Course Syllabus for Honors English I
Students in Honors English I will be reading, writing, learning grammar and applying vocabulary
each day.
Literature units will be novel-based and have an emphasis on learning and applying literary terms, or
words used to talk about literature.
Literature Units:
Unit One: Summer Reading
John Knowles’ A Separate Peace and Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees
 Be prepared to be tested on your summer reading a week after school has started on August 26,
2015.
Unit Two: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Students will read To Kill a Mockingbird as they learn over 50 literary devices that describe fiction
Writing: Personal Essay on the Theme of Discrimination
Unit Three: Dystopian Literature
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Students will read the classics Lord of the Flies and Fahrenheit 451 as they compare two societies that have
gone very wrong. Students will apply fiction literary devices to each novel.
Writing: Lord of the Flies/ Fahrenheit 451 Thematic Essay
Unit Four: Civil Disobedience
Students will read the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and the classic play Antigone by
Sophocles as they analyze the theme of civil disobedience
Writing: Complete Persepolis and Antigone comparison essay
Unit Five: Poetry
Students will learn over 50 poetic devices and apply these devices as they explicate poetry
Writing: Poetry Explication Essay
Memorization: Poetry Out Loud Poem Recitation (See link: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/)
Unit Six: Drama
Students will act Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare in class as they read Twelfth Night by
William Shakespeare out of class.
Memorization: Shakespeare Monologue memorization assignment
Writing: Shakespeare Thematic Essay
Unit Seven: The Epic
Students will read excerpts of The Odyssey by Homer
Writing: The Soundtrack of My Life Autobiographical Essay
Grammar Units
Students will receive grammar instruction the first fifteen minutes of class. Grammar units will be
separate from literature units. Students will learn and apply the following grammatical concepts to
their writing:
 Parts of speech
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Capitalization Rules
Subject-verb agreement
Run-On sentences
Sentence Fragments
Colons, Semicolons, Dashes
Punctuation of Quotations
Misplaced Modifiers
Parallel Structure
Vocabulary Units:
Students will receive a new vocab list every other Monday. All lists are taken from The Joy of Vocabulary
by Herold Levine, Norman Levine, & Robert Levine © 1997.
 Students will receive a new vocab list every fifth class period. Vocab practice homework will be
due the day after they receive a new list. Students will be quizzed on each list every fifth day.
We will record these dates in our school agendas and they will be listed on the board.
 Students will also have to write using their vocabulary, as each essay rubric has 10 points for
vocabulary usage.
Writing:
Writing will be done on a daily basis. Academic essays are the weightiest grades (they count four times),
so they will be done using draft writing.
 When a student receives an essay requirement, they will be given a detailed rubric of what they
should have in their essay with point value attached. They will also be given a brainstorming
graphic organizer that can aid them in starting the writing process.
 Exactly one week after receiving an essay assignment, students may submit a first draft. First
drafts will be graded with a rubric attached and returned to the student to make revision and
editing corrections.
 Within 2-3 days of first drafts being returned to students, second drafts are submitted. Again, a
student will receive his or her second draft returned with a grade on it and the opportunity to
revise and edit for a final draft.
 Final drafts will be graded and recorded in the teacher grade book.