LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION 2

2026-2027 Course Overview

 LITERATURE

"The Tell-Tale Heart," by Edgar Allan Poe*

"To Build a Fire," by Jack London*

"The Monkey's Paw," by W.W. Jacobs*

Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

The Odyssey, by Homer (Ian Johnston Abridgment/Translation)

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare (No Fear Edition)

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, ​by Mark Twain

Watership Down, by Richard Adams

A Selection of:

Poems*

Fairy Tales*

​Myths*

Legends*

Short Stories*

*Provided by instructor


PARTIAL LIST OF SKILLS TAUGHT

Building on skills taught in L&C B, students will:

Literature:​

  • continue to develop the skill and the art of reading well
  • broaden grasp of extended metaphor and epic simile
  • develop familiarity with the Homeric epic
  • recognize social commentary in fiction 
  • broaden understanding of irony (verbal, circumstantial, dramatic) ​
  • understand mood in literature
  • identify themes in literature 
  • recognize recurring plot lines in literature
  • join in the "Great Conversation" by drawing connections between stories read
  • discuss inferences and ideas drawn from elements of story in a group setting

Composition:

  • review L&C B skills in narrative and descriptive writing
  • further practice summarizing, paraphrasing, and writing a précis
  • develop familiarity with beginning rhetoric
  • practice several modes of development 
  • ​learn basic expository/thesis-driven essay construction (5+ paragraphs)
  • understand the relationship between grammar and composition 
  • improve sentence style ​

Grammar:

  • the eight parts of speech
  • verbs: action verbs, linking verbs, helping 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 (adverb dependent)
  • phrases (prepositional, appositive, verbal)
  • sentence purpose (declarative, exclamatory, imperative, interrogative)
  • sentence type (simple, complex, compound, compound-complex)
  • inverted sentence structure
  • diagramming and parsing


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 homework.

Homework:

  • Read assigned literature and complete assigned journal activities. 
  • Complete weekly grammar and composition assignments. 
  • Complete multiple developed compositions throughout the year.  

                                       

​                                                                                         Syllabus is subject to revision