This course prepares students for college-level work through both independent and guided research, analysis, and oral/written expression via the complex study of drama, novels, poetry, and related writings of some of America’s greatest authors. Though the curriculum is similar to American Literature, the daily teaching methods are suited for Honors students’ learning styles and focus on independent inquiry, creative expression, complementary research, interdisciplinary study, exceptional oral and written expression, group collaboration, in-depth discussion, and increased processing speed.
Units will be taught in chronological order according to their place in American history. Students will be expected to pull in knowledge from their American history courses to supplement their understanding of authors' intentions and readers' understandings of the texts that were being created for them at a specific time in history. American literature is a perfect class for Biblical integration, and we will approach each movement from a Biblical worldview. Authors struggled and wrestled with questions of morality, Christianity, and practices of faith throughout American history, and those wonderings and musings are the basis for much of what we will read in class.
Our course will focus on the larger movements and themes in American Literature:
Puritanical & Colonial (1650-1750)
Age of Reason / Rationalism / Revolution (1750-1800)
American Renaissance / Romanticism / American Gothic (1800-1855)
Realism (1855-1900)
Naturalism (1880-1900)
Modernism (1900-1946)
Harlem Renaissance (1910-1930)
Postmodernism (1946-Present)
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Recognize and explain the importance of various literary elements of a fiction text
Analyze fiction and nonfiction texts for their significance
Articulate their ideas and support those ideas with research and evidence from a variety of texts
Demonstrate a command of the English language in written and oral presentations following grade-appropriate conventions
Apply literary skills to a variety of settings that transcend the English classroom
Connect classroom discussions, literary themes, secular texts, and the opinions of others to the Truth that binds Christians and be able to defend what we believe and why we believe to others in the context of these lessons.
All students leaving 11th grade and entering 12th grade must be able to meet standards and objectives for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade and:
Language
Apply pronoun-antecedent agreement
Apply parallel structure
Apply a variety of phrases and clauses
Identify passive and active voice
Identify hyphens/dashes
Writing
Apply a variety of sentence structures to make meaning and to create style
Construct both a closed (three-point) and open thesis statement
Apply an organized body appropriate to the task
Apply precise language and details
Apply a variety of lead-ins for direct quotes
Apply embedded quotes
Differentiate between good evidence and the best evidence to support a claim
Reading
Identify, apply, and determine the effect of paradox and juxtaposition
Evaluate denotation and connotation
Identify two or more themes and central ideas of a text and how they interact for complexity
Identify the author’s choices and style and how they interact
Speaking and Listening
Promote divergent and creative perspectives
Synthesize comments on all sides of an issue