SCHOOL YEAR 2012-2013
AP Language and Composition
SCHOOL YEAR 2011-2012
English 9 Archives
AP Language Archives
SCHOOL YEAR 2010-2011
English 9 Archives
- Unit 1 - "Crisis and Conflict" - Focus on plot, character, and conflict in short fiction, including "The Most Dangerous Game" "Two Kinds" and "The Necklace"
- Unit 2 - "Surprise and Suspense" - Focus on irony, character, plot, conflict, allusion, inference; "The Sniper" "The Censors" "The Possibility of Evil" "The Gift of the Magi"
- Unit 3 - "Greek Mythology and the Hero's Journey" - Focus on elements the hero in classic literature ("The Odyssey") and the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"; a literary analysis essay and an explanation essay
- Unit 4 - "Discovering Theme in Children's Literature" - Analysis of a children's book and authoring of an original with a strong theme
- Unit 5 - "Life and Death in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men" - Focus on theme and how to construct an argument; persuasive essay considering the decision of George at the novel's conclusion
- Unit 6 - Reading Romeo and Juliet - Focus on understanding motivations and characterization
- Unit 7 - Writing about Romeo and Juliet - A compare/contrast essay investigating the merits and pitfalls of reading full versions of a text vs. film versions of the same text
- Unit 8 - Reading and Writing about Mystery - Multiple mysteries read, including three short stories and one short play. Reading questions answered, a creative writing mystery piece written, and film as literature with Hitchcock's "Rear Window"
- Unit 9 - Introduction to Poetry - Reading, interpreting, and writing poetry
Honors English 11 Archives
- Unit 1 - "Reading Closely" - Short fiction by Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway; emphasis on use of setting in literature, imagery, characterization, and theme
- Unit 2 - "Basics of the Expository Essay: The Introduction and Body Paragraphs" - A literary analysis essay focusing on the author's use of theme in one of the short stories from unit one. Extensive revisions and edits on the introduction (including overview of thesis, and introduction composition) and one student-selected body paragraph (from the original essay)
- Unit 3 - "Shakespeare's Macbeth and the Five-Paragraph Essay" - Students focused carefully on Aristotle's elements of tragedy and how those elements were related in "Macbeth."
- Unit 4 - "Narrative Reporting" - Focus on Krakauer's "Into the Wild" as a tragic story; review of romanticism
- Unit 5 - "Memoir and Personal Experience" - Focus on Beah's "A Long Way Gone"; mini-research experience
-
Unit 6 - An American Journey: Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Focus on satire as a rhetorical device; irony; theme; purpose of literature
-
Unit 7 - Writing the Admissions Essay - Tips, links, guides, and peer review culminate in a working draft
-
Unit 8 - Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex": Irony, Greek Tragedy, and Ancient Greek Culture - Focus on irony as exemplified through motif, hubris, and aspects of ancient Greek culture. Traditional final and timed in-class write.
-
Unit 9 - Reading a Non-Print Text: Alfred Hitchcock Through the Lens of Freud - Focus on strategies in reading a non-print text, focus on symbol, motif, and the image. Overview of Freud and a "lens" on human behavior. Short responses to characters and images in film vs. text.
- Unit 10 - Argument and Literary Art in Sophocles' "Antigone" - Focus on foundations of rhetoric and character motivation. Pathos, Logos, Ethos. Traditional final and timed in-class write.
- Unit 11 - Gender Roles: Making Men and Women - Strategies in rhetoric and composition explored while discussing how gender roles are established and maintained. (Embedded in these lessons are lessons for the RESEARCH PAPER as well.)
- Unit 12 - Symbol in Dai Sijie's "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" - Reading into fiction - the role of symbol in novels. Discussion of Mao's Cultural Revolution, love, the power of stories. Timed essay on Sijie's use of symbol in the novel.
- Unit 13 - Editorial - A quick series of lessons on editorial writing. Students write an original editorial on a topic of their own choice.
- Unit 14 - Introduction to Reading and Writing Poetry - 25 poems with various literary features are studied; approaches to poetry discussed; original poem written and analyzed; m/c final
- Unit 15 - Synthesis - Three short stories and the final project help students understand how to bridge texts that at first appear unalike. A final essay and presentation were assigned.
SCHOOL YEAR 2009-2010
Grade 9 Archives
- Unit 1 - "Crisis and Conflict" - Readings included "The Most Dangerous Game" "The Neclace" and "Two Kinds"
- Unit 2 - "Surprise and Suspense" - Readings included "The Censors" "The Possibility of Evil" "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Sniper" - Focused on characterization and an essay on how irony works in short stories
- Unit 3 - "Greek Mythology and The Epic Poem" - Selections from Homer's "The Odyssey"; Focused on identifying an author's message, epithets, epic similes, and aspects of the epic
- Unit 4 - "The Hero's Journey" - Reading a film as a text; Watched "O Brother, Where Art Thou" and identified elements of the hero's journey in the film
- Unit 5 - "Traditions in Symbol and Motif" - "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" with a focus on motifs and use of symbol; hero's journey, "Coat of Arms" project, "Gawain Art" project
- "Romeo and Juliet" - Unit 9 Reading and Unit 10 Writing - Focus on reading Shakespeare, word analysis, and a compare/contrast essay investigating the text vs. multiple film versions
- Unit 11 - "Reading and Writing Mystery" - Reading included "Trifles" "Full Circle" "Wasps' Nest" "An Utterly Perfect Murder" with a focus on building character, mood, and plot within a mystery framework. Watched "Rear Window" as a non-print text.
- Unit 12 - "Reading and Writing Poety" - Poems included "Beware: Do Not Read This Poem" "Young" "Hanging Fire" "The Road Not Taken" "Song of the Open Road" "Theme for English B" "The Writer" with a focus on free verse vs. set forms, topic, theme, tone, rhyme scheme; poetry reading questions and original poems assembled into a portfolio for evaluation
Grade 10 Archives
- Unit 1 - The Individual vs. Society - Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"
- Unit 2 - Reading and Writing Gothic Lit - Readings included Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" "The Raven" "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" "A Rose for Emily" and "Desiree's Baby" - composed an original gothic story
- Unit 3 - Research Paper
- Unit 4 - Poetry (a focus on Walt Whitman) - poetic devices, cataloguing poem, metaphor poem
Mass Media Archives
SCHOOL YEAR 2008-2009
Grade 9 Archives
- Unit 1 - Short story, plot, conflict, major/minor characters, topic sentences, transitions
- Unit 2 - The memoir, metaphor, simile, imagery (appeal to the senses)
- Unit 3 - Mythology, the epic hero, epithets, epic similes, theme, conflict
- Unit 4 - Focus on Step-Up to Writing (paragraphs)
- Unit 5 - Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"
- Unit 6 - A "mini" Unit on Research and Speech
- Unit 7 - Mystery
Grade 10 Archives
- Unit 1 - The Crucible, hysteria, irony, characterization, motivation
- Unit 2 - American Gothic, elements of Gothic lit, theme, creative writing
- Unit 3 - The Wild West: Research process and composition
- Unit 4 - Immigration (late 1800s / early 1900s)
- Unit 5 - Propaganda from WWI, Memoir, and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
- Unit 6 - To Kill a Mockingbird + Socratic Seminar Dialog (unfinished)
- Unit 7 - The Greatest Event of the 20th Century (and Beyond)