Anne Routon and James Williams
English IV Literature and Composition Syllabus
Course Overview
This course in literature and writing teaches beginning college writing through the
rudiments of rhetorical theory, and follows the curricular requirements described in
the English IV Course Description. Throughout the course, both students and the
teacher will be involved in a variety of activities to build skills and acquire mastery.
Reading
This component will consist of three strands: experience, evaluation, and
interpretation.
Students Will:
1. Read carefully and critically analyze imaginative literature
2. Read texts drawn from multiple genres, periods, and cultures in-depth
3. Read works from several genres and periods
4. Analyze how meaning is embodied in literary forms
5. Make connections between various literary works
Writing
This module reinforces the reading and is weighted toward the student writing
about literature.
Students Will:
1. Write to understand a literary work. This may involve writing response
and reaction papers, along with annotations, free writing, and keeping
some of reading journal.
2. Write to explain a literary work through analysis and interpretation.
This may include writing brief focused analysis on aspects of language
and structure.
3. Write to evaluate a literary work via making and explaining judgments
about its artistry and exploring its underlying social and cultural values
through analysis, interpretation and argument.
4. Write creatively to sharpen understanding of what writers have
accomplished and deepen their appreciation of literary artistry.
5. Develop and organize ideas in clear, coherent, and persuasive language.
6. Attend to the matters of precision and correctness as necessary.
7. Develop stylistic maturity characterized by
 a wide ranging vocabulary that is both accurate and resourceful,
 a variety of sentence structures that employ subordination and
coordination,
 a logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques of
coherence such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis
 a balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail,

an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining
a consistent voice, and achieving emphasis through parallelism and
antithesis.
8. Write based upon research
9. Write under the time constraints they encounter on examinations in
college courses in many disciplines, including English.
Viewing and Representing
Students Will:
1. Use different media as texts for study of literary elements, irony,
philosophy, and symbolism
2. Create texts in different media to reinforce learning about the literature
studied in the course.
3. Create a chronicle of their senior year in the form of a “Senior Scrapbook’”
applying principles of effective design.
Listening and Speaking
Students Will:
1. Analyze and evaluate texts orally.
2. Organize oral presentations and responses.
3. Read aloud both assigned texts and own/peer compositions to produce
effective tone and dramatic effect with attention to the rhythm of diction,
the syntactical balance, and musicality of language.
4. Present the results of research to the whole or small groups.
5. Deconstruct film, books, etc., orally.
6. Participate in graded discussions.
Grading System
Essays 30 percent: Students will create essays both in and out of class. In class essays will be
graded as first draft writing in accordance with the College Board Literature rubric developed
by the College Board. All other essays will be graded by this rubric or by a specific teacher
made rubric. Students will participate in peer editing, self-editing, and evaluation and group
writing analysis before producing the final copy of some papers.
The majority of writing will be short critical papers, explicating poetry and drama. Though prompt
will vary, each paper will use specific and well-chosen evidence to clearly express an assertion about
poems, drama, and fiction. These should be based on close textual analysis of the structure, style
(figurative language, imagery, symbolism, tone), and social/historical values. All paper written
outside of class should be typed, double spaced and proofread. They should be two to three pages
long. A rough draft should accompany all papers.
Students earning a score of “5” or lower on an essay are encouraged to rewrite the paper for a higher
score. Students may not earn a score higher than “7” on rewritten essays. Students will turn in all
drafts, copies, and plans when turning in final copies. These will be kept in writing folders until the
end of the year.
Vocabulary Tests/Quizzes 20 percent: Quizzes, both announced and unannounced, are used
primarily to check for basic understanding and/or for reading of assigned materials. Questions can
also cover basic vocabulary as related to the unit or to SAT lists, along with questions about literary
devices in a given passage.
Daily 20 percent: These assignments vary. Some may include vocabulary exercises, annotations.
Planning graphics. Edits for an essay, class discussions and Socratic seminars. All of these activities
are geared toward developing speed and fluency in analyzing and responding to texts.
Major Grades 30 percent: On occasion student will have an essay examination that asks them to
synthesize their understanding of a text. The majority of tests in this course will be based on literary
analysis, devices, and meaning from a variety of texts. Other examination will consist of those in a
College Board format, featuring both multiple choice and essay items. All projects in or outside of
class fall under this category.
Course Organization
Although each six weeks period revolves around a different concept, all units contain components
requiring students to acquire a personal vocabulary that can be used In rhetorical and literary
analysis, to develop speed and fluency in their writing and to use models to emulate stylistic
excellence. Students will also produce organized writing that proceeds in a logical manner using
transitions to enhance coherence. They will refer to textual evidence in a work while using
commentary to provide rhetorical and stylistic analysis. Students will enhance this analysis by
developing skill in varying syntax and by developing a distinct voice in their writing.
Students must produce annotations and or graphic organizers (DIDLS, SYNTAX CHARTS, TWIST, etc.)
for each reading and writing assignment.
Senior Scrapbook
Unit Goals:
1. Develop an individual voice and style.
2. Compose for personal reasons with the “self” as audience.
3. Communicate personal experience.
4. Use standard and colloquial dialogue effectively.
5. Compose original compositions with ease and authority.
6. Control tone in one’s own writing.
7. Extend and elaborate upon evidence and ideas.
8. Exhibit mastery of the techniques and conventions of written English in a polished and
practiced manner.
9. Collect and organize information in a coherent and orderly form.
10. Produce a product incorporating design, colors, visuals, and text in an aesthetically pleasing
manner.
11. Connect the theme of the product to a literary work studied during the year.
Assessment:
1. Scrapbook items and paragraphs graded according to a scoring guide.
2. Final product graded according to a scoring guide.
Activities:
1. Collect five items each six weeks that fit in a book.
2. Write 100 words about the significance of each item.
3. Submit one set every six weeks in a 9 x 12 Clasped envelope.
4. Create the final scrapbook and submit during the last six weeks.
Independent Reading Unit
Unit Goals:
1. Read and understand a difficult text.
2. Increase reading speed and fluency of comprehension through the completion of lengthy and
challenging reading assignments.
3. Analyze an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices.
4. Move beyond personal reader response to objective analysis.
5. Read widely a variety of complex texts that span cultures, time periods, genders, and
philosophies.
6. Become culturally literate in their own culture and that of others.
7. Use credible evidence from their reading for proof of thesis or ideas.
8. Perceive irony, ambiguity, and complexity in layered texts. Connect themes of diverse texts.
9. Identify the author’s bias and purpose.
10. Assess the author’s credibility.
11. Mark, highlight, and annotate a text in order to discern patterns and relationships.
12. Practice analysis , synthesis, and evaluation.
13. Compose original analyses with ease and authority.
14. Apply strategies for writing under pressure.
15. Practice the quick analysis of information, giving immediate response.
16. Avoid plot summary and redundancy in literary analysis.
17. Integrate quotations effectively.
18. Refer to images and details in the text.
19. Analyze the effect of the author’s use of detail, diction, images, and language patterns.
20. Use present tense when writing about literature.
21. Mark, highlight and annotate a text in order to discern patterns and relationships.
22. Practice writing analysis.
23. Develop speed and fluency. Present an idea with clarity and organization.
24. Sustain and develop an essay using both effective choice of detail and a wide range of
commentary.
25. Recognize and use effectively the formal level of discourse.
26. Perceive patterns while working under time constraints.
27. Apply strategies for writing under pressure.
28. Practice the quick analysis of information, giving immediate response.
29. Integrate quotes effectively.
30. Refer to images and details in the text.
31. Describe accurately the distinctive elements of an author’s writing style.
32. Articulate a clear and effective thesis.
33. Maintain an appropriate balance of generalization and illustrative detail.
34. Control tone in one’s own writing.
35. Achieve appropriate emphasis through diction and syntax.
36. Use active voice predominantly.
37. Produce a visual product interpreting and explaining the text.
Assessment:
1. Dialectic journal entries analyzing literary elements in the work according to the rubric.
2. Timed open-ended essays on a universal theme in the work according to the appropriate
rubric.
3. Products on the work that include visual, written, and oral components according to the
rubric.
Activities:
1. Read a novel or play every nine weeks according to instructions. Reading choices must come
from a compilation of titles from College Board type exams.
2. Write periodic dialectic journal entries on such literary elements on setting, character, point
of view, diction, imagery, and syntax.
3. Create a “one pager” on the work and present it to the class.
4. Write College type open-ended essays on a universal theme in the work—either as a test and
or part of the final exam.
5. Write an analysis of the perspective (point of view) in the work.
6. Analyze College style multiple choice questions on passages from the work.
7. Create tracking poster, illustrating a major theme of the work both visually and textually.
Resources:
1. Compilation of titles used in College Board Exams for the book list.
2. Old College Board Exams published by ETS/College Board
Independent Poetry Project
Unit Goals:
1. Understand the historical and cultural milieu of important poets.
2. Practice close reading of poems to discover layered meanings.
3. Apply the vocabulary unique to the discussion and analysis of literary epochs.
4. Acquire and apply a large vocabulary pertaining to the analysis of poetry.
5. Reinforce the vocabulary of literary analysis through the study of poetry.
6. Infer the tone of poems through analysis of the poet’s use of stylistic devices.
7. Perceive narrative structure, themes, and underlying archetypes in poems.
8. Interpret literary symbols credibly.
9. Determine the connotative qualities of images, details, and figurative language in poems.
10. Determine speaker and situation in poems.
11. Recognize and analyze the power of syntax to affect meaning in poems.
12. Widely read a variety of poems that span time periods.
13. Read poems by contemporary poets as well as those considered classics.
14. Identify and interpret allusions, and demonstrate how allusions contribute to tone and
meaning.
15. Use credible evidence within poems to prove a thesis and ideas.
16. Perceive irony, ambiguity, and complexity in poems.
17. Recognize and analyze the importance of point of view.
18. Analyze how tone is created.
19. Analyze grammatical structures in poems.
20. Integrate quotations with original commentary smoothly and effectively.
21. Avoid plot summary in analysis of poems.
22. Move from reader response to objective analysis.
23. Develop speed and fluency through timed analysis of poems.
24. Apply strategies for writing effectively under pressure.
25. Develop a strong writing voice.
Assessment:
1. Students will analyze 12 poems each six weeks from the designated groupings on their
“Independent Poetry List”.
2. Students will turn in cards the first class period of the fifth week of each six weeks.
Activities:
1. Students will participate in a Socratic style seminar during the fifth week of each six weeks.
2. Create a poetry “flip file” to use as a study aide when preparing the Exam
3. Write a variety of College style essays comparing or analyzing selected poems from the list.
Resources:
1. Prentice Hall Literature The British Tradition plus other picked by instructor.
Independent Poetry List Authors
Group 1 Focus:
Denotation and Connotation
Group 7 Focus:
Tone
Dickenson
Graves
Reed
Donne
Davies
Tennyson
Yeats
Shakespeare
Robinson
Wordsworth
Group 2 Focus:
Imagery
Browning
Hardy
Hayden
Group 8/9 Focus:
Musical Devices/Rhythm Meter
Frost
Wilbur
Keats
Group 3 Focus:
Figurative Language
Frost
Plath
Donne
Marvell
Brooks
Millay
Houseman
Sandburg
Frost
Yeats
Group 10 Focus:
Patterns
Hughes
Larkin
Houseman
Keats
Thomas
Collins
Kumin
Group 4 Focus:
Figurative Language-Symbol, Allegory
Group 11 Focus:
Further Analysis
Frost
Tennyson
Rosetti
Herbert
Frost
Keats
Houseman
Herrick
Donne
Blake
Group 5 Focus: Figurative Language-Paradox,
Overstatement, Understatement, Irony
Dickenson
Cullen
Group 6 Focus:
Tone
Frost
Milton
Robinson
Cummings
Pope
Donne
Yeats
Eliot
Shakespeare
Donne
Snow
Robinson
Thomas
English IV Literature and Composition
First Six Weeks:
Perspective on a subject: Finding a Home/Defining a Subject Through Objects
 Review close reading techniques
 Terminology for literary analysis
 Daybooks from Great Source: “Great People’s Houses” by Virginia Wolfe
 “Abandoned Farmhouse” by Kooser
 Create an origami house and follow instructions for the house modeling the Kooser poem
 Use “Back home Again” and “Take Me Home Country Roads” by John Denver and “Step into This
House” by Lyle Lovett to aid in developing the concept of home from the individual’s
perspective
 Students will use a sheet of paper to create a personal querencia. This is a place where an
individual feels safe. It is also a place where an individual draws his character. It makes him
who he is and what he is. Each student will decorate the outside of the “house” to represent his
“house”, a place where he feels safe, a place that reflects his character. On the inner folds, the
student will explain how the items he depicted reflect his concept of home and his identity.
This will be used as a springboard to the College Application Essay.
 College Application essay: Students will produce a first draft and revise after a writer’s
conference
 Close reading of multiple choice questions
 Sat preparation/skills/vocabulary
 Senior Scrapbook Assignment: Students will collect 5 items each six weeks that fit in a book.
They will write 100 words about the significance of each item and submit one set every six
weeks in a 9 x 12 clasped envelope. This will be used to create a scrapbook the last six weeks.
Items are due the first day of class, the fifth week of the six weeks.
 Literary analysis: 2004 Literature Exam: Henry James prompt, Dickenson and Frost poems,
Obasan prompt.
 “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien (Prentice Hall Literature)
 Ongoing poetry analysis: each six weeks, students will analyze 12 poems from their
“Independent Poetry” list and be ready to participate in a relevant lass discussion the fourth
week of the six weeks
Second Six Weeks: Shifting Perspective: Fate, Appearances, and Reality.
 Terminology for literary analysis
 Daybooks from Great Source: “The Piano Tuner’s Wives” William Trevor
 “Jocasta” by Ruth Eisenberg
 Aristotle and tragedy: Oedipus the King by Sophocles – Students will analyze the play and
answer College style questions, citing sources from the play. Topics will deal with the play’s
ability to create “ a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude” ‘ significant mental or
psychological events, the inevitable fall of the tragic hero the impact of a character who
appears briefly or not at all. The first draft will be written in class. The graded draft will be
revised outside of class after a writing conference.
 Greek philosophy and view of the world: “The Wife of Ephesus” (Petronius) PH
 Myth: Systems of Symbolic Allusion in Poetry: Yeats: Leda and the Swan, Atwood: Siren Song,
Parker: Penelope
 Lit Exam prompt on Atwood’s Sirens




Multiple choice passages
Independent reading essay
Senior Scrapbook
Assign independent reading: Students will read a novel or a play from the College Boards Lit
Frequency List, annotating the work as they read. Students will have 9 weeks to read the novel.
A midpoint assignment will be completed in class and the final assignment will be a College
style essay done in class .
 Ongoing poetry analysis: Each six weeks, students will analyze 12 poems from their
“Independent Poetry” list and be ready to participate in a relevant class discussion the fourth
week of the six weeks.
Third Six Weeks: The Quest: Attempts at Perfection
The Romance
 From Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
 From Le Morte D’ Arthur
 The Passing of Arthur (Tennyson)
 From The Iliad by Homer: excerpts from Book 18, 22, 24 – relationships,
definition/development of the hero, characterization, literary analysis, epithets, epic simile
 Ozymandias (Shelley): form, meter, characterization
 I Have a Rendezvous with Death (Seger)
 An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (Yeats)
 The Soldier (Rupert)
 Dreamers (Sassoon)
 Introduce Tess of the D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
 “The Ruined Maid” by Hardy
 The Paris Gown by Trambley
 Students will select a major concept from Tess and construct a tracking poster that follows
the development of that concept in the novel. The poster must contain one visual element,
five supporting quotes properly documented. An explanation of the quotes’ significance (in
paragraph form) should be attached to the back of the poster. The poster should also contain
a thesis statement that will be developed into an essay showing their understanding of the
role of the concept in the novel as a whole.
 Close reading of multiple choice questions
 SAT preparation/skills/vocabulary
 Senior Scrapbook Assignment
 Assign independent reading: Students will read a novel or a play from the College Board Lit
Frequency List, unit annotating the work as they read. Students will have 9 weeks to read the
novel. A midpoint information assignment will be completed in class and final assignment
will be a College style essay done in class.
 Ongoing poetry analysis: Each six weeks, students will analyze 12 poems from their
“Independent Poetry” list and be ready to participate in a relevant lass discussion the fourth
week of the six weeks.
Fourth Six Weeks: Affirmation Through Loss
 Hamlet (Shakespeare) Students will work in groups to create an alphabet book using
characters, symbols, events, etc. from the play in order to gain deeper insight and
understanding. The book will include a decorated cover, information about the author, a
correctly documented page of critical information about the play, 26 separate pages for letters
with a picture for each letter. All information must be presented from the viewpoint of the
group’s character. Groups will work in and out of class and participate in one writer’s
conference with the teacher. Each group will conduct a story time session for the class that will
last no more than 15 minutes. During this time, group members must be dressed tor present
the characters, symbols or events depicted in their book. Each individual must present his/her
portion of the book.
 Jane Eyre (Bronte) (Independent Reading Groups)
 My Last Duchess (Browning) dramatic monologue (Daybook)
 Form: The shape of the Poem: Renaissance poetry (Sonnets)
 Ongoing poetry analysis: Each six weeks, students will analyze 12 poems from their
“Independent Poetry” list and be ready to participate in a relevant lass discussion the fourth
week of the six weeks.
 Senior Scrapbook Assignment
Fifth Six Weeks:
Poetry: Shapes of poetry and its evolution from the Romantics to the Victorians
 Study the idea and theme in poetry, symbolic allusion, sound, rhythm and rhyme, giving
attention to works such as Lady of Shallott (Tennyson), Kubla Khan (Coleridge), Ozymadias
(Shelly), Convergence of the Twain (Hardy), etc.
 Close reading of multiple choice questions
 Senior Scrapbook Assignment
 Pride and Prejudice (Austen) with College style multiple choice passages and College style
essays
 Assign independent reading: Students will read a novel or a play from the College Board Lit
Frequency List, annotating the work as they read. Students will have 9 weeks to read the
novel.
 Students will compile a “Baggie Book” on their reading. They will use a quart freezer bag for
each chapter. They will select an object that represents a significant event in that chapter,
attach it to a sheet of paper, and add a quote (correctly documented) from the chapter to
show its significance. In two or three sentences, they should explain how the author uses the
object and related incident to develop a theme or motif in the work. They will use cardboard
or card stock to design a cover that represents the overall meaning in the work, assemble the
baggies, and bind them in the cover.
 Ongoing poetry analysis: Each six weeks, students will analyze 12 poems from their
“Independent Poetry” list and be ready to participate in a relevant lass discussion the fourth
week of the six weeks.
Final Six Weeks
Choose one of the research topics from the list and clear it with me because I do
not want duplication of projects in same class. Must have three sources: one
book, one Internet site, and one has to be from the library on line resources.
Copy bibliographical information for your bibliography sheet on your note cards
along with your notes. We will use and turn in electronic note cards. Text must
have one direct quote from each source imbedded within your text. A citation
page will accompany your final paper. Final papers must be no less than two full
pages, typed. Typed papers must be in 12 font and single spaced. You will also
prepare a power point presentation with a minimum of six slides and a two -
minute speech about your presentation. Final paper will include: cover
page, outline, text, citation page, and bibliography along with your
electronic notes. Check points will have due dates to keep abreast of how you are
coming along on the assignment. Grades will be given for each part of the final paper
plus note cards, rough draft, and citations within text. Final paper is due (date to
be determined) on the assigned date. No late projects will be accepted. Papers
will be checked for Plagiarism, and if found to have been plagiarized from the
work of others, a failing grade will automatically be issued
Topics:
Night Stalker
Nuremberg Trials
Lizzie Borden
David Berkowitz
Ted Bundy
Green River Murders
Gary Ridgway
Jack The Ripper
John Wayne Gacy
Albert Fish
Black Dahlia
Sam Shephard
BTK Killer
Matthew Shepard
The Rosenbergs
Landmark Supreme Court Cases
Boston Strangler
Charles Manson
Hillside Stranglers
Brighton Trunk Murders
Jeffrey Dahmer
Linbergh Kidnapping
Alger Hiss
Scottsboro Boys
Sacco-Venzetti
Eddie Gein
Zodiac Killer
Leopold and Loeb
OJ Simpson
Scopes Trial
 Close reading of multiple-choice questions, essay prompts, and rangefinders.
Students will take timed exams
 Senior Scrapbook due fifth week of the six weeks (completed). Students will
present scrapbooks to the class, explaining how they developed their theme.