LW English - District Curriculum: Reading Literature Strand
Department: English
Standard(s):
Understanding by Design
Course: English 2 Honors
Common Core Standards ELA
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.1- Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well
as inferences drawn from the text.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.2- Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of
the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.3 - Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over
the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.5 - Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g.,
parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.6 - Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature
from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.7- Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including
what is emphasized or absent in each treatment.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.9 - Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work.
LA.9-10.RL.9-10.10 - By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at
the high end of the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Stage 1: Desired Results
Understandings
Students will demonstrate skills in comprehension, interpretation, and analysis through the reading of novels, drama, and
poems.
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Essential Questions
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What do literary devices add to a piece of literature in
terms of tone, character, style, and theme?
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How do literary terms/devices help author’s portray
his/her message?
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How does a theme or central idea develop over the
course of a literary work?
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What is an author’s purpose in writing a literary work?
Knowledge & Skill
Students will be able to:
o cite evidence from the text to support analysis
o make inferences and draw conclusions
o determine theme/author’s message
o determine an author’s purpose and how literary
devices help the author portray that purpose
o analyze characterization and character
development
o determine the meaning of words in context
o analyze an author’s stylistic choices and their
effect on the reading of the text
Literary Devices:
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Dorian Gray - Aphorism, Paradox, Allusion, Symbolism,
Imagery, Diction, Tone, Mood/Atmosphere, Author’s Purpose,
Figurative Language, Genre, Foreshadowing, Anaphora, Point
of View, Theme, Audience, Rhetoric, Epigrams, Social Satire,
Antithesis, Metaphor, Foils, Syntax, Theme, Irony
Silas Marner - Didactic Viewpoint, Simile, Metaphor,
Repetition, Imagery, Allusion, Foils, Symbolism,
mood/Atmosphere, Tone, Diction, Syntax, Theme, Irony,
Personification
Caesar/Macbeth - alliteration, allusion, anachronism,
apostrophe, chiasmus, ellipsis, foreshadowing, hyperbole,
imagery, irony, metaphor, metonymy, motif, parallelism,
personification, pun, rhetorical question, simile, synecdoche,
understatement
Medea - The Structure of Greek Tragedy (prologos/
prologue, parados, episodes, stasimons, exodus), Tragic
Hero, -Deus Ex Machina, Rhetoric (logos, ethos, pathos),
Role of Chorus, Catharsis, Tragic Flaw, Irony, Fate,
Foreshadowing, Theme, Personification, Hyperbole, Simile,
Metaphor
A Tale of Two Cities - diction, organization, selection of
detail, symbolism, paradox, euphemism, anaphora,
antithesis, parallelism, tone, syntax, litotes, pathos,
personification, proverb, aphorism, extended metaphor,
metonymy, bathos, pathetic fallacy, simile, onomatopoeia,
metaphor, motif, understatement, periodic sentence, irony,
allusion, synecdoche, foreshadowing
Ethan Frome - colloquialism, irony, symbolism, imagery,
alliteration, paradox, idiom, foreshadowing, simile, rhetorical
question, parallelism, repetition, climax, allusion,
personification, metaphor
F451/The Crucible - paradox, simile, metaphor, allusion,
imagery, allegory, drama, realism, foreshadowing, periodic
sentence, hyperbole, anaphora, metonymy, onomatopoeia,
synesthesia, litotes, irony, rhetorical question, syntax,
aphorism, personification, alliteration, euphemism, syllepsis
Poetry - speaker, point of view, audience, subject, author's
attitude towards subject, literal meaning, form,
structure/organization, setting/time period, mood, tone,
theme, diction, syntax, meter, rhyme, imagery, figurative
language, use of sound, shift, rhetorical question, parallelism,
symbolism, metaphor, conflict, personification, irony,
paradox, juxtaposition, didactic, monologue
Stage 2: Assessment Evidence
Performance Task Summary
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Rubric Titles
reading and annotating literary works
passage analysis
Applied Practice Tests
unit exams
timed writings
class discussions
Socratic seminars
Self-Assessments
Other Evidence, Summarized
Department Final Exam
passage analysis
Applied Practice tests
Stage 3: Learning Activities
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Example Activities (will vary by teacher and class/student needs):
Focus Guides
Activities as shared in other curricular strands:
Writing and Research
Language
Speaking and Listening