English 11 A Self-Paced
Syllabus
Course Essential Questions:
- How does American writing and literature show American values and themes?
- How does literature reflect the historical, social, and cultural period of its creation?
Course Learning Objectives:
- Find and use sources to understand time periods in American history and analyze how texts from that period connect to the time period in which they were created.
- Determine themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development and meaning.
- Evaluate writer's craft.
- Select, cite, and use strong and thorough textual evidence to support claims.
- Use the writing process, in a variety of genres, to develop and refine their ideas.
- Use standard English conventions in their written output.
Unit 1: Pre-Colonial, Colonial, and National Period (Topics 1-4)
Essential question: How does American writing and literature reveal American values and themes?
Core texts: Choice of Native American/American Indian legends; John Winthrop’s City on a Hill Speech; Primary texts from the American Revolution; Poems by Phyllis Wheatley
This unit delves into the pre-Colonial literature of Native American myths, focusing on the values communicated through those stories. Students write their own myth, using it to explain a value of present-day America. In addition, students read works from early European explorers and colonists, and examine how the foundational documents of the United States lay out a vision for the country and its values. Students also analyze poetry and non-fiction texts by asking how authors craft their work to achieve an intended impact.
Unit 2: The Romantic Period, Transcendentalism, and the Civil War (Topics 5-7)
Essential question: How does history shape literature?
Core texts: Poems by Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman; Excerpts from “Self-Reliance” by Emerson; Excerpts from Walden by Thoreau; Excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Douglass and writings by other abolitionists.
In this unit, students will learn about characteristics that define the Romantic period in American literature, the values of the Transcendentalist movement, and the historical context of the Civil War. They will apply their understanding to their analysis of texts from the period, working to identify how writers express the values and ideas of their time period through their writing.
Unit 3: Realism and Naturalism (Topics 8-11)
Essential Question:
How do less represented voices, such as women and African Americans, expand and/or deepen our understanding of America and American values?
Core texts: Mark Twain’s "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"; “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin; Poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Continuing the study of literature in context, students will learn about the characteristics of literature from these periods and will analyze reading selections in light of the ideas of Realism and Naturalism. They will then explore several voices of less-well represented groups.
The course culminates with a project where students use the literature they have studied to tell the story of America and a final exam.