English IV Pacing Guide and Syllabus
Dawn Gilchrist, BA, MA, MFA
Spring Semester 2014
This class will teach students to understand grammar and sentence structure in English, to do close
readings of fiction and nonfiction, and to write in several modes, including persuasive, analytical, and
informative. Its usefulness is to help you organize how you think, see what smart people are thinking
about, and articulate what you want to say.
We will read fiction, including short fiction and novels, and nonfiction, including essays, news articles,
and biographies. We will also study writing, from the construction of sentences to essays and research
papers. Further, we will study grammar that will make you look smarter when you talk and write, and
vocabulary that will include Latin and Greek roots and ACT vocabulary and testing terms.
A first in this class will be our participation in several story exchanges, first with the writer Ron Rash,
then within our own class, and, finally, with students in Newtown, Connecticut.
The semester will be broken down into the following time frames:
Unit I: (weeks 1-4ish) Short Fiction
Advice: You’re judged first by how you look, and second by how you communicate.
Days 1-10—daily dose of grammar, short fiction, Narrative4, literature response
Days 11-30ish—more of the same, but work within small and large groups to read closely, annotate, and
respond to questions
Socratic Circle
Narrative4 Story Exchange with Ron Rash
Narrative essay as writing grade at end of unit
Practice NC Exam as culminating test of unit
Weekly reading, grammar, and participation grades
Unit II: (weeks 5-9ish) Fiction: The Novel
Advice: Let’s keep our culture and dialect, but lose the ignorance.
Regional fiction and close readings
Days 21-35ish—close readings and annotations of fiction by Sherman Alexie, Silas House, Daniel
Woodrell, or maybe a few old standards
Analytical essay as writing grade at end of unit
Practice NC Exam as culminating test of unit
Weekly reading, grammar, and participation grades
Unit III: (weeks 10-13ish) Film and Drama
Advice: Take your new smarts and use them like the college educated, whether you plan to go to
college or not.
Days 47-57ish—How to watch a film; drama terms; Drama with William Shakespeare ; Macbeth: in
groups do summary; as class, watch contemporary version; as individuals, apply literary terms and
figures of speech; as groups, choosing and interpreting a scene; as same groups, presenting the scene to
the class
If time allows, a few good screen dramas about Indians and Cowboys (Days 58-68ish) (Smoke Signals,
based on short stories by Sherman Alexie; 3:10 to Yuma; Open Range or The Mission)
Persuasive essay as writing grade at end of unit
Practice NC Exam as culminating test of unit
Weekly reading, grammar, and participation grades
Unit IV: (weeks 14-17ish): Poetry
Advice: Make intelligence a habit. Prepare to graduate from high school.
Days 70-77ishish: How to woo and be wooed through poetry, then kill and dissect it: Garrison Keillor’s
Favorite Poems; TPFASTT, group, pair, and individual; poem analysis test—written for group and
individual oral quizzes
Days 78- 83ish: How not to get screwed by “The Man” (a few rules of rhetoric and a handful or rhetorical
terms); studying commercials, Verizon contracts, loan disclosures; interviews and CVs; creating a
commercial using rhetorical terms; practicing an interview
Narrative essay as writing grade at end of unit
Practice NC Exam as culminating test of unit
Weekly reading, grammar, and participation grades
Week 18: North Carolina Final Exam Review and the Actual Final Exam (a mean test)
Days 84 and 85: Testing words and literary terms ; practice NC test
Attendance: If you don’t come to class, how can you expect to pass?
Class rules to remember: 1. Be nice or leave. 2. Ms. Gilchrist probably knows more than you do. 3. Act
almost like adults in order to be treated almost like adults.
Grading: Class participation is 20%; Reading for Information and Literature are 10%; Speaking and
listening are 20%; Writing is 40%