General Course Description: This rigorous course requires critical writing based on works read. Students will be able to write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Using various methods of inquiry, students will organize, interpret, and synthesize information. Literary selections studied include Julius Caesar, A Separate Peace, Lord of the Flies, Hamilton's Mythology, Homer's Odyssey, and selected short stories, poetry, informational text, and drama.
Curriculum Overview as Aligned to the Common Core State Standards: To become college and career ready, students will grapple with works of exceptional craft and thought whose range extends across genres, cultures, and centuries. Such works offer profound insights into the human condition and serve as models for students' own thinking and writing. Additionally, students will have ample opportunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations - as part of a whole class, in small groups, and in partnerships- built around important content in various domains. To be college and career ready in language, students must have firm control over the conventions in standard English. They must also have extensive vocabularies built through reading and study, enabling them to comprehend complex texts and engage in purposeful writing. Students need to be able to use technology strategically when creating, refining, and collaborating on writing. They will become adept at gathering information, evaluating sources, and citing material accurately, reporting findings from their sources in a clear and cogent manner.
Course Objectives:
Reading Standards for Literature and Informational Texts:
Curriculum Overview as Aligned to the Common Core State Standards: To become college and career ready, students will grapple with works of exceptional craft and thought whose range extends across genres, cultures, and centuries. Such works offer profound insights into the human condition and serve as models for students' own thinking and writing. Additionally, students will have ample opportunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations - as part of a whole class, in small groups, and in partnerships- built around important content in various domains. To be college and career ready in language, students must have firm control over the conventions in standard English. They must also have extensive vocabularies built through reading and study, enabling them to comprehend complex texts and engage in purposeful writing. Students need to be able to use technology strategically when creating, refining, and collaborating on writing. They will become adept at gathering information, evaluating sources, and citing material accurately, reporting findings from their sources in a clear and cogent manner.
Course Objectives:
Reading Standards for Literature and Informational Texts:
- Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis and draw inferences from the text.
- Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail.
- Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
- Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings.
- Analyze how an author’s use of structure within a text creates effects such as mystery, tension, or surprise.
- Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States.
- Students will read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
- Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant evidence.
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
- Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
- Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
- Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update writing products.
- Conduct research projects to answer a question or solve a problem; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
- Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using databases effectively; assess the usefulness of each source; integrate information into the text selectively, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citations.
- Actively participate in group discussions by building upon peers’ ideas, asking insightful questions and maturely evaluating statements from all sides of an argument.
- Present researched findings in a clear manner, strategically using digital media so the audience can make informed evaluations of the findings.
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
- Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
- Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown words, phrases, figures of speech through the use of dictionaries, thesauri and web resources.