Beginning English 11B

Syllabus excerpts:

Course Description

            In English 11, the major focus is American Literature, but aspects of both literature and composition will be covered.  Students will develop their writing skills by using a writing process to complete multi-paragraph essays that attend to purpose, audience, development, structure, and style.  Students will also continue to refine their research, documentation, and persuasion skills. Students will use their knowledge and understanding of literary techniques and rhetorical devices to comprehend, respond to, interpret, and evaluate fiction and non-fiction selections.  

In addition to the history of American Literature and the traditional canon that expresses the shifts in our culture, the Grade 11 curriculum provides a clear presentation of the importance of marginalized cultures.  As a way to help students identify with all dimensions of the American literary culture, the curriculum will begin with an initial assignment to explore the dreams Americans possess by examining some important values in contemporary America.  After initial work with contemporary culture, each of the collections will include work which asks students to explore the “dreams” of members of the primary literary movement and those of members of marginalized cultures of the period as demonstrated in their writings.

Units of Study:

Tri B

• The Moderns:  1914-1939
• Contemporary Literature:  1939-Present
• Research Writing; Research; MLA style/citation; Synthesis; On-Demand Writing

Course Outcomes:

Literary Skills:  Students will be able to identify and analyze the elements of literature, style, figurative language, and rhetorical devices; they will understand and apply techniques of persuasion; they will identify and analyze several genres of literature; and they will identify and interpret elements of poetry and poetic sound techniques.

Critical Lenses:  Students will use the Reader Response, Historical/Biographical, and Cultural lenses (among others) to respond to, evaluate, and interpret literature.

Writing Skills:  Students will use a writing process including multiple drafts, revision, and editing skills to reach a final product; they will write and speak in a variety of genres and for multiple purposes; they will use an expanded research process to find and analyze sources, work with online libraries and search engines, create a hierarchy of ideas, and refine a thesis; students will use appropriate support and evidence, create coherence through effective organization and transitions, effectively use reflection, and will meet specific criteria of MLA format in style and citations.

Speaking Skills: Students through seminar, will learn to have thoughtful interchanges with classmates. Students will respectfully listen to the thoughts of others and effectively share their own interpretations of complex texts to better understand the complexities of fiction and non-fiction and gather meaning. Students will also utilize effective delivery during their speeches.

Grammar/Vocabulary Skills:  Students will learn and appropriately apply (or avoid) parallel structure, passive voice, antecedents, subordinating conjunctions, sentence combining, and subordinate clauses.  Vocabulary instruction will be combined with literature.

Introductory Writing Assignment:

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Write about an object owned and valued by you or by some member of your family. Your mother may own a wicker basket brought from Hungary by her grandmother in 1822. Your brother might think his arrowhead collection is the most magical thing in his life. Your father may have saved a battered trumpet he played in a high school marching band. Your job is to look at the object, perceive it physically (sight, smell, touch, taste, sound), and to write about its special history or meaning. Lead the reader toward an insight or understanding of its emotional or personal significance.
2. Recall a particularly good or bad experience in your life caused by a single event (perhaps the night you went camping in Oregon or the summer afternoon you spent shopping with your Italian aunt). Look in detail at all the sensory elements that return to your memory. Re-create the experience in such a way that the reader can see, hear, and feel the whole of it. At the end, reflect on the significance of the experience today (which might be different than how you felt about it at the time).

This essay must be submitted by class time on Monday, Dec. 9. Submit all essays online to turnitin.com.