English 11 - Honors
Mr. Sawyer
Curriculum Guide
First Quarter - The Rugged Individual
Second Quarter - The Classless Society
"We will walk with our own feet; we will work with our own hands;
we will speak our own minds" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We adore titles and heredities in our hearts and ridicule them with our mouths.
This is our democratic privilege." - Mark Twain.
Essential Questions:
  • Is there a universal meaning in being American?
  • Is there a defining American characteristic?
  • What are the ethics and values that Americans most cherish?
  • How do we balance the needs of self and community?
  • In America, is it possible to "march to the beat" of our own drummer?
Essential Questions:
  • Is the American Dream a myth or a reality?
  • What constitutes success in American society?
  • In America, does a person control their own destiny?
  • Does the past shape our view of the present or does the present shape our view of the past?
  • What does it take to fit into American society?
Novels:

The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck

On The Road - Jack Keroauc

Novel:

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Drama:

The Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller

Essays:

The American Scholar - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For - Henry David Thoreau

Short Story -

A Rose For Emily - William Faulkner

Bartleby The Scrivener - Herman Melville

A Worn Path - Eudora Welty

Poetry:

Poetry - Marianne Moore

Chicago - Carl Sandburg

Poetry:

next to of course god i - e.e. cummings

An Old Man's Winter Night - Robert Frost

Film:

Cool Hand Luke - Stuart Rosenberg

Third Quarter - The Faith of our Fathers
Fourth Quarter - The Huddled Masses
"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that
is my religion" - Abraham Lincoln.
"America is God's Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are
melting and re-forming." - Israel Zangwill
Essential Questions:
  • What effect has organized religion had on shaping the values of American society?
  • What does "freedom of religion" mean? Freedom from what? Freedom to do what?
  • What is the difference between faith, religion, and spirituality?
  • Why was a "wall" built between church and state?
  • Is religious pluralism healthy or unhealthy for a society?
Essential Questions:
  • How does culture and ethnicity affect identity?
  • How does cultural perspective shape each individual's American experience?
  • In a nation built by immigrants, what does it mean to be American?
  • What causes racial and ethnic divides to persist and linger?
Novels:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Novel:
Essay:

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - Jonathan Edwards

Poetry:

Any Human to Another - Countee Cullen

Dream Deferred - Langston Hughes

Poetry:

Selected Poems - Emily Dickinson

Selected Poems - Walt Whitman

Short Story:

Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor

Short Story:

Big Two-Hearted River - Ernest Hemingway

Essay:

A View From the Melting Pot - An interview with Richard Rodgriguez

Film -

The Namesake - Mira Nair

Film:

Tender Mercies - Bruce Beresford