2013-2014 English II Pre-AP
First Six Weeks: Literary Genres (Theme—Moral Dilemma)
Reading Selections (select from these or similar texts)
Short Stories: “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
“The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson (pg. 202)
“Like the Sun” by R.K. Narayan (pg. 220)
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
Poetry:
“September, the First Day of School” by Howard Nemerov
“Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---“ by Emily Dickinson (pg. 224)
“Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
“Richard Cory” lyrics by Simon and Garfunkel
Nonfiction: “Man in the Water” by Roger Rosenblatt (pg. 376)
Skills
Reading Strategies: annotation, author’s purpose, inference, main idea, supporting details, theme,
understand elements of fiction and nonfiction
Literary Elements: allusion, character motivation, diction (connotation/denotation, idioms),
conflict, mood, plot, point of view, setting, tone, characterization
Grammar: appositive phrases, verb tense, pronoun usage, subject/verb agreement, infinitives,
gerunds, participles, misplaced and dangling modifiers, passive/active voice,
coordination/subordination
Composition: thesis statement, paragraph structure, expository—analytical, cause/effect
Second Six Weeks: Fiction (Theme—Alienation and Loss of Innocence)
Reading Selections (select from these or similar texts)
Novel:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Novella:
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Poetry:
“To Be of Use” by Marge Piercy
“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
“The Witch” by Jack Prelutsky (around Halloween)
Nonfiction: “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood” by Leon Botstein
“The Murder of James Bulger” by anonymous
Excerpts from Speak Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
“Why Boys Become Vicious” by William Golding
Video:
The Simpsons – Das Bus episode
Skills
Reading Strategies: annotation, critical analysis, generalizations, inferences, main idea,
summarize
Literary Elements: allusion, character motivation, conflict, diction, theme, plot, tone
Grammar: adjectives/adverbs, relative/reciprocal pronouns, restrictive/nonrestrictive clauses,
parallelism, sentence structures
Composition: persuasive (argumentative), character analysis
Third Six Weeks: Shakespearean Tragedy (Theme—Pride and Power)
Reading Selections (select from these or similar texts)
Drama:
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (pg. 1186)
Poetry:
“The Old Stoic” by Emily Bronte
Nonfiction: “The Life of Caesar” by Suetonius
“Speech at the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry
“Speech During the Invasion of Constantinople” by Empress Theodora
Video:
William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
A&E Biography William Shakespeare: Life of Drama
Skills
Reading Strategies: allusion, annotation, determining audience, author’s purpose, critical
analysis, generalizations, inferences, main idea, paraphrase, summarize
Literary Elements: direct/indirect characterization, conflict, motifs in drama, plot, tone, rhetorical
devices (parallelism, rhetorical questions, repetition), symbols
Grammar: parts of speech, phrases, clauses (adjective), sentences
Composition: persuasive (argumentative), rhetorical analysis (ethos, pathos, logos)
Fourth Six Weeks: Nonfiction (Theme—Civil Disobedience)
Reading Selections (select from these or similar texts)
Memoir:
from Night by Elie Wiesel
from Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
“Montgomery Boycott” by Coretta Scott King
Speech:
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by Elie Wiesel
A Eulogy for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Robert F. Kennedy
“Freedom or Death” by Emmeline Pankhurst
“Quit India” by Mahatma Gandhi
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by Nelson Mandela
Novel:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (read outside of class)
Video:
Nelson Mandela’s Acceptance Speech
Elie Wiesel’s Acceptance Speech
Robert F. Kennedy’s Eulogy for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Skills
Reading Strategies: annotation, determining audience, author’s purpose, inferences, main idea,
paraphrase, summarize, distinguishing fact from opinion, cultural context, cultural
characteristics, claims, support, counterarguments
Literary Elements: conflict, plot, tone, diction, syntax
Grammar: parts of speech, phrases, clauses (adjective), sentences
Composition: persuasive/position research (argumentative), rhetorical analysis
Fifth Six Weeks: Fiction (Theme—Legacies for the Future)
Reading Selections (select from these or similar texts)
Novel:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Poetry:
“There Will Come Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale
Short Stories: “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury
“By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet
“There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury
Nonfiction: “You Have Insulted Me” by Kurt Vonnegut
Student-selected articles and essays
Video:
Ray Bradbury: An American Icon
2081- Everyone Will Finally Be Equal
Skills
Reading Strategies: annotation, author’s purpose, main idea, inference, paraphrase
Literary Elements: allusion, character, detail, diction, imagery, plot/conflict, point of view,
setting, theme, tone, figures of speech, symbol
Grammar: mechanics, phrases (absolute, appositive, gerund, infinitive, participial, prepositional),
clauses, sentence structure
Composition: expository (research-based), persuasive (argumentative)
Sixth Six Weeks: Greek Tragedy (Theme—Choices and Consequences)
Reading Selections (select from these or similar texts)
Drama:
Antigone by Sophocles (pg. 1067)
Short Stories: “The Stolen Child” by William Butler Yeats
“Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin
Nonfiction: Story of David and Bathsheba (Bible)
Excerpt from ”On Idleness” by Samuel Johnson
Skills
Reading Strategies: annotation, determining audience, author’s purpose, paraphrase, inference,
draw conclusions, understand structure/elements of drama
Literary Elements: allusion, character archetypes in classical literature, plot, tone, characteristics
of Greek Tragedy, dramatic irony, theme, conflict, characterization, antagonist/protagonist
Grammar: passive voice, infinitives, gerunds, participles, modifiers, parallelism,
coordination/subordination
Composition: expository—cause/effect, persuasive appeals