COURSE TITLE:  HONORS ENGLISH

 

GRADE LEVEL:   12

 

TEACHER:           MRS. ANN WEDGE

 

 

DESCRIPTION:    The Honors Senior English course is college-level in the reading and critical analysis of literature.  The content will be presented in a chronological manner, so the student may relate and synthesize the writer’s ideas with the writer’s period of time.  Explication of specific works of British authors will continue throughout the year.

 

                             The composition portion will stress a mastery of the skills of synthesis, namely, ordering ideas into a logical pattern, developing them with pertinent and valid detail, and effectively communicating them to the reader with clarity and fluency.

 

OBJECTIVES:      In Literature

 

                             ~        To read with a critical focus.

 

~        To discuss the total effectiveness of the works studied.

 

                             In Composition

 

~        To communicate adequately a mature grasp and interpretation of each work.

 

~        To demonstrate a mastery of English usage, spelling, and punctuation.

 

~        To write in a clear, readable, attractive essay style.

 

EVALUATIVE

PROCEDURE:      Because the major emphasis in Honors 12 is that the students learn to evaluate, organize, and articulate within a limited amount of time, the essay is the primary evaluative tool.  As the year progresses, the essay topics become more challenging.

 

GRADING

ESSAYS:              On the day that a major paper is due, it will be turned in to me.  Your letter grade will be lowered one letter for each day it is late.  Weekends count as two days.  Get the paper to school:  there are few, if any, acceptable excuses for later papers.  In-class writings are announced in advance.  Make every conceivable effort to be in class on these days.

 

CLASS

DISCUSSION:       Because it is absolutely essential that the students further develop listening and speaking skills, class discussion is an extremely important aspect of this course.  Furthermore, it is essential if students are to learn to appreciate and exchange differing points of view.

 

OBJECTIVE

TESTS:                 These frequently precede an essay examination to aid students in organizing material before they begin to write.

 

RESEARCH

PAPER:                A 10-page research paper will be written the third nine weeks.  Students will compare three works representing three different genres but having a similar theme.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

     1.  THE ANGLO-SAXONS (449-1066)

 

-                                             The Seafarer

-                                             Beowulf (selections)

-                                             Grendel (novel)

 

  1. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (1066-1485)

 

          -        Ballads

-        Geoffrey Chaucer – the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

-        King Arthur (selections)

 

 

 

  1. THE ELIZABETHAN PERIOD (1485-1625)

 

          -        Sonnets – by Spenser, Shakespeare, others

-        Drama – Macbeth, Hamlet

 

  1. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (CAVALIERS)

 

          -        The Poetry of John Donne

-        Cavalier poetry

-        John Milton – selections

 

  1. NEO-CLASSICISM OR “AGE OF REASON” (1700-1798)

 

          -        Alexander Pope – selections

-        Jonathan Swift – selections

-        The poetry of Robert Burns, Thomas Gray

 

  1. ROMANTICISM (1798-1837)

 

          -        Wordsworth – “. . . Tintern Abbey”

-        Coleridge – “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

-        Blake – selections

-        Shelley – selections

-        Keats – selections

 

  1. THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1900)

 

          -        Charles Dickens – selections

-        Poetry by – Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Hardy

 

  1. THE MODERN AND POSTMODERN PERIODS (1901-PRESENT)

 

     -        Poetry by – Yeats, T.S. Eliot

-        George Orwell – 1984

     -        Poetry – Trench poets – Brooke, Owen, Sassoon

-        Churchill – speech

-        Gandhi – speech

 

  1. NOVELS

          SIDDARTHA

          OTHERS