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Course Overview

 

English III continues to build on the sequential development and integration of communication skills in four major areas—reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It most specifically focuses on deepening and furthering students’ understanding in the following ways:

  • Reading–reinforces reading comprehension skills by teaching students comprehension techniques for literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama; discusses common literary devices; shows students how to analyze, evaluate, and interpret a text; reinforces awareness of the elements and structure of narrative and expository prose; guides students through readings of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (play) and Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird as well as selections of and excerpts from well-known poetry and nonfiction pieces.
  • Writing–develops students’ writing skills by teaching about clauses and phrases in sentence structures; reviews common sentence construction errors and methods for avoiding them; provides practice in standard and nonstandard English, as well as specialized language use; teaches Greek and Latin roots and prefixes to enhance vocabulary and spelling skills; expands students’ abilities to write cohesive and coherent expository prose; gives students the opportunity to develop their abilities in writing literary critiques, personal essays, poetry, and research papers.
  • Special Topics–incorporates research skills, including internet, library, and reference material use, throughout the curriculum.

Curriculum Contents

Reading Comprehension Skills

  • Context, Denotation, Connotation, and Symbolism
  • Reading Drama
  • Reading Poetry—Reading Aloud and Recognizing Scansion
  • Reading Skills—Analysis, Evaluation, and Interpretation
  • Strategies for Comprehension—Making Inferences and Identifying Main Ideas

Composition

  • Sentence Construction Errors
  • Using English Variations
  • Writing a Brief Biography
  • Writing Expository Prose—Process
  • Writing from Personal Experience
  • Writing an Interpretation of a Bible Passage—Using Parallel Structure
  • Writing a Literary Critique
  • Writing a Poem
  • Writing about Poetry—Analysis, Evaluation, and Interpretation
  • Writing a Research Paper—Process

Grammar and Usage

  • Clauses—Main/Subordinate Clauses, Elliptical Clauses, and Adjective/Adverb Clauses
  • Levels of Language Use—Standard/Nonstandard, Slang, Colloquialisms, Medical, Legal, Professional, and Literary
  • Phrases—Appositive, Gerund, Participle, and Infinitive Phrases
  • Pronouns—Indefinite, Personal, and Case, Including Nominative, Objective, and Possessive Pronouns
  • Verbs—Present and Past Participles

Literature Studies

  • Drama
    • Elements—Structure, Theme, Setting, Style, Character, and Literary Device
    • Mode—Naturalism, Realism, Romanticism, and Symbolism
    • History of Drama—Greek/Roman Plays, Medieval Drama, Elizabethan Drama, and American Drama
    • Genre/Type—Medieval Drama, Elizabethan, and Modern (Subtypes)
  • Fiction
    • Elements—Structure, Theme, Mood, Irony, Purpose, and Literary Device
    • Mode—Naturalism, Realism, and Romanticism
    • Genre/Type—Novels (Subtypes)
    • History of Novels—American Novel
  • Nonfiction
    • History of Nonfiction—Classical to Modern
    • Elements—Structure and Literary Device
    • Genre/Type—Exposition, Journal, Biography, Autobiography, Essays, Sermons, Criticism, Editorial, Satire,and Letters
  • Poetry
    • Elements—Structure, Meter, Rhyme, and Symbolism
    • Literary Device—Sound Effects, Metrical Effects, and Figures of Speech
    • Genre/Type

Vocabulary Building

  • Context Clues
  • Dictionary Skills
  • Etymology
  • Greek/Latin Prefixes and Roots

Special Topics

  • English Variations—Regional Dialects
  • Research Skills—Internet, Library, and Reference Materials

Additional Resources

In addition to the default course program, English III includes extra alternate projects and tests for use in enhancing instruction or addressing individual needs.

Literature List

Following are literary works students will encounter in English III.

Drama

  • Wilder, Thornton. Our Town

Fiction

  • Crane, Stephen. “The Upturned Face”
  • Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird

Nonfiction

  • Addison, Joseph. The Spectator (excerpt)
  • Bradford, William. The History of Plymouth Plantation (excerpt)
  • Byrd, William. A Progress to the Mines (excerpt)
  • de Crevecoeur, Jean. Letters from an American Farmer (excerpt)
  • Edwards, Jonathan.
    • “Personal Narrative” (excerpt)
    • “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (excerpt)
  • Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Commodity” (excerpt)
  • Franklin, Benjamin. “The Ephemera”
  • Irving, Washington. A History of New York (excerpt)
  • Jefferson, Thomas.
    • “The Declaration of Independence” (excerpt)
    • Letter to Thomas Paine
  • Mather, Cotton. The Life of John Winthrop (excerpt)
  • Poe, Edgar. “Poetic Principle” (excerpt)
  • Smith, John. A True Relation (excerpt)
  • Steele, Richard. The Spectator*excerpt)
  • ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place (excerpt)

Poetry

  • Auden, W.H. “Unknown Citizen”
  • Bouman, Elizabeth. “By This We Know Love”
  • Bradstreet, Anne. “Upon the Burning of Our House”
  • Bryant, William. “Thanatopsis”
  • Dickinson, Emily.
    • “Pink, small, and punctual”
    • “The Wind tapped like a tired man”
  • Frost, Robert. “Birches”
  • Longfellow, Henry. “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”
  • Armour, Richard. “Favorite”
  • Lowell, James.
    • “The Courtin.’”
    • “Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration”
  • Markham, Edwin. “The Man with the Hoe”
  • Poe, Edgar.
    • “Annabel Lee”
    • “To Helen”
  • Swenson, May. “Fable for When There Is No Way Out”
  • Whitman, Walt.
    • “Come Up from the Fields, Father”
    • “Young Grimes”

Required Resources

Some assignments in this course require the use of resources that must be acquired separately. These outside resources are listed below by assignment.

 

Unit Assignment Resource
4 Lesson 10 – Diacritical Marking
  • Dictionary
7 Required Unit Reading
  • Our Town, by Thornton Wilder. HarperPerennial Modern Classics. ISBN: 9780060512637 
8 Required Unit Reading
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, by harper Lee. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN: 9780446310789 
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