NORTHWEST CAREER
TECHNICAL ACADEMY
Schilleci
11 Honors
This one-year course (Composition and Themes in American Text) provides instruction in the English Language Arts strands identified by the Common Core State Standards as reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. This course is designated as honors level by the accelerated pacing and depth of content. This course requires expository, analytical, and argumentative writing assignments that are based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres. The course is structured around multicultural themes and perspectives found in literary, non-fiction, and expository texts by the American past, present, and future as well as about the ethnic and cultural diversity of the American experience. Instructional practices incorporate integration of diversity awareness including appreciation of all cultures and their important contributions to society. The appropriate use of technology and digital media are integral parts of this course. This course fulfills one of the English credits required for high school graduation.
You will be asked to keep a notebook (or computer file) for vocabulary, grammar, and class discussion of literature. You will also be asked to read regularly outside of class and to report on that reading in a book report once a semester. The intent of this assignment is to broaden your reading and to improve your fluency.
Your papers will be examined for effective word choice, inventive sentence structure, effective overall organization, clear emphasis, and above all, excellence of argument, including exhaustive supportive evidence (i.e., quotations) and clear, persuasive, elegant connection of this evidence to your overall argument. Lesser “papers” will be written regularly in class to spur thinking, stimulate discussion, and focus on issues of plot, characterization, and theme. These may or may not be handed in. Our course will also be utilizing TurnItIn.com . It will be the students responsibility to activate their own accounts.
Literature
Major Works Data Page
Our anchor text will be How to Read Literature Like a Professor - Thomas Foster - $2.50 Amazon (Please have this in your possession by our second week)
You will have the first three weeks of school to choose four of the following texts. You will be held responsible to allocate one of those texts to each quarter. You will be required to finish the text by quarter final dates. More information to follow. * **
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The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
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The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
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A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemmingway
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Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
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A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
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The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
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The Autobiography of Malcom X – Malcom X with Alex Haley
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On the Road – Jack Kerouac
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The Awakening – Kate Chopin
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Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
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A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
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The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
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Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
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Black Boy – Richard Wright
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To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
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The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
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Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
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The Road – Cormac McCarthy
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The Cherry Orchard – Anton Chekhov
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The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemmingway
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All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
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The Sun also Rises – Ernest Hemmingway
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Moby Dick – Herman Melville
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Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
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Bleak House – Charles Dickens
*All of these texts can be found in either our library or the city library.
**Book checks will occur periodically.