Junior English: The American Experience

2017 – 2018

Mr. Dechant

The Tennessee English curriculum for 11th grade develops students’ skills in analyzing complex literary and informational texts by exploring works by acclaimed authors and historical figures from the American canon. Through the study of a variety of text types and media, students build knowledge, analyze ideas, delineate arguments, and develop writing, collaboration and communication skills. Each unit of the course incorporates the Tennessee English Language Arts Standards of reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, media literacy, and language, providing a rigorous and pedagogically-sound foundation for student learning. The course’s goal is to transform students into productive, knowledgeable, and critical meaning-makers of our global world.

American Literary Periods:

  • A Gathering of Voices:

Literature of Early America (Beginnings to 1800)

  • A Growing Nation:

Literature of the American Renaissance (1800 – 1870)

  • Division, Reconciliation, and Expansion:

Literature of the Civil War and the Frontier (1850 – 1914)

  • Disillusion, Defiance, and Discontent:

Literature of the Modern Age (1914 – 1945)

  • Prosperity and Protest:

Literature of the Post-War Era (1945 – 1970)

  • New Voices, New Frontiers:

Literature of the Contemporary Period (1970 – Present)

Fiction and Drama Selections from:

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Miller, Mark Twain,Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe,John Steinbeck, Jack London, Kate Chopin, F. Scott Fitzgerald,William Faulkner, Alice Walker and others.

Poetry Selections from:

Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, e. e. cummings, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Edgar Allan Poe, Marianne Moore, Billy Collins and others.

Literary Nonfiction Selections from:

Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and others.

Enduring Focus Areas:

  • Critical thinking.
  • Vocabulary development.
  • Writingin the Four Modes:

narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative

  • Close reading/annotation.
  • Drawing evidence-based conclusions.
  • Grammar, usage, & mechanics.
  • ACT test-taking skills & content knowledge for English and Reading subtests.

Required Materials:

  • Writing utensils
  • Folder or binder for organizing handouts and notes
  • Notebook paper in a binder or spiral notebook. I will provide you with a bellwork notebook for daily bellwork, but you will need another source of paper for notes and drafting.

Class Rules, Policies & Procedures:

Class Rules:

  1. Be on time.
  2. Show respect.
  3. Ask permission to leave your seat.
  4. No cell phone use without teacher permission.

Discipline Procedures:

  1. Verbal warning.
  2. Student-teacher conference.
  3. Parent phone call.
  4. Detention (& parent phone call).
  5. Administrative referral (& parent phone call).

Note:serious offenses can, at the teacher’s discretion, result in more severe consequences regardless of previous steps taken.

Late Work:

Late work will lose 5% per day late and will not be accepted after 5 days.

Academic Integrity:

Cheating is unacceptable. No exceptions. A student caught copying someone else’s work, allowing someone else to copy his or her work, borrowing from a source without giving credit, cheating with cell phones, or engaging in any other form of academic dishonesty will receive a zero for the assignment in question. Plagiarism will be covered early in the year to ensure all students know how to comply with these expectations.

Make-up Work for Excused Absences:

Students will have one week to complete work missed due to absence.

Tardy Policy:

1stTardy: Warning

2ndTardy: Detention

3rdTardy: Detention

4thTardy: Referral to administration and Saturday School.

5thTardy: Referral to administration and Overnight Suspension.

(Upperclassmen will have driving privileges revoked)

6thTardy: Referral to administration and Out of School Suspension.

Tutoring and Extra Help:

My tutoring times are Tuesday and Thursday 2:15-3:00 and by pre-arranged appointment. Please encourage your student to come talk to me if he/she is failing or struggling in class. I am here to help!

Keeping Up With What’s Happening in Class:

My teacher webpage will be up and running shortly. The website will be updated with information about what we’re doing in class each day and when projects, tests, and assignments are due. I will also upload file copies of handouts, PowerPoints, and other relevant course materials to help students and families stay in the loop. Additionally, Skyward is available for parents to monitorstudent grades. I recommend checking it daily to stay on top of things. If you need Skyward login information, please see the guidance counselors or have your student check with them to get that information.

Contact Mr. Dechant:

Phone: (901) 873-8100

Email: