11th Grade Honors English Curriculum
Each week we cover a different writing concept or technique, including analysis of a reading from Interpretations of Literature as an example or as a basis for a writing exercise, lecture and/or writing workshop. Tests include weekly quizzes covering textual content and vocabulary for the week's reading, and midterm and final exams that include sentence corrections on the SAT model, identifications based on class readings, and short essay questions.
The 11th grade focus is on essay performance in the context of Regents and AP exams, where a well-crafted and thematically sophisticated essay is produced within a given time frame and preset parameters, the finer points of language arts and the literary analysis of and engagement with the longer and more complex novel form (including secondary readings in literary criticism).
Assigned Readings
Short Fiction [Fall]
Sarah Orne Jewett, "A White Heron"
Saki, "The Cobweb"
Luigi Pirandello, "A Character's Tragedy"
W. Somerset Maugham, "The Outstation"
Virginia Woolf, "Solid Objects"
Novel [late Fall - Winter]
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Richard Adams, Watership Down
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Drama [early Spring]
Shakespeare, soliloquies from Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Henry V
Poetry [late Spring]
Beowulf
Non~fiction [various]
Various essays/articles
Assignments
The 11th grade class is focused on the in-class essay in preparation for the Regents exam at the end of the year. A mixture of practice critical lens and reading-driven essays is
emphasized, with the students writing an essay every two weeks. Each semester we read a novel on which the students write a 5-page term paper. In addition, each student is expected to learn and perform a Shakespearean soliloquy to develop rhetorical skills and enhance close reading.
Practice Critical Lens essays
Reading-driven essays
Performance of soliloquy
Choice of topic (theme: injustice and revolution, symbolism, characterization: the use of doubles) on A Tale of Two Cities [TERM PAPER]
Choice of topic (theme: imperialism, mythic characterization) on Heart of Darkness
Choice of topic (theme: leadership, literary technique: anthropomorphism, allegory) on Watership Down [TERM PAPER]