American Literature & Composition

Course Number: 0319
Level:  College Prep
Department:  English

Course Description
Prerequisite:  Freshman and Sophomore English
Open to:  Juniors
Length:  Year
Credit:  1
Summary:  CP  American Literature & Composition hones the reading, writing, and thinking skills introduced freshman and sophomore years.  The attention to literature in the broader context of American culture calls for considerable work with theme and argumentative thinking in both reading and writing.  Students are expected to take into account several rhetorical elements in the analysis of fiction and poetry, and in the case of argumentative writing, to consider logos, pathos, and ethos.  The research paper assigned in U.S. History will be brought to English class for the critiquing of focus, organization and development of thought, clarity of expression, and errors in grammar and punctuation.

Course Goals:

• Formulating insightful questions to aid reading comprehension
• Improving vocabulary by deciphering contextual clues and word formations
• Focusing a purpose in writing and identifying the most advantageous organization of thought
• Analyzing literature as a reflection of the prevailing consciousness and social issues of  particular eras in American culture
• Considering a broader array of rhetorical elements in analyzing the purpose and style of a piece of literature, including logos, pathos, and ethos in argumentative writing
• Critiquing a research paper for its focus, organization and development of thought, clarity of expression, and common usage errors
• Identifying verbal constructions and related issues of sentence structure and punctuation

Textbooks and Materials: 
Primary Texts for Annotation:  Things They Carried and The Great Gatsby
Other Required Texts:  Choice of Weapons, Raisin in the Sun
Supplementary Texts:  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, The Crucible, A Lesson Before Dying
Assorted poems and essays

Course Outline
First Semester
Reading & Writing Experiences:
Formulating insightful questions to aid reading comprehension; inductive/deductive reasoning; identifying theme, tone, and point-of-view;  understanding imagery and figurative language in poetry; defining the main idea of an expository essay and the reasoning supporting its development; defining the logos, pathos, and ethos in argumentative writing; defining tone in prose and poetry; defining one’s purpose in writing and the organization and fuller development of thought;  paraphrasing and summarizing; creating a poem.
Major texts may include the following:  A Lesson Before Dying, The Crucible, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby
Grammar:  Reviewing parts of speech, structure of a clause, essential and non-essential clauses and phrases, transitive and intransitive verbs, active and passive voice; identifying participial phrases, misplaced and dangling modifiers; understanding parallelism in sentence structure
Major Assessments:  Reading exams, essay assignments, and assessment of grammar knowledge and editing skills

Second Semester
Reading  & Writing Experiences: 
Formulating insightful questions to aid reading comprehension; comparing/contrasting essayists’ reasoning in the definition and development of a philosophical idea, a moral proposition, historical theory, or a sociological or psychological concept; analyzing rhetorical elements of an argument; composing an argument, particularly in preparation for the ACT/PSAE exam in April; critiquing an argument for common logical fallacies;
analyzing rhetorical elements in a political cartoon; critiquing a research paper for its focus, organization and development of thought, clarity of expression, and common usage errors.
Major texts may include the following:  A Choice of Weapons, The Catcher in the Rye, A Raisin in the Sun, The Things They Carried
Grammar:  Vague pronoun reference, gerunds and related punctuation; identifying unnecessary shifts in sentence structure; subjunctive mood; correct use of ellipses, the dash, parentheses, and brackets.  Reviewing grammatical elements covered freshman through junior years with attention to how they are included in the format of the ACT exam.
Major Assessments:  Reading exams, essay assignments, and assessment of grammar knowledge and editing skills

(Parents and students: please consult individual teachers for grading policies, extra credit info, class procedures, etc.)