English 11 Honors
Shutt, 2013
Email: bshutt@staunton.k12.va.us
Website: Lee High Faculty (Shutt)
Course Description
This is a rigorous course that gives students ample opportunity to examine a writer’s
purpose in accordance with the writer’s use of rhetorical devices, including tone, diction,
audience, organization, appeal, style, and attitude. The course also teaches students
how to read and evaluate primary and secondary sources in order to incorporate them
into an original composition. All students will be required to document these sources
using the guidelines set forth by the Modern Language Association (MLA).
This course also requires students to write argumentative papers in response to a
variety of prose and genres. Students will read and write (formally and informally) in the
following rhetorical modes: argument and persuasion. They will learn how to incorporate
technique and meaning into well-organized, supported, logical responses.
Course Objectives
 To read widely and reflect on reading through extensive discussion, writing and
rewriting
 To write, especially in the persuasive form, on a variety of subjects and in
response to literature
 To use close reading techniques to analyze and understand the meaning of the
whole text
 To develop a comprehensive overview of the major movements of American
Literature from Puritan time through the 21st Century through a chronological
approach
Grading:
Final and Midterm = 15% of total
Essays and Projects = 65%
Tests (includes vocabulary) = 25%
Classwork = 10%
Conduct:
A = Cooperative, respectful, obedient to all rules
B = Minor lapses in A conduct
C = Inappropriate conduct
D = Defiant conduct
F = Consistently Defiant
Essays:
Essays should be in MLA format.
Follow individual rubrics closely.
Projects:
Follow all rubrics closely.
Projects should be honorable looking.
Late Work: It is your responsibility to make up missing work.
* Unexcused late work = 5 pts per day
* All essays must be submitted.
Missing essays = Incomplete
Essays may be emailed to me before midnight on the due date. Essays that are emailed
after midnight will be counted late. You do not have to email the work. If you have
consistent computer issues at home then bring your essay to me during class on the day it
is due.
Expectations:
Do everything on time, without complaining, and to the best of your ability
Be respectful. Let me teach and let others learn.
Be in class on time and ready to work; stay in the room until the bell
No cell phones (or other electronics), food, hats, and inappropriate language
Materials: stay organized; be prepared!
Homework: Read! Correct returned papers! Write and Revise Essays!
SOL Exams: You will be required to pass the Writing SOL and the
Reading SOL. These are both required for graduation.
Last Name and pg#
Your Name
Teacher
Class
Date
Title of Essay
Last Name and pg#
Units:
subject to changes See me with any concerns regarding the reading
Unit 1: Jan./Feb. Vocabulary; Argue Essay Writing; Sentence Variety and
Punctuation; 1950s and 1960s; Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Beat Generation
poets, Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Owen Meany
Essay 1: In class (see what you know) Argue Essay (1/23/13)
Essay 2: Argue Essay based upon the movie Clue (in class)
(2/6/13)
Essay 3: Argue/Research Essay pertaining to Miller’s play (2/27/13)
Journal 1: Quote response (2/19/13)
Tests: vocabulary, Beat generation-culture of 50s and 60s-Cuckoo’s Nest
Unit 2: March
Vocabulary; Argue Essay Writing; Sentence Variety and
Punctuation; American Romanticism and Transcendentalism
Essay 1: Argue/Research Essay on viability of ideals in today’s society (3/19)
Journal 1: Quote response
(3/12)
Tests: vocabulary, Writers and literary movement, midterm
Unit 3: April
Vocabulary; Argue Essay Writing; Reading Comprehension
skills; American Realism and Naturalism; Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby; movie
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Essay: Argue Essay based upon Gatsby, Grape, and modern society (4/24)
Journal 1: Quote response
(4/10)
Tests: vocabulary, Writers and literary movement
Unit 4: May/June Vocabulary; Argue Essay Writing; Reading Comprehension
skills; Disillusioned America; Unit Projects (War, Women’s Rights, South, African
Americans, Great Depression, Immigration, Youth); Literary Criticism,
Card’s Ender’s Game
Project: Unit (see rubric)
(5/6, 5/13, 5/20, 6/3)
Journal 1: Quote response
(5/22)
Tests: vocabulary, Ender’s Game, and final
Choose 1 category and 1 of the novels below or ??? (another one)
War: Things They Carried, Farewell to Arms, Slaughterhouse House Five,
All Quiet on the Western Front, Catch 22, … ???
South: Huckleberry Finn, Sound and Fury, Light in August, As I Lay Dying, … ??
Great Depression: Grapes of Wrath
Immigration: The Jungle, … ??
African Americans: Native Son, Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain, Their
Eyes Were Watching God, Invisible Man, … ???
Women’s Rights: Awakening, Bell Jar, Scarlet Letter, Handmaid’s Tale, … ???
Youth: Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, The Chosen, The Promise, … ???
Project: see later rubric for details
Step 1: Multimedia: General overview of the unit: writers, works, and ideals
Step 2: 2 separate articles pertaining to unit: cite, summarize, analyze
Step 3: 1 poem relating to unit: read and analysis
Step 4: Essay pertaining to novel and the unit
A few Hints:
Shutt hates the following words: get, got, things, stuff
Shutt hates when students line up at the door like a herd of cattle before the bell
Shutt likes answers to be very specific
Shutt will take points off for late work
Shutt will mark you tardy
Shutt becomes very annoyed when students talk during instruction
Shutt hates when Honor students do not do honor work
And put the cell phones away!