COURSE DESCRIPTION:
In this course students will continue to develop the skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Students will examine a variety of classic and modern literary texts. Writing and speaking assignments will be both responses to literature and from personal experience.
POWER STANDARDS:
Reading and Literature:
Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of classic and contemporary literature.
Understand and draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed—re-reading, self-correcting, summarizing, class and group discussions, generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, and comparing information from several sources.
and most importantly:
Develop an interpretation that exhibits personal engagement, originality, careful reading, understanding, and insight.
Writing:
Use the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
Review, evaluate, and revise writing to improve coherent development of the thesis, logic of organization, depth of information, and clarity.
Apply conventions of grammar correctly.
Apply conventions of punctuation and capitalization correctly.
Apply conventions of spelling correctly.
Use words precisely and with variety.
ELEMENTS OF THE CLASS:
Theme-Self-discovery
Unit One: My Dog Skip and the 5 Paragraph Essay
Book/Film Study: My Dog Skip
Essay Topic (Through full writing process): How does Skip transform the lives of three characters in the story?
Product: Five strong paragraphs with Introduction, Thesis, Body and Conclusion with effective transitions between each paragraph. Beginning grasp of MLA format needed.
Unit Two: Autobiographical Non-Fiction-The College Application Essay
Essay Title: “A Significant Moment In My Life” 2 pages double spaced, typed, 12pt font. beginning MLA format needed
Word Origins Part One
Unit Three: Mysteries- Reading and Writing Imaginative Fiction
Reading: Short Story: Full Circle, by Sue Grafton
Short Story: The Utterly Perfect Murder, by Ray Bradbury
Drama: Trifles by Susan Glaspell
Critical Thinking Skills: Asking questions to solve puzzles-
“The Minute Mystery”
Cause/Effect
Assumptions
Writing: Structure of story-The Plot Graph:
Character & Conflict, Setting, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.
Use of dialogue and punctuation
PRODUCT: 2 page imaginative fiction story, based on a Minute Mystery (full writing process)
Speaking: Story to be read in front of class
Word Origins Part Two
Unit Four: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Writing: Human Rights and Cultural personal narratives
Product: Portfolio of 5 written vignettes through entire writing process
Literary Analysis-Elements of Fiction:
Voice
Characterization
Conflict
Theme
Group Comprehension Strategies
Word Origins Part Three
District Writing Assessment
ASSESSMENT (With Grade Percentages)
4 process letters to me, reflecting on your learning (5%)
My Dog Skip Unit (20%)
Autobiographical Nonfiction Unit (20%)
Imaginative Fiction Unit (20%)
The House On Mango Street Unit (20%)
Attendance, Class Discussion and Participation (10%)
Peer Reviews on Writing (5%)
