MSEC Topsfield English – 11th Grade

Poetry

Intro to various types of poetry including limericks, haikus, narrative, odes, etc. (Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, etc.)

Use of rhymed and unrhymed verse

Use of analogies in poetry

Figurative language including similes, metaphors, idioms, and personification

Alliteration: Assonance and Consonance

Onomatopoeia

Students create their own limericks and haikus

Song project

Students identify figurative language in song lyrics Students analyze song lyrics and write essays about their meaning Students research singer/songwriters and write a biography Oral presentation of project

Essay Writing and Research Papers

Stages of the writing process from brainstorming to editing

Researching legitimate sources

Properly citing sources

Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe’s "Tell Tale Heart"

Students use context clues to decipher unfamiliar words in biography of Poe

Comprehension questions on biography

Novels

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Screen play language and set up

Written comprehension questions and class discussions

Overview of court system and trials

Research on due process, capital punishment, and Bill of Rights – written assignment connecting these to the text

New vocabulary presented throughout text – students practice context clues

Essays related to the text

Grammar

Identifying parts of speech including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions

Common homonyms and homographs

Proper use of commas, semicolons, colons, etc.

Transitional phrases

Roots of words

Historical Fiction and Allegory

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Overview of Russian Revolution and Socialism– Stalin and Trotsky

Define Allegory – discuss other examples

Written comprehension questions and discussion of text

Students create their own fable as a group using online technology