HOnors English III: American Literature/AP Language

Honors English III --- American Literature -- (grades 10 & 11) is the second part of a two-year preparation for the AP Language & Composition Exam, and the first part of the two-year preparation for AP Literature & Composition Exam. A study of Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James, Steinbeck, Cather, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, O’Connor, Faulkner, & American poets, English III requires an intense schedule of reading. Students learn to take lecture notes on both the backgrounds of authors, and on elements of the authors’ individual themes & writing styles.

Readings include: selected stories of Edgar Allan Poe; essays by Bernard, Freud, McKibben, Brooks, & Rauch; The Scarlet Letter + short stories by Hawthorne; Bartleby the Scrivener (Melville); The Turn of the Screw (James), Of Mice and Men & The Red Pony (Steinbeck); My Antonia + short stories by Cather; The Great Gatsby + short stories by Fitzgerald; short stories by Wharton & O'Connor; The Sun Also Rises + short stories by Hemingway; As I Lay Dying + short stories by Faulkner.

In addition, The Elements of Style (Strunk & White) and William Zinsser's On Writing Well continue to inform students' own creative non-fiction pieces throughout the year.

Required written pieces include:

Philosophical Essay
Hawthorne Project/presentation
Class piece on a community issue, including interviews, commentary, pros & cons. Published in the local Star News.
Faulkner project/presentation

Three SAT II Writing exams (September, January, May)

Six timed SAT essays (graded on an SAT rubric)
Ten timed AP Exam essays (graded on an AP exam rubric)
Two analytical paragraphs using quotes from a text (short stories, essays, and novels)

Three 1000-word analytical essays with footnotes & bibliographies on:

Poe stories + Claude Bernard essay (citing an essay and several short stories)
Cather + Steinbeck essay (interpreting, analyzing, and connecting themes in selections by two authors)
O'Connor essay (research paper analyzing and connecting themes in O'Connor's stories, including analysis of essays on O'Connor by selected literary critics)

Two full-length AP exams, as well as various multiple choice practice exams

College application prep, including:

Junior autobiography
8 short application essays
2 long application essays
Common Application + University of California Application
Brag sheet (collation of HS activities, extra-curricular participation, hobbies, and awards)

Pink poetry (Free verse; figurative language) if unfinished from 1st Year
Green poetry (figurative language, rhythm, rhyme, meter) if unfinished from 2nd Year
Blue poetry: (metric free verse or other verse structures) >>> if unfinished from 3rd Year

Typical English III students will complete 35 pieces, each comprising 5-10 drafts, for a total of 175-350 pieces of writing, just in English class, during the school year.