Intensive High School Honors English:

Summer 2022

Instructor: Mark

 

This course will prepare students for the challenges of advanced and honors English courses in high school. Students will learn and practice advanced critical reading and annotation skills as they  read one major work of literature—George Orwell’s 1984—along with relevant shorter works of nonfiction. Students will use the writing process to draft and revise an analytical essay on Orwell’s novel. Grammar study and vocabulary acquisition will be connected to the reading and writing program of the course.

 

This course is intended to give students a concentrated experience of the rigors of Honors English in 9th grade by focusing on and practicing the skills students will need to read and think critically and to write effectively.

 

Students will learn to develop their own questions and point of view, both of which are vital to more advanced work in language and literature.

 

Each day will include work on the following skills:

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• Annotating the reading assignment

• Summarizing key points

• Framing and participating in a discussion

• Connecting Orwell’s novel to contemporary events

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• Using Questions for Analysis for questioning the text

• Finding analytical components

• Learning to interpret analytical components

• Identifying the author’s purpose

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• Learning vocabulary in context

• Applying basic grammar to critical reading

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• Using  writing to form a point of view on Orwell’s novel

• Using the writing process to write a persuasive essay: drafting, workshopping, revising, editing, and proofreading

• Writing a thesis statement

• Selecting, incorporating, and explaining textual evidence

• Introduction and conclusion strategies

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Each class will begin with a sentence-based grammar practice. Students will learn to name the parts of speech, identify the functions of words in sentences, identify clauses, punctuate correctly, and diagram sentences.

 

Each class will also include  vocabulary practice so that students can learn not only meanings of key words, but who to use them correctly in their own writing.

 

Most of each class will focus on reading—reading strategies and critical reading techniques.  Each class will include time for questions and discussion, along with a brief writing assignment. Students will write at least one longer expository composition on the novel after they have finished reading it.

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The first assignment will be due on the second day of class. Each day of class will be followed with both a reading and brief writing assignment. The last three days of class will be dedicated entirely to completing the essay.

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Reading Schedule  for 1984 by George Orwell (ISBN: 0-452-28423-6)

 

1. Pp. 1-29

2. Pp. 30-65

3. Pp. 65-83

4. Pp. 84-106

5. Pp. 107-139

6. Pp. 139-171

7. Pp. 171-204

8. Pp. 205-230

9. Pp. 231-269

10. Pp. 269-297

11. Pp. 297-323

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2022 Summer

(16 sessions: June 21 - August 11, Tuesday & Thursday, 1:45-4:45pm )

(No Class on July 2 - 4) 

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2022-2023 School year

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9/11-12/11, 1/8-5/21,  34 sessions Sunday 4:30-7:30pm

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