GLEN RIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

 

Curriculum Guide

 

 

 

Course Title:                                                     English 11 Honors

 

Subject:                                                            English

 

Grade Level:                                                     Grade 11

 

Department/School:                                          English/Glen Ridge High School

 

Duration:                                                          Full Year

 

Number of Credits:                                           5

 

Prerequisite:                                                      English 10 and completion of summer reading assignment

 

Elective or Required:                                         Required

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author:  Barbara Hellstern

Date Submitted:  Summer 2006

 

Course Description

 

           

English 11 Honors is a chronological study of the literature of England designed for the student who has displayed advanced reading, writing, and thinking skills.  The course expects a student to possess basic skills and abilities in reading and writing.  Emphasis is placed on application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.  As a chronological survey, the course provides ample opportunity for students to study British literature as a reflection of the historical, cultural, social and philosophical events which have shaped Great Britain.  Reading is extensive and often non-teacher directed.  It is expected that the advanced student is independently capable of comprehending basic material and self-motivated in desiring to analyze at a deeper level.  Students are challenged by open-ended discussion to formulate new theories and applications.  Having mastered the basic writing skills, students are expected to continue developing a more mature writing, style.  The program stresses self-initiated learning in an integrated experience in writing, reading, speaking, listening and researching.  Students will complete at least three significant writing assignments per marking period in addition to weekly varietal forms of writing.  Applicable literature based research will be incorporated using MLA format.  Supplemental reading will be assigned when necessary.

 

GLEN RIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LANGUAGE ARTS MISSION STATEMENT

 

 

            In order to pursue interdisciplinary lifelong learning, students need the skills to communicate effectively.  Through a challenging, sequential academic curriculum, the Glen Ridge Language Arts Literacy Program provides all students with varied and integrated experiences.  The skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, presenting, and researching will enable them to effectively participate in school and in society, respectful of various points of views while displaying creative and critical thinking skills. 

 

 

Goals

 

            Provided with an environment that encourages creativity as well as expression of unique feelings and thoughts, students will:

 

  • become competent, critical readers who learn to analyze, evaluate, reflect upon and respond to the ideas of others;
  • approach reading with an appreciation for a variety of literary styles, genres and contexts;
  • implement the writing process including: pre-writing, drafting, revising, proofreading and publishing;
  • write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes; 
  • listen interactively in diverse situations to information from a variety of sources;
  • view, understand and construct meaning from non-textual sources;
  • gather, evaluate, synthesize and cite data from a variety of technological sources and print materials;
  • share, display and/or publish individual and collaborative products.

New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards

 

All skills of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards for Language Arts Literacy are met and referenced throughout the content of this curriculum:

 

STANDARD 3.1:  (READING)  ALL STUDENTS WILL UNDERSTAND AND

APPLY THE KNOWLEDGE OF SOUNDS, LETTERS, AND WORDS IN WRITTEN

ENGLISH TO BECOME INDEPENDENT AND FLUENT READERS, AND WILL

READ A VARIETY OF MATERIALS AND TEXTS WITH FLUENCY AND

COMPREHENSION.

A. Concepts About Print

B. Phonological Awareness

C. Decoding and Word Recognition

D. Fluency

E. Reading Strategies (before, during, and after reading)

F. Vocabulary and Concept Development

G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text

H. Inquiry and Research

 

STANDARD 3.2:  (WRITING)  ALL STUDENTS WILL WRITE IN CLEAR,

CONCISE, ORGANIZED LANGUAGE THAT VARIES IN CONTENT AND FORM

FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES.

A. Writing as a Process

B. Writing as a Product

C. Mechanics, Spelling, and Handwriting

D. Writing Forms, Audiences, and Purposes

 

STANDARD 3.3:  (SPEAKING)  ALL STUDENTS WILL SPEAK IN CLEAR,

CONCISE, ORGANIZED LANGUAGE THAT VARIES IN CONTENT AND FORM

FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES.

A. Discussion

B. Questioning (Inquiry) and Contributing

C. Word Choice

D. Oral Presentation

                     

STANDARD 3.4:  (LISTENING)  ALL STUDENTS WILL LISTEN ACTIVELY TO

INFORMATION FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES IN A VARIETY OF

SITUATIONS.

A. Active Listening

B. Listening Comprehension

                    

STANDARD 3.5:  (VIEWING AND MEDIA LITERACY)  ALL STUDENTS WILL

ACCESS, VIEW, EVALUATE, AND RESPOND TO PRINT, NONPRINT, AND

ELECTRONIC TEXTS AND RESOURCES.

A. Constructing Meaning

B. Visual and Verbal Messages

C. Living with Media

Curriculum Description

 

A survey of British Literature which includes:

 

Reading – Reflection and Response:  Students will reflect upon and respond to print and non-print text.

 

Research/Analysis:  Students will conduct research and analyze text in order to inform an audience.

 

Critical Reading – Evaluation:  Students will use critical thinking skills to analyze and evaluate text structures and develop and support arguments.

 

Critical Reading – Analysis:  Students will analyze text to gain meaning and synthesize ideas.

 

Literary Analysis:  Students will analyze and interpret British Literature.

 

Language – Vocabulary, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics:  Students will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.

 

 

UNIT 1 - FROM LEGEND TO HISTORY (A.D. 449-1485)

 

Objectives:

Students will:

1.      Read selections in different genres from the beginning of the British literary tradition through the Middle Ages. (3.1.D.3)

2.      Apply a variety of reading strategies, particularly literal comprehension, appropriate for reading these selections.  (3.1.E.1)

3.      Analyze literary elements.  (3.1.G.5)

4.      Use a variety of strategies to build vocabulary. (3.1.F.3)

5.      Learn elements of grammar, usage, and style. (3.1.F.3)

6.      Use recursive writing processes to write in a variety of forms.  (3.2.B.5)

7.      Develop listening and speaking skills.  (3.3.B.4)

8.      Express and support responses to various types of texts.  (3.3.D.1)

9.      Prepare, evaluate, and critique oral presentations.  (3.3.D.6)

 

This unit may include, but not be limited to the following selections:

  • “The Seafarer”
  • “The Wanderer”
  • from the epic Beowulf
  • from A History of the English Church and People
  • from The Canterbury Tales
  • from Morte d’ Arthur
  • Early English Ballads

Approximate Duration: 10 weeks

 

Activities:

 

-         Analyze another Anglo-Saxon poem showing how the poem is representative of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

-         Write another episode which occurs in Beowulf between Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s mother and his final battle.  This should show a passage of time to link the two sections of the original work.

-         Read a section of another national epic (such as The Illiad or El Cid) which is similar to a section of Beowulf (i.e. a battle, the opening or closing of the work, or a similar setting) and compare/contrast the passages.

-         Using the Bible as a reference, explain several allusions to Christianity found in Beowulf.

-         Compare/contrast fantasy heroes or villains to Grendel or Beowulf and determine why these imaginative characters have universal appeal.

-         Write an essay comparing/contrasting Anglo-Saxon and Medieval literature, showing what influence the Normans had in the development of the literature.

-         Choose a pilgrim described in the Canterbury Tales and write a story suitable to this character.

-         Add another pilgrim to the Canterbury Tales.  The pilgrim should be representative of the Middle Ages and developed in imitation of Chaucer’s character portrayals in the General Prologue.

 

 

UNIT 2 -  CELEBRATING HUMANITY (1485-1625)

 

Objectives:

Students will:

1.      Read selections from the English Renaissance, including the work of William Shakespeare.  (3.1.D.1)

2.      Apply a variety of reading strategies, particularly strategies for reading poetry, appropriate for reading these selections.  (3.1.D.3)

3.      Analyze literary elements.

4.      Use a variety of strategies to read unfamiliar words and build vocabulary.  (3.1.F.1)

5.      Learn elements of grammar, usage, and style.  ((3.4.A.1 and C.1)

6.      Use a recursive writing process to write in a variety of forms.  (3.2.B.5)

7.      Develop listening and speaking skills.  (3.3; 3.4)

8.      Express and support responses to various types of text.  (3.3.D.1)

9.      Prepare, organize, and present literary interpretations.  (3.3.D.6)

 

This unit may include, but not be limited to the following selections:

  • Sonnets of Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Raleigh and Shakespeare.
  • from Utopia
  • “Elizabeth’s Speech Before Her Troops”
  • from The King James Bible
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth

Approximate Duration:  6 weeks

 

Activities:

 

-         Trace the chain of major events in Macbeth, showing how a cause lead to an event which in turn becomes the cause of the next event; analyze if free will or fate determines the real tragedy of the play.

-         Select puns used in Macbeth and collect quotations that contain the image and trace their value interpreting character theme or mood.

-         Design a program (Playbill) to present to an Elizabethan audience.

-         Write a soliloquy that provides additional insight of a character’s motives and/or actions for Duncan, his wife, Malcolm or Donalbain.

-         Research information concerning the production of a Shakespearean play during the Renaissance period and compare/contrast a modern film version of Macbeth with this information.

 

 

UNIT 3 – A TURBULENT TIME  (1625-1798)

 

Objectives:

Students will:

1.      Read selections from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literature.  (3.1.D.3)

2.      Apply a variety of reading strategies, particularly for constructing meaning, appropriate for reading these selections.  (3.1.E.1)

3.      Analyze literary elements.  (3.1.G.5)

4.      Use a variety of strategies to read unfamiliar words and build vocabulary.  (3.1.F.3)

5.      Learn elements of grammar, usage, and style.  ((3.4.A.1 and C.1)

6.      Use a recursive writing process to write in a variety of forms.  (3.2.B.5)

7.      Develop listening and speaking skills.  (3.3; 3.4)

8.      Express and support responses to various types of text.  (3.3.D.1)

9.      Evaluate and critique oral presentations and performances.  (3.3.D.6)

 

This unit may include, but not be limited to the following selections:

  • Poetry of Donne, Jonson, Marvell, Herrick, Suckling, Milton, Lovelace
  • from Paradise Lost
  • from Pepy’s Diary
  • from A Journal of the Plague Year
  • from Gulliver’s Travels
  • from The Rape of the Lock
  • “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
  • Essays of Samuel Johnson, Joseph Addison and Jonathan Swift

 

Approximate duration: 3-4 weeks

Activities:

 

-         Read a poem written by a Cavalier and/or Metaphysical poet not included in the text, identify the school of thought represented in the poem and analyze the poem as representative of this thinking. Present individually or in groups to the class for evaluation.

-         Choose a modern “vanity” which is a problem in society and write an allegory to demonstrate how this is true and the dangers of this practice in modern society.

-         Choose a modern example of the subjects used in metaphysical conceits, and using modern technology and concepts, write analogies in the form of a conceit to express the comparison.

-         Find words coined during the twentieth and twenty-first century and prepare a “dictionary” in the style of Johnson to define these words.

-         Assume the persona of Lemuel Gulliver or Brobdingnag and write a satire of a modern social situation.  Limit the setting to a contemporary location.

 

 

UNIT 4 – REBELS AND DREAMERS  (1798-1832)

 

Objectives:

Students will:

-         Read selections from the Romantic period in English literature.  (3.1.D.3)

-         Apply a variety of reading strategies, particularly for constructing meaning, appropriate for reading these selections.  (3.1.E.1)

-         Analyze literary elements.  (3.1.G.5)

-         Use a variety of strategies to read unfamiliar words and build vocabulary.  (3.1.F.1)

-         Learn elements of grammar, usage, and style.  ((3.4.A.1 and C.1)

-         Use a recursive writing process to write in a variety of forms.  (3.2.B.5)

-         Develop listening and speaking skills.  (3.3; 3.4)

-         Express and support responses to various types of text.  (3.3.D.1)

-         Prepare, organize, and present literary interpretations.  (3.3.D.6)

 

This unit may include but not be limited to the following selections:

  • Poetry of Burns, Baillie, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley.
  • Essays of Byron, Macaulay, Austen, and Wollstonecraft
  • Frankenstein
  • Pride and Prejudice

 

Approximate Duration: 4 weeks

 

Activities:

 

-         Respond to the quotation by Thomas Wolfe that true Romantic feeling is “not the desire to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping you.”

-         Chart a list of subjects which are discussed in various works read in this unit, and indicate which writers have used their subjects, explain how they are used, and give examples from their works.  Use this as a basis for a compare/contrast essay.

-         Research the use of Frankenstein in “pop” culture.

-         Create a “final” chapter for Frankenstein that more clearly indicates the fate of the monster.

 

 

UNIT 5 – PROGRESS AND DECLINE (1833-1901)

 

Objectives:

Students will:

1.      Read selections from the Victorian period.  (3.1.D.3)

2.      Apply a variety of reading strategies, particularly for constructing meaning, appropriate for reading these selections.  (3.1.E.1)

3.      Analyze literary elements.  (3.1.G.5)

4.      Use a variety of strategies to read unfamiliar words and build vocabulary.  (3.1.F.1)

5.      Learn elements of grammar, usage, and style.  ((3.4.A.1 and C.1)

6.      Use a recursive writing process to write in a variety of forms.  (3.2.B.5)

7.      Develop listening and speaking skills.  (3.3; 3.4)

8.      Present, evaluate, and critique oral presentations and performances.  (3.3.D.6)

 

This unit may include but not be limited to the following selections:

  • Poetry of Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Kipling, Bronte, Harding, Hopkins, Housman, Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Hardy
  • Wuthering Heights
  • Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • from Hard Times (Dickens)
  • from Jane Eyre (C. Bronte)
  • Return of the Native (Hardy)

 

Approximate Duration: 7 weeks

 

Activities:

 

-         Compare/contrast the speakers of the dramatic monologues: Tennyson’s “Ulysses” and Browning’s “My Last Duchess” focusing on the personalities of the speakers revealed in the poems.

-         Rewrite a dramatic monologue from the perspective of the subject.

-         Select passages from Hardy’s Return of the Native that suggest that Egdon Heath should be considered as one of the characters in the story.  After analyzing these passages, imitate this setting personification in an original description.

-         Write a conclusion for the novel and explain your position.

 

 

UNIT 6 - A TIME OF RAPID CHANGE (1901-PRESENT)

 

Objectives:

Students will:

1.      Read selections from English literature of the twentieth and twenty-first century.  (3.1.D.3)

2.      Apply a variety of reading strategies, particularly reading fiction appropriate for these selections.  (3.1.G.5)

3.      Analyze literary elements.  (3.1.G.5)

4.      Use a variety of strategies to read unfamiliar words and build vocabulary.  (3.1.F.1)

5.      Learn elements of grammar, usage, and style.  ((3.4.A.1 and C.1)

6.      Use a recursive writing process to write in a variety of forms.  (3.2.B.5)

7.      Develop listening and speaking skills.  (3.3; 3.4)

8.      Express and support responses to various types of texts.  (3.3.D.1)

9.      Prepare, organize, and present literary interpretations.  (3.3.D.6)

 

This unit may include, but not be limited to the following selections:

  • Poetry of Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Auden, MacNiece, Spender, Owen, Heaney, Thomas
  • World War I Poetry
  • Critical Commentary of “The Hollow Men”
  • Selected readings of George Orwell, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Graham Greene
  • 1984
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Brave New World

 

Approximate Duration:  8 weeks

 

Activities:

 

-         Explain the principles of Newspeak and Doublethink in 1984 and show how Orwell uses these in the novel. 

-         Research event prior to Orwell writing 1984 that led to his predictions, and judge Orwell’s validity as a prophet.

-         Read a late twentieth century (or twenty-first century) apocalyptic novel and compare to 1984.

-         Select a contemporary piece of literature that reflects “modern experience,” and compare that with Virginia Woolf’s or Muriel Spark’s interpretations of the relationship between appearances and reality.

 

List of texts, resources and/or literature

 

  • Prentice Hall Literature: The British Tradition, Volumes 1 and 2 (2007)

 

Supplementary Materials:

  • Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd
  • Beowulf, (translated by Raffel)
  • Grendel, John Gardner
  • The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, R.L. Stevenson
  • Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  • Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
  • Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  • 1984, George Orwell
  • Self-selection modern/post modern novels by British authors.
  • SAT vocabulary
  • Wordmasters (SAT/AP Prep)

 

Additional Activities:

·        Write an epilogue for Sarum.

·        Quotations projects

·        Research for background for selected works.

·        Spring project (TBD each year)

·        Playbills

·        Posters and presentations reflecting various ages of British literature

 

 

Additional Activities specifically for SAT/ACT PREP:

 

I.                    Writing About Literature 3.2

a.       Analyze Literary Periods

b.      Compare/Contrast Literary Trends

c.       Compare/Contrast Literary Themes

d.      Evaluate Literary Trends

e.       Analyze Historical Periods

f.        Evaluate Modern/Post Modern Literary Trends

 

II.                 Writing Workshops 3.2

a.       Narration: Autobiographical Narration

b.      Persuasion: Persuasive Essay

c.       Narration: Reflective Essay

d.      Workplace Writing: Job Portfolio and Resume

e.       Research: Historical Investigation

f.        Multimedia Report

 

III.               Vocabulary Workshop 3.2; 3.3

a.       Recalling Information

b.      Recalling and Understanding Meaning

c.       Analyzing Information

d.      Demonstrating Understanding

e.       Applying Information

f.        Judging the Value of Texts

 

IV.              Assessment  3.1; 3.2; and 3.3

a.       Summaries of Written Text

b.      Forms of Propaganda

c.       Writer’s Point of View

d.      Critical Reasoning

e.       Paired Passages

f.        Strategy, Organization, and Style

 

V.                 Communication  3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4; and 3.5

a.       Delivering Autobiographical Presentations

b.      Analyzing Advertising

c.       Analyzing Persuasive Techniques

d.      Critiquing Persuasive Device

e.       Delivering a Persuasive Speech

f.        Analyzing Bias in News Media