Course Syllabus

Literary Studies 11

litreture-TOI (1).jpg

Ms.S.Cuttilan

Please contact me between 8 am and 3:30 pm at ssuleymancuttilan@stgeorges.bc.ca

 If you need to talk to me in person, I am in Room 225a 

 

Course Description

            The Grade 11 year provides a crucial transition between junior and senior English studies. Through cross-genre explorations of such themes as the role of the individual in society, understanding of self, and our connection to modern culture as often rooted in myth, students are challenged creatively to discover themselves as individuals with opinions which matter. We stress the importance of the well-supported argument both within oral and written communication. Students assume greater workloads in reading and writing and must develop careful skills of proofreading and revision which are supported by the English Department Editing Skills framework of Grades 8-10, which uses a common vocabulary by which stylistic weaknesses may be addressed.

Core Competencies:

  • Communication-The communication competency encompasses the set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas, to explore the world around them, and to understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media.
  • Thinking- The thinking competency encompasses the knowledge, skills and processes we associate with intellectual development. It is through their competency as thinkers that students take subject-specific concepts and content and transform them into a new understanding. Thinking competence includes specific thinking skills as well as habits of mind, and metacognitive awareness.
  • Personal and Social- Personal and social competency is the set of abilities that relate to students' identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society. Personal and social competency encompasses the abilities students need to thrive as individuals, to understand and care about themselves and others, and to find and achieve their purposes in the world.

Instructional Aims. Based on the B.C. Ministry of Education curriculum, students will learn through the following experiences:

  • Read for enjoyment and to achieve personal goals
  • Construct meaningful personal connections between self, text, and world
  • Transform ideas and information to create original texts, using various genres forms, structures, and styles
  • Use metacognitive strategies to think about our own thinking, strengths, and weaknesses
  • Demonstrate an understanding of multimedia, formal speech, discussion, and performance presentation

Learning Outcomes. Based on the B.C. Ministry of Education curriculum, students will learn and be evaluated on the following knowledge and skills:

  • Evaluate the relevance (using credibility and significance of purpose) and reliability (using bias, propaganda, and excluded voices) of texts
  • Analyze a text based on its purpose (audience and theme), structures (organization), features (diagrams, maps, charts), and literary elements
  • Analyze the social and/or cultural values and perspectives that are communicated through the author’s use of language
  • Analyze multiple texts to justify a nuanced, unifying theme
  • Demonstrate strategic speaking skills (volume, pace, inflection, and emphasis) for the appropriate text
  • Demonstrate strategic body language skills (gestures, stance, movements, eye contact) for the appropriate task
  • Effectively use rhetoric, literary devices, style (implicit or explicit thesis), and descriptive language to craft a composition appropriate for its purpose
  • Create effective, informative written work by using conciseness of language, logical development of ideas, use of transitions, and development of the thesis
  • Communicate clear opinion support with specific evidence in a given style
  • Use the conventions of Canadian spelling, grammar, and punctuation correctly given the context
  • Use diction (connotation, verb choice) and syntax (parallelism, modifiers, sentence types) according to communication style and audience
  • Correctly cite sources of information using MLA style for both in-text and Works Cited citations

Literacy

            This course embeds literacy practices within every lesson. You’ll learn critical reading skills to help you critically read, interpret, and analyze prose. You’ll observe how the literary techniques you’ve explored in prior units unfold over the course of longer works and analyze how characters develop and interact over the course of a narrative.  You’ll delve deeper into the roles of character and conflict in fiction and explore how a narrator’s perspective can colour storytelling.

            Students will be asked to demonstrate understanding through comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation tasks. You’ll develop your interpretation of literature further by examining how contrasts, ambiguous language, and various other techniques can add layers of meaning to a literary work.

You will also be asked to share ideas using oral, written, and visual communication in both formal and informal settings.

Resources:

Class Resources and Book List:

Grade 11 Literary Studies

Hamlet                                                                                     William Shakespeare

1984                                                                                         George Orwell

Brave New World                                                                    Aldous Huxley

The Raven/Annabelle Lee                                                      Edgar Allan Poe

Goblin Market                                                                         Christina Rossetti

The Wasteland                                                                       TS. Eliot 

Castle of Otranto                                                                    H. Walpole

Indigenous Poets and Writers