Credit Recovery
English 11
In order to receive credit through credit recovery for English 11, ALL of the
following assignments/activities must be completed.
Drama Unit
Glass Menagerie
1. Read The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.
2. Complete read-along worksheets to document comprehension.
3. Complete at least three comprehension quizzes in which student will
write a brief essay demonstrating their understanding of a particular
scene/soliloquy. Students will be expected to use the language of
literature in their essay.
4. Students write a final essay about the play.
Since English 11 is set up as a survey of American Literature, credit
recovery will be set up thematically. Students must complete two of the
following units to demonstrate their knowledge.
Unit I. Endless Frontiers
At the end of this unit, you will write an essay of at least 300 words
answering the following question on characterization:
In a brief poem or an essay, a writer usually reveals aspects of his own
character; in a biography he reveals the character of real persons other than
himself; and in narrative poems, short stories, and other works of fiction, he
reveals the character of imaginary persons. In short, characterization is one
of the most important aspects of most literary works.
Choose two of the selections you have read in which you feel the author
was particularly successful in creating character. Be prepared to discuss
how the author created his character or characters and why you liked them
particularly.
Read four of the following and be prepared to discuss it with your
HELP/AIS teacher.
Choices: John Steinbeck - “The Leader of the People”
- Read p. 14 on characterization
- Discuss questions 1-5 “Implications” on pp. 12-13
Stephen Vincent Benet – “Western Star”
- Discuss questions 1-5 – “Implications” on p. 20
- Discuss “Characterization” question on p. 20
William Cullen Bryant – “The Prairies”
- Read “The Frontier Viewed Romantically” on p. 24
- Discuss question on setting in “Techniques” on p.24
George R. Stewart – “The Smart Ones Got Through”
- Discuss setting and characterization questions in
“Techniques” on p. 31
Jack London – “All Gold Canyon”
- Read “Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Man” on p. 44
- Discuss the questions in “Implications” on p. 44
Conrad Richter – “Early Marriage”
- Read “Reading between the Lines” on p. 54
- Discuss questions in “Implications” on pp. 54-55
- Discuss “Characterization” in “Technique” on p. 55
John Dos Passos – “The Campers at Kitty Hawk”
- Discuss questions in “Implications” on p. 79
Willa Cather – “The Sculptor’s Funeral”
- Discuss questions in “Implications” on p. 122
- Discuss “Setting” and “Characterization” on p. 122 in
“Techniques.”
Unit 2: The Inner Struggle
Below are three critical lenses dealing with themes brought up in selections
in this unit. Select ONE. Write a critical essay in which you discuss two
works of literature from the unit, The Inner Struggle, that you have read
from the particular perspective of the statement that is provided for you in
the Critical Lens. In your essay, provide a valid interpretation of the
statement, agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it,
and support your opinion using specific references to appropriate literary
elements from the two works.
Critical Lens #1: When an individual is faced with the need to make an
important decision, the pressures exerted by the members of his family are
generally not very important in determining his choice.
Critical Lens #2: The need for a sense of integrity, of self-respect, is one of
the most powerful impulses influencing human beings.
Critical Lens #3: Fear freezes individuals and makes them incapable of
arriving at intelligent decisions.
Read four of the following and be prepared to discuss it with your
HELP/AIS teacher.
-
Edgar Allan Poe – “William Wilson”
John P. Marquand – “You Can’t Do That”
Ambrose Bierce – “A Horseman in the Sky”
John F. Kennedy – “ I looked down into my open grave . . . “
John Crowe Ranson – “Parting without a Sequel”
Elinor Wylie – “Wild Peaches”
Bernard Malamud – “A Summer’s Reading”
Nathaniel Hawthorne – “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”
Eugene O’Neill – “In the Zone”
Unit 3: The Comic Imagination
Unit final: Below are three critical lenses dealing with themes brought up
in selections in this unit. Select ONE. Write a critical essay in which you
discuss two works of literature from the unit, The Comic Imagination, that
you have read from the particular perspective of the statement that is
provided for you in the Critical Lens. In your essay, provide a valid
interpretation of the statement, agree or disagree with the statement as you
have interpreted it, and support your opinion using specific references to
appropriate literary elements from the two works.
Critical Lens #1: “Humor is meant to blow up evil and make fun of the
follies of life.”
Critical Lens #2: “Why we laugh is generally because we have seen or
heard something that is at variance with custom.”
Critical Lens #3: “. . . humor is the best that lies closest to the familiar, to
that part of the familiar which is humiliating, distressing, even tragic.”
Read four of the following and be prepared to discuss it with your
HELP/AIS teacher. If you read the selections with the asterisks, you must
read them all and they count as one selection.
O. Henry – “Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet”
J. Frank Dobie – “Old Bill”
*Ludwig Bemelmanns – “Little Bit and the America”
*Ogden Nash – “The Politician”
*e.e. cummings – “old age sticks”
*Countee Cullen – “For a Mouthy Woman”
Max Shulman – “Love Is a Fallacy”
Dorothy Parker – “The Waltz”
Ring Lardner – “Thompson’s Vacation”
Robert Benchley – “Sporting Life in America: Dozing”
Mark Twain – “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County”
James Thurber – “The Night the Ghost Got In”
Unit 4: The Struggle for Justice
Stephen Vincent Benét – “Trials at Salem”
Hamlin Garland – “Under the Lion’s Paw”
Jesse Stuart – “Testimony of Trees”
Edwin Markham – “The Man with the Hoe”
Carl Sandburg – “The People Will Live On”
Shirley Jackson – “The Lottery”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - “The Arsenal at Springfield”
Alan Seegar – “I Have a Rendezvous with Death”
Phyllis McGinley – “Eleven O’Clock News Summary”
Archibald MacLeish – “Lines for an Interment”
Randall Jarrell – “Loses”
Gwendolyn Brooks – “Looking”
Walt Whitman – “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
Stephen Crane – “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky”
Struggle for Justice Unit Final
Techniques – Intention
A reader can best grasp a writer’s intentions by focusing on the work itself
and by paying close attention to such matters as word-choice, choice of
incidents and details, and the amount of attention or development given to
incidents and details. From time to time, a reader also knows whether or not
a writer “means what he says.”
Try to pick from the works in this unit at least one selection that employs a
fair amount of exaggeration, one that uses objective statement, mainly, and
one that makes extensive use of understatement. Discuss how you know
which method the writer is using and why he may have chosen to use that
method.
The Novel
Students will select one of the following: Ordinary People, The Great
Gatsby, or Ethan Frome.
Students will prepare reader-response journals as they read their novel.
1. Students will discuss the novel using their reader-response journals as
a source for questions.
2. Students will create one short essay question for each chapter that
would help another student determine theme or the importance of a
particular chapter.
3. Students will find a critical lens quote that relates to the novel they are
reading and write the essay.
Final Exam
Students will take an entire ELA Regents Exam, demonstrating proficiency
with a grade of at least 70%.