Course Description
This course meets the requirements for English 2. In this course students will read extensively to strengthen their skills and deepen their understanding of literary and informational texts. Emphasis will be placed on drawing evidence from literary and informational texts in order to support analysis, reflection, and research. Additionally, this course will focus on the acquisition and application of skills in writing, speaking and listening, word study, and language. Writing instruction will focus on teaching students to assert and defend claims in order to demonstrate what they know about a topic. Students will learn to consider task, purpose, and audience as well as how to combine information, structures, and formats deliberately to make their claim. Students will participate in research that requires them to gather information, evaluate sources, and cite material accurately. Students will become skilled in determining and clarifying the meanings of words and phrases in order to comprehend complex texts and build extensive vocabularies.
Course Objectives
The students will be able to
- determine the central ideas in a work of fiction and informational texts.
- analyze informational texts and fiction
- write informative/explanatory and argumentative/persuasive writing
- analyze drama and argument and become familiar with identifying rhetorical devices in literature and informational texts
- analyze the development of a character or central figure in works of both fiction and nonfiction
- research through an historical and/or biographical lens
- improve oral and written communication skills through studying vocabulary, grammar, literary techniques, and research options.