Literature and Composition 2
2019-2020 Course Overview
This syllabus is subject to revision
2019-2020 Course Overview
This syllabus is subject to revision
Literature:
"The Tell-Tale Heart," by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Gift of the Magi," by O. Henry
"The Magic Shop," by H.G.Wells
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Odyssey, by Homer (Fagles translation)
Watership Down, by Richard Adams
Other required texts:
Practice Voyage, Michael Clay Thompson
Partial List of Skills Taught:
Building on skills taught in L&C 1, students will:
Literature:
- recognize updated fables
- broaden grasp of extended metaphor and epic simile
- develop familiarity with the Homeric epic
- understand political allegory
- recognize social commentary in fiction
- broaden understanding of irony (verbal, circumstantial)
- understand mood in literature
- understand tone of literature
- recognize recurring plot lines in literature
- compare/contrast stories read
- discuss inferences and ideas drawn from elements of story in a group setting
- review L&C1 skills in narration, description, and expository writing
- improve sentence style
- learn three-level outlining
- learn and practice the basics of formal academic essay construction
- become familiar with the MLA method of direct quotation and documentation
- understand the relationship between grammar and composition
- the eight parts of speech
- verbs: action verbs, linking verbs and verb tense
- subject and predicate
- subject/verb agreement
- pronoun/antecedent agreement
- direct objects, indirect objects, and subject complements
- adjectives: degree
- misplaced modifiers
- punctuation as a function of grammar
- verbals (gerunds, infinitives, participles)
- independent clauses
- dependent clauses
- phrases (prepositional, verbal, appositive)
- sentence purpose (declarative, exclamatory, imperative, interrogative)
- sentence type (simple, complex, compound, compound-complex)
Focus of work:
In class:
-A balance of lecture and discussion focusing on literary analysis and literary appreciation.
-Focused lessons on grammar and composition.
-Guided practice in composition.
-Review of weekly grammar homework.
Homework:
-Read assigned literature and prepare for discussion.
-Complete weekly composition assignments.
-Complete weekly grammar practice.
-Complete multiple developed compositions throughout the year.