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English 3 - Writing and Literature

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English 3 - Writing & Literature:

Writing 3 & 11th-18th Century Literature

 

Full Year (2 Semesters)

Grades:    9-12

Credits:    2.0

 

Add  College Prep Vocabulary-Levels A-D at NO additional cost! Upon enrollment in any one- or two-credit English course, you will receive a voucher code to add Vocabulary.

 

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  • COURSE DESCRIPTION

English 3 - Writing 3 & 11-18th Century Literature

  

Live, Highly Interactive, Online Classes with a Biblical Worldview

 

Students refine their arguments and essays while learning to write literary and rhetorical analyses, respond to literature through reflective journals and narratives, develop their creative writing skills, and complete a research paper on a topic of their choosing. In literature, students read a diverse collection of genres by 11th-18th century authors from around the world, but emphasizing American and British writers. They deepen their understanding of how literature both reflects and transforms the events, settings, culture, and worldviews that give rise to it and the literary periods that result. Examining literature from a biblical perspective, students gain wisdom.

 

Writing 3

Taught by an IEW-accredited Certified Instructor, this course equips students with writing, research, and thinking tools to strengthen their essay and argument skills.  Additionally, they develop their creative writing ability and capacity to respond to literature in a variety of ways. 

What will students learn?

    • Students learn to write about

        • plot
        • characters
        • use of setting in characterization and mood
        • theme
        • worldview
        • point of view
        • tone
        • a variety of literary devices
        • style


    • They further improve their brainstorming, critical thinking, and research skills as they learn to write and then improve 

        • rhetorical analyses
        • argument essays
        • synthesis essays
        • journal writing 
        • essay prompt responses
        • research reports
        • short stories

      Also, this year, students continue to focus on editing skills and progress in their ability to recognize and improve choppy sentence structure, awkward expressions, wordiness, and ideas that are either unclear or do not transition logically and smoothly from one to the other.
    •  
    • Finally, students add several advanced techniques and rhetorical devices to their writing toolboxes while strengthening grammar and punctuation.

 



11th-18th Century Literature

 

What will your students learn?

The first and most important objective of every literature class is that students grow in their love for literature.  In 11th-18th Century Literature, students explore writing from around the world and delve into each work's literary period and worldview. 

    • Students continue to improve the reading skills they learned and developed in English 1, growing in their ability to read, infer, and analyze a variety of genres as they learn the following elements and how each contributes to meaning.

        • plot
        • characters
        • use of setting in characterization and mood
        • theme
        • worldview
        • point of view
        • tone
        • a variety of literary devices
        • style

In every literature course, students learn to 

        • recognize signposts to meaning

        • appreciate a variety of genres and their role as a road map to understanding literary works

        • understand the author's intent

        • evaluate an author's intent and worldview, as well as the story, from a biblical perspective

        • think critically and recognize influence from a variety of worldviews

        • learn to appreciate the interplay between literature and culture of the times a work is written. Students deepen their respect for the power of literature as they grow in their awareness of this interplay and literature's often transformative role in cultural change.

        • examine the relevance of themes to the times in which we live today

 

All courses also include nonfiction reading selections to strengthen critical reading and thinking abilities. Using famous speeches, essays, articles, sermons, and popular media, students strengthen reading and critical thinking skills vital to the research process and their ability to function as informed consumers of information. College entrance exams directly test many of these skills. More importantly, these skills are crucial to a thriving democracy in which citizens freely make informed choices rather than choices manipulated by fallacious reasoning and propaganda.

Students gain heightened motivation to seek truth and the ability to

        • recognize and evaluate relationships and patterns of organization in texts

        • review and build on their ability to recognize propaganda and  a variety of logical fallacies that are commonly used in modern media to influence and manipulate readers

        • understand the rhetorical situation and recognize rhetorical appeals

        • recognize effective and ineffective rhetoric

        • analyze arguments for soundness and effectiveness

What will students read?

The objective for students this year is to open wide the door to works that might seem intimidating but once understood, are fascinating looks into the human psyche with exciting plots, thought-provoking themes, and much to say about life today.

Among other selections we will enjoy this year that are part of the "Great Conversation," students will read three plays by the renowned William Shakespeare, commonly considered the greatest playwright and the greatest English writer of all time.

One of the greatest obstacles for students who read Shakespeare is comprehending writing from earlier times. To meet this challenge head-on, we begin with keys to comprehending the language and appreciating the stylistic devices that embue meaning in Shakespeare's work.  Watching enacted plays as we read and discuss the text together, students become comfortable reading and understanding Shakespeare and other authors from earlier times.  With complex plots, much intrigue, and exciting characters, Shakespeare, once understood, quickly becomes one of students' favorite writers.

How to Read Slowly by James Sire

Portions of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

the comedy Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (English)

the tragedy King Lear by William Shakespeare (English)

the history Henry V  by William Shakespeare (English)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri translated by John Ciardi (The Inferno and substantial portions of The Purgatorio and Paradiso) (Italian)

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (Italian)

Selected portions of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained by John Milton (English)

Tartuffe by Moliere translated by Richard Wilbur (French)

A variety of sonnets and other poems by Petrarch, Wyatt, Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Donne, Dryden, Herbert, Herrick, Jonson, Pope, Cowper, Gray, and Smart.

 

 

                    

Is my student ready for 11th-18th Century Literature

                  Ideally, before taking this course, students should be able to

        • analyze a plot to find the conflict, climax, and theme

        • analyze a poem to find the principal contrast, controlling metaphors, imagery, and theme

        • analyze characters and their development

The best, but not the only acceptable, preparation for this course is Writing and Literature 1, in which students are introduced to and learn the basics of literary analysis by reading short stories, poetry, and articles.  They gain a literary vocabulary enabling them to analyze and write about their discoveries as they explore and discuss the big ideas of literature and the times. Students also learn to consider texts through a biblical worldview and recognize other worldview influences.

Feel free to discuss any student readiness concerns by contacting me directly through the Contact Us page.

General Course Information

Instruction takes place in two one-and-one-half-hour classes each week over a thirty-two-week period. One week's class focuses on writing and the other on literature. Although homework will be assigned in Monday classes that fall on legal holidays, classes will not meet on these days so that families can celebrate long weekends together.  Classes break for 5 minutes out of every 30


Students receive 2 credits for this course.  It is listed in final grades as two courses, Writing 2 and 11th-18th Century Literature. 

Time to allow for this two-credit course:  For literature and writing combined, students should expect to spend 4-7 hours per week total preparing for classes in addition to attending classes.

 

Enrollment closes on October 15 or when the class is full (8 students for writing courses and 15 students for literature courses).

 

Instructor:    Sandra Selling

                      IEW-Certified Instructor

                      Sandra@InspiredWritingandLit.com

                      https://InspiredWritingandLit.com

                      800.578.2527 | 941.676.3140

                      Book an Appointment

 

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