top of page

English I H Syllabus

 

Kathleen Kreycik, BA, MFA

kkreycik@lvusd.org

(818) 222-7177 x 52324

2024-2025 school year

Support available during support periods and most lunch periods

 

Course Details: English I Honors.

 

 

Course Description: This course examines literature with a primary focus on theme,  including units that include short stories with an emphasis on modern authors of color,  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare,The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, The Odyssey by Homer,  Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal  by Conor Grennan, To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee, The Life of Frederick Douglass by David F. Walker, and either This is My America by Kim Johnson or Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Writing instruction includes expository, narrative, and argumentative writing, as well as research methods and strategies, digital information, and media literacy. Vocabulary development includes Academic Vocabulary and high frequency SAT vocabulary.

Attendance: After the first three days of class, attendance will be taken by seating chart. For this reason, you

need to be in your assigned seat (not any seat at your group table, and not anywhere else). If you come tardy,

which is by the time you need to be in class, not by the bell (which is frequently inaccurate) you need to write you name in on the tardy sheet or you will remain marked absent. Students come and go continually during the period; it is not my job to watch for stragglers when I'm in the middle of instruction or to try and recall the names of the five students who came tardy and record it when there is a break in active instruction. If you want to be marked present, add your name to the tardy list when tardy and be in your assigned seat when class is supposed to begin.

 

Objectives: as a result of this course you will be able to:

 

Locate and Identify appropriate academic research sources.

Evaluate the credibility of sources.

Integrate academic sources into a cohesive argument.

Complete short research projects.

Effectively format a variety of writing including expository, narrative, and argumentative essays.

Effectively craft a logical thesis and series of supporting arguments.

Smoothly Integrate sources, both quoted and paraphrased, into your writing.

Develop claims and counterclaims fairly and logically.

Utilize transitions effectively to link areas of text.

Establish appropriate style and tone for audience and purpose.

Write conclusions that articulate implications and significance.

Use a disciplinary style guide (MLA).

Determine theme and central ideas of texts.

Analyze complex characters, their development, and their advancement of theme.

Compare and contrast works in different mediums.

Use analytical techniques to analyze literature and discover meaning.

Recognize in reading and use in writing a wider vocabulary.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English.

 

Required Texts and Resources:

Bear, Elizabeth. “Tideline.” https://bobson.ludost.net/hugoawardnominees/2008/tideline.html

 

            Accessed August 2021.

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. Tor Books. 1985.

Chiang, Ted. “The Great Silence.” Electric Literature. https://electricliterature.com/the-great-

 

            silence-by-ted-chiang/. Accessed August 2021.

Ender's Game. Directed by Gavin Hood.. Performances by Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford. 2013.

Grennan, Conor. Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal. New York. Harper Collins.

          2011.

Homer. The Odyssey. PDF.

 

Jemison, N. K. “Valedictorian.” Lightspeed Magazine.

 

            https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/valedictorian/. Accessed August 2021.

To Kill a Mockingbird. Directed by Robert Mulligan. Performances by Gregory Peck and Mary Badham. Universal Pictures.

          1962.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York. J. P. Lippincott. 1960.

The Odyssey. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. Performances by Armand Assante, Isabella Rossellini, Vanessa Williams.

          Paramount , 1997.

 

Powers, Tim. "The Governor." from The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2019, Prime


         Books 2019 edited by Paula Guran, 189-209.

Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes. 1996.

 

Royce, Eden. “Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone.” Strange Horizons.

 

           http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/every-good-bye-aint-gone/. Accessed August 2021.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. https://www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translations/romeo-and-

 

          juliet. Accessed August 2024.

Shakespeare, William. Sonnets. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/Poetry/sonnets.html.

 

            Accessed August 2021.

The Sun is also a Star. Directed by Ry Russo-Young. Performances by Yara Shahidi, Anais Lee, Charles Melton.

          Paramount. 2019.  

Walker, David F. The Life of Frederick Douglass. California. Ten Speed Graphic. 2019.

Yon, Nicola. The Sun is Also a Star. New York. Penguin Random House, 2016.

 

Course Calendar:

 

August-September:

Essay—literary interpretive

Short Stories

Romeo and Juliet

Media and Digital Literacy

Academic Vocabulary

First semester ORB (outside reading book): choose a non-fiction DEI (diversity/equity/inclusion) selection from the CHS library that is at a appropriate reading level for honors and show it to teacher for approval before you begin reading--small project due end of semester.

 

October:

 

Essay--literary Interpretive

The Sun is Also a Star.

Media and Digital Literacy

Vocabulary

 

November:

The Odyssey

Essay--expository

Media and Digital Literacy

Vocabulary

 

December:

Essay--narrative

Media and Digital Literacy

Vocabulary

ORB semester 1 due

 

January:

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

Essay--expository--researched

Media and Digital Literacy

vocabulary

Second semester ORB: ORB (outside reading book): choose a fictional DEI (diversity/equity/inclusion) selection from the CHS library that is at a appropriate reading level for honors and show it to teacher for approval before you begin reading--small project due end of semester.

 

February:

 

The Life of Frederick Douglass

Essay --expository

Media and Digital Literacy

Vocabulary

March:

 

Ender's Game

Essay—research/argumentative

Media and Digital Literacy

Vocabulary

 

April:

 

Essay--research/argumentative

Media and Digital Literacy

Vocabulary

 

May:

 

Essay--expository

Media and Digital Literacy

Vocabulary

Second semester ORB due.

 

June:

 

Media and Digital Literacy

High Frequency SAT Vocabulary

Exams:

 

Expect an exam for each unit of study that will include quote identification, literary analysis, and author background.

 

Final exams each semester will include an essay component and a vocabulary component.

bottom of page