English 11 Honors
Course Syllabus
Mr. Borders ∙ Room 401 ∙ 330.823.1300
b_borders@marlingtonlocal.org ∙ www.marlingtonlocal.org/MrBorders.aspx
Overview:
Honors English 11 is designed to prepare students for college level English courses in composition and
literature by stressing higher level thinking skills. A wide variety of writing assignments, ranging from the
formal research paper to the creative essay, encourage students to better organize and develop their
writing as well as think imaginatively. Complimenting their exploration of writing, students will engage in
a survey of American literature. Required readings include novels, non-fiction plays, short stories and
poetry. Regular discussions of the reading assignments offer students an opportunity to develop their
skills in oral communication, analytical thinking and group interaction.
Curricular Requirements:
The curriculum will prepare students for college through a thorough study of the Common Core State
Standards; however, our focus for the course will be on the following standards:
RL/I.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
RL/I.11-12.2
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to
produce a complex account/analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL/I.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative, connotative and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that
is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other
authors.) And analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over
the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
W.11-12.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using
valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Course Materials:
Textbook:
Literature: The American experience. Prentice Hall.
Additional Works:
Semester I:
Unit I:
“An Hymn to the Evening,” Phillis Wheatley
“To His Excellency General Washington,” Phillis Wheatley
“On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Phillis Wheatley
The Crucible, Arthur Miller
“The Trials of Phillis Wheatly,” Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards
Mrs. James Smith & Grandson, Charles Willson Peale
Mrs. George Watson, John Singleton Copley
Young Moravian Girl, John Valentine Haidt
Portrait of a Woman, Joseph Wright
Unit II:
“Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson
Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
“Speech to the Virginia Convention,” Patrick Henry
Siège de Yorktown, Auguste Couder
Washington Crossing The Delaware, Emanuel Leutze
James Monroe, Gilbert Stuart
Lapowinsa, Gustavus Hesselius
Paul Revere, John Copley
Declaration of Independence, John Trumbull
Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, Thomas Pritchard Rossiter
Unit III:
“Annabel Lee,” Edgar Allan Poe
“I Hear America Singing,” Walt Whitman
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Walt Whitman
“A Bird came down the Walk,” Emily Dickinson
“This is my letter to the World,” Emily Dickinson
“Because I could not stop for Death,” Emily Dickinson
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau
Looking Down Yosemite Valley, Albert Bierstadt
Kindred Spirits, Asher Durand
Niagara, Frederic Church
The Lackawanna Valley, George Inness
Romantic Landscape with Ruined Tower, Thomas Cole
Semester II:
Unit IV:
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Mark Twain
“What Stumped the Bluejays,” Mark Twain
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, Frederick Douglass
“The Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln
“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” James Weldon Johnson
A Visit from the Old Mistress, Winslow Homer
Unit V:
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langston Hughes
“Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes
“Harlem,” Langston Hughes
“The Death of the Hired Man,” Robert Frost
“Birches,” Robert Frost
“Richard Cory,” E.A. Robinson and Simon and Garfunkel
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
From the Back Window, 291, Alfred Stieglitz
Goat, Arthur Dove
My Egypt, Charles Demuth
Mount Katahdin, Maine, Marsden Hartley
Unit VI:
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
“Sestina,” Elizabeth Bishop
“The Fish,” Elizabeth Bishop
“One Art,” Elizabeth Bishop
Inaugural Address, John F. Kennedy
Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois
Seagram Building, New York City, New York
Concord, Barnett Newman
Pillar of Sundays, David Smith
Untitled, Franz Kline
Number 28, 1950, Jackson Pollock
Red Fragmented Figure, Louis Bourgeois
Are Years What? (For Marianne Moore), Mark di Suvero
Untitled, Mark Rothko
Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 70, Robert Motherwell
Excavation, Willem de Kooning
*Other canonical and modern texts, essays, and the like may be read throughout the year or chosen for
the research project, if approved.
Other Materials:
You will need a 3-ring notebook (recommend dividing into the following sections):
1. Notes
2. Literary Terms
3. Compositions
4. Homework
5. Vocabulary
Bring your current reading materials, notebook, and pen or pencil to class each day.
Grading:
Assignments and Homework:
All assignments must be turned in on or before the due date. If you know you will be absent, turn in
your work early or have someone else turn it in for you. Late work will not be accepted!
Make-Up Work:
All assignments will be listed on-line (Web site listed at top of syllabus). You must check the assignments
when you return to class after an absence and make any necessary arrangements to take quizzes, tests,
etc.
Scale/Weighting:
A
B+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
92-100%
89-91%
86-88%
83-85%
80-82%
77-79%
74-76%
71-73%
68-71%
65-67%
below 65%
4.500
3.850
3.500
3.225
2.925
2.500
2.225
1.425
1.000
0.875
0.000
80%
40%
Compositions
30%
Tests
20%
Quizzes
10%
Homework
20%
Two 9-Week Tests
(10% each)
SLO Exam (15%) &
9-Week Test (5%)
Academic Outline:
Ongoing Assessments
Independent Reading Assignments:
There will be an emphasis on the writing process, with discussions and practice in revision and use of
style as a priority. This emphasis will include class discussions, individual conferences, and peer revision.
Each assignment will include writing in the form of a literary analysis (detailed further in “Composition
and Language Skills”).
Vocabulary:
Students will be learning vocabulary as needed, based on the literature used in each particular unit.
There will be an emphasis on understanding not just the denotation of words in literary works, but the
connotation of those words as well. This study of diction will apply both to the reading of assigned
literature (where professional writers model their skills in usage) and to the students’ writing samples as
well. Further, vocabulary words will be assigned weekly, and quizzes (on Fridays) will cumulative. The
end result should be two-fold: first, a heightening of the students’ appreciation for effectively used
diction in literary works and secondly, an improvement in the students’ understanding of diction and
usage in their own writing samples.
Literary Terms:
In addition to vocabulary study, literary terms will be assigned each week; quizzes will be given biweekly
on Wednesdays. This portion of study will not only develop students’ enjoyment of literature, but also
their ability to think critically, write successfully, discuss effectively, etc.
Composition and Language Skills:
We will use various texts as resources for modeling the various modes of writing. These resources will
also be used as models for the revision process as students write for a variety of purposes including
analysis, synthesis, argumentative, and informative essays. Composition assignments will include at least
one longer essay per semester—using APA style parenthetical citations and a Bibliography page—
germane to the students’ independent reading, which may be any of the following writing assignments:
expository, analytical, or argumentative. Each paper will receive feedback, conferencing, peer feedback,
and will be available for revision. For revision credit, students MUST improve their papers beyond the
mundane spelling, grammar, etc. Specifically, students need to think about how to improve their
arguments, organization, and rhetoric.
First Semester
Unit Breakdown by Week: “What Is the American Dream?”
Introduction: “Course Introduction” (Week 1)
Overview: In this unit students will work with their previously read texts to learn to improve their skills
of analysis through various teaching strategies, including class discussions; think, pair, and share; and
small group discussions. Specifically, students will be gaining an understanding of the thought
complexity level this course requires.
Unit I: The New World (Weeks 1-4)
Overview: It focuses primarily on the nonfiction prose—including sermons and diaries—and some
poetry in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Students examine the works of some of the
earliest settlers in various parts of the “new world.” They consider the significance of the intersection of
Native American, European, and African cultures. They explore whether conflicts were inevitable and
how language and religion served as barriers and as bridges. Students look for emerging themes in
American literature, such as the “new Eden” and the “American dream.” Finally, art works from the
period are examined for their treatment of similar themes.
Unit II: A New Nation (Weeks 5-10)
Overview: Building on the themes explored in unit one, students trace the movement towards
revolution and the colonists’ desire to establish a new government, noting the differences in opinions
between federalists and anti-federalists and how the arguments were made. Students compare the
radical purpose and tone of the Declaration of Independence to the measured and logical tone of the
Preamble to the Constitution. They will analyze the expression of conflict between colonists and the
British government, between colonists and Native Americans, and between colonists and slaves. They
will begin to recognize the emerging theme in American literature of “American exceptionalism.” Art
works from the period will be examined for their treatment of similar themes.
Unit III: American Romanticism (Weeks 11-18)
Overview: Students explore this period as America’s first prolific one of literature, by examining works
from Cooper and Irving to Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau. The prominent
theme during this period in American literature of “manifest destiny” may be introduced by reading
John O’Sullivan’s essay “Annexation.” Students will wrestle with how the romantics perceive
individualism and how this focus on individualism relates to other themes in American literature.
Transcendentalism is explored as an aspect of American romanticism and students should compare the
“romantics” with the “transcendentalists.” Teachers are encouraged to select one novel and a variety of
the other poetry and prose in order to give students maximum exposure to the various works of the
period.
Second Semester
Research Paper:
Students will create a thesis and write a researched multi-genre project that is based on a minimum of
four sources. The essay will be 7-9 pages long, including both parenthetical citations and a Bibliography
page in APA format. Students will be required to submit a rough draft two weeks prior to the submission
of the final paper. One week before the final paper is due, students MUST conference with the teacher
to discuss possible improvements and successes. Finally, students will submit their final copy along with
their rough draft.
Unit Breakdown by Week: “What Is the American Dream?”
Unit IV: A Troubled Young Nation (Weeks 1-6)
Overview: The range and depth of potential topics covered in this hefty unit might be tailored to suit
various classroom populations. Building on the previous unit in which individualism figures as a
prominent theme in American romanticism and transcendentalism, this unit explores the expanding
idea of the American individual and the related idea of the pursuit of liberty in various forms. Teachers
are encouraged to have students read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a classic American novel that
deals with issues of racism and slavery, and raises important questions about what America promises
and to whom. Beyond The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, teachers could select from among the other
novels listed or ask different students to read different novels, such that the variety of their compelling
themes may be shared and discussed as a class via oral presentations and seminars. Teachers are
encouraged to sample heavily from the informational texts, as many are critical especially to
understanding the era of the Civil War and the struggle to fulfill America’s promise.
Unit V: Emerging Modernism (Weeks 7-12)
Objectives: It traces the emergence of American modernism, including some literature from World War
I, and tracks the literature of “disillusionment” that followed the war. Students explore Robert Frost’s
vision of nature as modernist rather than transcendental in its perspective. They identify the alienation
of the modern man and the tensions that are embedded in the modernist works of F. Scott Fitzgerald
and Ernest Hemingway. The works of Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston
illustrate the breadth of the Harlem Renaissance literary movement. Informational and critical texts
enrich the students’ analysis of the texts.
Unit VI: Challenges and Successes of the Twentieth Century (Weeks 13-18)
Objectives: Students will recognize the principles of effective literary characterization and be able to
understand and apply the vocabulary of characterization. This vocabulary includes direct and indirect
presentation, round and flat characters, and dynamic and static characters, as well as the idea, especially
important in discussing short stories, of the epiphany.
Parent/Student Summary
Important Dates


Wednesdays are important; students will either be taking literary terms quizzes or doing ACT
preparation (reading, grammar, or writing—with an emphasis on writing).
Fridays will have vocabulary quizzes. Each quiz will build on the previous.
Important Information

Assigned readings are important—as are assigned homework and studying. Being that this is an
honors-level class, late work will not be accepted. I expect your best effort on everything you
do, and I understand that some material is very difficult. Therefore, if your best effort isn’t up to
your (and my) standards, a different retake over the material will be allowed (and expected).
Parent/Guardian Signature: _______________________________________ Date: ______________
Student Signature: ______________________________________________ Date: ______________