestry who lives in Ireland is Irish, ut that person is British. The remnants of the earlier peoples would also be British, but no one knows what to call them any more; although some were of the Urn-fields People.

[Or So I Read]

I definitely recommend a poetry unit including Tennyson’s “Lady of Shallot,” Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” (though you’d need some of his other traditional sonnets for comparison), Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty,” and Keats’s “La Belle Sans Merci.”

I also think an introduction into the literary periods and each’s typical themes would be nice. For lit periods – Old, Medieval, Renaissance, 1600s/1700s, Romantic, Victorian, Modernism.

[Whifflingpin]

"I can understand your point about the designation as British, but I believe that many, and maybe most, people of the British Isles would disagree and say that all of the Celts, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norse, and Normans who settled in the British Isles are British."

Right enough. The term "British" has at least 3 distinct meanings.
It is used to distinguish pre-Teutonic inhabitants of the British Isles from the Teutonic invaders, (as in Romano-British.) By this use, British literature might include the Mabinogion, and stuff written in Erse or Gaelic, and would exclude everything written in English.
More often, at least when talking about British Literature, "British" means anything coming from the British Isles, including Hibernia. I imagine that this is the commonest view, particularly from anyone living outside the British Isles. It is fairly obvious that the cultural mix throughout the British Isles has been so extensive for at least two thousand years that to try and separate the strands is a fool's task, or at least a task of superhuman scholarship. For example, English literature is heavily dependant on pre-English folklore and mythology, and Irish literature is mostly written in English, rather than Erse. Heaney may never have toasted the Queen, but he was using the Queen's English to express his sentiments.
Niamh has chosen to use the word British in a modern political sense, meaning "appertaining to the United Kingdom as it is currently formed." That meaning is valid, but it may not be very helpful to someone coming newly to "British Literature." To say that Wilde & Co are Irish writers is true enough in one sense, but to say that they are not part of the body of British Literature is merely perverse.

[kelby_lake]

I definitely recommend a poetry unit including Tennyson’s “Lady of Shallot,” Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” (though you’d need some of his other traditional sonnets for comparison), Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty,” and Keats’s “La Belle Sans Merci.”

I also think an introduction into the literary periods and each’s typical themes would be nice. For lit periods – Old, Medieval, Renaissance, 1600s/1700s, Romantic, Victorian, Modernism.

For other Shakespeare sonnets, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 116 and Sonnet 138 would be good. You could contrast the optimism of Sonnet 18 and the other Fair Youth poems with the cynicism of the Dark Lady section

[tiredstudent]

Charles Dickens- Oliver Twist. Tale of Two Cities. Christmas Carol.

George Orwell- 1984. and Animal farm is a good one. though both are depressing. War of the Worlds.

Jane Austin- Pride and Prejudice. Sense and Sensibility.

Charolette and Emily Bronte

Emily Dickinson.

take your pick. have fun.

[L.M. The Third]

^ Someone is bound to point it out soon, so I'll do it. Emily Dickinson was not English, so would not be taught in Brit lit.

[JuniperWoolf]

I like the idea of doing it chronologically. I'd do a little slice of Canterbury Tales before starting in on Shakespeare. Not the whole thing, maybe just the knight's story. Chaucer came first, so I'd take about two classes and treat it as a preamble. I don't know if I'd go so far back as Beowulf, but I might just show them a slide of the old english version so they could see how much the language has changed. Get them to try to guess what it says, that's always fun.

[KDP]

Hey, I am a 5th year teacher and have taught middle school english. This year I have switched schools and am teaching 12th grade British Literature for the first time. PLEASE HELP!!!!!! Thank you so so much for people who have already suggested stuff. I can't thank you enough for your generosity.!!! You guys on this site are incredible!
-KDP

Here is what I am thinking: (The school does NOT have a cirriculum, it's entirely up to me)

A history (brief) of Old English, Middle English/Medieval, Rennissance, etc...

Heaney's Beowulf

Chaucer: (Selected tales: Wife of Bath, Pardoner etc...)

Swift (NEED HELP HERE, Don't know what to do)

Shakespeare: Sonnets, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth

NEED A SHORT NOVEL HERE

Wilde: Importance of Being Earnest

Orwell: Animal Farm

[KDP]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is what I am thinking: (The school does NOT have a cirriculum, it's entirely up to me)

A history (brief) of Old English, Middle English/Medieval, Rennissance, etc...

Heaney's Beowulf

Chaucer: (Selected tales: Wife of Bath, Pardoner etc...)

Swift (NEED HELP HERE, Don't know what to do)

Shakespeare: Sonnets, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth

NEED A SHORT NOVEL HERE

Wilde: Importance of Being Earnest

Orwell: Animal Farm

What do you think?

[PeterL]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is what I am thinking: (The school does NOT have a cirriculum, it's entirely up to me)

A history (brief) of Old English, Middle English/Medieval, Rennissance, etc...

Heaney's Beowulf

You might want to look at other versions. Heaney's isn't bad, but it isn't the best that I've seen. If I find the name of the translator that I liked best, then I will let you know.



Swift (NEED HELP HERE, Don't know what to do)

I would suggest his piece on the compensation of Marlborough. I think that's the satire with the finest structure. "A Modest Proposal" is also goos, as are the Drapier's Letters.


NEED A SHORT NOVEL HERE

Wilde: Importance of Being Earnest

Orwell: Animal Farm

What do you think?

Will the students be able to do that much reading?

[OrphanPip]

It's a lot of reading, but they do have an entire school year.

A short 19th century novel is a bit of an oddity. Oliver Twist by Dickens is short, but it's a bit well known. Austen's Persuasion is short, but it's not her greatest novel, it's also mostly about the position of aging women, not the most exciting subject for teenagers.

For Swift, I would go with a "Modest Proposal," which contains Swift's suggestion of how to solve hunger and poverty all at once by using the infant's of the poor as food. Maybe his poems "The Lady's Dressing Room" and "A Description of a City Shower" would be worth reading as well.

"Now from all Parts the swelling kennels flow,
And bear their Trophies with them as they go:
Filth of all hues and odours seem to tell
What streets they sailed from, by the sight and smell.
They, as each Torrent drives, with rapid force
From Smithfield, or St. Pulchre's shape their course,
And in huge confluent join at Snow-Hill ridge,
Fall from the conduit prone to Holborn-Bridge.
Sweepings from butchers stalls, dung, guts, and blood,
Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud,
Dead cats and turnips-tops come tumbling down the flood."

How's that for a romantic picture of 18th century London.

[stlukesguild]

Swift- A Modest Proposal
Short Novel? What era? How Short? Why not Jane Austen?

[mal4mac]

Swift- A Modest Proposal

Why not Gulliver's Travels? If it's too long you could just do Lilliput and encourage the keen to read on.


Short Novel? What era? How Short? Why not Jane Austen?

Indeed! Why not Jane Austen? If "Emma" is too long, try "Pride & Prejudice" or "Persuasion".

[Scheherazade]

A Christmas Carol or Dorian Grayfor a short novel and I agree with "A Modest Proposal"... Never fails to generate discussion.

[L.M. The Third]

No female authors?

[OrphanPip]

To be fair, there aren't really very many notable female authors until you get up to Swift. Behn was a contemporary of Swift (roughly), but I don't think her plays or proto-novel would be easy to teach to high school students. Lady Mary Wroth wrote some good poetry, her sonnets could probably be taught to high school students.

Austen of course would probably be a good choice for the novel, Pride and Prejudice if it isn't too long.

[KDP]

Below is what I think I am going to cover for my first teaching job teaching British Literature to 12th graders. These are smart kids with language based learning differences. I have 9 kids in the class and all are hard workers; however, I want to make the class college prep and I'm not sure I know how to do that. PLEASE, PLEASE HELP. I am allowed to make up the cirriculum so if you see anything you think I should add please suggest. If you know of any instructor's guides please HELP!!!

Thanks so much in advance; I really appreciate it.....

Books covered (tentative):
• Beowulf- Seamus Heaney

• Canterbury Tales-Geoffrey Chaucer
(The Prologue, The Knight’s Tale, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, The Pardoner’s Prologue/Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Tale Prologue/Tale)

• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight-Anonymous

• Sonnets- Shakespeare, various authors

• The Taming of the Shrew-Shakespeare

• Macbeth- Shakespeare

• Modest Proposal-Swift

• The Importance of Being Earnest- Oscar Wilde

• Animal Farm- George Orwell

[Wilde woman]

Are you going to make it an AP class? Is that what you mean by college prep? If so, you should incorporate literature that might be tested on the AP test. You can find some descriptions on collegeboard.com:

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_englit.html

You're going heavy on the medieval stuff. Hooray!! You've got a big gap there between Shakespeare and Swift. Why not fill it in with some poetry? I'm partial to Marvell, Herrick, and of course Donne. And since you're getting into satire, Pope's Rape of the Lock would be a nice intro.

[Technophile]

What about Charles Dickens?