English 12 Honors
Course Syllabus
Mr. Borders ∙ Room 401 ∙ 330.823.1300
b_borders@marlingtonlocal.org ∙ www.marlingtonlocal.org/MrBorders.aspx
Overview:
This is a survey course of British Literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the modern day. Because it is
a college prep class, writing skills in both technical and creative styles will be practiced. Grammar skills
will be advanced, and research writing will be done using APA documentation.
Curricular Focus:
The curriculum will prepare students for college through a thorough study of the Common Core State
Standards; however, our focus for the course will be on the following standards:
RL/I.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
RL/I.11-12.2
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to
produce a complex account/analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL/I.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative, connotative and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that
is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other
authors.) And analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over
the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
W.11-12.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using
valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Course Materials:
Textbook:
Elements of Literature: Sixth course. Holt Publishing Company.
Additional Works:
Semester I:
Unit I:
Beowulf, Anonymous
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
“Hoard Shines Light on Dark Ages,” Dr. Michael Lewis
“Huge Anglo-Saxon Gold Hoard Found,” BBC
Maestà, Cimabue
Maestà, Duccio
Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel fresco, Padua (after 1305): Joachim Among the Shepards, Meeting at the
Golden Gate, Raising of Lazarus, Jonah Swallowed Up by the Whale, Giotto
Gates of Paradise, Lorenzo Ghiberti
The Tribute Money at the Brancacci Chapel, Florence, Masaccio
Unit II:
Othello, The Moor of Venice, William Shakespeare
Various sonnets, William Shakespeare
On the Divine Proportion, Luca Pacioli
David, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbina
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci
Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci
The Last Judgment, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Leonardo da Vinci
Deposition from the Cross (Entombment), Jacopo da Pontormo
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini
Unit III:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare
Various poems, John Donne
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer
Et in Arcadia Ego, Nicolas Poussin
The Debarkation at Marseilles, Peter Paul Rubens
The Nightwatch, Rembrandt van Rijn
Semester II:
Unit IV:
Various poems, William Blake
Various poems, Alfred Lord Tennyson
Various poems, William Wordsworth
“The Deserted Village,” Oliver Goldsmith
Morning in the Tropics, Frederic Edwin Church
The Progress of Love: The Pursuit, Jean Honore-Fragonard
Seascape Study with Rain Cloud, John Constable
Watson and the Shark, John Singleton Copley
Unit V:
“Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold
“Sonnet 43,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“My Last Duchess,” Robert Browning
“Once Upon a Time,” Nadine Gordimer
Arrangement in Gray and Black: The Artist’s Mother, James McNeill Whistler
Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian, James McNeill Whistler
Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland, James McNeill Whistler
Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, James McNeill Whistler
Unit VI:
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
“Dulce et Decorum Est,” Wilfred Owen
“Digging,” Seamus Heaney
“The Unknown Citizen,” W. H. Auden
“The Fallacy of Success,” G.K. Chesterton
“Their Finest Hour,” Winston Churchill
“Rocking-Horse Winner,” D.H. Lawrence
“Araby,” James Joyce
Blue Nude, Henri Matisse
The Potato, Joan Miro
Reading at a Table, Pablo Picasso
Composition No. III, Piet Mondrian
*Other canonical and modern texts, essays, and the like may be read throughout the year or chosen for
the research project, if approved.
Other Materials:
You will need a 3-ring notebook (recommended dividing into the following sections):
1. Notes
2. Literary Terms
3. Compositions
4. Homework
5. Vocabulary
Bring your current reading materials, notebook, and pen or pencil to class each day.
Grading:
Assignments and Homework:
All assignments must be turned in on or before the due date. If you know you will be absent, turn in
your work early or have someone else turn it in for you. Late work will not be accepted!
Make-Up Work:
All assignments will be listed on-line (Web site listed at top of syllabus). You must check the assignments
when you return to class after an absence and make any necessary arrangements to take quizzes, tests,
etc.
Scale/Weighting:
A
B+
B
BC+
C
92-100%
89-91%
86-88%
83-85%
80-82%
77-79%
4.500
3.850
3.500
3.225
2.925
2.500
80%
40%
Compositions
30%
Tests
20%
Quizzes
10%
Homework
20%
Two 9-Week Tests
(10% each)
SLO Exam (15%) &
9-Week Test (5%)
CD+
D
DF
74-76%
71-73%
68-71%
65-67%
below 65%
2.225
1.425
1.000
0.875
0.000
Academic Outline:
Ongoing Assessments
Independent Reading Assignments:
There will be an emphasis on the writing process, with discussions and practice in revision and use of
style as a priority. This emphasis will include class discussions, individual conferences, and peer revision.
Each assignment will include writing in the form of a literary analysis (detailed further in “Composition
and Language Skills”).
Vocabulary:
Students will be learning vocabulary as needed, based on the literature used in each particular unit.
There will be an emphasis on understanding not just the denotation of words in literary works, but the
connotation of those words as well. This study of diction will apply both to the reading of assigned
literature (where professional writers model their skills in usage) and to the students’ writing samples as
well. The end result should be two-fold: first, a heightening of the students’ appreciation for effectively
used diction in literary works and secondly, an improvement in the students’ understanding of diction
and usage in their own writing samples.
Literary Terms:
In addition to vocabulary study, literary terms will be assigned each week; quizzes will be given biweekly
on Thursdays. This portion of study will not only develop students’ enjoyment of literature, but also
their ability to think critically, write successfully, discuss effectively, etc.
Composition and Language Skills:
We will use various texts as resources for modeling the various modes of writing. These resources will
also be used as models for the revision process as students write for a variety of purposes including
analysis, synthesis, argumentative, and informative essays. Composition assignments will include at least
one longer essay per semester—using APA style parenthetical citations and a Bibliography page—
germane to the students’ independent reading, which may be any of the following writing assignments:
expository, analytical, or argumentative. Each paper will receive feedback, conferencing, peer feedback,
and will be available for revision. For revision credit, students MUST improve their papers beyond the
mundane spelling, grammar, etc. Specifically, students need to think about how to improve their
arguments, organization, and rhetoric.
First Semester
Unit Breakdown by Week: “What Is Good Writing?”
Introduction: “Course Introduction” (Week 1)
Overview: In this unit students will work with their previously read texts to learn to improve their skills
of analysis through various teaching strategies, including class discussions; think, pair, and share; and
small group discussions. Specifically, students will be gaining an understanding of the thought
complexity level this course requires.
Unit I: Middle Ages (Weeks 1-6)
Overview: Although the Middle Ages often is characterized as a period of darkness, the literature and
art of the time typically suggest a more complex picture. Through a combination of close reading and
exposure to an array of texts, students observe how satire reveals some of the contradictions and
divergences within medieval literature and will draw connections between literary form and philosophy.
In addition, they consider how certain traits of medieval literature can also be found in the art of the
period: for instance, how characters have symbolic meaning both in literature and in iconography.
Students write essays in which they analyze a work closely, compare two works, or trace an idea or
theme throughout the works they have read.
Unit II: Renaissance and Reformation (Weeks 7-12)
Overview: Students consider Renaissance writers’ interest in ancient Greek and Latin literature and
myth; their preoccupation with human concerns and life on earth; their aesthetic principles of harmony,
balance, and divine proportion; and exceptions to all of these. This leads to a discussion of how literary
forms themselves reflect religious, philosophical, and aesthetic principles. As students compare the
works of the Renaissance with those of the Middle Ages, students recognize the overlap and continuity
of these periods. In addition, they consider how the outstanding works of the era transcend their time
and continue to inspire readers and writers. The English Renaissance of the seventeenth century
includes additional works by William Shakespeare. In their essays, students may analyze the ideas,
principles, and form of a literary work; discuss how a work bears attributes of both the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance; discuss convergences of Renaissance literature and arts; or pursue a related topic of
interest.
Unit III: Seventeenth Century (Weeks 13-18)
Overview: Students gain understanding of the early Enlightenment and its conception of reason. They
see another side of the thought and literature of this period: an emphasis on human emotion,
irrationality, and paradox. They consider how certain works express tension or conflict between emotion
and reason while others present reason and emotion as complementary and interdependent. They will
write a critical essay exploring an aspect of the conflict between reason and emotion. Or teachers might
choose to culminate the unit with a research paper that answers the essential question.
Second Semester
Research Paper:
Students will create a thesis and write a researched literary analysis essay that is based on a minimum of
five citations. The essay will be 10-12 pages long, including both parenthetical citations and a
Bibliography page in APA format. Students will be required to submit a rough draft two weeks prior to
the submission of the final paper. One week before the final paper is due, students MUST conference
with the teacher to discuss possible improvements and successes. Finally, students will submit their final
copy along with their rough draft.
Unit Breakdown by Week: “What Is the American Dream?”
Unit IV: Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (Weeks 1-4)
Overview: Observing themes related to nature as well as “natural” forms and language, students
consider whether nature appears as a force of good or a menace. Observing narrative digressions,
idiosyncrasies, exaggerations, and biases, they consider human, unpredictable, idiosyncratic aspects of
storytelling. They have the opportunity to practice some of these narrative techniques in their own
fiction and nonfiction writing. Students also explore some of the philosophical ideas in the literary
texts—questions of free will, fate, human conflict, and loss. In seminar discussion, students consider a
philosophical question in relation to a particular text. Students write short essays and also develop an
essay or topic from an earlier unit, refining the thesis and consulting additional sources. These essays
can be used to inform and inspire longer research papers at the end of the unit that answer the essential
question. By the end of this unit, students will have an appreciation for some of the tendencies of early
Romanticism and will recognize that this era, like all others, is filled with exceptions, contradictions, and
subtleties.
Unit V: Nineteenth Century (Weeks 5-12)
Objectives: They will explore both form and meaning of literary works and consider historical context.
Through close reading of selected texts, students will see how subtle narrative and stylistic details
contribute to the meaning of the whole. They will consider how certain poems of this unit are intimate
on the one hand and reflective of a larger civilization on the other. Moral conflicts and subtle
psychological portrayals of characters will be another area of focus; students will consider how novels of
the nineteenth century develop character and how their conflicts are both universal and culturally
bound. Students will also have the opportunity to develop a research paper from earlier in the year and
to write a shorter essay on topic from the unit. In their essays, students will continue to strive for
precision and clarity, paying close attention to the nuances of words.
Unit VI: Twentieth Century (Weeks 13-18)
Objectives: Through the close reading of “dystopian” works such as Pygmalion, 1984, and Rhinoceros,
students consider the problems inherent in fashioning a perfect society or perfect individual. At the
same time, they also consider how authors of the twentieth century affirm the possibility of beauty and
meaning—for instance, in Eliot’s Four Quartets, Federico García Lorca’s Poem of the Deep Song, or
Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush.” To gain a deeper appreciation of the role of beauty in twentiethcentury literature, they appraise connections between poetry and music: for instance, the relation of
Eliot’s Four Quartets to a Beethoven quartet, and the relation of Federico García Lorca’s poetry to the
rhythms of flamenco music. Examining how authors rework classical stories and themes (e.g., in
Anouilh’s Antigone or Camus’ Caligula), students ponder how historical context affects an enduring
story or theme. Students complete research papers in which they consult literary criticism and historical
materials. They engage in discussions resembling college seminars, where they pursue focused
questions in depth over the course of one or two class sessions. At the close of the unit, students have
the opportunity to research the literature they have read over the course of the year and the concepts
they have studied.
Parent/Student Summary
Important Dates

Thursdays are important; students will be taking literary terms quizzes or doing ACT
preparation (reading, grammar, writing—with emphasis on writing).
Important Information

Assigned readings are important—as are assigned homework and studying. Being that this is an
honors-level class, late work will not be accepted. I expect your best effort on everything you
do, and I understand that some material is very difficult. Therefore, if your best effort isn’t up to
your (and my) standards, a different retake over the material will be allowed (and expected).
Parent/Guardian Signature: ____________________________________
Date: ______________
Student Signature: ______________________________________________ Date: ______________