Running Head: Year-Long Plan

Year-Long Plan for English III

Blair Waite
Ottawa University

Year-Long Plan

11th Grade English- The American Experience

Prerequisite Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in
the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of
the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at
the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Current Standards:
These standards will be followed to ensure that all the needs of the students are being met. The
standards are in line with what I plan to teach. They are as follows:
The Common Core Standards http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/ (these will be
outlined within each unit below)
Kansas Standards are aligned with the National Common Core Standards
Main Literature Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.10
By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in
the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end
of the range.

Year-Long Plan

Main Writing Standard:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.7
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a selfgenerated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under
investigation.
There are four grading periods per year. Each grading period has three teacher in-service and/or
testing days. There are 40 days per grading period.
Plan Overview
Here we will continue to build on skills from previous English classes. This course will also
serve as a brief survey of American literature. We will be using both classic and contemporary
texts, spanning various genres and movements, in an effort to examine what it means to be
American.
The book for this class will be: Prentice Hall Literature: The American Experience (2006), The
Night Shift, Dance Macabre, The Great Gatsby, and The Fault in Our Stars
Unit 1- The Idea of America (week 1)
Unit 2- The Native Americans (weeks 2-3)
Unit 3- Narrative Essay (week 4)
Unit 4- The Puritans (weeks 5-8)

Year-Long Plan
Mid-term Exams-Quarterly Grading
Unit 5- The Dark Romantics (weeks 9-11)
Unit 6- The Transcendentalists (weeks 12-15)
Unit 7- Persuasive Research Paper (weeks 16-18)
Final Exams- Semester Grading
Unit 8- Realism (weeks 19-22)
Unit 9- ACT Grammar Prep (weeks 23-24)
Unit 10- Literary Analysis Essay (week 25)
Unit 11- Novel Presentations (weeks 26-27)
Mid-term Exams- Quarterly Grading
Unit 12- The Twentieth Century and Modernism (weeks 28-33)
Unit 13- ACT Prep Review (week 34)
Unit 14- Contemporary Issues (week 35)
Unit 15- Finals Preparation (week 36)

Year-Long Plan

Detailed Unit Plan

Unit 1- The Idea of America

Read documents about the Founding of America

o From William Bradfords Of Plymouth Plantation
Modern Commentary
o From Steve Squyerss Mars Rover Mission Update

Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative
and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone,
including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.

Unit 2- The Native Americans

Read Creation Stories

o Onondaga The Earth on Turtles Back
o Modoc When Grizzlies Walked Upright
o Navajo The Navajo Origin Legend
Modern Commentary
o Sherman Alexei Protest

Year-Long Plan
Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.9
Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational

works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar
themes or topics.
Unit 3- Narrative Essay

Writing Narrative Essay about themselves

Peer Review/Editing

Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,
well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Unit 4- The Puritans

Readings:
o Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
o Anne Bradstreet Verses Upon the Burning of Our House
o Arthur Millers The Crucible
Watch
o Film version of The Crucible

Year-Long Plan

Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.7
Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a
play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text.
(Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

Unit 5- The Dark Romantics

Readings
o Edgar Allan Poe The Raven
o Edgar Allan Poe The Black Cat
o Nathaniel Hawthorne The Ministers Black Veil
Modern Commentary
o From Stephen Kings Dance Macabre
o Stephen King One for the Road

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the
choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution)
contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Unit 6- The Transcendentalists

Year-Long Plan

Readings
o Poems by Walt Whitman
o From Henry David Thoreaus Walden
o From Ralph Waldo Emersons essay Nature
o Robert Frost The Road Not Taken

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative
and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone,

including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
Unit 7- Persuasive Research Paper

Research
Writing
Peer Review/Editing

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid
reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Unit 8- Realism
Year-Long Plan

Readings
o From Mark Twains Life on the Mississippi
o Bret Harte Outcasts of Poker Flats
o Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour
o Emily Dickenson Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Modern Commentary
o John Green The Fault in Our Stars

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the
choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution)
contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

Unit 9- ACT Grammar Prep

Unit 10- Literary Analysis Essay

Writing
Peer Review/Editing

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and

Year-Long Plan

10

information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of
content.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as
well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters
uncertain.
Unit 11- Novel Presentations

Oral Presentation of novel read outside of class and approved by teacher

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as

well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters
uncertain.
Unit 12- The Twentieth Century and Modernism

Readings
o F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
o Edwin Arlington Robinson Richard Cory
o Edgar Lee Masters Lucinda Matlock
o E.E. Cummings just-spring
o William Faulkner A Rose for Emily

Year-Long Plan

11

Watch
o Film version of The Great Gatsby

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3
Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a
story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are
introduced and developed).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.7
Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a
play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text.
Unit 13- ACT Prep Review
Unit 14- Contemporary Issues

Readings
o Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool

o Langston Hughes Nigro Speaks of Rivers

o Langston Hughes I, Too
o Langston Hughes Democracy
Standards:

Year-Long Plan

12

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.6
Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated
in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
Unit 15- Finals Preparation

As the teacher I reserve the right to change or rearrange this schedule per the needs of the
classroom.