Honors English 11 Ms. McKee

Fun facts about me… This is my third year in Council Rock. I am the advisor to the Hiking Club. My parents are both English teachers. I was band president when I was in high school. I spent some time working for the marketing department of a Philadelphia publishing company.

Honors English 11 Rachel McKee- rmckee@crsd.org Continuing development of critical reading strategies for use in analyzing the significance of particular works American Literature Theme of American Identity Social/Historical Context of Literature “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” -Emerson

Literary Eras Native American Period Puritanism 1620-1720 Age of Enlightenment 1720-1820 Romanticism (and Transcendentalism) 1820-1865 Realism 1865-1895 Naturalism 1895-1920 Modernism (Harlem Renaissance) 1920-1945 Age of Anxiety 1945- “What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote it.” -E.M. Forster

Literature Novels -Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neal Hurston -The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald -The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne -Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain -Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – J. Safran Foer -Of Mice and Men– John Steinbeck -Independent Research Novel – American Author “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” -Nick – The Great Gatsby

Short Story Selections Literature continued Short Stories Honors English 11 Short Story Selections Play(s) Essays The Crucible Thoreau Death of a Salesman Emerson Franklin Literary Criticism Poetry Whitman Dickinson Bradstreet Harlem Renaissance Poets Collins Frost “That you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood” - Hemingway

Writing - Journal Responses - Blue Book Essays: timed writing - Persuasive Essays - Personal Narrative & Creative Pieces - Literary Criticism Paper - Grading of major writings based on Pennsylvania Writing Assessment Scoring Guidelines "I may have said the same thing before... But my explanation, I am sure, will always be different." - Oscar Wilde

Research Paper - Completed third marking period - 25% of marking period grade - Self-selected American novel - Collect Literary Criticism - Synthesis of personal analysis and literary critics views into thesis driven paper - Can be expanded for graduation project - Plagiarism results in zero for assignment as per student handbook policy “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” -Zora Neal Hurston

Short Story Presentations Group Dynamics Public Speaking and Presentation Skills Synthesis of Literary Criticism Class Participation See sales pitches for details “The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” – Ernest Hemingway

Grammar / Usage / Mechanics - Taught formally using multiple resources - Addresses problems seen in compositions - The SAT has a writing section containing multiple-choice grammar / usage / mechanics questions as well as an essay “Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.”  ~Mark Twain

Vocabulary Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop Level G 20% each Marking Period Twenty-Two new words per week: parts of speech, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, sentence completion and word forms Tests- Biweekly and Cumulative Website with games and iWords; vocabtest.com Solid SAT performance enhanced by rich vocabulary background Workbook or Flashcards $12.00 to CRHS South Activities - English

Homework and Assessments - Regularly Scheduled Reading - Journal Response Writing - Biweekly Vocabulary Tests - All assessments returned for review

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