English Literature and Composition
Abridged Syllabus (suggested)
Two books I will refer to throughout the course are How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren and The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. Limited copies of these books are available from the Kealakehe High School Library. I recommend these books as well: The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden and I.A. Richards, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Other suggested readings include:
Baranick, Jenny. Kiss My Asterisk.
Gordon, Karen Elizabeth. The New Well-Tempered Sentence.
Hale, Constance. Sin and Syntax.
Kolln, Martha. Rhetorical Grammar.
Landon, Brooks. Building Great Sentences.
Lanham, Richard A. Style: An Anti-textbook.
Le Guin, Ursula K. Steering the Craft.
Longknife, Ann, Ph.D. and K. D. Sullivan. The Art of Styling Sentences.
O’Conner, Patricia T. Woe is I.
Safire, William. How Not to Write.
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Tufte, Virginia. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style.
Walsh, Bill. The Elephants of Style.
Zinsser, William. On Writing Well.
Also, we will mention The Great Conversation, The Great Books, and The Great Ideas as enumerated by Mortimer J. Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins. I suggest you read them and, if you intend to attend college or university, I suggest you buy them.
A brief overview of American literature proceeds mastery of:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
The Great Gatsby,
The Invisible Man,
Beloved.
A brief overview of British Literature and the mastery of some more of the frequently used texts from the Advanced Placement Examination (courtesy of Mary Ellen Ackerman). Those texts will include:
Wuthering Heights,
Heart of Darkness,
A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man,
Mrs. Dalloway.
Choose one of the above books and over the summer do an analytical reading of it (see attachment). Be prepared to present your book to the class in a ten to fifteen minute speech.
Literary terms and strange words (such as polyptoton, zeugma, chiasmus, anadiplosis) will be discussed in context, as they arise in the reading and our discussions.
Unit One – Overview of American Literature – Survey of American Lit.
Week One – Reading like a Writer: Propositional content
Begin Huckleberry Finn
Data Point One (formative assessment) – able to show density of ideas in a sentence
(Summative Assessment) Practice Multiple Choice Exam
Week Two – Importance of word order (second tier term: syntax)
Continue with Huckleberry Finn
(Summative Assessment) Practice Essay Question 1 – essay questions must be completed in class; no late papers will be accepted; no make-up essays without a school acknowledged excused absence.
Data Point Two (formative assessment) – able to explain meaning in terms of word order
Week Three – Word Choice (diction) and the Ladder of Abstraction
Finish Huckleberry Finn
Practice Essay Question 2
(Formative Assessment) demonstrates ability to move from concrete to abstract
Week Four – Writing long sentences (Tough, Sweet, and Stuffy)
Begin Great Gatsby
(Formative and Summative Assessment) August Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills) last class of the month. Each student is responsible for keeping a written record of who spoke and the title of the book.
Week Five – Prose takes steps (Advantages of adjectival steps)
Finish Great Gatsby
(Formative Assessment) Using adjectival steps in practice sentences
(Summative Assessment) Practice Essay Question 3
Week Six – Free Modifiers and Bound Modifiers
Begin Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) multiple step sentences
(Summative Assessment) Second Practice M/C exam
Week Seven – Directions of Modification
Continue Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) Left, right, and mid-branching sentences.
(Summative Assessment) Second Practice Essay Question 1
Week Eight – Coordinate, subordinate, and Mixed Patterns.
Continue Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) Multi-level sentences
(Summative Assessment) Second Practice Essay Question 2
Week Nine - (Summative Assessments) Second Practice Essay Question 3 and September Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills) – last class of the month
Unit Two – American Masterpieces – Mastery
(Formative Assessment) Coordinate Cumulative Sentences
(Summative Assessment) October Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills)
(Formative Assessment) Subordinate and Mixed Cumulatives
(Summative Assessment) Third Practice M/C.
Finish Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) Prompts of Comparison
(Summative Assessment) Third Practice Q 1.
Toni Morrison – Beloved – race relations, descriptive language, free modifying phrases
(Formative Assessment) Prompts of Explanation
(Summative Assessment) Third Q 2 essay and Third Q 3 essay – November Book Talk
Unit Three – Overview of British Literature (Survey)
Week One – Prose Rhythm
Begin Wuthering Heights
(Summative Assessment) January Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills).
Week Two – Creating Suspense
Continue Wuthering Heights
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Multiple Choice
Week Three – Suspense (continued)
Finish Wuthering Heights.
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Q 1 Essay
Week Four – Delay
Begin Heart of Darkness
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Q 2 Essay
Week Five – Patterns for Suspense
Finish Heart of Darkness
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Q 3 Essay
Week Six – Balance and Form
Begin A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(Summative Assessment) February Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills).
Week Seven – Duple Rhythm
Continue Portrait of an Artist
(Summative Assessment) Fifth Practice M/C
Week Eight – Triple Rhythms or Serial Constructions
(sentence structure).
Continue Portrait
(Summative Assessment) Fifth Q 1
Week Nine – Balance and Series
Finish Portrait of an Artist
(Summative Assessment) Fifth Q 2 and Fifth Q 3 (Semester Final)
Unit Four - Modernism - Mastery
Master Sentences
Begin Mrs. Dalloway.
(Summative Assessment) March Book Talk – Sixth M/C
Sentences in Sequence
Continue Mrs. Dalloway
(Summative Assessment) April Book Talk – Sixth Q 1.
Sentences and Style
Finish V. Woolfe – Mrs. Dalloway – (Stream of Consciousness, rhythm, imagery, personal identity, relationships, time, change, and memory).
(Summative Assessment) Sixth Q 2
Review of the Pedagogy of the Sentence
(Summative Assessment) Sixth Q 3.
I am available for advice and tutoring, guidance and suggestions at [email protected] or [email protected].
Abridged Syllabus (suggested)
Two books I will refer to throughout the course are How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren and The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. Limited copies of these books are available from the Kealakehe High School Library. I recommend these books as well: The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden and I.A. Richards, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Other suggested readings include:
Baranick, Jenny. Kiss My Asterisk.
Gordon, Karen Elizabeth. The New Well-Tempered Sentence.
Hale, Constance. Sin and Syntax.
Kolln, Martha. Rhetorical Grammar.
Landon, Brooks. Building Great Sentences.
Lanham, Richard A. Style: An Anti-textbook.
Le Guin, Ursula K. Steering the Craft.
Longknife, Ann, Ph.D. and K. D. Sullivan. The Art of Styling Sentences.
O’Conner, Patricia T. Woe is I.
Safire, William. How Not to Write.
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Tufte, Virginia. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style.
Walsh, Bill. The Elephants of Style.
Zinsser, William. On Writing Well.
Also, we will mention The Great Conversation, The Great Books, and The Great Ideas as enumerated by Mortimer J. Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins. I suggest you read them and, if you intend to attend college or university, I suggest you buy them.
A brief overview of American literature proceeds mastery of:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
The Great Gatsby,
The Invisible Man,
Beloved.
A brief overview of British Literature and the mastery of some more of the frequently used texts from the Advanced Placement Examination (courtesy of Mary Ellen Ackerman). Those texts will include:
Wuthering Heights,
Heart of Darkness,
A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man,
Mrs. Dalloway.
Choose one of the above books and over the summer do an analytical reading of it (see attachment). Be prepared to present your book to the class in a ten to fifteen minute speech.
Literary terms and strange words (such as polyptoton, zeugma, chiasmus, anadiplosis) will be discussed in context, as they arise in the reading and our discussions.
Unit One – Overview of American Literature – Survey of American Lit.
Week One – Reading like a Writer: Propositional content
Begin Huckleberry Finn
Data Point One (formative assessment) – able to show density of ideas in a sentence
(Summative Assessment) Practice Multiple Choice Exam
Week Two – Importance of word order (second tier term: syntax)
Continue with Huckleberry Finn
(Summative Assessment) Practice Essay Question 1 – essay questions must be completed in class; no late papers will be accepted; no make-up essays without a school acknowledged excused absence.
Data Point Two (formative assessment) – able to explain meaning in terms of word order
Week Three – Word Choice (diction) and the Ladder of Abstraction
Finish Huckleberry Finn
Practice Essay Question 2
(Formative Assessment) demonstrates ability to move from concrete to abstract
Week Four – Writing long sentences (Tough, Sweet, and Stuffy)
Begin Great Gatsby
(Formative and Summative Assessment) August Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills) last class of the month. Each student is responsible for keeping a written record of who spoke and the title of the book.
Week Five – Prose takes steps (Advantages of adjectival steps)
Finish Great Gatsby
(Formative Assessment) Using adjectival steps in practice sentences
(Summative Assessment) Practice Essay Question 3
Week Six – Free Modifiers and Bound Modifiers
Begin Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) multiple step sentences
(Summative Assessment) Second Practice M/C exam
Week Seven – Directions of Modification
Continue Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) Left, right, and mid-branching sentences.
(Summative Assessment) Second Practice Essay Question 1
Week Eight – Coordinate, subordinate, and Mixed Patterns.
Continue Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) Multi-level sentences
(Summative Assessment) Second Practice Essay Question 2
Week Nine - (Summative Assessments) Second Practice Essay Question 3 and September Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills) – last class of the month
Unit Two – American Masterpieces – Mastery
(Formative Assessment) Coordinate Cumulative Sentences
(Summative Assessment) October Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills)
(Formative Assessment) Subordinate and Mixed Cumulatives
(Summative Assessment) Third Practice M/C.
Finish Invisible Man
(Formative Assessment) Prompts of Comparison
(Summative Assessment) Third Practice Q 1.
Toni Morrison – Beloved – race relations, descriptive language, free modifying phrases
(Formative Assessment) Prompts of Explanation
(Summative Assessment) Third Q 2 essay and Third Q 3 essay – November Book Talk
Unit Three – Overview of British Literature (Survey)
Week One – Prose Rhythm
Begin Wuthering Heights
(Summative Assessment) January Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills).
Week Two – Creating Suspense
Continue Wuthering Heights
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Multiple Choice
Week Three – Suspense (continued)
Finish Wuthering Heights.
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Q 1 Essay
Week Four – Delay
Begin Heart of Darkness
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Q 2 Essay
Week Five – Patterns for Suspense
Finish Heart of Darkness
(Summative Assessment) Fourth Practice Q 3 Essay
Week Six – Balance and Form
Begin A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(Summative Assessment) February Book Talk (effective oral communication, listening skills).
Week Seven – Duple Rhythm
Continue Portrait of an Artist
(Summative Assessment) Fifth Practice M/C
Week Eight – Triple Rhythms or Serial Constructions
(sentence structure).
Continue Portrait
(Summative Assessment) Fifth Q 1
Week Nine – Balance and Series
Finish Portrait of an Artist
(Summative Assessment) Fifth Q 2 and Fifth Q 3 (Semester Final)
Unit Four - Modernism - Mastery
Master Sentences
Begin Mrs. Dalloway.
(Summative Assessment) March Book Talk – Sixth M/C
Sentences in Sequence
Continue Mrs. Dalloway
(Summative Assessment) April Book Talk – Sixth Q 1.
Sentences and Style
Finish V. Woolfe – Mrs. Dalloway – (Stream of Consciousness, rhythm, imagery, personal identity, relationships, time, change, and memory).
(Summative Assessment) Sixth Q 2
Review of the Pedagogy of the Sentence
(Summative Assessment) Sixth Q 3.
I am available for advice and tutoring, guidance and suggestions at [email protected] or [email protected].