I. Course Description
English 10 Honors, which is offered to select students who are capable of accelerating their progress in the English curriculum, prepares scholars to take the Comprehensive English Regents Examination at the end of tenth grade year (typically, students take the Regents English Exam at the end of 11th grade). A mid-term exam will cover the sophomore material; the second semester will focus on American Literature. Students are expected to maintain at least an 85 average throughout the course. Successful completion of this course will allow participants the opportunity to take English 1510 in 11th grade. The completion of English 1510 will enhance the student’s background for the Advanced Placement English course, which will be the last step in the accelerated sequence. While participation in English 10 Honors does not obligate the student to take Advanced Placement English, it does provide an excellent background should the student desire to do so.
Students enrolling in English 10 Honors must be committed to a constant effort to achieve to their highest potential. There will be a significant amount of outside reading, as well as regularly assigned major writing projects.
II. Course Objectives
- To develop a writing and reading community in which each writer actively and routinely participates, creates, thinks, writes, reviews, and rewrites to best capture ideas and communicate with his/her audience.
- To read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding for response and expression, for analysis, and evaluation, and for social interaction.
- To utilize a process in a writing classroom instead of simply writing to produce a product.
- To learn about the self and the human experience through reading and writing.
- To be prepared to compete globally.
- To use new forms of technology, such as blogging and podcasting, to communicate.
- To study various experiences of authors throughout world history, and attempt to determine how those experiences have shaped their writing voices.
III. Course Outline
Semester 1: European Literature
1. Anglo Saxon Literature including Beowulf, “Caedmon of Whitby,” and the “Seafarer”
2. Medieval Literature
3. Early English, Scottish, and Irish ballads
4. Selected readings from The Canterbury
5. Antigone by Sophocles
6. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
7. Existentialist Literature
8. All Quiet Along the Western Front
9. Night
Semester 2: American Literature
1. Early American Literature- Pilgrims in the New World
2. Nonfiction historical pieces
3. Romantic Literature
4. The Transcendentalists
5. American Literature from the Industrial Age
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. Death of a Salesman by Arthur
8. To Kill a Mockingbird
