PETERS TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
CORE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
ENGLISH HONORS
GRADE 11
For each of the sections that follow, students may be required to analyze, recall, explain,
interpret, apply, or evaluate the particular concepts being taught.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is a sequential and cumulative program for students who have exceptionally high
ability in English. Students read and discuss many complete works of literature rather than
survey materials. This advanced course focuses on American Literature, which demonstrates
how universal concerns are modified by the American cultural pattern from Puritan times to the
present. The writing component emphasizes analytical and critical compositions.
STUDY SKILLS:
WRITING:
 Identify and practice the steps of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising,
editing, and publishing) as students compose creative, narrative, expository, and
analytical essays.
 Apply grammatical skills in written work focusing on correct usage of verb tense,
punctuation, and style.
 Utilize MLA guidelines in preparing works.
READING:
 Identify and analyze significant literary elements a variety of genres.
 Compare literary works on the basis of form, structure, and content.
 Identify and evaluate the effective use of literary devices in given works.
 Demonstrate an increase in the scope of vocabulary.
SENTENCE COMBINING:
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Develop useful strategies to improve sentence variety, clarity, and conciseness.
Practice sentence combining exercises in The Writer’s Option, and apply acquired
strategies when composing and revising.
Scaffold multiple levels of sentence combining techniques with each set of exercises
to assess mastery of the strategy.
Produce effective sentences based on the following grammatical concepts: relative
clauses, participles, appositives, coordination and subordination, prepositional
phrases and infinitive phrases.
MAJOR UNIT THEMES:
COLONIAL LITERATURE:
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Read, analyze and interpret The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The
Crucible by Arthur Miller.
Investigate Puritan culture, and interpret the tenets of Puritanism.
Investigate the Colonial time period and analyze its effect on historical fiction.
Compare/contrast the characters' internal and external conflicts and motivations.
Identify patterns of social injustice and mass hysteria.
Research the Salem Witch Trials, the McCarthy Trials, and the Red Scare.
Analyze, interpret, and evaluate professional criticisms by writing summaries and
documenting sources.
Create a variety of analytical essays.
Research biographical information to analyze and interpret mood, tone, and author’s
purpose.
Define vocabulary in context.
TRANSCENDENTALISM LITERATURE:
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Read, analyze and interpret Walden and “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David
Thoreau and “Nature” and “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Define and interpret the characteristics of Transcendental Literature.
Identify, paraphrase, and analyze aphorisms.
Decipher the use of anecdotes to illustrate an abstract idea including theme.
Identify, analyze, and interpret the effects of literary devices including: figurative
language, imagery, and allusions.
Research biographical information to analyze and interpret mood, tone, and author’s
purpose.
Define vocabulary in context.
REALISM LITERATURE:
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Read, analyze and interpret The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.
Analyze, interpret, and evaluate professional criticisms by writing summaries and
documenting sources.
Identify, analyze, and interpret literary elements including: plot, characterization,
setting, conflict, and theme.
Research biographical information to analyze and interpret mood, tone, and author’s
purpose.
Define vocabulary in context.
REALISM, NATURALISM, AND ROMANTICISM COMBINED:
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Read, analyze and interpret the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
Identify, analyze, and interpret the effects of literary style including: realism,
naturalism, and romanticism.
Investigate and analyze the many examples of satire, and identify the societal targets
of the satire.
Analyze the following literary elements throughout the episodic adventures: plot,
characterization, setting, conflict, and theme.
Analyze and interpret changes in characters as a result of conflicts and resolutions.
Examine the various dialects in the novel.
Research biographical information to analyze and interpret mood, tone, and author’s
purpose.
Define vocabulary in context.
TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERATURE:
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Students will read, analyze and interpret The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Identify, analyze, and interpret literary elements including: plot, characterization,
setting, conflict, and theme.
Analyze specific themes that relate to the concept of the American Dream.
Identify and apply modes of literary criticism strategies using the various types of
literary criticism.
Write a variety of analytical essays.
Research biographical information to analyze and interpret mood, tone, and author’s
purpose.
Define vocabulary in context.
SHORT STORY:
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Read selected short stories by American authors from the American Short Stories
anthology and The Elements of Literature textbook including: “The Fall of the House
of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Legend Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving,
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Hills Like White Elephants”
by Ernest Hemingway, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway,
“A&P” by John Updike, and “Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck.
Identify and apply modes of literary criticism to analyze the stories.
Describe the social, cultural, political, and historical influences for the stories.
Investigate the many ways plot, theme, character, setting, point of view, tone, and
style interconnect.
Apply the writing process to create a variety of analytical essays.
Research biographical information to analyze and interpret mood, tone, and author’s
purpose.
Define vocabulary in context.
POETRY:
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Determine the speaker, audience, and setting in a poem.
Identify the central purpose/theme of the poem.
Paraphrase and summarize the poem.
Identify and analyze the effects of poetic literary devices including: imagery,
metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, symbols, irony, allusion, paradox, and
allegory.
Analyze poetic structure and form including: blank verse, free verse, sonnets, psalms,
and discuss how form affects meaning.
Identify and interpret vocabulary in context as it applies to diction, mood, and tone.
Apply the writing process to compose a poetry analysis essay.
DRAMA:
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Read, analyze and interpret Macbeth by William Shakespeare and The Glass
Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.
Identify and assess dramatic literary elements including: exposition, rising action,
falling action, climax and denouement.
Identify and interpret themes.
Analyze and predict the characters’ development.
Research biographical information to analyze and interpret mood, tone, and author’s
purpose.
Define vocabulary in context.
Specifically for Macbeth…
o Review relevant Elizabethan concepts and dramatic conventions.
o Distinguish the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy.
o Analyze the effects of hubris or the hero’s tragic flaws.
o Interpret the complexities of Shakespeare's language and examine the use of
literary conventions including: blank verse, alliteration, foreshadowing, and
imagery.
o Identify numerous themes pertaining to appearance versus reality.
AMERICAN AUTHOR RESEARCH PAPER:
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Research biographical information on a selected American Author.
Read, analyze and interpret a work by a selected American author.
Utilize and assess a variety of research material including reference books and
databases.
Read, analyze and interpret literary criticisms pertaining to selected authors and their
works.
Synthesize and organize research information to develop a comprehensive MLA
formatted report.
Utilize MLA standard formatting to include parenthetical citations within the report
and a properly formatted works cited page.
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Employ the writing process to create a comprehensive research report.
MATERIALS:
Textbooks, Anthologies, and Manuals:
Elements of Literature Fifth Course Literature of the United States. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston. 2003. Print.
Elements of Language Fifth Course. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 2001. Print.
The Writer’s Options Combining to Composing. Eds. Donald A. Daiker, Andrew Kerek,
Max Morenberg, and Jeffrey Sommers. New York: Harper Collins College
Publishers. 1994. Print.
Arp, Thomas R. Perrine’s Sound and Sense An Introduction to Poetry, Ninth Edition.
New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 1997. Print.
American Short Stories Third Edition. Eds. Eugene Current-Garcia and Walton R. Patrick.
New Jersey: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1976. Print.
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual, Fifth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.
Print.
Novels and Plays:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Revised September 2014