District Overview:
Effective communication is the ultimate goal of the English Language Arts (ELA) program. The District’s program is committed to producing reflective, critical, and creative thinkers by developing a positive learning community in which students are empowered to read, write, and respond to texts to prepare them for college and careers. Throughout the educational process, students shall strive to become expert readers and writers, effective speakers and listeners, thoughtful problem solvers, critical consumers of visual media and competent users of language. Instruction focuses on meaningful language experiences, which allow for whole-group, small-group and individualized instruction based on the needs of each student. Technology integration creates an interactive, engaging, and relevant learning environment. Through readings of both classic and contemporary literature as well as non-fiction selections, students are exposed to a variety of text modalities. By providing these opportunities, students are able to exercise skills in gathering, synthesizing, and communicating language. In all, the curriculum aims to develop problem solving skills and connect knowledge across curriculum to build an understanding of cultural diversities and complexities of the world.
AP English Description:
This class is designed to prepare students for their collegiate career, while aligning to college curriculum, and ultimately provide them with the necessary tools to successfully complete the AP exam. This will be a vigorous, challenging, and adventurous course that will require motivation, insight, and a fresh perspective. Because of the depth of exploration this course requires, students’ writing, conceptualizations, and their cerebral fortitude should remain steadfast throughout the year. The AP English course is both rigorous and academically challenging as students will study both prose and poetry founded upon authors from around the world with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and lifestyles. This course will incorporate metacognitive strategies that will require them to think critically, read regularly (independently and collectively), write frequently, analyze and reflect, pose and solve problems, and communicate consistently in small and large groups. As a result of this discourse and reflection, students will become more aware of their own learning as they are assessed through both formative and summative assessments with a concentration on written assessments and College Board released exams and prompts. Likewise, students will utilize various media and technological resources in conjunction with the writing and research process to include research, expository, speculative, argumentative and narrative modes in addition to literary criticisms and critical theory.
AP English Units:
  • Unit 1: The Short Story
  • Unit 2: Poetry
  • Unit 3: Drama
  • Unit 4: Vocabulary
  • Unit 5: Research and Independent Reading/Guided Reading

Subject: AP English / Grade: 12 / Suggested Timeline: 7 Weeks
Unit Title: TheShort Story
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
In this unit, students will read short stories deliberately, multiple times, that either entertain (commercial fiction) or deepen understanding of the human condition (literary fiction) while examining the author’s craft and the conventions he uses to convey meaning. Students will examine how authors continuously reinvent the short story by employing innovative techniques and unconventional storytelling approaches. Because authors of literary fiction demand more cognitively of the reader in terms of language, structure, and text complexity, students will be asked to provide formal and informal written responses to multiple prompts and exploratory questions that address such demands. Additionally, students will examine how their own expectations and experiences affect interpretation thereby challenging their views, morals, and values. At times, students will examine various short stories through multiple lenses: video, audio, and written expression and analyze how each affects interpretation, noting additions, omissions, etc. Likewise, students will draw on cultural and historical references to glean additional information about the theme and the author’s purpose. Small and whole group discussions will drive this unit.
Essential Questions:
  • How does literature help us to understand ourselves and others?
  • How has writing become a communication tool across the ages?
  • How does literature reflect the human condition?
  • How does literature express universal themes?
  • How do the parts of a story contribute to the work as whole?
  • How do authors convey meaning?
  • Why do people interpret a story differently?
  • Why is it important to have working knowledge of an author’s personal background and historical context?

Unit Objectives:
  • After reading short stories, the students will be able to differentiate between the different types of short stories.
  • After reading a short story, the students will be able to identify the protagonist and antagonist and determine the nature of their conflict.
  • After reading a short story, the students will be able to analyze how the author creates suspense and mood.
  • After reading a short story, the students will be able to determine how an author reveals character and be able to identify which type of character.
  • After reading a short story, the students will be able to determine how the elements work together to support a central purpose.
  • After reading a short story, the students will be able to identify and explain literary elements such as symbol, irony, etc. as well as plot structure.
  • After reading a short story, the students will be able to evaluate fiction through verbal and written discourse; when through written discourse, they will adhere to the MLA rules for quoting textual evidence.
  • The students will collaborate with one another to offer varying perspectives and/or confirmation of ideas.

Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
1.3 Reading Literature:
  • CC.1.3.11-12.A - Determine a theme or central idea of a text
  • CC.1.3.11-12.B - Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly
  • CC.1.3.11-12.C - Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text
  • CC.1.3.11-12.D - Determine the point of view of the text and analyze the impact
  • CC.1.3.11-12.E - Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text create an effect
  • CC.1.3.11-12.F - Analyze how words and phrases shape meaning and tone in texts
  • CC.1.3.11-12.G - Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums
  • CC.1.3.11-12.H - Analyze how an author draws on and transforms themes, topics, character types
1.4 Writing:
  • CC.1.4.11-12.S - Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis
  • CC.1.4.11-12.T - Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting
  • CC.1.4.11-12.X - Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames

Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
1.2 Reading Literature:
  • CC.1.3.11-12I - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words and phrases based on grade-level reading and content
1.4 Writing:
  • CC.1.4.11-12.R - Demonstrate a grade-appropriate command of the conventions of standard English grammar
  • CC.1.4.11-12.U - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products
1.5 Speaking and Listening:
  • CC.1.5.11-12.A - Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade level topics
  • CC.1.5.11-12.B - Evaluate a speaker’s perspective, reasoning, and use of evidence
  • CC.1.5.11-12.D - Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning
  • CC.1.5.11-12.F - Make strategic use of digital media in presentations to add interest

Misconceptions:
  • Short stories are written to entertain.
  • Short stories always have a deeper meaning.
  • All short stories are created equally.
  • If I am quoting something from a short story as support, I have to quote the entire sentence.

Concepts/Content:
  • Characterization
  • Plot and Structure
  • Point of View
  • Quoting from a Text
  • Setting
  • Mood
  • Imagery
  • Theme
  • Symbol
  • Denotation and Connotation
  • Foil
  • Protagonist / Antagonist
  • Dialogue
  • Tone
  • In Medias Res
  • Literary Fiction
  • Commercial Fiction
/ Competencies/Skills:
  • Read and evaluate the conventions/components of a short story and how they work together to create meaning
  • Recognize the different types of short stories and determine the author’s purpose in choosing one over the other
  • Delineate the direct and indirect characteristics of the major characters in a short story and make inferences based off of those characteristics
  • Identify key elements and details as support for an argument
  • Identify literary elements and articulate how the author used them to create meaning
  • Use proper MLA documentation when citing evidence from a text
  • Write clear, concise and cohesive paragraphs or essays that support a single idea
  • Engage in mature conversations as both the speaker and listener about the content and ideas contained within a short story
/ Description of Activities:
  • Read, discuss and share ideas about short stories using the short story questions worksheet as a guide.
  • Annotate short stories and talk to the text
  • Read and evaluate critical essays on particular short stories and support or refute those claims by locating evidence within the short stories themselves
  • Summarize short stories paragraph by paragraph to deepen understanding and at times compare short stories looking for like themes
  • After reading a short story, watch a movie of it and identify the director’s decision to add or omit elements of the short story and evaluate those choices.
  • Identify key words and phrases that contribute to the overall theme of the short story
  • Both independently or in small groups, the students will ponder questions, relative to the short story that they read and at other times, they will generate level three and four questions themselves for the class to consider, which will culminate in a whole class discussion.
  • Students will read a variety of short stories from different periods that are culturally diverse and be asked to determine how the cultural and historical context contributes to understanding.
  • Students will take notes on the literary devices/elements and figurative language of the short story to obtain information to be used before, during and after this unit of study.
  • Students will write frequently both formally and informally to articulate their understanding of and interpretation of short stories and the conventions/literary elements that help contribute to the work as a whole.
  • Based upon teacher observations in student writing, the students will correct common grammar mistakes in their own writing after whole class instruction on its proper use.
  • Students will frequently revision what they wrote based off of teacher feedback that occurs before, during and after written assignments.
  • Students will write their own short story.

Assessments:
  • Teacher-created worksheets
  • Student Journal for daily or quick writes
  • Student-Generated worksheets
  • Various quizzes
  • Frequent paragraph writing addressing one or more of the drama elements (includes writing to the various modes)
  • Writing rubrics: with focus on content, conventions and sentence fluency traits
  • Writing a Literary Criticism/Literary Analysis from TDQs
  • Released AP exams (timed)
  • Short Story

Interdisciplinary Connections:
  • Social Studies - Cultural and historical implications
/ Additional Resources:
  • Approved English textbook
  • Approved supplemental resources
  • Released AP Exams
  • Teacher-created materials
  • Summer Reading/Writing

Subject: AP English / Grade: 12 / Suggested Timeline: 7 Weeks
Unit Title: Poetry
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
Poetry exists to communicate significant experience, not to tell us about experience, but to allow us to imaginatively participate in it, but in order for this to happen, we need to have at least a basic understanding of what poetry is. This unit will focus on broadening and deepening experience by exploring in greater depth one of the three forms of imaginative literature, poetry, and its three main types: epic, dramatic, and lyric as well as their constituents. This course closely examines the common traits poems share such as specific patterns of rhythm and syntax, figurative language and structure. Students will explore how sounds, rhythms and arrangements of words interact by responding to poetry through written discourse. Another component of this unit is relegated to the visual and other sensory effects of the arrangement of words on the page. Students will not only closely examine and demonstrate understanding of culturally diverse poems, but they will also articulate that understanding via frequent formal and informal writing exercises that rely heavily on text dependent analysis. Through careful observations, students will determine how the poet’s use of diction and the poem’s structure itself contributes to the work as a whole. This unit will consist of small and whole group discussions as well as opportunities for student presentations. Finally, students will mimic a poet’s style and use of conventions to craft their own poetry.
Essential Questions:
  • How does literature help us to understand ourselves and others?
  • How has writing become a communication tool across the ages?
  • How does literature reflect the human condition?
  • How does literature express universal themes?
  • Why is word choice such an important consideration when crafting a poem?
  • Why can there be multiple interpretations of any given poem?
  • What is the benefit of using figurative language and poetic devices?
  • How can I make sense of something that seemingly makes no sense?
  • What is the benefit of reading and understanding poetry?

Unit Objectives:
  • Students will be able to explain (written and verbal) a poem from start to finish by utilizing given strategies for interpretation.
  • Students will be able to identify key words and phrases from a poem to support a claim or an inference about the poem.
  • Students will determine the theme of a poem and the poet’s purpose in writing the poem from the details in the text.
  • Students will explain how the structure of the poem contributes to the work as a whole.
  • Students will identify key elements in a poem: the speaker, the audience, the tone, key details (diction), etc.
  • Students will analyze how key elements of poetry contribute to the work as a whole.
  • Students will collaborate and discuss poetry with peers in a small and whole group setting and share out with the class.
  • Students will craft their own poem by modeling a given poet.

Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
1.3 Reading Literature:
  • CC.1.3.11-12.A - Determine a theme or central idea of a text
  • CC.1.3.11-12.B - Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly
  • CC.1.3.11-12.D - Determine the point of view of the text and analyze the impact
  • CC.1.3.11-12.E - Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text create an effect
  • CC.1.3.11-12.F - Analyze how words and phrases shape meaning and tone in texts
  • CC.1.3.11-12.G - Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums
1.4 Writing:
  • CC.1.4.11-12.S - Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis
  • CC.1.4.11-12.T - Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting
  • CC.1.4.11-12.X - Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames

Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
1.2 Reading Literature:
  • CC.1.3.11-12.I - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words and phrases based on grade-level reading and content
1.4 Writing:
  • CC.1.4.11-12.R - Demonstrate a grade-appropriate command of the conventions of standard English grammar
  • CC.1.4.11-12.U - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products
1.5 Speaking and Listening:
  • CC.1.5.11-12.A - Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade level topics
  • CC.1.5.11-12.B - Evaluate a speaker’s perspective, reasoning, and use of evidence
  • CC.1.5.11-12.D - Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning
  • CC.1.5.11-12.F - Make strategic use of digital media in presentations to add interest

Misconceptions:
  • Poetry is too difficult to understand.
  • If I don’t know what a poem means, there’s no way I can derive any meaning from it.
  • Poetry is difficult to write.
  • Poetry always has an underlying greater message.
  • When I look at poetry, it is so foreign to me that I do not even know where to start my analysis.

Concepts/Content:
  • Literary devices
  • Figurative language
  • Connotation / Denotation
  • Textual evidence
  • Anaphora
  • Apostrophe
  • Allusion
  • Allegory
  • Stanzas (couplet, tercet, quatrain, etc.)
  • Synecdoche
  • Metonymy
  • Paradox
  • Categorical assertion
  • Enjambment
  • Conceit
  • Litotes
  • Dramatic monologue
  • Epigram
  • Satire
  • Anthropomorphism
  • Periphrasis
/ Competencies/Skills:
  • Define and locate terms necessary for analyzing poetry
  • Analyze a poet’s purpose in writing a poem
  • Analyze how a poet’s word choice (diction) creates meaning
  • Write poetry
  • Cite evidence properly using MLA documentation for support when answering a prompt
  • Identify support for choices in released AP multiple choice exams
  • Outline ideas of support in response to released AP prompts
  • Compare and contrast two or more poems and their thematic implications
  • Determine how a poem’s structure creates meaning and fosters understanding
  • Evaluate multiple interpretations of a given poem and justify the variations
  • Write formally and informally to articulate observations and inferences
/ Description of Activities:
  • Read, discuss and share ideas about a poem using the poetry questions worksheet as a guide
  • Annotate poems and talk to the text
  • Read and evaluate critical essays on a particular poem and support or refute their claims by locating evidence within the poem itself
  • Rewrite poems by re-inverting a poet’s word choice to gain clarity and understanding
  • Summarize poems stanza by stanzato deepen understanding and at times compare poems looking for like themes
  • Present a poem to the class and teach the class the strategies you employed to glean a better understanding of it
  • Read a poem and then listen to it and note the difference in interpretations and how rhythm and structure affect the overall meaning
  • Identify key words and phrases that contribute to the overall theme of the poem
  • Either independently or in small groups, the students will ponder questions, (using Keystone verbiage) relative to drama, that they read and at other times, they will generate level three and four questions themselves for the class to consider, which will culminate in a whole class discussion.
  • Students will read a variety of poems from different periods that are culturally diverse and be asked to determine how the cultural and historical context contributes to understanding.
  • Students will take notes on literary devices, poetic elements and figurative language (with or without scaffolds) to obtain information to be used before, during and after this unit of study.
  • Students will write frequently both formally and informally to articulate their understanding of and interpretation of poems and the conventions/literary elements that help contribute to the work as a whole.
  • Based upon teacher observations in student writing, the students will correct common grammar mistakes in their own writing after whole class instruction on its proper use.
  • Students will frequently revision what they wrote based off of teacher feedback that occurs before, during and after written assignments.