English 11 B 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: The Harlem Renaissance and Modernism (Topics 1-3)
Essential question: What are the forces in history and literature that create change?
Core texts: “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by Fitzgerald; Poems by Langston Hughes; Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; Poems by Frost, “A Jury of Her Peers” by Gaskell Note: Students will need to get a copy of Of Mice and Men before beginning Topic 3.
Students begin this unit by making inferences about changing American values and the historical forces that may have contributed to them. They learn about the changing role of women in the 1920s and examine how that change is represented in literature. They then explore the Harlem Renaissance and how authors from that period expressed beliefs and values about America and what it means to be American. Students will learn about the Great Depression, and read and analyze a complete novel, working toward a formal literary essay.
Unit 2: Postmodernism and the Contemporary Periods (Topics 4-6)
Essential Question: How do authors from these periods support or challenge the values and beliefs of America’s founding documents?
Core texts: “Howl” by Ginsburg; “The Veldt” by Bradbury; Excerpts from Malcolm X; Poems by Brooks and Walker; “Recitative” by Morrison; “On the Pulse of Morning” by Angelou, “Harrison Bergeron” by Vonnegut
In this unit students will explore several historical moments, including WWII, the Cold War, and the 1960s, to gain a better understanding of the context for Postmodern and Contemporary literature. Each student will complete an extended research project about a topic related to the Civil Rights Movement. Students will continue to investigate how these important historical moments affected the literature being written at the time, and what that literature reveals about American values.
Unit 6: The Crucible and The Story of America (Topics 7-8)
Essential Question: How does literature shape us and our society?
Core texts: The Crucible by Miller
In the final unit of the course, students will apply learning to an in-depth study of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. They will consider how it represents both early American, Puritan values, as well as a tale from its own historical context of the 1950s and the Red Scare. Students will then turn our attention to the present and consider what contemporary American literature and authors reveal about American beliefs and values. The course culminates with a project where students use the literature they have studied to tell the story of America and a final exam.