High School English Department
Grade 12 Course Overview
Introduction
Your last year in the public school system will require you to make challenging decisions. You must face the anxiety of breaking away from all that has been relatively predictable and secure and in your lives (family, community, economic dependence). You must make decisions regarding acceptance of responsibilities in a real world-the job market or higher education. You more than anyone know what skills you personally have to acquire or develop and what values you have to sort out and accept at this time. In English this year, therefore, we would like you to hone the skills (reading, writing, listening, viewing and speaking) that you will need in order to cope with the future. We will read literature of the past to see how humans coped with universal problems over time and we will read a good deal of contemporary literature to help you address the specific problems of today.
We will learn this content through
- Techniques characteristic of major genres (drama, novel, short story, poetry, essay).
- Examination of universal concerns of humankind and mores of individual culture, including our own contemporary culture.
- Subtleties in meanings achieved through film making devices and clever uses of language.
- The process of writing a worthy description of self (e.g., the college or job application essay).
- The refinement of individual skills for contributing to group process in a mature way.
- The recognition of one's own responsibility toward the transmission of culture.
Basal Texts
- World Literature
- Literature, Purple Level
- Writer's Inc.
Core Literature -Coursework will include but not be limited to the following:
| Novel | Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe |
| Drama | Shakespearean Tragedy-Macbeth or Othello |
| Short Story | "The Guest" by Albert Camus |
| Poetry | The sonnet |
Skills
- Read critically with emphasis on analysis and evaluation of literature and its contextual development.
- Write analytically with emphasis on expository writing.
- Compose, revise, edit, and proofread writing.
- Use correct grammar with emphasis on parallel structure and proofreading.
- Present and evaluate oral presentations.
- Read and critique a variety of poetry with an emphasis on how the elements of poetry contribute to meaning and experience.
- Use and evaluate a variety of sources to synthesize information and cite sources.
- Understand the ethical issues of research, documentation, and plagiarism.
Assessment
- Writing for a variety of purposes, including the personal narrative
- Analytical essays and timed writings
- Objective quizzes and tests
- Standardized testing preparation
- Projects
- Oral presentations
- Film critique