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Survey Literature
Course Handbook for Teachers (draft)
Curie
Metro High School
2003
Developed by:
Qusai Khalil, Amanda Sewell, Dan McGinn, Debbie
Steele, Dorothy Carroll, Sara Spachman, Noelle Lane, Chad Kellermann, Laura
Cottrell, Mary Griffin, and Eric Norton
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Course Description & Objectives |
Illinois Learning Standards |
Basic Syllabus |
Reading List |
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Course Content--Semester One |
Course Content--Semester Two |
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Course Content--Non-Sequenced Topics |
Course Description and
Objectives
Survey Literature (13110) is a course
designed for incoming ninth graders to acquire the skills and literary
background they will use and build on in future English classes at Curie.
Students will be exposed to a variety of genres and develop their skills in
the areas of reading, writing, and research. Core works include Romeo
and Juliet, and two other books, one which must be: Warriors Don’t
Cry, The Pearl, Like Water for
Chocolate, Donald Duk, or Antigone.
Students will acquire skills in narrative writing, learn basic elements of
argumentation, construct a persuasive essay, and practice expository
writing. Students will also be introduced to research practices and
documentation. Grammar and vocabulary will be incorporated throughout
instruction.
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Illinois Learning
Standards
State Goal 1: Read with understanding and
fluency.
State Goal 2: Read and understand literature
representative of various societies, eras, and ideas.
State Goal 3: Write to communicate for a
variety of purposes.
State Goal 4: Listen and speak effectively in a
variety of situations.
State Goal
5: Use the Language Arts to acquire, assess, and communicate
information.
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Basic Syllabus
The following topics
and skills should be covered by the end of each semester as outlined. The
order in which the material is to be presented each semester can be
determined by the individual teacher. These lists are by no means
comprehensive; rather, they allow all Survey Literature students to have
common skill and knowledge sets that can be built on in future English
courses at Curie. The teacher may choose to supplement instruction with
other topics and skills deemed important.
Semester One:
Personal Narrative Writing
Elements of the Short Story
Core
Work (teacher’s choice from the reading list)
Greek
Mythology
Semester Two:
Persuasive/Argumentative Writing
Research
Romeo and Juliet
Poetry
Core Work
(teacher’s choice from the reading list; this second book requirement
may be covered through an independent reading project)
The following topics
and skills should be covered by the end of the school year. It is
recommended that grammar, vocabulary, and the writing process be addressed
throughout the course of the year. It is up to the individual teacher as to
how and when to incorporate this material.
Non-Sequenced
Topics/Skills:
Grammar
Vocabulary
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Reading List
Mandatory Core Work:
Romeo and Juliet
Other Core Works:
Teacher must choose 1 or 2 to cover during
the year.
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Antigone by Sophocles
Donald Duk by Frank Chin
Optional Textbooks:
Patterns in Literature, Timeless
Voices & Timeless Themes. New York: Scott
Foresman, 1991. (older edition)
Timeless Voices & Timeless Themes.
New York: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Possible Mythology
Texts:
Herzberg, Max J. Myths and their
Meaning. Boston: Alyn & Bacon, Inc., 1984.
Mythology and You.
New York: National Textbook Company, 1992.
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Course Content and Units
Semester One
Core Work
The teacher should choose one
core work (not Romeo and Juliet) to teach during first semester. It
is up to the teacher whether to incorporate this work with one of the
following units or to teach the book as its own unit. Here are some
possibilities:
o
Teach Warriors Don’t Cry in conjunction with the
Personal Narrative Writing unit. Warriors is a personal narrative
written by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the “Little Rock Nine” students who
integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The narrative in
the book is told from her perspective as a 15 year old girl.
o
Teach Antigone as part of the Greek Mythology unit.
Use the play to reinforce students’ knowledge of the topics covered in the
unit or to introduce concepts like “fate.”
Personal Narrative Writing
The overall goal of this unit
is for students to write one or more first person narratives based on their
own real-life experiences. During this unit, the teacher should emphasize
the writing process: pre-writing, drafting, editing, revision, and
publication.
Lesson activities and the
length of this unit are to be determined by the individual teacher; however,
use of the “Personal Narrative Unit” is highly recommended. (Please
see page ____ of this handbook for a copy of this unit.)
At the conclusion of this
writing unit, students should be able to identify and/or construct the
following:
o
Similes
o
Metaphors
o
Onomatopoeia
o
Hyperbole
o
Imagery
o
Figurative Language
o
Mood
o
Rules/Use of Writing Dialogue
o
Characterization
Elements of the Short Story
This topic in the course may
be taught as a complete unit or throughout other instruction at the
teacher’s discretion. However, by the conclusion of first semester,
students should be able to recognize and define the following terms:
o
Prologue
o
Theme
o
Plot
o
Climax
o
Setting
o
Irony (situational, dramatic, verbal)
o
Symbolism
o
Narrator’s point of view (first person, third person limited,
third person omniscient)
o
Antagonist/Protagonist
o
Conflict (person versus: person, self, society, nature,
supernatural)
o
Conclusion/Resolution
In addition to the
terminology, students should be able to construct a plot chart and
appropriately label the elements in it.
Greek Mythology
Lesson activities and the
length of this unit are to be determined by the individual teacher.
Possible texts for this unit are Myths and their Meaning and
Mythology and You; however, the teacher is open to using other mythology
texts deemed appropriate.
The overall goal of this unit
is for students to build an understanding of the purposes of mythology and
to become familiar with Greek characters and concepts that they will
encounter in other literature (e.g., via allusions). By the conclusion of
first semester, the following topics should be covered:
o
The origin and purpose of myths
o
Creation myths
o
The Olympic Council
o
The journey and characteristics of a hero
o
Fate as a concept
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Semester Two
Core Work
The teacher should choose one
core work (not Romeo and Juliet) to teach via general classroom
instruction or assign an independent reading project where students select a
book of their choice. For lists of recommended books for freshman reading,
look at New Trier’s website:
http://www.newtrier.k12.il.us/library/rdlists.htm
Persuasive/Argumentative Writing & Research
While
persuasive/argumentative terminology should be taught throughout the year,
most formal instruction on these skills, culminating in a final
research-based paper (approx. 3 pages typed), should occur during the second
semester.
Lesson activities and the
length of this “unit” are to be determined by the individual teacher. The
teacher may choose to build the skills needed to write a formal persuasive/
argumentative essay through several units. For example, a teacher may
choose for students to create several persuasive/argumentative pieces over
the semester (e.g. speeches, PowerPoint presentations, other essays) prior
to writing the research-based paper. However the teacher chooses to teach
these skills and terms, the writing process should be used and reinforced:
pre-writing, drafting, editing, revision, and publication.
By the conclusion of the unit
or second semester…
·
Students should understand and be able to structure a
multi-paragraph essay using logic or other persuasion to effectively
convince an audience of an arguable thesis.
·
Students should learn a variety of transitions and how to use
them in their writing.
·
Students should understand the difference between quoting,
paraphrasing, and summarizing, and when and how to use each in support of
their thesis. Students should be able to understand the difference between
plagiarizing and paraphrasing.
·
Students should write at least one formal
persuasive/argumentative essay that is research-based and approximately 3
pages typed.
·
Students should be introduced to and attempt basic MLA
citations.
·
Optional: Students should create a properly formatted
works cited page with a range of sources (books, periodicals, web pages,
etc.).
·
Students should be able to identify and construct the
following:
o
Introduction
o
Thesis
o
Topic sentences/reasons
o
Proof/Evidence/Support
o
So What? (tie-back explanation in each body paragraph to the
thesis)
o
Conclusion (with a call to action and/or explanation of “What
does it matter?”
·
In terms of general essay writing, students should be able to
understand the writer’s task (e.g. understanding what a prompt is asking
for), who their audience is, and how best to present what they know to
convince/inform that audience.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
allows the teacher to address two important topics in the Survey Literature
course: introducing students to the genre of drama and exposing students to
the language and depth of meaning in Shakespeare’s plays.
During this unit, the teacher
should provide or have students construct knowledge of the Globe Theater and
help students understand inverted syntax and basic Elizabethan language
(e.g., thee, thou, thine). Furthermore, it is recommended that students
explore some/all of the following themes in the play:
o
Destiny/Fate vs. free will
o
Choices and consequences
o
Illusion vs. reality
o
Responsibility/Blame
o
Pride/Loyalty
o
Youth
o
Family
By the conclusion of this
unit, students should be able to identify and define, and/or explain the
function of the following:
o
Chorus
o
Tragedy
o
Asides
o
Soliloquy
o
Monologue
o
Comic relief
o
Oxymoron
o
Foil
o
Dramatic Irony
o
Subtext
Poetry
Instruction of the skills and
terminology below is to be determined by the individual teacher. The
teacher may choose to instruct students during a full, one-time unit, or
teach a series of poems throughout the course of the semester.
By the conclusion of the
unit…
·
Students should be able to identify speaker(s) in poems.
·
Students should be able to identify intended audience in
poems.
·
Students should be able to identify and define, and/or
construct the following:
o
Literal and figurative language
o
Alliteration
o
Assonance
o
Consonance
o
Personification
o
Simile
o
Metaphor
o
Hyperbole
o
Mood
o
Imagery
o
Formal and informal rhythm: beats, meter, feet (iamb, trochee,
spondee, anapest, dactyl) and especially iambic pentameter
o
Haiku
o
Sonnets (Shakespearean and Italian)
o
Free verse
o
Blank verse
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Non-Sequenced Topics/Skills
Grammar
During the course of the
year, students should encounter and learn the following grammatical
elements. Suggested resources for teaching grammar include Warriner’s
English Grammar and Composition and the Daily Oral Language series.
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Prefixes
-con
-pro
-anti
-un
-res
-dis
-im
-in
-sub |
Suffixes
-er
-ous
-able
-ful
-ible
-tion
ology |
Numbers
-mono
-tri
-tetra
-penta
-hexa
-hepta
-octa
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Homophones
-there, they’re,
their
-hear, here
- too, to, two
-your, you’re
-its, it’s
-no, know |
Verbs
-Action
-Auxiliary
- Subject - Verb
Agreement
- Pronoun - Antecedent
Agreement |
Sentence Structures
-Run on sentences
-Sentence fragments
Punctuation
-End Punctuation
-Quotations
-Apostrophes
-colons/ semicolons |
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Synonyms/ Antonyms
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Capital Letters
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Vocabulary
This element of the Survey
Literature curriculum is the most open to individual teacher choice. Many
teachers choose to address vocabulary concerns via context-based vocabulary
in literature and within individual units. Other teachers may choose to use
a vocabulary workbook or a list of vocabulary terms (outside of other course
content) to instruct students on.
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