Honors Language Arts 12

Students examine major works of literature organized into thematic units. Each unit contains poetry, short stories, and a novel that revolve around the theme for the unit. Themes include the self, relationships, alienation, choice, and death. As students read these works, they have the opportunity to reflect on these important themes by writing in multiple modes and creating cross-disciplinary projects.

As an Honors course, emphasis will be placed on additional reading and writing project-based instruction. Students will integrate the 6-Traits of Writing (i.e., ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions) to all of their writing.

Semester A

Major Concepts:

• Use language to express ideas, beliefs and feelings.
• Utilize language to facilitate independent thinking.
• Develop and apply strategies to construct meaning from increasingly complex and challenging tests.
• Strategically use language to communicate for a variety of purposes.
• Participate actively and successfully in today’s information-rich society.
• Utilize literature to reveal the complexities of the world and human experience.

Semester B

Major Concepts

• North American literature encompasses several distinct cultures and writing styles.
• Empathizing with the writing of other cultures enables the reader to more fully appreciate the viewpoints represented.
• The literature of Europe is as diverse and eclectic as the countries that make up the continent
• The writings of Asia, Australia, and Oceania, while transforming over time, maintain a rich history.
• Literature helps unite nations separated by cultural differences.
• Shakespeare`s literary decisions reveal the characters’ true identities.

In this course, you are required to read two novels from the You-Choose list in addition to the works that are listed as required reading below.

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Semester A)
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Semester B)
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Semester B)
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Semester B)
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Semester B)

You-Choose Novels:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Othello by Julius Lester
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley