•   Course Readings

     

    Harper Lee,  To Kill a Mockingbird- Our first novel was published in 1960 and is read widely in middle and high school. This unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town is compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving. It takes readers to the roots of human behavior.

     

    Agatha Christie,  And Then There Were None - This book is the world’s best-selling mystery novel. Set in 1939 with Europe on the brink of war, ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, near the Devon coast. Cut off from the mainland, their generous hosts are mysteriously absent, and they are each accused of a terrible crime.

    Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl:  Perhaps the most famous account of the Holocaust, this autobiography ( nonfiction) was written between 1942 and 1944 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  Anne was just thirteen years old when she received a diary and subsequently wrote her account as a Jew hiding from the Nazis during World War II.  Through close exploration, we will analyze if people really are who they appear to be and difference between “private self” vs. “public self”. 

     

    Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven ( Independent Reading Assignment Tri 3) 






                                         Course Readings ( cont.)

    Poetry and Short Stories:  We will begin the school year with a small collection of short stories and an in-depth study of the Elements of Fiction.  We will read short story selections and works of poetry throughout the year between novel selections and as they relate to the time/season of the school year.  

    Short Stories: Edgar A. Poe, “The Tell Tale Heart”, Frank Stockton, “The Lady or the Tiger?”, Ernest Hemingway, “The Old Man at the Bridge”,  Robert Comier, “The Moustache”, Daniel Keys, “Flowers for Algernon”, Langston Hughes, “Thank You, Ma’am”, Joanne Greenberg,  “Upon the Waters”, Truman Capote, “ A Christmas Memory” , Jack London, “To Build a Fire”, O Henry, “ The Ransom of Red Chief”

    Plays: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving reformatted by Margaret Blackburn. Also selections mentioned above that are in play format. 

    Poet and Poetry Studies: Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

    Non-Fiction:  Scope Scholastic and Research Paper reading selections.

     

                                        Course Requirements

    CLASS PARTICIPATION: All students are expected to contribute to the best of their abilities, both in large-group and small-group activities.  Participation also includes actively reading and following along during “BELL to BELL read-alouds, and  listening and showing respect for others’ ideas.  School attendance, daily preparation, effort, proper conduct, productivity, and notebook writing/ text annotations  also count . Class participation grades start with 100 percent at the start of each trimester.  The grades are updated twice per month. Students who fulfill the above requirements will maintain  100 points; those who do not, will lose 5-10 points when updates occur twice a month. 

     

    NOTEBOOK WRITINGs:  Your 3 subject notebook will be a place for you to begin or end class, create story pages, comment on readings, notate ideas we are discussing, along with relevant current issues and events, as well as for class notes.       

                                                                                                                                                                            WRITING ASSIGNMENTS : You will be require