Language Arts 12 Honors

Overview

Course Description

Semester A: Advanced Composition

English 12A Honors focuses on learning to write with confidence and mastery. Emphasis is placed on building language flexibility, improving sentence structure, and mastering the writing process. Students create, revise, and edit six writing projects that are designed to help them take their writing to the next level. As an Honors course, emphasis is placed on project-based instruction and increased reading and writing opportunities. In this thought-provoking writing course, students prepare themselves for the demands of college and/or the job market by developing their writing skills. Through text readings, videos, interactive PowerPoint presentations, practice activities, workbook questions, interactive skills challenges, discussions, writing projects, and other activities students demonstrate their mastery of the writing process. Students will integrate the 6-Traits of Writing (i.e., ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions) to all of their writing. As an Honors course, emphasis will be placed on additional reading and writing project-based instruction. Students will create projects including a short story, expository essay, functional document, persuasive essay, literary analysis, and research paper. Through the engaging activities in English 12A Honors, students become more mature and accomplished writers.

Semester B: British Literature

In English 12B Honors, students experience a survey of dynamic British literature from the ancient epic poem of Beowulf to more contemporary pieces by authors such as George Orwell and Doris Lessing. Emphasis is placed on major literary movements, British authors and classics, and the impact of historical events on literary works. In English 12B Honors, students gain a better understanding of English masterpieces as well as their own writing. As an Honors course, emphasis is placed on project-based instruction and increased reading and writing opportunities. Engaging videos, interesting readings, and interactive activities provide students with pragmatic opportunities to apply reading comprehension and writing skills to their lives. Students work through interactive lessons, completing several self-check activities and quizzes. In each unit, students complete an exam as well as writing projects that include a personal narrative, a research document, a literary response, a descriptive essay, an expository essay, and a persuasive composition. Students also participate in daily discussions and teacher feedback is provided throughout the course. English 12B Honors covers the content and skills in English 12B as well as providing additional project-based instruction and increased reading and writing opportunities.

Course Requirements

Grade Level

12

Materials

In this course, you are required to read two novels from the You-Choose list in addition to the works that are listed as required reading below. After selecting the novels you will read as your choices, download the appropriate novel guides using the links below.

  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Semester A)
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Semester B)
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo (Semester B)
  • The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Semester B)
  • Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Semester B)

You-Choose Novels:

  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Othello by Julius Lester
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  • Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Duration

2 Semesters

Prerequisites

Honors Language Arts 9 or Language Arts 9
Honors Language Arts 10 or Language Arts 10
Honors Language Arts 11 or Language Arts 11

Technology Skills

  • Internet Navigation
  • Word Processing
  • Email Communication

Outline

Semester A

Major Concepts

  • Vocabulary
  • Writing Mechanics
  • Writing Process
  • Writing Components
  • Writing Applications
  • Reading Comprehension

Semester B

Major Concepts

  • Vocabulary
  • Writing Mechanics
  • Writing Process