Fall 2015
Ms. Minerva
lminerva@barrington220.org
Course Syllabus: Junior English Honors
Course Description: Junior English Honors is a two-semester English course, and the
emphasis is on reading and writing about American literature, and the study of Shakespeare’s
Hamlet. The course will focus particular attention on the tension between idealism and
realism in the American experience. In addition to the exploration of the texts, the course
includes a research unit where students will refine research skills, evaluate online and print
resources, and synthesize information to form a cohesive paper. There will also be a focus
on grammar and vocabulary to assist students in ACT and test preparation.
Essential Questions:
How do various texts in American literature reflect points of view of American culture?
What is American identity, and what makes us and the texts we read American?
What themes and ideas transcend time and culture?
*Required Core Texts:
 The Great Gatsby
 Hamlet
 Into the Wild
 The Things They Carried OR The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 Selected Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson & Henry David Thoreau
Additional Units:
 Word Wednesday: SAT vocabulary and grammar lessons
 Research Unit: Modified I-Search paper
Class Requirements and Expectations:
 Keep a folder, reading journal (or binder)
 Students must come to class on time, prepared, and ready to learn!
 Students must treat each other respectfully.
 Students are not allowed to use any electronic device without permission.
 Students must follow technology policy and use computers appropriately.
Late Policy: For full credit, papers, projects, and assignments must be turned in on the
assigned due date, no exceptions. Late papers can be turned in up to one week after the
original due date for one full-grade deduction. After the week ends, papers will not be
accepted. Under special circumstances, please see instructor. Smaller assignments may be
turned in the next day for partial credit.
Teacher Availability: If you have questions, problems, or concerns, I am always available
for help in the English office after school.
*Junior Honors Texts, Short Stories, and Poetry
Observation in Literature – Short Stories
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe (1846)
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (1894)
“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway (1927)
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner (1931)
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (1948)
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor (1955)
“The Swimmer” by John Cheever (1964)
18th Century Puritanism: The Great Awakening
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards (1741)
19th Century Romanticism
“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835)
Modern American Poetry, including The Harlem Renaissance
Maya Angelou
Gwendolyn Brooks
e.e. cummings
Robert Frost
Langston Hughes
Walt Whitman
19th Century Transcendentalism
“Self-Reliance” (1841) and “Nature” (1836) by Ralph Waldo Emerson
From Walden (1854) and “Civil Disobedience” (1849) by Henry David Thoreau
Films: Alone in the Wilderness & Into the Wild
20th Century Realism
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925); Film: Born Rich
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (1990); Film: Letters from Vietnam
Shakespeare: Hamlet (1601)
*Course texts, short stories, and poetry subject to change based on time limitations.
Term Weights
Semester work: 80%
Final: 20%
Grading Scale
Informal assessments: 10%
Quizzes: 20% (lowest quiz dropped per semester)
Major papers, projects, and formal assessments: 70%