Authored by: Carole Breheny
Reviewed by: Lee Nittel
Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Mark DeBiasse,
Supervisor of Humanities
Updated with Common Core State Standards : Fall, 2012
Members of the Board of Education:
Lisa Ellis, President
Patrick Rowe, Vice-President
David Arthur
Kevin Blair
Shade Grahling
Linda Gilbert
Thomas Haralampoudis
James Novotny
Superintendent: Dr. Michael Rossi

Sophomore Honors English is the second in a sequence of three English honors classes. The course combines a chronological and thematic approach to the study of American literature and aligns with the US
History I class, also taken during the sophomore year. The NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards provide the basis for the course objectives and “The American Dream and Its Legacies” forms the thematic overview of the literature. Students will trace the evolution of the American Dream and identify how this theme emerges in the major periods: Colonial, Revolutionary/Early National Years, Romantic, Regionalism,
Realism, Modern and Contemporary Literature.
One of the primary expectations of the course is to enable students to read and comprehend complex literature and informational text of high quality and lead them to further inquiry about the nation, its formation and the content of writing that interprets and shapes many of the ideals and thinking of its citizens, past and present. Students in honors English are expected to participate freely in class activities, take risks, and demonstrate leadership skills as they articulate aspects of the human condition and intellectualize the relevance of such conditions as they apply to their lives socially, culturally and personally. Hence, students enrolled in Honors English 10 should demonstrate exemplary reading, writing, and speaking skills, as well as self-motivation and strong study skills.
Key Ideas and Details
1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme and evaluate how theme provides a unifying link between the various chronological periods of American literature and history, reflecting a variety of social conditions;
Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
6. Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the
United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).
9. Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).
Key Ideas and Details
1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).
5. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).
6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
9. Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Text Types and Purposes
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
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Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concerns.
Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
• Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
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Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
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Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
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Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.

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Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
Production and Distribution of Writing
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)
5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Madison students use MLA format for research assignments.
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
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Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work [e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare]”).
Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning”).
Range of Writing
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames
(a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

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Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.
Work with peers to set rules for collegial discussions and decision-making (e.g., informal consensus, taking votes on key issues, presentation of alternate views), clear goals and deadlines, and individual roles as needed.
Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions.
Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.
2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
Note : It is suggested that teachers refer to the following writing manuals:
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White – The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan, The
Writing Life by Annie Dillard, On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser
Conventions of Standard English
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
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• Use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial, prepositional, absolute) and clauses (independent, dependent; noun, relative, adverbial) to convey specific meanings and add variety and interest to writing or presentations.
2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

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Use a semicolon (and perhaps a conjunctive adverb) to link two or more closely related independent clauses.
Use a colon to introduce a list or quotation.
Spell correctly.
Knowledge of Language
3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
• Write and edit work so that it conforms to the guidelines in a style manual (e.g., MLA Handbook ,
Turabian’s Manual for Writers ) appropriate for the discipline and writing type.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9–10 reading and content , choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
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Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech
(e.g., analyze, analysis, analytical; advocate, advocacy ).
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Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, or its etymology.
Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the text. •
• Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.
6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Additionally, the course objectives for Honors English 10 include:
• analyze and evaluate how themes provide a unifying link between the various chronological periods reflecting a variety of social conditions;
• differentiate among the genres of short stories, novels, drama, nonfiction (essay and biography) and poetry by identifying their specific literary attributes during the time periods;
• trace the rise, growth and influence of the writings of marginalized groups on
America’s literature, culture and language;
• trace the rise and evolution of the American literary hero (female and male) as she/he has appeared in the periods outlined;
• develop the skills of literary analysis and the ability to reason abstractly by defining specific terms and passages in the genres which reveal: theme, conflict/plot, characterization, point of view,

setting, exposition, narration, irony, foreshadowing, flashback, tone, mood, imagery, figures of speech, speaker (in a poem) diction, sound patterns and poetic structure/form;
• master skills in writing thesis statements, statements of purpose, topic and clincher sentences, transitions, blending quotes and writing a conclusion that demonstrates implications and consequences of the thesis;
• develop literary writing skills by completing short and lengthy analysis essays based upon their reading;
• focus skillfully on an appropriate audience for various topics, to compose superior transactional, expressive and creative writings and to effectively compose, revise and edit their writing and the writing of their classmates;
• master the key stages in the production of a superior research project identified by teachers teaching the course;
• determine how an author uses rhetoric to advance a point of view;
• master skills necessary for HSPA reading and writing assessments;
• exhibit mastery of grammar skills and syntax;
• demonstrate superior skills in diction;
• develop vocabulary skills through their reading and Sadlier Oxford assignments in text;
• develop a sense of their own cognitive growth (metacognition) by becoming aware of thinking skills through writing as demonstrated in their Working and Show Case writing portfolios.
Teachers may elect to assign sustained research during one marking period where a final product is produced or over three marking periods as students work with the teacher and independently to complete a final long-term project. Teachers teaching the course in a given year will agree on the type of research project.
First Quarter
Unit I: Native American Study
Theme: Living in Harmony with Nature
Anchor texts : (2 weeks)
Tewa – “Song of the Sky Loom
Navaho – “It was The Wind That Gave Them Life”
Iroquois Creation Myth - “The World on the Turtle’s Back”
Leslie Marmon Silko - “The Main to Send Rain Clouds”
N. Scott Momaday - “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” –
Navaho - “Hunting Song,”
Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman) – “from The Soul of the Indian”
Annie Dillard - Selections from Teaching a Stone To Talk
Henry David Thoreau – Selections from Cape Cod
Sherman Alexie - Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven
Ancillary informational text from English Department Resource file and on-line sources
Related Readings : (1 week)
Eudora Welty, “A Worn Path”
Leslie Marmon Silko – “Bear Country”
William Least Heat-Moon “From Blue Highways,”
Maya Angelou - “My Sojourn in the Lands of My Ancestors”
Essential Questions:

• What are the distinguishing characteristics in the oral traditions of the Native Americans? How have many of these characteristics become universal given the number of different languages among Native
Americans?
• How do the Native Americans demonstrate reverence for nature?
• What makes it possible for Native Americans to live in harmony with nature?
• What are the characteristics of the Native American heroes?
• What characteristics depict the various creation myths?
• What are the values and attitudes that emerge in the works of the Native Americans?
• What qualities from early Native American translations are retained in contemporary works? How has Native American writing changed over time?
• How can Native American references to nature be compared to the writing of Dillard and Thoreau?
• What are some of the challenges facing Native Americans today given the conditions of alcoholism in their tribes and the convictions to avoid compromising their values and purposes?
Activities and Assessments:
• identify the distinctions in period writings given the wide variety of Native American languages and record those distinctions in a notebook;
• maintain a vocabulary log while reading;
• analyze the cultural aspects, values and attitudes of Native Americans toward Nature in small and large groups;
• analyze the characteristics of the early Native Americans from the content of their oral translations and maintain a chart of those characteristics;
• develop a list of the qualities that define the hero stereotypes in period Native American writings and compare those qualities as they emerge in contemporary writings;
• analyze a theme or central idea that links contemporary writings with works from early translations;
• write journal entries from the selected readings focusing on the writer’s messages and style;
• compare Native American beliefs about nature with those of Dillard and Thoreau by developing a chart with key characteristics;
• enhance speaking and listening skills through oral storytelling as part of the traditional Native
American songs, poems and myths – students should be encouraged to read stories out loud or in small groups and listen for patterns and style of writers;
• determine the meaning of words and phrases used in the texts;
• write an argument to support claims by Eastman in “from the Soul of the Indian;”
• write a poem, song or short story modeling that of period Native American translations and label the
Native American characteristics used, such as repetition of a phrase, identification with nature, becoming part of nature, etc.
• begin the first stages of the research project;
• begin developing students’ working writing portfolios;
Unit II: Pre-Colonial and Colonial
Themes: Sin, Passion and Propaganda
Anchor texts : (4 weeks)
William Bradford - “from Plymouth Plantation”
Edward Taylor – “Huswifery” and/or “Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold”
Anne Bradstreet - “To My Dear and Loving Husband”-“Upon the Burning of Our House”
Jonathan Edwards - “from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
Herbert G. Longren, Ph.D. - “Adolescence and Peer Pressure”
James Thurber - “The Very Proper Gander”
Arthur Miller - The Crucible

“McCarthyism” MHS Library, online cites and English Department Resources
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter (from the Romantic Period)
The King James Bible - “ The Fall of Adam and Eve” Genesis 3:1-24
Bible - “The Ten Commandments” Deuteronomy 5:6-21
Related Readings: (1 week)
William Cullen Bryant – “ Thanatopsis ” – “ To a Waterfowl ”
Sarah Kemble Knight – “from The Journal of Madam Knight”
William Byrd – “from The History of the Dividing Line”
These related readings are suggested to pair with The Crucible :
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales - “from I am Joaquin/Soy Joaquin” (1967)
Nathaniel Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown”
Shirley Jackson - “The Witchcraft of Salem Village”
Yevgeny Yevtushenko - “Conversations with an American Writer”
Clifford Lindsey Alderman – “Guilt”
Edna St. Vincent Millay - “Justice Denied in Massachusetts”
The following related readings are suggested to pair with The Scarlet Letter
“The Lottery” - Shirley Jackson
“Muddy Brains” - John Dunton (on-line)
“A Respectable Woman” - Kate Chopin
“For each ecstatic Instant/Mine Enemy is growing old” - Emily Dickinson
Note : The teacher may use ancillary non-fiction and historical writings to provide a background to the literature.
Essential Questions:
• What are the European, Judeo-Christian attitudes toward Native Americans and nature? How do the attitudes of the two groups contrast?
• What are some of the challenges facing Europeans and Native Americans as they embark on what they define as The American Dream?
• What is the political, economic and social turmoil that creates period works?
• How does early American poetry differ from the previous generation of English poets?
• What are the basic concerns of the early Americans as reflected in their writings – the promise of the new land, the hopes and dreams of the people, the growth in a sense of place and the emergence of secular and religious idealism?
• What are the benefits and constraints of the theocratic society?
• What are the consequences of committing adultery in the Puritan society? How do the consequences for Puritans compare to those living in modern society?
• What impact does guilt have on individuals and their relationships?
• What might an individual experience when he/she takes revenge on an enemy?
• What is the role played by the writer in the colonial period? How do the writings reflect marginal groups?
Activities and Assessments:
• analyze the impact of European culture upon Native American culture;
• provide evidence of the writers’ knowledge of language including figurative and connotative meanings and how those words reflect the time period and the social context of the early Europeans;

• analyze an understanding of tone among the writers of the period
• analyze how Bradford and Edwards draw on source material from the Bible;
• analyze the point of view of Bradford;
• determine the meaning of the words and phrases used by the authors of the period and how the authors’ choices of words have a cumulative impact on meaning and tone;
• analyze the differences in the writing styles of Bradford, Edwards and Bradstreet;
• write regularly in journals and share writings in small groups;
• compose spontaneous in-class responses in conjunction with literature discussions;
• identify rhyme scheme and startling comparisons in poetry;
• maintain a vocabulary log while reading literature;
• develop reading strategies by composing questions that respond to the reasons behind events and characters’ actions and emotions;
• identify stage directions, dialogue and essential forms in drama;
• evaluate specific claims made in the texts, particularly The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible and provide evidence of false statements (propaganda), fallacious, reasoning, point of view or purpose;
• distinguish point of view of the author from that of the narrator;
• identify how authors use rhetoric to advance point of view;
• analyze how authors draw on and transform source material in a specific work, e.g. Biblical allusions;
• provide evidence of how an author uses source material in a specific work;
• provide evidence of using the Internet to amass research to support an inquiry;
• write an in-class essay, responding to a HSPA prompt;
• write a literary analysis essay and identify FCAs;
• delineate the inquiry of the research topic/thesis and begin the first stages in the research process.
Introduction to the Research Project (1 week)
Films
The Crucible (Day-Lewis, Ryder)
The Scarlet Letter - (Heard, Foster)
The Witches of Salem (Morris County AVA)
Note: In the interest of time, teachers are encouraged to use films in part to augment the literature.
Second Quarter
Unit I: Writing in the Time of Revolution
Theme: Freedom – Human Reason and Natural Rights
Anchor Texts: (1 week)
Thomas Paine - “The Crisis” – “Common Sense”
Phyllis Wheatley - selected poems
Philip Freneau – “To the Memory of the Brave Americans” - “The Wild Honey Suckle”
Abigail Adams - Letters to John Adams from
Stephen Crane - “A Mystery of Heroism”
Benjamin Franklin - “from Poor Richard’s Almanack” and “Autobiography”
Related Readings: (1 week)
Patrick Henry – “Liberty or Death”
Thomas Jefferson – “Declaration of Independence”
James Fennimore Cooper – Leatherstocking tales
Washington Irving – “The Devil and Tom Walker”

Essential Questions:
• How is freedom defined?
• How does a writer’s work impact America’s national identity?
• Where do poets find their subject matter?
• How is poetry cathartic?
• When does a break from literary style of the time period appeal to the broad masses of people rather than the elect few and raise awareness of the values and virtues of the middle class?
• What defines a good biographer?
• How do the writings of the period emphasize independence of the individual?
• How does one of the most influential women advance the thinking about the rights of women?
• What are the characteristics of naturalistic writing?
Activities and Assessments:
• analyze the effects of writing on Americans during the Revolutionary and early National years and share findings;
• write a brief, informative account of the cultural and social effects of the writings during the
Revolutionary and early National years;
• look up the word propaganda and argue that the writers were or were not propagandist;
• list and analyze the characteristics that make the poems typical of the period;
• analyze how Paine’s ideas or claims are developed and refined in particular paragraphs of the texts;
• analyze the merit of using hyperbole in poetry and identify the figure of speech in the period poems;
• analyze examples of how poetry raises consciousness and spirits during the revolution;
• provide examples that demonstrate Crane’s patterns of action and thought;
• analyze how and why Crane may leave the reading questioning;
• analyze how simplicity and economy may improve clarity in writing;
• analyze the merits of Franklin’s thinking for living a virtuous life;
• analyze the merits in Franklin’s thinking and relate that thinking to personal experiences;
• maintain vocabulary log;
• share ideas in small group, after reading Abigail Adam’s letters, tracing the effects her writing has on the nation’s perspective about women;
• analyze how Abigail Adams provided the means to promote the conversation about the advancement of women;
• write an analytical essay comparing Abigail Adams to a political figure today, wife or leader and share the essay in small groups.
Unit II Romanticism and Transcendentalism
Themes: Celebrations of the Self and the Spirit of Individualism
Anchor Texts: Literature Anthology (1 week)
Ralph Waldo Emerson – “from Nature” and “Self Reliance” and selected poetry
Henry David Thoreau – “from Civil Disobedience”
Margaret Fuller – “from Memoirs”
Essential Questions:
• How does a writer use analogies to enhance sensory experiences and how those help a reader visualize key details?
• By what opinion is it easy to live? Whose opinion should you follow?
• How does nature lift individuals’ spirits?
• What is Emerson’s belief that God is in all things?
• How do the Transcendentalists advance women’s rights?

• What are the unique characteristics of Transcendentalism?
Activities and Assessments:
• analyze how individuals reconcile their consciences with the expectations of society;
• analyze the qualities Thoreau discovered in nature and his reaction to those findings;
• analyze the rhetorical modes of expression used by the writers of the period;
• analyze the statements made by the transcendentalists by isolating passages in the works, and share those ideals in small and large groups;
• analyze the significance of the transcendentalist movement and the far-reaching consequences on society;
• maintain vocabulary log;
• analyze the tone in the writings;
• analyze sentences from the essays and identify qualities of those especially meaningful or well expressed;
• analyze the methods used by authors and the significance of the ideas and events unfolding;
• write regular expressive writings in journals that demonstrate an understanding of the philosophy known as transcendentalism and the philosophical ideals established in the writings of several transcendentalist authors.
Unit III. Romanticism
Theme: Exploring the Human Heart
Anchor Texts: (1 week)
Walt Whitman – Poetry – “from Leaves of Grass”
Edgar Allan Poe – “The Masque of the Red Death”
Edgar Allan Poe - “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Nathaniel Hawthorne – “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”
William Faulkner – “A Rose for Emily” (Southern Gothic)
Related Readings: (1 week)
Flannery O’Connor “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” (1953) (Southern Gothic)
Flannery O’Connor – Selection of short stories
Robert Frost – “Desert Places” - “Storm Fear” - “Design”
Selections from contemporary poets in literature anthology
Essential Questions:
• What are some of the explorations writers have taken among America’s diversity of people and the country’s landscapes?
• How does free verse in poetry exemplify a new social standard?
• What is unique about the content of Whitman’s poetry?
• What were the profound effects of Romantic literature?
• What defines a psychological story?
• What are the tragic flaws uncovered by the writers of the period? How does this writing compare to the writing of the transcendentalists?
• What characterizes Gothic literature?
• What characterizes Southern Gothic literature?
• How does setting in a work contribute to a character’s isolation and alienation?
Activities and Assessments:

• provide examples comparing Transcendentalist writings with other writings of the period;
• analyze the elements that define Gothic literature and interpret why they are effective;
• write regularly in journals using some of the suggested stems;
• provide comparisons of writing styles by selecting sentences or paragraphs from the selections and discussing those in class or in small groups;
• summarize and draw inferences about the morals in the stories written during the
Romantic period paying close attention to tone, characterization, conflict, point of view, climax and moments of illumination;
• maintain vocabulary log while reading;
• share interpretative and analytical responses to the short stories in small and large groups;
• write a literary response that establishes an understanding of individualism and the dark side of human nature as these ideas emerge in the writings of the time period;
• label claims and counterclaims, supplying evidence for each;
• pay close attention to thesis, topic and clincher sentences and transitions in writing as FCA (Focus
Corrections Areas.)
Second Stage of the Research Project (1 week)
Unit IV Regionalism and Realism
Theme: Personal Passions
Anchor Texts: (3 weeks)
Stephen Crane – “A Mystery of Heroism”
Emily Dickinson – Poetry in Language of Literature anthology
Frederick Douglass – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Mark Twain – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Choice Texts for Independent Reading or Literature Circle: (1 week)
Mark Twain – “from Life on the Mississippi” – anthologized (Memoir)
Ambrose Bierce – “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
James Russell Lowell – “Stanzas on Freedom” (Poetry)
Robert Frost – poem – “Desert Places” and “Storm Fear” – “Design”
Wallace Stevens, “The Snow Man”
Selections from Contemporary Poets – Literature Anthology
Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Hilton’s Holiday”
Mary Wilkins Freeman, “A Church Mouse”
Bret Harte – “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”
Kate Chopin – “A Gentleman of Bayou Teche”
Stephen Crane – Selection of Poems
Chief Joseph – “Chief Joseph Speaks”
Rita Dove – “Three Days of Forest, a River, Free”
Langston Hughes – “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Essential Questions:
• How does a writer’s life contribute to the theme of a work?
• What differences in society today make circumstances and characters’ responses in period literature understandable?
• What differences in society today make understandable circumstances and characters’ behaviors in period literature?

• How does poetry reinforce the ideas of fear, frustration, death, God, friendships, love and the natural world?
• How does imagery in poetry serve the reader?
• What led to the literary revolt against the Romantic tradition and the rise of Realism?
• How is a journey on the water seen as a metaphor for one’s life journey?
Activities and Assessments:
• trace realism as it emerges in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn paying close attention to the introduction and presentation of dialect in literature;
• demonstrate the ability to explicate poems independently;
• analyze the voices of marginalized groups, black slaves and women, and their personal passions;
• research the role of censorship as it applies to high school literature;
• read and analyze non-fiction articles from current periodicals that relate to the themes of racism and stereotypes in the works;
NOTE : The mid-term exam may consist of stages in the research process or literary writing assignments that stem from related readings.
MID-TERM EXAM
• write a practice HSPA essay;
• write an analysis paper choosing from two forms of development: cause and effect or comparison and contrast;
• develop the next stages required for the research process;
• prepare for mid-term examination.
Third Quarter
Unit I - Theme: Changing Faces in Modern America
Women Writers
Anchor Texts: (1 week)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman – “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Kate Chopin – “The Story of an Hour”
Tillie Olsen – “I Stand Here Ironing” – Short Story (1956)
Rita Dove – “Adolescence-III” (1980)
Julia Alvarez – “Ironing Their Clothes” Poetry (1986)
Related Readings :
Kate Chopin – The Awakening
Edith Wharton – Ethan Frome
Amy Lowell – “Night Clouds” – “Peace” – and selections from her collection of poems, “What’s O’Clock”
Sara Teasdale – “The Solitary” – “The Look”
Edna St.Vincent Millay – “Renascence”
Willa Cather – “The Sculptor’s Funeral”
Katherine Anne Porter – “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
Essential Questions:
• What distinguishing qualities and techniques in their writing do women introduce to modern literature?
• What is the impetus for the change in American women’s attitudes and the society’s view of them?
• How do the writings specifically identify social concerns about women?
• How might the women writers be considered biased?

• What techniques do the writers use to convince the readers of their views?
• How do writers establish the conflicts in their stories?
• What techniques do the writers use in order to evoke sympathy in their readers?
• How do writers offer in-depth characterization and allow the readers to witness the flow of a character’s thoughts?
Activities and Assessments:
• analyze in journal writing how the social attitudes of the past and present influence the topics, themes and content of women’s writing;
• analyze period advertisements presented on power point;
• analyze the growth of the women’s movement and its manifestation in literature;
• analyze elements of the texts to clarify and defend positions;
• maintain vocabulary log;
• evaluate the credibility of source information;
• analyze how a writer’s ’motivation may affect creditability;
• explicate poetry independently identifying: simile, metaphor, personification, style, rhythm, imagery, mood and other figurative language;
• write regularly in journals while reading;
• analyze non-fiction articles relating to themes in the works;
• discuss in small groups what social concerns impact contemporary writing;
• compose a HSPA essay following a prompt;
• write an analysis paper linking themes in the works with contemporary articles in periodicals;
Unit II - The Modern Age
1900-1940
Theme: Dreams Lost and Found
Anchor Texts:
(1920s and Comparative Works) (4 weeks)
Theme: Illusions and Realities
Zora Neal Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching
Langston Hughes – “I, Too”- “Harlem,” – “The Weary Blues” – (anthology)
“Caged Bird”
Naomi Shihab Nye – “My Father and the Figtree Poetry” (1980) – (anthology)
Anzia Yezierska – “America and I” – Short Story – (anthology)
F. Scott Fitzgerald – “Winter Dreams” (in anthology)
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Essential Questions:
• What are the qualities of “oral folklore” in Hurston’s novel?
• How does language – colloquial or formal – establish tone in Hurston’s novel?
• How does conversation become the basis for the frame tale?
• How does the poetry of the Jazz Age exemplify new freedoms in music and thought?
• How does poetry dispel myths about stereotypes?
• How do poets use current events to humanize poetry?
• How does a poet use imagery effectively, especially when the economy of words is essential?

• How does the emerging African American culture and associated concerns manifest in the characters, articles and poetry?
• How does belief in The American Dream impact the hope for equality for marginalized groups?
• What is the consequence of living too long with the wrong dream?
• How must the protagonists change if they are to live fulfilled lives?
Activities and Assessments:
• analyze passages in the Hurston’s novel and identify instances why it is effective for the writer to use colloquial dialect;
• analyze several sentences in the poems and identify key images that make the poems’ messages explicit and memorable;
• analyze themes in the works and compare those themes with other literature, current social situation and personal experiences;
• give examples of the social situations during the Jazz Age and link the writings with the widespread unemployment, increase in organized crime and poverty;
• analyze how Fitzgerald’s fiction seems to mirror the twenties;
• provide examples of how Hughes employs in his poetry the spontaneity of improvisation typical of modern jazz;
• maintain vocabulary log;
• write journal entries explaining how poems about family members might create a feeling of nostalgia;
• write an analysis paper by comparing two poems: My Father and the Figtree Poetry with Langston
Hughes’s “Dream Deferred”- identify FCAs;
• write a HSPA practice essay from an assigned prompt.
elp to
Final Stages of the Research Project ( 1 week)
Unit III - The Great Depression – 1930s (3 weeks)
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Ancillary non-fiction articles in English Department Resource File
Related Readings
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”
Upton Sinclair, - The Jungle
Studs Terkel, “American Dreams Lost and Found”
John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men (May be assigned as independent reading)
Carl Sandburg, “Chicago”
Essential Questions:
• How do characters maintain hope during times of despair?
• How do characters cope with situations of loss?
• How does machinery parallel with the crises in the novel?
• When does the pantheistical idea studied in the unit on Transcendentalism become significant in the novel? Why is this thinking essential to Steinbeck?
• How do the Biblical allusions provide meaning and a sense of humanity for the Joads?
• How do the intercalary chapters provide a commentary on humanity?
Activities and Assessments:
• analyze the emphasis on nature, mechanism and humanity in Steinbeck’s novel and provide an explanation for its purpose;
• analyze examples of Biblical references – using the Internet to research, explain those references;

• analyze examples of the ways in which machinery hurt and helped the characters;
• analyze ways in which the author uses animals, machinery and nature;
• compose journal entries from memorable quotes that emphasize theme;
• maintain a vocabulary log;
• act out passages in the novel, the scene where Ma takes on Pa;
• give examples of how Casey exemplifies the spirit of Walt Whitman;
• conduct research by exploring periodicals and newspapers on line with current examples of people in distress;
• write a literary essay comparing a scene in the novel with the current event researched paying close attention to the implications and consequences of isolation and alienation during difficult times – identify FCAs.
Note : In the interest of time, teachers may encourage students to read independently. Some of the works may be used for the final exam.
Fourth Quarter:
Theme: Alienation and the Individual
Anchor Texts: (7 weeks)
Ernest Hemingway – “The End of Something”
Arthur Miller - The Death of a Salesman
August Wilson – Fences
Robert Frost – poem – “Mending Wall”
Anne Tyler, “Teenage Wasteland”
J.D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye
Choice Related Paired Readings - independent or literature circles: (2 weeks)
Students will choose a novel and a corresponding poem or short story.
(Teachers may include these works as part of the final exam essay.)
Russel Baker – Growing Up
Tobias Wolf – A Boy’s Life
Ernest Hemingway – Old Man and the Sea
John Steinbeck – of Mice and Men
Barbara Kingsolver – The Bean Trees
Carl Sandburg – “Chicago”
Gwendolyn Brooks, “Life for My Child is Simple”
Richard Wright, “The Man Who was Almost a Man”
Anzia Yezierska – “America and I”
Toni Morrison – The Bluest Eye
Gish Jen, “In the American Society”
Jhumpa Lahiri – The Namesake
Zora Neal Hurston – “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”
Sherman Alexie – Reservation Blues
James Baldwin – Go Tell It on the Mountain
Tom Brokaw – The Greatest Generation
Essential Questions :
• How do the concepts in the works during the period relate to the theme of The American Dream and
Its Legacies?
• How has the dream changed over decades?
• Is the dream present in today’s culture? – If so, how does it manifest in contemporary literature?
• Are we our brother’s keeper?

• How do young men and women accept their identities in a critical and sometimes judgmental society?
• How can the reader understand the possible influences of historical context on the writers’ lives?
• What role does society play when its citizens cannot fulfill a dream?
• What makes people move ahead in the face of adversity? What prevents individuals from being defeated?
• What is the danger when individuals neglect to face reality?
• What impact does family have on bereft characters?
• How does petty jealousy, prejudice and guilt impact relationships?
• How do people survive according to John Updike, “in many ways happy” after traumatic, personal experiences?
• How does self-loathing paralyze individuals and prevent them from achieving their dreams?
• How do minor characters enrich the protagonists’ experiences and enhance theme?
Activities and Assessments:
• analyze and research how immigration and industrialization changed Americans’ lives;
• write journal entries to accompany reading following the key characters in the assigned works and trace their decisions analyzing how those decisions hurt or helped the characters;
• analyze how a character’s illusions distort reality and impact progress in achieving a dream;
• develop a characterization chart that identifies how blind devotion erodes the hope of a dream;
• compare and contrast stream-of-consciousness among several characters;
• analyze how characters alienate themselves from others;
• create a diagram of the conflicts in two stories – students work in small groups to show which characters are in conflict and with whom and which are in conflict with themselves – analyze if the conflicts are primarily internal or external;
• maintain a journal using expressive writing as a starting point for a literary essay;
• write a literary essay response to several questions;
• prepare for the final exam by reviewing notes and developing advance organizers for study purposes.
In addition to those activities and assessments noted in the curriculum, further assessments of students may include
• reading quizzes
• unit tests with essay responses
• essay responses to open-ended questions
• vocabulary tests
• class participation
• homework assignments
• student presentations
• peer evaluations
Texts
McDougal Littell English , Yellow level
Short Stories and Non-Fiction

The Language of Literature , McDougal Littell
American Literature: A Chronological Approach, McGraw, Hill
Short Stories and non-fiction
Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop: Level G
Writing Manual Resources
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White
The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan,
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser
MLA Handbook
Novels
As noted in the curriculum
Films
As noted in the curriculum