Teacher: Denise Boiko

Class day: Once/week on Fridays, 12:25-1:40 p.m.

Textbook: Literature selections named below; Resource textbook Windows to the World: An Introduction to Literary Analysis by Lesha Myers, Institute for Excellence in Writing (Student book)

https://iew.com/windows-to-the-world-student-book-only

ISBN 978-0-9801005-1-8

Cost: $85/month

American Literature and Composition will guide high school students as they read, enjoy, discuss, and analyze a spectrum of literary selections from American authors, poets, and playwrights of various eras. Genres will include short stories, novels, satire, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Students will learn literary terms and study the rhetorical techniques authors use to communicate their messages. For each fiction work read, students will discuss elements such as character, plot, setting, conflict, point of view, and theme, and will look for features such as irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism. For nonfiction works, students will learn to read critically and extract important points. For poetry, students will study typical patterns and techniques the poet uses to convey meaning.

Students will practice techniques of composition such as drafting, revision, and editing. Various types of literary analysis compositions will be written, as well as a research paper with MLA formatting. All essays will be revised before being considered final. Constructive comments in the essay scoring process will help students apply techniques in paragraph structure, thesis and topic sentences, organization, style, mechanics, transitions, parallelism, variety in sentence patterns, and other key writing skills. Each semester, students will write and revise four to five essays, depending on the level of the course chosen, and will complete one creative project per semester. Essays will be scored using a detailed rubric analyzing the student's accomplishments in the areas of content, organization, style, and mechanics. During the second semester, students will write a research paper with MLA formatting, on an American author of their choosing.

A typical class period will include discussion of literature selections the students have been reading, occasional comprehension games, and the sharing of creative projects students have produced to showcase their understanding of the literature they have just read. Some class periods will also include a time devoted to writing instruction.

A supplementary guidebook on literature analysis, Windows to the World by Lesha Myers, will aid the student in understanding the elements of literature and in analyzing these elements in each of the selections during the year. We will work through the concepts in this book a bit at a time.

The full course description is 8 pages. See link below:

Download Full Course Description - YOU NEED THIS!