LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION 2

Tentative Course Overview

Subject to revision for 2026-2027 year 

 LITERATURE

Fairy Tales*

​Myths*

A Selection of Poems*

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, ​by Howard Pyle

​Black Ships Before Troy, by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Odyssey, by Homer (Lattimore Translation)

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Watership Down, by Richard Adams

*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
  • improve sentence style ​
  • develop familiarity with beginning rhetoric
  • ​learn basic expository/thesis-driven essay construction (5 paragraphs)
  • understand the relationship between grammar and composition 

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