Subject: English Language Arts

Course: English 11                                                   

 The grade eleven English Language Arts course of study is aligned with the NYS learning standards.  It uses a rich selection of content as the basis for student performance.  Students retrieve, analyze, organize, and compare information from multiple documents.  Students will continue expanding their reading, listening, and writing strategies.  Students will read fiction and non-fiction novels, short stories, poems, and plays.  Emphasis in reading is focused on analyzing, interpreting, and comparing pieces of work.   

Overview of Course

        Some questions that we will ponder as we read the literature this year are: What is the meaning of life, What does it mean to live, What does it mean to die, Is our way of life the best, What is our society, and What can we truly learn from those that have gone before us?

Short Stories                                                                   3-4 Weeks     

            This unit continues to focus on literary terms, and plotting stories.  Student’s read a selection of short stories.  Emphasis is placed on analyzing, and deciphering each part of the story.  Students read, discuss, and plot the stories along a plot chart.  They identify the characteristics of the story, such as protagonist, antagonist, conflict, exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.                                                                                                             

Novel Study I                                                                                       4 Weeks

Light in the Forest                                                                                  

            This unit focuses on a young man struggle with identity.  Non-fiction pieces are introduced and parts of the regents are practiced to express their position on a given theme. What would life be like if no one owned anything?

Novel Study II                                                                                3 Weeks

The Crucible                                                                          

          This unit speaks about McCartheism and the witch trials that were very similar.

Novel Study III                                                                                    4 Weeks

Tuesdays with Morrie                                                                       

          Real life story of Mitch Album and his Tuesday sessions with Morrie.  What is life? "You can only truly know how to live, when you know what it means to die".        

Research Unit                                                                                       3 Weeks

        All English 11 students create a four page research paper.  Students demonstrate fluency of a well-structured essay, a works cited page, and in-text citation on varying topics.  The focus of the research paper is on the process.

 Novel Unit    IV                                                                                       4 Weeks

Old Man and the Sea

          One of the all time classics. Hemingway's story of an old man's travails on the sea offers a lot of inspiration. 

 Poetry Unit                                                                                 3 Weeks

           Dickinson, Whitman and Emerson are the emphasis.  The philosophical "Transcendentalist" movement will be discussed.      

Grammar Unit                                                                                   

            This unit may be taught throughout the year or as one solid unit.  The focus of this unit is on the proper punctuation of the English language.  Emphasis will be put on each individual piece of punctuation, with an assessment given after each section.

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