Syllabus for English 12 Level 1

Plagiarism: PLAGIARISM MEANS USING ANOTHER'S WORDS WITHOUT GIVING CREDIT. USE DOCUMENTATION FROM MLA STYLE SHEET.

Week I and II: College Application Essay -500 word essay for the "Universal College Application"

Summer Reading Review: Othello, Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, English Patient

Unit 1: Short story unit. Historical background: Beginnings of British Literature-
Chaucer and Beowulf-Focus: significance of titles, characters, place foreshadowing; multiple interpretations.

Unit 2: Jane Eyre: Focus: conventions of romance/gothic novel and influence on lit. of 19th and 20th centuries; autobiographical influences; critical response; role of coincidence, foreshadowing, and contrasting characters; "pathetic fallacy" and Bronte's adaptation of the device; writing of argumentative essay. Optional: Hard Times and Pride and Prejudice

Unit 3: SAT Preparation

Unit 4: Poetry presentations. Renaissance

Unit 5: Elizabethan Drama-Shakespeare: Hamlet: Focus: dramatic structure, Shakespearean terms and devices; characterization; authorship; writing of film review; short research paper using primary and secondary sources.

Unit 6: SAT II Prep

Unit 7: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Contemporary drama based on Hamlet.

Unit 8: Thomas Hardy: Focus: role of fate; aspects of setting and character; nature as abstract, impersonal, dominating force; patterns of characterization; complexities of human relationship; characteristics of folklore and fable; Victorian morals and value structure.

Unit 9: Romantic, Victorian, and Modern Lit. Poetry/Prose Teach-in.

Unit 10: Senior Project