Duration Description and
Essential Questions
Week 1
Texts
Portrayals of Home and other student-selected themes
The Joy Luck Club
Frankenstein
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
Victor, the monster,
Amir, and the eight voices in The Joy Luck
Club? How do the characters’ childhoods and adolescences compare and contrast and develop their conceptions of “home” as children/teens/adults?
How does vantage point
(telling the story in the moment or reflecting upon it years later) affect the meaning/purpose of the “home”?
The Kite Runner
Weeks
2-7
The Nature of Justice
Which laws are more important: governmental or personal? Why?
When someone is wronged (for example, cheating, assault, rape, homicide, etc.),what is the best way to “right” the wrong?
Are there certain crimes that deserve death as a punishment or certain individuals who cannot
Short texts/Poetry:
--Trifles
--“Killings”
--“Prayer for the
Man Who Mugged
My Father, 72”
--Excerpt from Les
Misérables
--O’Connor story
--Excerpt from In
Cold Blood
Plays:
Antigone
Hamlet
Skills Learned and/or
Concepts Explored
Assessments
Close reading
Interpretation
Critical Thinking
Informed Discussion
Reflective Listening
Review elements of plot, character, setting, point of view, symbolism, allusions, etc. and how those elements develop meaning
Introduce Writer’s Workshop
Revision techniques: mini-lessons on style, sentence variety, voice, using appropriate evidence, etc.
Summer reading assessment: (essay 2.5-4 pgs)
“You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you.” —Sonsyrea Tate
Sonsyrea Tate’s statement suggests that “home” may be conceived of as a dwelling, a place, or a state of mind. It may have positive or negative associations, but in either case, it has a considerable influence on an individual.
Choose a single character from each of these texts who leaves home yet finds that home remains significant. Write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the importance of “home” to this character and the reasons for its continuing influence. Explain how the character’s idea of home illuminates the larger meaning of the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
(these will begin here and continue throughout the Term based on class and individual needs)
Socratic Seminar (student led)—develop a series of discussion/literary analysis questions, multiple choice exercise, and a writing prompt.
Conventions of Greek drama &
Aristotelian definition of tragedy
Elizabethan world view and theater
Mini-Lessons:
Attacking the Prompt
Crafting Thesis Statements
Pre-writing strategies
Annotation of texts
Revision strategies
Class and small group discussion
Reader response journals
Quiz on Language/Literary Terms for prose/drama
Write tightly crafted introductions for Trifles and
“Killings.” Revise until mastery is achieved.
Timed Writing Topics:
--Write an essay in which you show how the author uses literary devices to achieve his purpose.
--Taking into consideration the title of the poem, analyze how the poetic devices convey the poet’s attitude toward revenge.
-In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.”Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you

be rehabilitated?
Which is more important: justice or mercy? Why?
Weeks What is a Classic?
8-16
(first week focused; intermittent attention in the remaining weeks)
What is the literary
Canon? What works should be included?
How should we deal with works by minority writers and modern works? (“Liberal” vs.
“conservative” views on the Canon)
Texts vary and are chosen from those cited on the Open
Question Prompt each year. They must be written within the last 30 years.
Commonly chosen:
A Handmaid’s Tale
Never Let Me Go
The Things They
Carried
The Namesake
Atonement
The Road
Cold Mountain
Push
A Thousand
Splendid Suns
Weeks 10-
12
Love… and Marriage?
How do you define the words “love” and
“marriage”?
How have our attitudes toward these two concepts changed over time?
What do our attitudes about these definitions and attitudes say about gender roles?
Short Texts/Poetry: excerpt from Daniel
Deronda or
Middlemarch
“9” or “since feeling is first”
“One Art”
“Sestina”
Shakespearean sonnets
“Break of Day”
“The Victims”
“A Slice of Wedding
Cake”
“Why Should a
Small Group Discussion
Introduction to literary criticism— formalist, biographical, historical
(New & Old), sociological, feminist, Marxist, structuralist strategies, etc.
Research using scholarly journals and critical sources, MLA citing, creating works cited pages, annotated bibliographies, outlining, drafting.
Presentation skills
Poetic Devices:
Syntax
Diction
Imagery
Speaker
Denotation v. connotation
Ambiguity
Tone
Meter
Rhyme
Annotating/Analyzing Poetry
Presentation/Discussion Skills analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole.
Revised essay: Best of Three (one of the timed essays)
2 rounds
Final project: Exploration of Justice project
Classic Lit. Project--read a companion text, write a 5-8 page research paper using literary criticism (to comment upon its artistry and arguing for/against its inclusion in the Canon.
Research Process Skills:
--list of sources
--Annotated Bibliography
--Detailed Outline
--Rough draft with Works Cited Pg.
--Final draft with Works Cited Pg.
Group presentation sharing research and taking listeners into the “world” of the novel and its themes
Class and small group discussion
Analysis/Interpretation and presentation of a poem studied in class (focusing on the devices covered in class, the functions of those devices, theme, and connection to the EQs)
Timed Essays:
--Analyze the literary techniques the poet uses to convey the speaker’s attitude toward love.
--Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of a conflict in a relationship and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.
-Write an essay in which you analyze Gwendolen’s complex character as Eliot develops it through literary

Weeks 13-
18
FALL
TERM
Weeks 13-
18
SPRING
Foolish Marriage
Vow”
“Mad Girl’s Love
Song”
“Funeral Blues”
Reality & Perception
How do we know what’s
“real”?
Is there one reality or
more than one reality?
Who determines “truth”?
How?
How does human
perception complicate our understanding of reality?
Where do “illusions” come from?
Short texts/poetry:
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
“The Big
Disconnect”
“Much Madness…”
“Mirror”
“Richard Cory”
“The White Man’s
Burden”/”The Black
Man’s Burden”
“The Second
Coming”
“How to Write about Africa”
Novels:
Heart of Darkness
Things Fall Apart
Understanding colonialism—roots, causes and effects, and legacy
Comparing literature
Symbolism
Significance of titles in literature
Evaluating bias in literature
Test taking skills
Time management
Tradition v. Progress
What is the perfect world? Are our attempts to improve our world steps forward or steps
Short texts/poetry:
“U-District Incident
Report”/”Sci-Fi” excerpts from
Herland and
Looking Backward
Differences between utopian and dystopian fiction
Writing as social commentary
Methods of satire
Comparing literature techniques such as tone, point of view, and language.
Revision of a timed essay into a final draft (Best of Three)
AP Multiple Choice Quizzes on poetry
Class and small group discussion
Reading Quizzes/Annotation
Timed Writing:
--Write an essay in which you discuss how such elements as imagery, structure, and point of view convey the central meaning of Plath’s poem.
-The significance of a title such as The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn is so easy to discover. However, in other works (for example, Measure for Measure) the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually. Focusing on Heart of Darkness, show how the significance of its title is developed through the author’s use of devices such as contrast, repetition, and metaphor.
-Each of the two poems below is concerned with the
European drive to colonize. Read the two poems carefully.
Then write a well-organized essay in which you compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the poetic techniques, such as point of view and tone, that each writer uses to make his point about colonialism.
Revision of timed essay into a final draft (Best of Three)
Structured class debate on “An Image of Africa: Racism in
Heart of Darkness.” Evaluate the validity of Achebe’s argument against Heart of Darkness.
Practice AP tests (full length)
Final project: Individual or group analytical, reflective, and creative presentation of a work, theme, or moment of our class.
Class and small group discussion
Reading Quizzes/Annotations
Timed Writing:
-In the two poems below, the poets reflect on similar

TERM backward? What role do our traditions play in our efforts to progress?
“Harrison
Bergeron”
Novels:
1984
Brave New World
Test taking skills
Time management concerns. Read the poems carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two poems, analyzing the poetic techniques each writer uses to explore her vision of the future.
-Analyze how Gilman uses elements such as point of view, selection of detail, dialogue, and characterization to make a social commentary.
-One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
Revision of one into a final draft (Best of Three)
Practice AP tests (full length)
Structured class debate on humanity’s future. Are we headed in a positive or negative direction? What forces are taking us in this direction?
Final project: Individual or group analytical, reflective, and creative presentation of a work, theme, or moment of our class.