11^th Grade Language Arts Curriculum Map

Month/Unit	Essential Questions	Expectations	Assessments	Resources	Standard	Grammar	Vocabulary
August- September The Puritan Experience in America	Who were the Puritans? What influence have they had on the intellectual and cultural history of North America? What relevance do their ideas have today? What insight does literature offer us into the Puritan legacy?	Students will: - read widely in a range of genres (short fiction, novel excerpts, essays, sermons and drama). - practice annotating texts for the purpose of better understanding the methods by which they produce meaning. - become more familiar with such literary tropes as metaphor, symbol and allegory - learn to differentiate between contemporaneous and retrospective accounts of Puritanism -recognize the effect of genre on an author’s approach to and portrayal of Puritanism -be invited to pursue intersections between their study of American literature and US History -approach writing as a recursive process involving strategies for generating, drafting, and revising their ideas	Reading quizzes In-class and take-home writing prompts Class discussion Analytical essay (Hawthorne) Analytical essay (The Crucible)	Short Fiction: “Owls” (Nordan), “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “Young Goodman Brown” (Hawthorne) Essays: “Puritans and Prigs” (Robinson), “Young Bergdorf Goodman Brown.” (Leyner) Sermons: “A Model of Christian Charity” (Winthrop), “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (Edwards) Novel excerpts: The Scarlet Letter (“The Prison Door,” “The Market Place,” “The Recognition,” “Another View of Hester,” The Revelation” and “The Conclusion”) Drama: The Crucible	1- Students read and understand a variety of materials. 2- Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. 3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. 4- Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. 6- Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.	Increase syntactical variety and control of prose at the sentence level. Conventions of usage and punctuation; strategies for coordination and subordination; advantages of parallel, cumulative and periodic sentence structures all taught as much as possible in the context of the students’ own work.	Vocabulary lists generated from texts reviewed. Regular quizzes.
September/ October Transcendentalism	What are the intersections between Puritanism and Transcendentalism? What are the basic tenets of Transcendentalism? What relevance do these tenets have in contemporary life?	Students will: - come to appreciate the basic principles of Transcendentalism and their influence upon American literature - be challenged to read, annotate and understand syntactically complex texts - be given the opportunity to work out, in writing, their own response to the ideas of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman and others - will experiment with the elasticity of the essay as a form - approach writing as a recursive process involving strategies for generating, drafting and revising their ideas - will expand their vocabulary	Transcendentalist essay Reading Quizzes Class discussion Aphorism exercise Divinity School Response	Emerson: Nature (introduction and Chapter One), “The Divinity School Address,” “Self–Reliance” Thoreau: excerpts from Walden Whitman: “Noiseless Patient Spider,” excerpts from “Song of Myself” Ancillary readings: “A Slight Sound at Evening” (White), “Down the River” (Abbey), “Be Different…Like Everyone Else” (Sante)	1- Students read and understand a variety of materials. 2- Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. 3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. 4- Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. 6- Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.	Increase syntactical variety and control of prose at the sentence level. Conventions of usage and punctuation; strategies for coordination and subordination; advantages of parallel, cumulative and periodic sentence structures all taught as much as possible in the context of the students’ own work	Vocabulary lists generated from texts reviewed. Regular quizzes.
October/ November Race in America I Middle Passage	Why did the transcendentalist and abolitionist movement arise in the same place, at the same time, among many of the same people? What is the fundamental contradiction in slavery? What is its legacy for contemporary American society?	Students will: - become familiar with the problems besetting “idea-driven” fiction - refine their ability at close textual analysis - gain further appreciation for the 1^st person narrative stance - approach writing as a recursive process involving strategies for generating, drafting and revising their ideas - be given additional opportunity to cultivate their ability to develop and defend a thesis through use of appropriate textual support - seek out and exploit intersections between their study of American literature and U.S. history	Analytical essay (Middle Passage Reading quizzes Class discussion	Narrative of the Life of an American Slave (Douglass), “Desireé’s Baby” (Chopin), “The Wife of his Youth” (Chestnutt), Middle Passage (Johnson), “The Atlanta Exposition ClassAddress” (Washington), “On Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” (Dubois),	1- Students read and understand a variety of materials. 2- Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. 3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. 4- Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. 6- Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.	Increase syntactical variety and control of prose at the sentence level. Conventions of usage and punctuation; strategies for coordination and subordination; advantages of parallel, cumulative and periodic sentence structures all taught as much as possible in the context of the students’ own work.
November/ December Race in America II Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	What are the similarities and differences between Rutherford’s and Huck’s respective journeys? What is groundbreaking about Twain’s use of both the vernacular and a youthful, first person narrator? Should Twain’s “masterpiece” be considered racist? How can I develop and defend my view of Twain’s novel relative to the views of other critics?	Students will: - learn to read and appreciate the use of vernacular -read a arrange of critical views of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. -become better able to weigh and evaluate opposing critical arguments. -work out their own response to whether or not the novel should be considered racist. -learn to integrate another critic’s views into their own prose using appropriate documentation. -develop and defend an original thesis relative to Twain’s novel using the tools of literary research.	Literary research paper (Huck Finn) Semester final exam Reading quizzes Class discussion In-class and take-home writing prompts	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; critical essays: online and on reserve in Phelan & Graff’s Casebook in Critical Controversy (“A Certain Formal Aptness” (Trilling); “Say it Ain’t So, Huck” (Smiley); “The Boy and the River” (Eliot); “Mr. Eliot, Mr. Trilling and Huckleberry Finn” (Marx). Video: CultureShock: Born to Trouble	1- Students read and understand a variety of materials. 2- Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. 3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. 4- Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. 5- Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources. 6- Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.	How to cite sources (A Writers’ Reference handout on MLA documentation) using signal phrases and appropriate punctuation.	Introduce Popkin’s Vocabulary Energizers Chapters 1 – 3
January/ February Depictions of the American Dream I The Great Gatsby	What was the American Dream then? What is it now? In what ways does Fitzgerald hold materialism responsible for the corruption of the American Dream? How has Fitzgerald refined the first person narrative stance? How can I use an examination of key literary tropes (symbolism, the use of color, etc.) to develop and defend an interpretation of Fitzgerald’s novel?	Students will: -become more astute critical readers -practice active reading through annotation exercises -be given the opportunity to explore their own conceptions of the American Dream -refine their ability to develop and defend a thesis through direct textual reference -practice the art of literary exegesis through close passage analysis	Reading-by-the-Numbers Literary exegesis paper Reading quizzes Class Discussion In-class and take-home writing prompts.	The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) Video: The Great Gatsby	1- Students read and understand a variety of materials. 2- Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. 3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. 4- Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. 5- Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources. 6- Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.	Increase syntactical variety and control of prose at the sentence level. Conventions of usage and punctuation; strategies for coordination and subordination; advantages of parallel, cumulative and periodic sentence structures all taught as much as possible in the context of the students’ own work.	Popkin’s Vocabulary Energizers Chapters 4 - 6
February/ March Depictions of the American Dream II One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest	How is Kesey’s take on the American Dream similar to Fitzgerald’s? In what ways is it different? How is the cultural context of Kesey’s novel similar to the Roaring 20’s? How is it different? In what ways is Kesey responding to the literary movements of his day? In what ways is he anticipating them? What narrative problems does Kesey’s first person narrative stance present him? What is an “anti-hero”? Does McMurphy qualify as one?	Students will: -continue their development as critical readers -become familiar with key concepts such as unreliable narrator and an anti-hero -further develop their ability to develop and defend a thesis through direct textual reference -compare this first person narrative stance with others encountered earlier in the year -examine ancillary texts and genres from a similar time period in order to identify common themes	Literary analysis paper Reading quizzes Class discussion In-class and take-home writing prompts	One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Kesey); video: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; podcast: “My Lobotomy” (Howard Dully, NPR); poetry by Ginsberg, Ferlenghetti and others; “Slouching Toward Bethelehem” (Didion)	1- Students read and understand a variety of materials. 2- Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. 3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. 4- Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. 5- Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources. 6- Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.	Increase syntactical variety and control of prose at the sentence level. Conventions of usage and punctuation; strategies for coordination and subordination; advantages of parallel, cumulative and periodic sentence structures all taught as much as possible in the context of the students’ own work.	Popkin’s Vocabulary Energizers Chapters 4 - 6
April ACT PREP	What is the format of the ACT English exam? How is grammar assessed on the exam? What have I learned about grammar and mechanics by reading and writing in response to the works we’ve read so far this year?	Students will: -become familiar with the ACT English exam -be given the opportunity to review grammar and mechanics in the context of proofreading and editing -become more confident about their ability to perform well on the ACT English exam	ACT practice exams and exercises.		3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
May/June Independent Reading Assignment	What makes a good book “good”? How can I find out about an author’s background and influences? How can I find out what others have thought about a book? What makes for an engaging oral presentation? What is a “literary” book review, and how does it differ from a book report?	Students will: -learn to manage their time -read independently and for pleasure -become more familiar with the resources available for literary research -further refine their ability to incorporate other critics’ views into their own writing -be given the opportunity to polish their public speaking skills	Oral presentation Book Review Incremental Assignments (prospectus, critical sources & summaries, etc.)	Students are invited to choose a work by an American author. Representative titles include: On the Road, The Invisible Man, Catch 22, Native Son, Fight Club, The World According to Garp, Slaughterhouse Five,The Rule of the Bone, Purple America, Lonesome Dove, As I Lay Dying, Reservations Blues, The Sun Also Rises, The Poisonwood Bible, The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Corrections, Cold Mountain, Bel Canto, House of Sand and Fog, House of the Spirits, Snow Crash, Clockers, In the Time of the Butterflies, The Big Sleep, Ordinary Wolves	1- Students read and understand a variety of materials. 2- Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. 3- Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. 4- Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. 5- Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources. 6- Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.	Increase syntactical variety and control of prose at the sentence level. Conventions of usage and punctuation; strategies for coordination and subordination; advantages of parallel, cumulative and periodic sentence structures all taught as much as possible in the context of the students’ own work.	Popkin’s Vocabulary Energizers Chapters 7 - 9