BHS: 616 W. Main Street • Barrington, IL 60010

circles

Course Title: Junior English (2343)

 
Course Description:
The work with American literature in the junior curriculum is focused largely on shorter, more sophisticated pieces, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Students will refine their skills in drawing inferences from descriptions of character and place, defining the exigence and structure of an expository piece or argument, extracting themes from narrative, defining the point of view and tone in a piece of writing, and articulating their response as they draw from personal experience. In addition to this close-reading of shorter pieces, students will read a few novels or dramas. These longer, sustained readings will focus thematically on issues that are critical in defining the collective American experience. All students will be instructed in how to formulate a research topic, refine that topic in the research process, evaluate on-line and print resources, and synthesize the thinking drawn from multiple sources. There will be a thorough review of grammar, usage, and rhetoric in preparation for the ACT.

 
Enduring Understandings:

WRITING:

Students should understand that….

1.Writing is a multi-faceted skill with a wide range of functions and purposes: reflection, exploration, discourse, creation, and communication.

2.To be writers, we must be observers of the world.

3.Writing is a necessary means for clarifying understanding, thought taking shape. Thought and imagination shape writing, but, too, writing shapes thought and imagination.

4.Writing is a means of discovering our feelings and values as well as our ideas.

5.Writing can be play: spontaneous, improvisational, passionate, in-the-moment.

6.There is aesthetic satisfaction in crafting a good story, poem, or essay.

7.Writing, through diction, syntax, organization, grammatical structures, and figurative language, influences the thoughts, emotions, and behavior of readers; it is the means by which we earn the participation and empathy of the audience.

8.Writing well is a necessary life-long skill owned by each individual, requiring a commitment to patient reflection, experimentation, evaluation, revision, editing.

9.To grow as writers, we must practice writing in multiple genres, for a variety of audiences and occasions.

READING:

Students should understand that….

1.reading is a life skill that is transformative, reflective, enriching, dynamic . . . and fun.

2.reading a variety of genres and texts and synthesizing ideas helps them form educated, authentic opinions and conclusions about the texts, about the world, and about themselves.

3.every text is created and read with a certain historical, cultural, and personal perspective, and that uncovering these makes reading more meaningful.

4.reading is an active process that requires one to construct meaning by summarizing, questioning, predicting, visualizing, inferring, and evaluating.

5.identifying text structure, genre, and figurative devices allows one to read with purpose and greater understanding; an awareness of vocabulary and word choice, grammatical structures, and oral elements also enhances meaning.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING:

Students should understand that . . .

1.Effective communication is an active, symbiotic and cyclical process in which those involved are simultaneously sending and receiving messages and meaning.

2.Speaking with confidence and solid organization to influence an audience is a powerful skill which can be learned and developed through preparation and practice.

3.Expressing ourselves effectively through oral communication is necessary for being active and influential members of society.

4.An educated person is able to deconstruct messages and analyze the persuasive elements within them using given paradigms.

5.Message creation and delivery is an intentional process and involves both spoken language and unspoken cues which are subject to interpretation.

6.To effectively analyze and interpret a message we must always consider its source.

7.Listening is different from hearing in that it is an active process of sensing, interpreting, analyzing, evaluating, and responding.

8.Suspending judgment is a listening skill.


Essential Questions:
 

·        How do various texts in American literature reflect points of view of American culture?

·        What is American identity, and what makes us and the texts we read American?

·        How do gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and other aspects of identity shape the writing of a text and the reading of a text?

·        How does a writer use language and literary strategies to convey meaning in a text?

·        How does a reader comprehend, analyze, and interpret language and literary strategies to make meaning in a text?

·        Why are writing, speech, and inquiry essential to an individual and to a democracy?

·        Why do we American literature, and why does it matter to us as individuals and connect us to each other?


Essential Vocabulary:
 Tragedy/tragic hero/tragic flaw
American Dream
Romanticism
Gothicism/Dark Romanticism/grotesque/Southern Gothic/supernatural
Transcendentalism
Realism
Conflict: man vs. man, self, society, nature
Exposition
Narrative
Plot structure: status quo/initiating event/rising action/climas/falling action/resolution
Irony: dramatic/verbal/cosmic/situational
Foreshadowing
Paradox
Character/setting
Theme/moral/subject
Symbol
Progatonist/antagonist

 
Course Units / Topics of Study:
   

Reading: Literature: 

Key Ideas and Details

RL.11-12.1.Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

RL.11-12.2.Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

RL.11-12.3.Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Craft and Structure

RL.11-12.4.Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)

RL.11-12.5.Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

RL.11-12.6.Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

RL.11-12.7.Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

RL.11-12.8.(Not applicable to literature)

RL.11-12.9.Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.

RangeofReadingand Level of Text Complexity

RL.11-12.10.By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

 

Reading: Informational Text:

Key Ideas and Details

RI.11-12.1.Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

RI.11-12.2.Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

RI.11-12.3.Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

Craft and Structure

RI.11-12.4.Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).

RI.11-12.5.Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

RI.11-12.6.Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

RI.11-12.7.Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

RI.11-12.8.Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g.,The Federalist, presidential addresses).

RI.11-12.9.Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

RangeofReadingand Level of Text Complexity

RI.11-12.10.By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

 

Writing:

 

Text Types and Purposes

W.11-12.1.Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

·        Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

·        Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.

·        Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

·        Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

·        Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

W.11-12.2.Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

    • Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
    • Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
    • Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
    • Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic.
    • Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
    • Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

W.11-12.3.Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

    • Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
    • Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
    • Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g., a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution).
    • Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
    • Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

Production and Distribution of Writing

W.11-12.4.Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

W.11-12.5.Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

W.11-12.6.Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

W.11-12.7.Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

W.11-12.8.Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.

W.11-12.9.Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

    • Apply grades 11–12Readingstandardsto literature (e.g., “Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics”).
    • Applygrades 11–12 Reading standardsto literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning [e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court Case majority opinions and dissents] and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy [e.g.,The Federalist, presidential addresses]”).

Range of Writing

W.11-12.10.Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes

 

Speaking & Listening:

 

Comprehension and Collaboration

SL.11-12.1.Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

    • Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.
    • Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.
    • Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.
    • Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

SL.11-12.2.Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

SL.11-12.3.Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

SL.11-12.4.Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

SL.11-12.5.Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

SL.11-12.6.Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

The CCR anchor standards and high school grade-specific standards work in tandem to define college and career readiness expectations—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity.

Language:

Conventions of Standard English

L.11-12.1.Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

    • Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested.
    • Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references (e.g.,Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed.

L.11-12.2.Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

    • Observe hyphenation conventions.
    • Spell correctly.

Knowledge of Language

L.11-12.3.Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

·        Vary syntax for effect, consulting references (e.g., Tufte’sArtful Sentences) for guidance as needed; apply an understanding of syntax to the study of complex texts when reading.

L.11-12.4.Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based ongrades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

    • Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
    • Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g.,conceive, conception, conceivable).
    • Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, its etymology, or its standard usage.
    • Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

L.11-12.5.Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

    • Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text.
    • Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

L.11-12.6.Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

 Research Skills:

·       identify credible and reliable sources;

·       analyze and evaluate the research information;

·       cite sources clearly and accurately;

·       write research-based prose;

·       develop a bibliography or works cited page

 Grammar Skills:

·       Introduce restrictive and non-restrictive constructions with respect to adjective clauses and participial phrases, as well as appositives and their proper punctuation

·       Introduce proper subordination and coordination of thought with respect to grammatical constructions

·       Introduce the manipulation of sentence structure for the sake of emphasis in thought

·       Introduce the Active and Passive voice and work on correcting the over-reliance on passive voice when it occurs in student writing

  

Types of Assessments:

·multiple choice reading exams

·in-class and take-home essays

·various writings, from poetry to prose, and narrative to essays of analysis

·journals

·visual and performing art projects connected to units of study/literary texts