English IV 2011-2012 Course Syllabus Kristen Holzer, Room 712

405-735-4700; kristenholzer@mooreschools.com or kholzer@ou.edu (BEST TO USE OU ADDRESS!); http://www.mooreschools.com

Course Description: This course traces thematic continuities within the Western Literary Tradition from the 5 th c. BCE to the 21st c. CE, but focuses predominantly on British Literature. Informed by cultural, political, social, economic, and historical context, each unit provides a conceptual framework for composing analyses of literary production. All coursework is designed to prepare students for develop the habits of mind for the rigors of university-level critical analyses and engage contextual interpretations of complex human experience.

Course Objectives: Apply knowledge of literary devices/techniques to analyze form and content of prose and poetry Read/analyze literature from diverse authorship and historical periods Connect literature to other academic disciplines Substantiate interpretations with textual evidence Make contextual and intertextual connections Expand vocabulary in literary context and practice precision of diction

Develop public speaking through presentations Engage literary analysis/interpretation independently and collectively Craft expository argument/literary analysis Utilize content and textual cues when encountering new material Deploy critical thinking skills to make inferential interpretive claims Develop clear analytical voice in compositions

Curriculum: aligned with curricular mandates of College Board, MPS, and OK PASS and Common Core Curriculum: www. mooreschools.com / sde.state.ok.us

Instructional Methods: Expect some lecture and lots of discussion. “Lecture” shouldn’t imply “sit and get from Holzer, and “discussion” shouldn’t mean “guess what Holzer’s thinking.” Holzer dreads a passive, sullen, class as much as you do. Teaching is the best way to learn, so you’ll be doing a lot of teaching in the form of: literary circles, essay mapping, presentations, projects. I will assess our teaching and learning through: practice, discussion, conferences, quizzes, midterm exams, and final. I expect complete engagement for 55 minutes.

Holzer’s Assessment Categories Weight Extra Credit: memorize & recite 1-4 poems of 14+ lines / semester @ 50 points / poem; miscellaneous opportunities District Grading ScalePractice and Participation 40% Late Work: 10% deduction / day late Make-up Work: 2 days / 1 excused absence; check website, chart, WYWO A = 90-100 D = 60-69Compositions and Projects 40% Fall Progress Reports: 9/9, 9/30, 10/28, 11/18 Fall Parent-Teacher Conferences: 10/19 B = 80-89 F = 0-59Quizzes and Examinations 20% Spring Progress Reports: 1/27, 2/17, 3/10, 4/7, 4/28 Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences: 3/11 C = 70-79

Practice and Participation: Busy work insults your intelligence and mine. Hence, practice exercises (analytical voice charts, associative claims, essay maps) are vital components of a comprehensive program. Please don’t confuse quantity with quality. The brevity of these exercises allows me to read them closely, looking for a precision of diction and economy of language that may be new to you. Indeed, more is not more. Invariably, I will require you to anchor interpretive claims (abstract) to textual evidence (concrete). Remember, you are practicing for full-length compositions in response to a prompt. Trust me, your careful practice will cash out when on compositions, projects, and exams I ask you to link literary terms/devices/structures/techniques (form) to meaning (content). Every Friday is Poetry Friday. Précis cards are required for every substantial work we read. I take participation very seriously, thus I define it clearly and assess the extent to which you have met my expectations. Familiarize yourself with the “Practice Rubric” and the “Participation Rubric.”

Compositions and Projects: Again, strong compositions emerge out of careful practice! For example, I might ask you to fully develop a practice exercise written in response to a Poetry Friday poem into a polished composition. At other times, I will give you a poem or prose passage, a prompt, and a 40-minute time limit in which to compose an analytical response. You will do a variety projects aimed at nourishing and preserving your imagination as well as challenging and broadening your intellect. Literary circles represent a good example of a project that will call for both artistic and analytical responses to a text. Groups will read, discuss, and analyze the same novel/play (choice!). Each group member assumes a given role (rotating) and its responsibilities. The project design itself rewards individual performance in spite of and because of group efforts. No parasites!

Quizzes and Examinations: Occasionally, I will give you a reading comprehension quiz. However, your comprehensive examinations will always be open-book/note essay responses to a prompt. You’ll record your responses in a “blue book” essay exam book just like a college student. Also like a college student, you will have two comprehensive exams per semester: a midterm (fall = mid-October; spring = mid-March) and a final (fall = mid-December; spring = mid-May). I don’t like to play “gotcha” with exams, and I am assessing my teaching as much as I am assessing your learning. This bears repeating: careful practice (and keeping your notes and handouts) will be indispensible when you tackle these exams.

LITERATURE ANTHOLOGIES INSTRUCTIONAL TEXTS Glencoe Literature: The Reader’s Choice, British Literature Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor; Michael Degen’s Crafting Expository Argument

LITERARY TEXTS King James Bible

Hesiod’s TheogonyBrothers Grimm Fairy Tales

J. Milton’s Paradise LostOvid’s Metamorphoses

Sophocles’s Oedipus RexW. Shakespeare’s Twelfth NightW. Shakespeare’s MacbethG. B. Shaw’s PygmalionO. Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

M. Shelley’s FrankensteinC. Achebe’s Things Fall ApartJ. Rhys’s Wide Sargasso SeaO. Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian GrayJ. Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

We will make selections from these texts. The indicates texts from which we will consult excerpts. I will address reasoned objections to any of these works at the outset of the academic year. These works consistently appear on the AP Lit and Comp Exam and are district approved.

FALL SEMESTER TRAJECTORY OF CRITICAL READING PRACTICE Foundations of the Western Literary

TraditionHistoricism: WLT sources = classical + biblical, shared narratives of Euro/Euro-derived cultures Allusions: classical = Greek + Roman culture; biblical = Christian OT, Hebrew Torah and Islamic Koran 1st five books of OT + Christian NTMyth: gods, monsters, religious ritual, immortalLegend: heroes, villains, historical roots, mortalFairy/folktale: clever humans + animals, didacticTraditions: Classical, Renaissance Humanist, Neoclassical, Romantic, Gothic, 19th c. Realism

Archetypes of the Western Literary TraditionSymbols: numbers, colors, shapes, seasons, vegetation, taboo foods, elixirs, thresholds, crossroads, paths, blood, caves, deserts, water, light, darkness, sun, moon, scars, weapons, mirrors, twins, forest, city, mountain tops, fire, stainsSituations: quest, task, ritual, journey, presumption, exile, fall, redemption, chaos/order, death/rebirth, good/evil, parent/child, fire/ice, innate wisdom/educated stupidity, natural/artificial Characters: hero, herald, loyal friend, mentor, nemesis, scapegoat, trickster, shape-shifter, temptress, earth-mother, damsel, unfaithful wife, Platonic ideal, star-crossed lovers

Conceptsbildungsroman, hubris, collective unconscious, preliterate cultures,the Other, duality, fate, gothic, sublime, liminal space, ambiguity, verisimilitude, colonial mindset, modernity, narrative, epistemology, ontology, fragmentation

More literary Devices, Techniques, Elements, and StructuresGeneral: imagery, detail, mood, motif, flashback, tone, theme(s), foreshadowing, paradox, symbolism, characterization, syntax, structure, classification, understatementCharacters: antagonist, protagonist, foil, flat, round, static, dynamic charactersDiction: denotation, connotation, dialect, idiom, elevated, low, formal, informalPlot: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, denouementConflict: person/person, person/fate, person/self, person/nature, person/societyPoint of View: 1st person, 3rd person limited, omniscient, objective/dramaticFig. Lang.: simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, apostrophe Sound Devices: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythmIrony: dramatic, situational, verbal, hyperbole, understatement, satire, SOME sarcasm

SPRING SEMESTER TRAJECTORY OF CRITICAL READING PRACTICE SPRING SEMESTER Building on and Tearing Down FoundationsHistoricism: legacy of Auschwitz, total war, colonial occupation, possible nuclear annihilationIrony: confounds expectations of WLT; incongruity; ambiguity; uncertainty, absurdityNon-Linear Narrative: alternative plot structureCollage: collection of fragmented imagesMontage: collection of fragmented scenesStream of Consciousness: internal voiceTraditions: European Social Realism, Southern Gothic, Modernist, Post-Colonial, Post-Modern

Preserving, Destroying, and Redefining ArchetypesSymbols: cages, chains, labyrinths, underground, hive-like dwellings, trap door, stage, photos, sheep, weather, tracksSituations: chronic apprehension, awareness of “fallen” status, misinterpretation, claustrophobia, urban anonymity, alienation, isolation, namelessness, hyper-consciousness, meaningless suffering, appalling indecision/inaction, descents/ascents, madness/reason, ambiguous evil/powerCharacters: anti-hero, unsympathetic/unreliable narrator, occupier, redeemable evil figure, orphan, Übermensch, rugged individualist, landless wanderer, hapless fool

ConceptsBourgeoisie, Surrealism, theater of the absurd, Expressionism, throwness, Existentialism, unifying theories, liberalism, margin materialism, Nationalism, the unconscious, power structure, Orientalism, xenophobia, Eurocentric, post-colonial mindset

More literary Devices, Techniques, Elements, and StructuresGeneral: imagery, detail, mood, motif, flashback, tone, theme(s), foreshadowing, paradox, symbolism, characterization, syntax, structure, classification, understatementCharacters: antagonist, protagonist, foil, flat, round, static, dynamic charactersDiction: denotation, connotation, dialect, idiom, elevated, low, formal, informalPlot: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, denouementConflict: person/person, person/fate, person/self, person/nature, person/societyPoint of View: 1st person, 3rd person limited, omniscient, objective/dramaticFig. Lang.: simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, apostrophe Sound Devices: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythmIrony: dramatic, situational, verbal, hyperbole, understatement, satire, SOME sarcasm

YEARLONG TRAJECTORY OF ANALYTICAL WRITING PRACTICE Develop Analytical Voice

Evidence: concrete diction, imagery, detail Associations: abstract concepts, emotionsRelationships: contrast, repetition, shift, juxtapositionContrast: incongruity, antithesis, opposition, tensionRepetition: similarity, analogy, recurrence, echo, parallelismShift: turn, transformation, alterationJuxtaposition: contiguity, adjacency, montageAssociative Claim: balance concrete evidence w/ abstract associations; make a claim re: tone, attitude, voice, atmosphere, character, theme, etc. Theoretical Framework: meaning isn’t stable or absolute; rather it marks a dynamic intersection between located reader and text

Develop Analytical Writing SkillsWriting to Show: concrete, precise detail; active, present tense verbs; clear, elaborated ideas; varied syntax; no redundancy; cinematic writing; sensory appeal; no journalistic listing of eventsParagraphing: associative claim is a topic sentence that maps ¶ and guides the readerType of Argument: definition, classification, analogy, cause-effect, compare-contrastOrganization: by time, place, ideaCoherence: logic links, transitional words/sentencesUnity: sentences in ¶ connect to topic sentenceMulti-Paragraph Essay: introduction features associative claim requiring, subsequent ¶s feature topic sentences providing logical support for claim, mapping ¶ to follow, sentences and ¶s linked to initial claim, concluding statement subtly signals closure (no need for “In conclusion,” EVER!) Range of Diction: concrete, precise, singular language versus vague, plural, general language; language choices deliberate and sophisticated, contribute to meaningful prose Balance of Diction: associative claims +topic sentences need general, abstract, interpretive language AND the concrete examples of supporting evidence Vocabulary in Context: build and deploy working literary and academic vocabularyAssociative Words: acquire vocabulary to express abstract ideas with precisionTone Words: build sophisticated vocabulary to describe tone and understand nuance 240 Vocabulary Words: 12 ten-word quizzes on 12 Mondays each semester will gradually build your vocabulary; words are from the texts we will read, past AP, ACT and SAT exams; word list and quiz specifications distributed at the outset of the academic year; designed for success, don’t freak out

Develop Grammar in Context Structures: phrases, clauses, complex sentencesForms: past participial phrase; present participial phrase; adverbial clause; compound sentence w/ conjunctive adverbs; adjective clause; appositive phrase; noun clause, infinitive phrase, gerund phraseParts of Speech: adjective, noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, subordinating conjunctionFunctions: modifier, subject predicate, subject, predicate nominative, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, appositivePunctuation: essential versus nonessential phrases; introductory phrases; introductory subordinate clause set off by comma; commas w/ coordinating conjunctions; semicolons w/ and w/o conjunctive adverbs; essential versus nonessential clausesGrammar Mini-Lessons: capitalization, pronoun-antecedent agreement, subject-verb agreement, possessive apostrophes, punctuating titles, present tense verbs when writing about literature, Who Is That Tense Prep Which?, stuff that chips away at Holzer’s soul, etc.

READER ↔ MEANING ↔ TEXT