English 10

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Course Overview

High School English II provides tools for students to achieve college-readiness in understanding and correctly using the conventions of standard English, with focus on literary techniques, vocabulary, and grammar. The course draws from literature classics to give students practice in identifying and incorporating these conventions. Course topics include:

• Elements of Short Story

• Writing Science Fiction and Mystery

• Writing Biography, Autobiography, and Memoirs

• Grammar and Vocabulary

• Writing Personal, Expository, and Persuasive Essays

• Writing Persuasive Speeches

• Form, Language, Imagery, and Sound Devices in Poetry

• Drama - Comedy and Tragedy

English II is A-G Approved through the University of California.

 

Course Objectives & Student Learning Outcomes

High School English II continues to build on the foundation of High School English I in the core areas of reading fluency/comprehension and effective oral and written communication. Specifically, the course aids students in the following:

• Reading, assessing, and assimilating increasingly complex texts, both fiction and non-fiction, including a cultural diversity of authors, giving students the enrichment of multi-cultural exposure and a broader basis for comparing themes and topics

• Conducting effective long and short-term research, utilizing multiple types of resources, and assessing their relevancy and reliability

• Producing oral and written presentations based on analysis and comparison of texts, on research conducted, and on conclusions drawn through study and discussion; both written and oral presentations utilize multimedia components where these aid in making clear points

• Participating in meaningful group discussions, considering other’s points of view, and exchanging knowledge and ideas to be incorporated in student’s own work

• Adhering to the conventions of Standard English in writing and speaking with specific key lessons for targeted trouble spots

• Gaining an appreciation for and a greater understanding of great literature and how it influences students’ thinking and writing

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Scope and Sequence

Unit 1 – Plot and Setting This unit covers plot and setting, and includes flashback, sequence of events, context clues, foreshadowing, cause and effect relationships, and vocabulary.

Unit 2 – Short Story – Theme, Character This unit covers short story, including interpreting imagery, word origins, possessives, denotation and connotation, the colon, vocabulary, theme, character, author characterization, words with multiple meanings, and analogies.

Unit 3 – Short Story -- Narrator, Voice This unit continues to discuss the short story, including narrator and point of view, voice, word parts, prepositions and prepositional phrases, appositives, participles, coordinating and subordinate conjunctions, and adjective clauses.

Unit 4 – Building Reading, Writing Skills This unit discusses dialogue, antonyms, vocabulary, sentence fragments, dangling participles, characterization, and italics.

Unit 5 – Nonfiction This unit discusses how to identify nonfiction, narrative nonfiction with emphasis on biography, denotation and connotation, how to conduct an interview, academic vocabulary, analogies, and jargon.

Unit 6 – Writing Lab – Biography This unit discusses writing a biography, including choosing a subject, doing research, establishing focus, making an outline, creating a draft, revising, editing, proofreading, publishing, and presenting. Also covered are sentence structure, style, and action verbs.

Unit 7 – Nonfiction – Autobiography/Memoirs This unit discusses the genre of autobiography and memoirs, and covers parts of words, dashes, academic vocabulary, using context clues, subject-verb agreement, and synonyms.

Unit 8 – Nonfiction – Essays This unit discusses personal, expository, and persuasive essays, as well as structure, style, and theme, analogies, active and passive voice, academic vocabulary, analyzing argument, and run-on sentences.

Unit 9 – Persuasive Essay This unit discusses writing persuasive essays, including topic and thesis, introduction, body paragraphs and their structure, addressing the counter, conclusions, citations, and quotations, as well as organizing compare-contrast essays.

Unit 10 – Nonfiction – Speeches This unit discusses persuasive speech, including elements and analysis of persuasive speaking, rhetorical devices, analogies, academic vocabulary, structure, transitions, and clear pronoun agreement.

Unit 11 – Poetry – Form This unit covers the form, language, sound, and structure of poetry, and includes poetic devices, meter, rhythm, homonyms and homophones, and using comparative and superlative words. Also covered are word origins and academic vocabulary. 

Unit 12 – Poetry – Imagery This unit discusses imagery in poetry, as well as diction, absolutes and absolute phrases, vocabulary, semicolons, and transitions. Also covered are quotations in literature, lyric poems, using context clues, and introductory transitions.

Unit 13 – Poetry – Sound Devices This unit discusses sound devices in poetry, as well as academic vocabulary, analogies, using adverbs for comparison, denotation and connotation, and subjective and objective pronouns.

Unit 14 – Research Report This unit discusses writing a research report, including research and topic, introduction and thesis, body paragraphs, conclusion, and using citations, italics, and quotes.

Unit 15 – Drama – Comedy This unit discusses the elements of drama, including form and structure, as well as types of comedy, including satire, farce, and irony. Also covered are verbal’s, including participles, gerunds, and infinitives. This unit also includes academic vocabulary, basics of using commas, appositives, and transitions.

Unit 16 – Drama – Tragedy This unit discusses tragic drama, including Shakespearean drama, the language of Shakespeare, characterization, foreshadowing, paraphrasing, monologue, irony, suspense, imagery, rhetoric, foil, theme, and tragic heroes. Also discussed are adverb clauses, denotation, and connotation.