Academic English II
Curriculum Guide

Course Description

Prerequisite: English I

Additional instruction in the Writing Center is required

Full year, 1 credit

Studying texts drawn from world literature sources, students develop and express their thinking through reader response and analytical approaches to literature while enhancing their awareness of genre, style, and voice. Students improve their writing through regular composition and conferences with teachers and peers, writing for a variety of purposes and audiences. Communications skills are developed in class discussions and group work. Students sharpen their information gathering skills and synthesize various opinions into an informed conclusion during a major research project that culminates in a word-processed paper. Students confer with teachers about their writing in the Writing Center as well as in class.

Course Overview

Making decisions based upon a rational process, supporting an opinion with thoughtful evidence, under standing another's viewpoint withoutor at least beforecriticizing it, discovering the principles and values that underlie basic issues in society: these are fundamental critical thinking skills that students need today to become full participants in the democratic process.

Academic English II at Mt. Ararat attempts to address these needs in a concrete way. At the heart of the course is the "I-Search," a reference paper in which students draw on a variety of sources, including personal interviews, to articulates the differences among viewpoints on an issue. Assignments in the first semester develop the skills needed to complete the I-Search successfully. The study of literature focuses primarily on thematic or structural analysis, including such skills as identifying thematic issues in a text, using quoted evidence to support an interpretation, recognizing patterns and finding meaning in those patterns, compar ing genres, and relating thematic concerns of a text to issues in students' own lives and culture. With the goal of helping students become aware of their own personal reading process, activities in the literature program include not only formal analysis but also group discussion, personal response to texts, and, on occasion, performance.

Course Components

I. Developing Skills for the I-Search

The centerpiece of Academic English II is the "I-Search," the reference paper which occupies students for approximately one quarter of their sophomore English studies. Recognizing the complexity of skills needed to successfully complete this project, the curriculum for Academic English II structures a series of assign ments throughout the first semester designed systematically to introduce and hone these skills, so that students will be ready to synthesize them when the I-Search comes due.

Separating fact from opinion
Paraphrasing
Representing fairly and accurately the point of view of a text (as clearly separate from the
student's own point of view)
Understanding and representing more than one side of an issue
Articulating the differences between different points of view on an issue
Exploring an issue by creating scenarios, making analogies, and identifying underlying
principles
Using quotations effectively and correctly to support an idea
Structuring paragraphs (and papers) to shape an argument rather than present facts
Citing sources correctly in a text and in the Works Cited
Arranging, planning, and carrying out taped interviews as a source of information
Developing telephone skills appropriate to interviewing
Using CD-Rom and on-line sources in the school library to locate appropriate materials
Using bibliographic and reference materials in print to locate appropriate materials
Using microfiche and microfilm
Taking notes effectively from print sources and audio tapes
Organizing notes to make a coherent structure or outline
Using the ClarisWorks outline program and word-processing capabilities
Developing self-awareness through journals of one's research and writing process
Using journals or freewrites to discover and explore one's own thinking
Drawing conclusions or making decisions about an issue after gathering and examining
evidence

Speaking in front of a group

Though the actual assignments may differ from teacher to teacher, the intent is to isolate skills, where possible, so that students can focus their attention, and then practice their accumulating skills with more and more complex tasks. For example, an assignment early in the year might ask students to make a decision about a controversial issue based only on a minimal amount of evidence (see "The Twin Problem" in appen dix). Later, students would be asked to perform a similar task but with a greater body of evidence (and conflicting opinion) to draw on, or with the additional requirement of using quotations from the evidence to support their points. Still later, students might be required to find their own sources of evidence rather than work with those supplied by the teacher. (See "BCT" or "Vietnam Paper" in appendix.) Similarly, students might at first use relatively simple texts, such as school or local newspaper articles or editorials, to practice the task of representing fairly and accurately the point of view of a text. Later they deal with more difficult texts (the Greenhaven Press Opposing Viewpoints series is an excellent source) and the more complex task of articulating the differences between different points of view on an issue. A typical mid-term examine asks students to read two articles with opposing viewpoints, summarize each, articulate the main differences, and draw some conclusions. (See "1994-5 Midyear Exam" in appendix.)

The culmination of this skill-building is the I-Search paper (see appendix) completed during the second semester. For this assignment, students draw on a variety of sources, including personal interviews, and must demonstrate a dialectical process which articulates and perhaps resolves the differences among view points on an issue. The "I" of the I-Search paper is that personal element, beginning with the selection of a topic, when students need to explain how their choice of topics will make a personal difference in their lives, and extending to students' journals, which record and reflect on their experiences as learners over the I -Search process. Students follow a calendar of incremental steps which guide them through a deliberate, rational process of locating sources, collecting information, consolidating ideas, and then reporting the results. Students complete the I-Search process by reporting on their topics in formal speeches to their classmates.

In some versions of the course, the I-Search is followed up with a "Science Paper," designed to demonstrate to students that, while essential research tasks are similar across all disciplines, different disciplines have developed different styles and formats for reporting on research.

As with other courses in the English Department, Academic English II places great emphasis on writing and recognizes that students gain the most when they can work one-on-one with a teacher. Specific assignments central to the course require conferences with a Writing Center teacher, and students are encouraged to make use of that resource even where it is not mandatory.

Frequently, Writing Center teachers are "signed out" to be brought into the classroom or the Computer Center to work with students.

II. Reading and the Study of Literature

Reading in the 10th grade draws on a variety of sources from world literature, helping students develop a broad awareness of genre, of style, and of voice. There is no concentration on literature from a particular culture or historical period. Texts are chosen primarily because they lend themselves to thematic or structural analysis. With the goal of helping students become aware of their own personal reading process, activities in the literature program include not only formal analysis but also group discussion, personal response to texts, and, on occasion, performance. Choices of texts range from classics to contemporary works to pieces taken from the current media. In some years, a unit on poetry provides an introduction to critical analysis of poetry, helping students develop an awareness of the techniques and strategies in the poet's palette and drawing on a wide range of poetic sources.

In many ways, the study of literature in 10th grade is consonant with the work done on the I-Search paper. That is, the work is analytical and systematic in its approach to building interpretive skills. Students focus on such skills as identifying thematic issues in a text, locating and using quoted evidence to support their readings of a text, recognizing patterns and finding meaning in those patterns, comparing genres, and relating thematic concerns of a text to issues in their own lives and culture. It is worth noting, however, that applying analytical and interpretive skills to literary works is generally more difficult and problematic for sophomores than applying many of the same skills to the kinds of social, psychological, and cultural issues that tend to form the basis for I-Search topics. Moreover, students at the academic level in sophomore English exhibit a wide range in both ability and willingness to read literary works; many of the willing readers, in fact, make up the 25-33 per cent of each sophomore class that form the Honors English sections. As a consequence, the approach to literature on the 10th grade is generally to go slowly in building a founda tion for literary study that will continue into the junior and senior years of academic English.

Texts and assignments differ from teacher to teacher, but share goals and objectives. As with the sequencing of assignments toward the I-Search paper, the study of literature is also cumulative, with texts and tasks becoming increasingly more complex. For example, early in the year students may practice the skills of using evidence from a text to support a point of view by enacting a trial based on the characters in a book. (See "Of Mice and Men Trial" in appendix.) Students might learn how to analyze the structure of plot and sus pense by graphing the "highs" and "lows" of two different texts and comparing them. (See "T he Chocolate War/My Bodyguard" in appendix.) In mid-year, students might look at how literary works contribute to our understanding and awareness of issues of national and historical importance by studying films and books about the Vietnam War (see unit on In Country in appendix), To Kill a Mockingbird in the context of Ameri can racial and justice issues, and/or Animal Farm in the context of the Communist Revolution. Later in the year, more sophisticated examination of how a work of art structures meaning might be found in studying repetition and variation of pattern in such texts as Lord of the Flies and Taming of the Shrew . (See "Six Kisses in Taming of the Shrew " and Lord of the Flies Pig Hunts" in appendix.) Near the end of the year, students focus on the openness of texts to interpretation by examining and contrasting several productions of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

III. Other Writing Activities

Though the bulk of writing activities in Academic English II involve either the I-Search paper or writing about literature, some versions of the course offer other writing activities as well. These may include creative writingstories, poems, personal essays, and playsas well as freewriting and journal-keeping, two methods of writing-to-learn.

Course Materials

Books:

Achebe Things Fall Apart
Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Cormier The Chocolate War
Cormier I Am the Cheese
Golding Lord of the Flies
Hersey Hiroshima
Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
Mason In Country
Orwell Animal Farm
Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front
Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice
Steinbeck Of Mice and Men
Trumbo Johnny Got His Gun

Films:

All Quiet on the Western Front
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
My Bodyguard

Of Mice and Men
Lord of the Flies (Peter Brook version)
Taming of the Shrew ( Zeffirelli version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton)
Taming of the Shrew (American Conservatory Theater version)
Taming of the Shrew (BBC version with John Cleese)

Other Materials:

Greenhaven Press Opposing Viewpoints series
A list of suggested films about the Vietnam War for students to watch at home with parental
discretion (updated annually and based on what's available at local video stores).
Readings from Harry Stein, Ethics and Other Liabilities
Readings about moral development and the Kohlberg stages of moral development in con
junction with Lord of the Flies
Audiotapes of Lord of the Flies, read by William Golding

Note: new materials routinely enter and exit this and all otherEnglish courses, as teachers find relevant and appropriate supplemental texts in newspapers, national magazines, professional journals, and books.

Core Assignments and Sample Materials

The Twin Problem
BCT
Vietnam Paper
Ethics
Expert Knowledge
I-Search
Science Paper
Of Mice and Men Trial
The Chocolate War & My Bodyguard
In Country: Vietnam War unit
Animal Farm
Taming of the Shrew
Lord of the Flies
Freewriting
Sophomore Writing Fourth Quarter
Sample Mid-Year and Final Exam

The following suggests a typical sequence of first semester assignments designed to introduce and develop the basic skills needed for the second semester I-Search project:

Twin Problem

Understanding and representing more than one side of an issue
Articulating the differences between different points of view on an issue
Exploring an issue by creating scenarios, making analogies, identifying underlying principles
Structuring paragraphs (and papers) to shape an argument rather than present facts

Opposing Viewpoints paired articles

Paraphrasing
Representing fairly and accurately the point of view of a text (as clearly separate from the student's own point of view)

BCT

Separating fact from opinion
Using quotations effectively and correctly to support an idea
Using journals or freewrites to discover and explore one's own thinking on an issue
Drawing conclusions or making decisions about an issue after gathering and examining evidence

Vietnam unit

Arranging, planning, and carrying out taped interviews as a source of information
Organizing notes to make a coherent structure or outline
Citing sources correctly in a text and in the Works Cited

Interview project

Developing telephone skills to contact strangers and arrange appointments
Taking notes effectively from audio tapes

I-Search paper

Using CD-ROM and on-line sources in the school library to identify appropriate materials
Using bibliographic and reference materials in print to identify appropriate materials
Using microfiche and microfilm
Using the ClarisWorks outline program and word-processing capabilities to their fullest
Developing self-awareness through journals of one's research and writing process

I-Search Speech

Speaking in front of a group

www.mta75.org/curriculum/english/acad2.html

Academic English II Curriculum Guide