This class is a challenge, for both me and the students. For me, it is not easy to lecture to more than 100 students each week about literary history, while trying to encourage them to study, improve their English skills and knowledge of this topic, prepare them for lectures and life in the US during the STAYS program, and somehow assess whether or not they are making any progress. What I do is the following: first, we have a multiple-choice quiz based on the previous week's lecture notes, which students should have read and reviewed for homework; then, we try some dictation-style activities (students take notes while listening to me), before checking the script with power point; while moving from topic to topic, or author to author, I usually show some movie clips and introduce 2-3 movies each week to stimulate student interest in the lecture topics or historical setting. Students are asked to choose 2 movies introduced in class that they will watch in their entirety, then complete a "movie worksheet" about that film. Most of the films are available in the university library, or they can be easily found online or in DVD rental shops. Finally, for homework, in addition to reviewing the lecture notes, students are asked to visit the course blog, read some documents (usually selections of texts we discussed in class), then download, print, and complete "reading worksheets." There is also an open notebook final exam and plenty of chances to do extra reading and extra credit assignments. I think the class is one of the most challenging that students will face. So, for students, it must be difficult to listen to lectures entirely in English, take notes, read, think and answer questions about American literature, all the while trying to keep up with the fast pace of the class and the difficult new vocabulary words. However, if students come to the course with an open mind and a willingness to give it a try, I think they will not only expand their knowledge of this topic, but also improve their English skills. I have had many students tell me that they improved their reading skills and increased their TOEIC scores due to this class, while others have told me that it helped them prepare for STAYS, by pushing them to the limits of their abilities and forcing them to deal with difficult material entirely in English. In any case, when you take this class, you'll journey with me from the story of Pocahontas and the age of the Puritans (roughly 1600) all the way to the present-day, with an African-American president in the White House. It's an epic story and one that I hope you will enjoy.