English 400 Syllabus & Objectives
British Literature Survey
Content
WRITING (throughout year):

Expository (analysis, comparison /
contrast, short research)

Reflective (for scholarship essays)
LANGUAGE (first quarter)

History of English language

Usage review (as ACT review)
LITERATURE: British lit survey
I. Anglo-Saxon through Middle
English

Beowulf
Literary Skills Emphasized
 Introduction, body, conclusion,
transitions, thesis, topic
sentences
 Internal documentation
 Voice, point of view





Etymology of words
Connotation, denotation
Comma usage
Sentencing
Tone, style
 Epic, epic hero, tone,
foreshadowing, alliteration,
caesura, assonance, consonance
Sample Assignments, Projects
 Compare / contrast Macbeth
with another tragedy
 Compare / contrast two
examples of satire
 Write personal reflection as a
response to another essay
State Standards
Writing: The students write effectively for a variety of audiences,
purposes, and contexts.
Reading, Benchmark 3:
 Create timeline of English
language history
 Pre- and post-test using ACT’s
Reading : The student reads and comprehends text across the
curriculum.
Benchmark 3: The students expands his vocabulary.
 Compare / contrast on charts
Beowulf with example of more
modern fictional hero, using
definitions / explanations in
video “The Epic Hero.”
2. locates and uses reference materials available in the classroom school, and
public libraries (e.g., dictionaries, thesauri, atlases, encyclopedias, internet) that are
appropriate to the task.
▲ determines meaning of words through structural analysis, using knowledge of ▲Greek,
▲Latin, and Anglo-Saxon ▲roots, ▲prefixes, and ▲suffixes to understand complex
words, including words in science, mathematics, and social studies.
Writing: The student uses effective word choice, clear & fluent
sentences, and standard American English conventions.
ALL LITERATURE STUDY REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING SKILLS:
Reading: The student expands vocabulary.
Benchmark 3: The students expands his vocabulary.
4. ▲ identifies, interprets, and analyzes the use of figurative language, including
similes, metaphors, analogies, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification, idioms,
imagery, and symbolism.
5. discriminates between connotative and denotative meanings and interprets the
connotative power of words.
II.

Ballads

Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales (Prologue or one
tale)
Renaissance through Elizabethan
times

Sonnets (second
quarter)
o
Shakespeare (Macbeth)
 Ballad form & subjects, feet
 Similar themes / different
cultures
 Frame story, satire (both
Horatian and Juvenalian), direct
& indirect characterization
 Text features
 Scansion, rhyme scheme, Italian
& English sonnets, octave,
sestet, quatrain, volta
 Tragedy, tragic hero, elements of
plot (exposition, rising action,
climax, falling action, resolution
/ denouement), epiphany,
hamartia, catharsis, symbolism,
motif, irony, metaphor, blank
verse, heroic couplet
 Bring examples of modern
ballads to class to assess
 Research an area of Medieval
life and put together a two-page
spread for a textbook on that
subject
 Scan poems, write iambic
pentameter (in groups); write a
sonnet.
 Watch excerpt from Yes, a
movie written in iambic
pentamenter
 Show A Face in the Crowd,
having students keep a chart of
elements of tragedy as they
watch.
 Write c/c essay comparing
Lonesome Rhodes to Macbeth &
deciding which is better tragic
Benchmark 4: The student comprehends a variety of texts
2. ▲ understands the purpose of text features (e.g., title, graphs/charts and maps,
table of contents, pictures/illustrations, boldface type, italics, glossary, index,
headings, subheadings, topic and summary sentences, captions, sidebars,
underlining,
numbered or bulleted lists, footnotes, annotations) and uses such features to locate
information in and to gain meaning from appropriate-level texts.
3. uses prior knowledge, content, and text type features to make, to
revise, and to confirm predictions.
4. generates and responds logically to literal, inferential, evaluative, synthesizing,
and critical thinking questions before, during, and after reading the text.
5. ▲ uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions
6. ▲ analyzes and evaluates how authors use text structure (e.g., sequence,
problem-solution, comparison-contrast, description, cause-effect) to help achieve
their purposes
7. ▲ compares and contrasts varying aspects (e.g., characters' traits and motives,
themes, problem-solution, cause-effect relationships, ideas and concepts,
procedures, viewpoints, authors' purposes, persuasive techniques, use of literary
III. Restoration

Samuel Pepys’ Diary

Swift – Gulliver’s Travels
IV. Romantics (poetry) (fourth
quarter)

Blake, Gray, Burns

Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Byron, Keats
V.
Victorian Age
 Poetry: Tennyson “Ulysses,”
Robert Browning “My Last
Duchess,” Thomas Hardy “Ah,
Are You Digging on My
Grave?”
 Dickens, C. Bronte (excerpts
from Hard Times, Jane Eyre)
 Diaries, journals
 Satire (review from first
semester)
 Age of Reason / Rationalism
 Characteristics of romanticism
 Ballad form (review from first
semester)
 Alliteration, caesura, assonance,
consonance, imagery, metaphor,
simile, onomatopoeia, diction
 Dramatic monologue
 Review of plot structure,
epiphany,
 Characteristics of Victorian
writing

hero / tragedy.
 Turn Pepys excerpt into Twitter
entries.
 Discuss importance of private
writing in public arena (blogging,
texting, email, etc.)
 Watch two examples of modern
satire; write comparison contrast
essay
 Do storyboard for graphic novel
of Rime of the Ancient Mariner
excerpt
 Discuss / write about use of title
from Burns poem for Of Mice
and Men
 Dramatic readings
 Group comparison / contrast of
one of the excerpts with modern
American education
devices, thoroughness of
supporting evidence) in one or more appropriate-level texts.
8. ▲ explains and analyzes cause-effect relationships in appropriate level narrative,
expository, technical, and persuasive texts.
9. ▲ uses paraphrasing and organizational skills to summarize information (stated
and implied main ideas, main events, important details, underlying meaning) from
appropriate-level narrative, expository, technical, and persuasive texts in logical or
sequential order, clearly preserving the author's intent.
10. ▲ identifies the topic, main idea(s), supporting details, and theme(s) in text
across the content areas and from a variety of sources in appropriate-level texts.
11. ▲ analyzes and evaluates how an author’s style (e.g., word choice, sentence
structure) and use of literary devices (e.g., foreshadowing, flashback, irony,
symbolism, tone, mood, satire, imagery, point of view, allusion, overstatement,
paradox) work together to achieve his or her purpose for writing text.
14. ▲ identifies the author's position in a persuasive text, describes techniques the
author uses to support that position (e.g., bandwagon approach, glittering
generalities, testimonials, citing authority, statistics, other techniques that appeal to
reason or emotion), and evaluates the effectiveness of these techniques and the
credibility of the information provided.
Literature: The student responds to a variety of text.
Benchmark 1: The student uses literary concepts to interpret and
respond to text.
VI. 20th Century Short Story
 Orwell “Shooting an
Elephant”
 Wm Trevor “The Distant
Past”
 Conrad “The Lagoon”
 Nadine Gordimer “The Train
from Rhodesia”
 Anita Desai “A Devoted Son”
 Characteristics of modernism
 Review of plot elements
 Review of epiphany in short
story
 Focus on point of view, diction,
tone, and themes of various
cultures
 Individual short story analysis
over chosen story / present to
group
1. ▲ identifies and describes different types of characters (e.g., protagonist, antagonist,
round, flat, static, dynamic) and analyzes the development of characters.
2. ▲ analyzes the historical, social, and cultural contextual aspects of the setting and
their influence on characters and events in the story or literary text.
3. ▲ analyzes and evaluates how the author uses various plot elements (e.g., problem or
conflict, climax, resolution, rising action, falling action, subplots, parallel episodes) to
advance the plot and make connections between events.
4. analyzes themes, tone, and the author’s point-of-view across a variety of literary
works and genres using textual evidence and considering audience and purpose.
5. identifies, analyzes, and evaluates the use of literary devices (e.g., foreshadowing,
flashback, irony, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, satire, allusion, paradox,
dialogue, point of view, overstatement) in a text.
6.
Benchmark 2: The student understands the significance of literature
and its contributions to various cultures.
1.
2.
3.
recognizes ways that literature from different cultures presents similar themes
differently across genres.
compares and contrasts works of literature that deal with similar topics and
problems.
evaluates distinctive and shared characteristics of cultures through a variety of texts.
VII. VOCABULARY

Study of prefixes, suffixes
from Plug-In

Study of root words

Word study through text
materials
VIII. INDEPENDENT READING:
Accelerated Reader (1 per
quarter; must pass with 70%)

Two novels of choice,
appropriate grade level

Two classic American or
British novels / plays

 Write original sentences on
given topic
 Invent new words from word
parts; define and write complete
dictionary entry
Reading, Benchmark 3: The students expands his vocabulary.
1. ▲determines meaning of words or phrases using context clues (e.g.,
definitions, restatements, examples, descriptions, comparisoncontrast, clue words, cause-effect) from sentences or paragraphs.
3. ▲ determines meaning of words through structural analysis, using
knowledge of ▲Greek, ▲Latin, and Anglo-Saxon ▲roots, ▲prefixes,
and ▲suffixes to understand complex words, including words in
science, mathematics, and social studies.
 Take AR practice quizzes over
free novels
 Take AR literary quizzes over
classics
Reading, Benchmark 4: The student comprehends a variety of texts
12. establishes purposes for both assigned and self-selected reading (e.g., to be
informed, to follow directions, to be entertained, to solve problems).