English 11B
Unit Syllabus
Ms. Zimny
Draft: January 2016
This is a tentative UNIT SYLLABUS for English 11B. This paper should be kept in your notebook at all times. If
the unit syllabus should change, you will receive an updated draft, which you will place in your notebook in
exchange for the old, outdated draft.
Spring Semester – American Literature
BOOK REPORTS
 Book reports are outside reading. No class time will be given for reading the books other than during
occasional SSR time (silent sustained reading). You must do the bulk of the reading on your own time.
NOTE: The exception for this may be Book Report #3 (The Great Gatsby)
 It is up to you to finish book reports on time. It does not matter whether you like or dislike the books. All
books assigned are at grade level or below. All students are capable of passing the books reports.
 Book reports require that students read the book. No movies, films, or reference works (e.g. Cliff Notes
or Spark Notes) will substitute for reading the book.
 You will receive a work packet or other assignment that must be completed and turned in on or before
the due dates specified below.
 On the due date, a comprehension test or similar assessment may be given to the entire class.
 In order to pass the book report, you MUST pass and fully complete ALL assignments and/or assessment.
 ANY WORK that is not completed IN FULL, or completed insufficiently (e.g. without time or effort)
will be considered incomplete. This will automatically cause you to fail the book report.
 BOOK REPORTS ARE WORTH EITHER 100% (PASS) or 0% (FAIL), and have a combined worth of
10% of your overall grade.
o Book Report #1: The Writings of Whitman/Dickinson
 Due: Week #6 (16February 2016)
 REQUIRED TO PASS: COMPLETED PACKET and CHILDREN’S BIOGRAPHY
o Book Report #2: The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
 Due: Week #12 (1 April 2016)
 REQUIRED TO PASS: SCHEDULED LUNCH GROUP BOOK TALKS (ROOM 2310)
o Book Report #3: The Great Gatsby
 Due: Week #18 (20 May 2016)
 REQUIRED TO PASS: CRITICAL WRITTEN REVIEW OF NOVEL AND FILMS
Continued on the next page…
UNITS
 Warning Poem/Introductions: 11th Grade English
 4 January—11 January
 Week 1
 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
o Unit One
 11 January – 29 January
 Week 2: Chapters 1-6
 Week 3: Chapters 7-13
 Week 4: Chapters 14 – 19
 Week 5: Chapters 15 – End
 Literary periods of American Literature: Elements of Literature (classroom textbook): Realism
o Unit Two
 1 February — 26 February “The Rise of Realism” (Collections 9-10)
 Week 6: Introduction, “The Civil War and Postwar Period” by Gary Q. Arpin
 Week 7: “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin
 Week 8: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
 Week 9: Essay
 Literary periods of American Literature: Elements of Literature (classroom textbook): Introduction to
Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance
o Unit 3
 29 February—18 March: “The Moderns” (Collections 11, 12, 13, 15)
 Week 10: “The Moderns” pp. 523-536 / Collection 11—Robert Frost
 Week 11: Collection 13—T.S. Eliot
 Week 12: Introduction, Collection 15. pp. 734-735 and authors of “The Harlem
Renaissance”: James Weldon Johnson; Gwendolyn Brooks; Claude McKay;
Countee Cullen; Zora Neal Hurston; Langston Hughes
 SPRING BREAK/MIDTERM PROJECT: 21 March – 25 March
 Literary Genre: SCIENCE FICTION/MODERNISM
o Unit Four
 28 March—29 April: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
 Week 13: INTRODUCTION and Part One
 Week 14: Part One and Part Two
 Week 15: Part Two and Part Three
 Week 16: Part Three and Essay
 Week 17: Essay
 Literary Genre: MODERNISM
o Unit Five
 2 May—20 May: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 Week 18: Chapters 1-2
 Week 19: Chapters 3-4
 Week 20: Chapters 5-6
 Final Examinations Week (Shortened Day Schedule)
 Tuesday, 24 May:
Period 0 (first half) / Period 3 / Period 4
 Wednesday, 25 May: Period 0 (second half) / Period 2 / Period 5
 Thursday, 26 May:
Period 1 / Period 6