Our American history has been marked by important cultural and sociological changes.  InJunior American Literature and Composition, we will trace those changes through the voices and narratives of a variety of significant authors.  These authors speak of revolution, love, war, equality, social justice, and personal change.  As Students explore these author’s voices, they will become skilled readers of texts written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts.  In addition, they will find their  own voice and become skilled writers who can compose for a variety of purposes.    

  

READING
Students will become skilled readers of American Literature from a variety of periods, genres, and rhetorical contexts.  Through these readings by celebrated American authors from diverse backgrounds and experiences, students will develop new insights into American society and come to recognize the unique role literature has in both shaping and reflecting culture.  Students will be able to: 

• analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques;
• annotate a text for author’s purpose
• develop critical reading skills, recognizing the construction of the text and how the author makes meaning through his/her use of language
• decode poetry, prose, and drama

WRITING
Students will become confident writers who can compose for a variety of purposes and audiences, allowing them to write effectively within both academic and personal settings. By junior year, students should be able to use the five-paragraph essay to organize their writing in an effective manner.  Although this approach provides structure, this year students will be encouraged to place their emphasis on content, purpose, and audience and to allow these focuses to guide their organization.   

The intense concentration on language use in this course should enhance students’ ability to use grammatical conventions both appropriately and with sophistication as well as to develop stylistic maturity in their prose.  Students will learn how stylistic effects are achieved by writers’ linguistic choices.  Upon completing this course, then, students will be able to:

• employ a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination;
• compose with logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis;
• achieve an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure.

• apply effective strategies and techniques to their own writing;
• create and sustain arguments based on readings, research, and/or personal experience;
• demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings;
• write in a variety of genres and contexts, both formal and informal, employing appropriate conventions;
• produce expository and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate, specific evidence, cogent explanations, and clear transitions; and
• move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.
• write under timed conditions.  

Units
Unit 1 The American Dream 3 weeks
Unit 2 The Voices of Revolution 6 weeks
Unit 3 Celebrating the Power of Self 5 ½ weeks
Unit 4 Comedy or Controversy 6 weeks
Unit 5 The Personal Voice 6 weeks
Unit 6 Stage and Screen 6 weeks
Unit 7 Portfolio 2 weeks 

Texts
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
Revolutionaries, Transcendentalists, Puritans (various)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Twain
The Things They Carried by O’Brien
Fences by Wilson
Death of a Salesman by Miller 

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