PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS TWELFTH …

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS TWELFTH GRADE INSTRUCTIONAL READING LIST

Revised August 2016

STANDARD 12.3 STRAND: READING ANALYSIS GRADE LEVEL 12

12.3 The student will apply knowledge of word origins, derivations, and figurative language to extend vocabulary development in authentic texts. a) Use structural analysis of roots, affixes, synonyms, antonyms, and cognates to understand complex words. b) Use context, structure, and connotations to determine meanings of words and phrases. c) Discriminate between connotative and denotative meanings and interpret the connotation. d) Identify the meaning of common idioms, literary and classical allusions in text. e) Expand general and specialized vocabulary through speaking, reading, and writing. f) Use knowledge of the evolution, diversity, and effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of texts.


12.4 The student will read, comprehend, and analyze the development of British literature and literature of other cultures. a) Compare and contrast the development of British literature in its historical context. b) Recognize major literary forms and their elements. c) Recognize the characteristics of major chronological eras. d) Relate literary works and authors to major themes and issues of their eras. e) Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature. f) Explain how the sound of a poem (rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism) supports the subject, mood, and theme. g) Compare and contrast traditional and contemporary poems from many cultures. h) Analyze how dramatic conventions including character, scene, dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect. i) Compare and contrast dramatic elements of plays from American, British, and other cultures.


12.5 The student will read and analyze a variety of nonfiction texts. a) Generate and respond logically to literal, inferential, evaluative, synthesizing, and critical thinking questions before, during, and after reading texts. b) Analyze and synthesize information in order to solve problems, answer questions, and generate new knowledge. c) Analyze two or more texts addressing the same topic to identify authors’ purpose and determine how authors reach similar or different conclusions. d) Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity, contradiction, paradox, irony, overstatement, and understatement in text. e) Identify false premises in persuasive writing. f) Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied information using textual support.

Note: 12.5a can be summarized into three significant questions: What does the text say? What does it mean? Why does it matter?


Revised August 2016

Language Arts

Objectives

Language Arts Instructional Focus

Author Holt Textbook Title, Challenge

Level and/or Lexile

Genre Setting or Cultural

Perspective Apply Language Arts Standards 12.3 a-f as appropriate. Apply 12.5a (Generate and respond logically to literal, inferential, evaluative, synthesizing, and critical thinking questions before, during, and after reading texts) to all reading selections.

Instructors will use the following selections for instructional examples.

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.5a SOL 12.5b SOL 12.5f

• Use knowledge of evolution and effects of language • Trace development of British literature in historical context • Recognize characteristics of major chronological eras • Relate literary works and authors to major themes and issues of

eras • Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature • Generate and respond logically to literal, inferential, evaluative,

synthesizing, and critical thinking questions • Analyze and synthesize information • Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied

information using textual support

Informational materials

Exploring British Literature: Introducing

the Essentials pp. 1-17 On level

Introduction: Questions of the Times;

Historical Essay; A Changing Language;

Timeline; The Legacy of the Era

pp. 18-37 pp. 290-309 pp. 558-577 pp. 750-767 pp. 910-927

pp. 1096-1113

Nonfiction:

Informational

Reading text

materials to develop background knowledge

SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4f SOL 12.5a SOL 12.5b SOL 12.5f

• Compare/contrast development of British lit. in historical context • Recognize major literary forms and their elements • Recognize the characteristics of major chronological eras • Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature • Generate and respond logically to literal, inferential, evaluative,



Informational

materials

Text Analysis Workshop: On level

“The Epic”

pp. 38-39 “Medieval Narratives”

pp. 140-141 “The Sonnet Form”

pp. 310-311

Nonfiction: Expository

Essay

Reading to develop

background knowledge


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4f SOL 12.5a SOL 12.5b SOL 12.5f

• Compare/contrast development of British literature in historical

context • Recognize major literary forms and their elements • Recognize the characteristics of major chronological eras • Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature • Generate and respond logically to literal, inferential, evaluative,



Cont.

Informational materials

“Shakespearean Tragedy”

pp. 342-345 “Metaphysical Poetry”

pp. 514-515 “Nonfiction in the 18th

Century” pp. 576-577

“Satire” pp. 608-609

“Romanticism” pp. 796-797

“Form and Meaning in Poetry”

pp. 846-847 “The Growth and

Development of Fiction” pp. 968-969

“Modernism” pp. 1114-1115

“Literature as Social Criticism”

pp. 1240-1241

Cont. Nonfiction: Expository

Essay

Cont. Reading to develop

background knowledge

SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g

• Recognize development of literature in British historical context • Identify elements of the epic form, e.g., long narrative poem;

hero who saves a culture; setting (Denmark in the 4th century; told in Anglo-Saxon Britain)

• Recognize and explain use of imagery, personification, simile, metaphor (kenning), caesura, alliteration, rhythm

• Recognize literary characteristics and effects of the Anglo-Saxon period

• Identify, develop, and analyze theme topics: fate, good vs. evil, the gods

• Analyze the social and cultural function of poem • Explain effects of sound devices which support subject and mood:

rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism

• Use to compare to epics from other cultures and/or eras, e.g., excerpts from the Iliad

Scops

Trans. Burton Raffel

Excerpts from Beowulf

pp. 40-73

On level

Epic Poem

Anglo Saxon Period


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4 SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g

• Recognize development of literature in British historical context • Recognize and explain use of elements of narrative poetry:

characterization, plot, setting, imagery, figures of speech, diction, structure (frame story)

• Recognize and explain use of tone, e.g., comic, satirical, pious, bawdy

• Recognize and explain use of voice: Chaucer himself in the persona of a naïve observer

• Recognize literary characteristics and their effects of the era: poetry, storytelling

• Identify, develop, and analyze theme topics, e.g., courtly love, corruption, community, plague, feudalism, role of church

• Explain effects of sound devices which support subject and mood: rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism

• Use to compare to a long narrative character poem from another culture and/or era

Chaucer, Geoffrey

Trans. Nevill Coghill

The Canterbury Tales, Prologue and teacher-

selected tales pp. 142-166, 169-180,

183-197

More challenging

Poetry -

Narrative

Medieval

Period England

SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4h SOL 12.4i SOL 12.5a SOL 12.5b

• Recognize major literary forms and their elements. • Relate literary works and authors to major themes and issues of

their eras. • Explain how the sound of a poem (rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia,

repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism) supports the subject, mood, and theme.

• Analyze how dramatic conventions including character, scene, dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect.

• Compare and contrast dramatic elements of plays from American, British, and other cultures.

• Generate and respond logically to literal, inferential, evaluative, synthesizing, and critical thinking questions before, during, and after reading texts.

• Analyze and synthesize information in order to solve problems, answer questions, and generate new knowledge.

Foster, Thomas C.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

820L

Less challenging

Nonfiction: Informational

Reading

Reading text materials to

develop background knowledge

Instructors will select one of the plays by Shakespeare from the list below. SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4c

• Identify the meaning and effects of literary and classical allusions • Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate

the meaning of texts • Recognize the development of literature in British historical

Shakespeare,

William

Macbeth

pp. 346-431

Drama

Middle

Ages, Scotland


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4h SOL 12.4i

context • Recognize characteristics of major eras: Renaissance Britain • Analyze the social and cultural function of Shakespeare’s plays • Analyze how dramatic conventions including character, scene,

dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect: e.g., witches, riddles, battles, weather, hallucinations, imagery of blood, sleep, clothing, animals

• Recognize, develop, and analyze theme topics, e.g., ambition, nature of manhood, kingship, appearance vs. reality, treachery vs. loyalty, order vs. chaos

• Use to compare/contrast dramatic elements of play to those of other times and cultures

More challenging

(Renaissance Britain)

SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4h SOL 12.4i

• Identify the meaning of literary/ classical allusions • Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate

the meaning of texts • Recognize development of literature in British historical context • Recognize characteristics of major eras: Renaissance Britain • Analyze the social and cultural function of Shakespeare’s plays • Analyze how dramatic conventions including character, scene,

dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect: e.g., ghosts, play within a play, imagery of disease, gardens, sun, sport, motifs of honesty, humanist virtues, spies

• Recognize, develop, and analyze theme topics, e.g., appearance vs. reality, unsimple truth, coming of age, love fallen away, duty, contamination/corruption, order vs. chaos

• Compare/contrast dramatic elements of play to those of other times and cultures

Shakespeare,

William

Hamlet

More challenging Not in H-M Text

Drama

Denmark


SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4h SOL 12.4i

• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of texts, inc. syntax and diction

• Identify the meaning of literary and classical allusions • Development of literature in British historical context • Recognize characteristics of major eras: Renaissance Britain • Analyze the social and cultural function of Shakespeare’s plays • Analyze how dramatic conventions including character, scene,

dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect: e.g., soliloquies, monologues, foreshadowing, symbols (song, handkerchief, black and white), imagery of animals, pain, evil

• Recognize, develop, and analyze theme topics, e.g., appearance vs. reality, jealousy, blindness of love, isolation, incompatibility

Shakespeare,

William

Othello

More challenging Not in H-M Text

Drama

Cyprus



Revised August 2016

of love and war, order vs. chaos • Compare/contrast dramatic elements of play to those of other times

and cultures

Instructors will use the following poetry, nonfiction, and fiction selections as instructional examples.

SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4e SOL 12.5f

• Recognize characteristics of English Renaissance era as represented in text

• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of texts

• Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature, esp. cultural heritage and effect of KJ Bible

• Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied text

Excerpts from the King James Bible

pp. 480-486

On level

Poetry

Parable

17th Century

Traditional/ Renaissance

SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g

• Recognize characteristics of English Renaissance era as represented in poem


• Identify the meaning of literary /classical allusions • Recognize literary elements of the epic and sonnet -Cont. • Identify characteristics of major chronological eras • Recognize and analyze themes of the era, e.g., the Fall,

obedience/disobedience, power, the pattern of the universe • Explain effects sound devices to support subject and mood: rhyme,

rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism

• Identify and analyze use of imagery, allusion, and figures of speech, including extended metaphor, simile, puns, paradox to support theme

• Compare to epic poems from other cultures and/or time periods, as Beowulf

Milton, John

Excerpts from Paradise Lost pp. 493-502

More challenging

And

Selected Sonnets pp. 488-491

On level

Epic poetry

Poetry: Traditional/ Renaissance

17th Century

Traditional/ Renaissance

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g

• Recognize characteristics of metaphysical poetry as represented in poems


• Identify and analyze elements of metaphysical poetry: figures of speech, e.g., conceits, extended metaphor, paradox, puns, imagery

• Recognize and analyze themes of the era, e.g., religion, loss through death; this world vs. eternity

• Identify and analyze use of imagery to support themes: circles,

Donne, John

"A Valediction:

Forbidding Mourning" pp. 518-520

and

“Holy sonnet 10” p. 521

More challenging

Poetry:

Metaphysical

17th Century Metaphysical


Revised August 2016

gold, math compass, the heavens • Analyze effect of sincere tone and voice • Identify how sound devices support subject and mood: rhyme,

rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, consonance

• Compare to poems from other cultures and/or time periods

SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g


• Recognize major literary forms and their elements • Recognize characteristics of major chronological era as represented

in poems • Identify the meaning of literary /classical allusions • Recognize influence of Jonson and “sons of Ben” (Cavalier) • Identify and analyze elements of classicist poetry: balanced,

rhetorical, simplicity of thought and design, social function of poetry

• Recognize and analyze theme topic of the era: carpe diem • Compare to poems from other cultures and/or time periods

Jonson, Marvell,

Herrick, Lovelace

“On My First Son” “Song: To Celia”

pp. 526-528

“To His Coy Mistress” pp. 532-533

“To the Virgins to Make

Much of Time” p. 534

“To Althea, from Prison” p. 535

On level

Lyrical Poetry:

Classicist

17th Century -

Classicists

SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.5d SOL 12.5f

• Compare and contrast the elements of the diary and the essay • Identify literary characteristics of the era: essays, journals, diaries,

scientific articles • Relate works to themes and issues of era • Analyze the social and cultural function of these nonfiction texts • Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity, contradiction, paradox,

irony, overstatement, understatement in text, and rhetorical devices

• Draw conclusions and make inferences based on explicit and implicit information in text

Pepys, Samuel

Addison, Joseph

Excerpts from The Diary

1240L pp. 580-587

On level

Excerpt from The Spectator

1300L pp. 602-605

Nonfiction:

Diary

Nonfiction: Essay

Restoration Period

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.5d SOL 12.5f


• Identify elements of a journal: introspection, facts, observations, descriptions, personal viewpoints, first person point of view

• Relate works to themes and issues of era, e.g., misery, God, selflessness, the human spirit, compassion, plague, history

• Analyze the social and cultural function of these nonfiction texts • Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity, contradiction, paradox,

irony, overstatement, and understatement in text • Draw conclusions and make inferences based on explicit and

Defoe, Daniel

Excerpt from Robinson

Crusoe p. 591

Excerpt from

A Journal of the Plague Year

1470L pp. 594-598

Fiction: Novel

(Pseudo) Journal

Restoration Period


Revised August 2016

implicit information in text On level

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.5d SOL 12.5e SOL 12.5f


• Recognize characteristics of Neoclassical era, esp. rhetorical devices, public function of literature

• Recognize major literary forms and their elements: persuasive essay, Horatian and Juvenalian satire, (e.g., use of irony, sarcasm, wit, parody, understatement, overstatement to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity to mock or change something)

• Relate themes to era: absentee British landlords in Ireland, starvation

• Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature • Draw conclusions and make inferences based on explicit and

implicit information in text

Swift, Jonathan

"A Modest Proposal"

1590L pp. 622-631

More challenging

Nonfiction: Persuasive

Essay

Neoclassical Period/

18th Century

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.5d SOL 12.5e SOL 12.5f


• Recognize characteristics of Neoclassical era • Recognize major literary form and elements: persuasive essay with

rhetorical language/devices • Relate to themes of era: gender equity, education • Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature • Draw conclusions and make inferences based on explicit and

implicit information in text

Wollstonecraft,

Mary

Excerpt from

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

1350L

pp. 720-726

On level

Nonfiction: Persuasive

Essay

Neoclassical Period/

18th Century

SOL 12.3c SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g

• Apply knowledge of words: connotation, denotation, meaning of allusions


• Recognize major literary forms and their elements: lyric poetry, inc. sound, rhythm, rhyme, figures of speech, imagery, allusion, paradox, ambiguity

• Recognize characteristics of 18th Century/pre-Romantic • Relate themes to the era, e.g., religious concerns, value of

individual experience • Figures of speech: symbols, allusion, personification, paradox,

imagery

Blake, William

“The Lamb” and “The

Tyger” pp. 770, 774

Less challenging

Poetry

18th Century – Pre-Romantic

SOL 12.3c SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f

• Apply knowledge of words: connotation, denotation, allusions • Use knowledge of diversity and effects of language to comprehend

Burns, Robert

“To a Mouse”

Poetry

18th Century – Pre-Romantic


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g

and elaborate the meaning of texts • Recognize major literary forms and their elements: satire, poetry,

inc. sound, rhythm, rhyme, figures of speech, imagery, allusion, ambiguity

• Recognize characteristics of 18th Century pre-Romantic poetry • Relate themes to the era, e.g., religious and social concerns, man

and nature’s similarities • Figures of speech: symbols, allusion, personification, paradox,

imagery

OR

“To a Louse” pp. 784-786, 787-788

On level


• Apply knowledge of words: connotation, denotation, allusions • Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate

the meaning of texts • Recognize major literary form and its elements: sonnet, sound,

rhythm, meter, figures of speech, and puns, imagery, structure, themes, metaphor, allusion, personification

• Recognize characteristics of Romanticism. • Identify tone and voice: thoughtful, despairing • Identify and analyze imagery to support theme topics, e.g.,

nature, the imagination, emotion “recollected in tranquility” • Explain effects of sound devices which support subject and mood:

rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance • Compare to poems from other cultures and/or time periods

Wordsworth,

William

"The World is Too

Much With Us" p. 717

On level

Poetry

19th Century/

Romantic




• Recognize major literary form and poem’s elements: narrative poetry, symbols, allegory, sound, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery, structure, themes, dramatic irony

• Recognize characteristics of Romanticism • Identify and analyze imagery to support theme topics, e.g., nature,

the imagination, man’s relationship to man • Explain effects of sound devices which support subject and mood:



Coleridge,

Samuel

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

pp. 814-834

On level

Narrative

Poetry

19th Century/

Romantic

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c


• Recognize characteristics of Romanticism

Byron, Lord

George

“She Walks in Beauty”

p. 850

Poetry

19th Century/

Romantic


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g

• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: voice, tone, sound, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery (nature, light/dark), structure, themes (inner and outer beauty)

• Explain effects of sound devices which support themes and mood: rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance


Less challenging




• Recognize characteristics of Romanticism • Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: voice, tone, sound,

rhythm, meter, figures of speech (esp. irony), imagery, structure (sonnet), themes (immortality)


• Compare to poems from other cultures, eras

Shelley,

Percy Bysshe

“Ozymandias”

p. 862

On level

Poetry

19th Century/

Romantic

Setting: Egyptian Valley of Kings



the meaning of Romantic ode • Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: voice, tone, sound,

rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery, structure (ode), themes (immortality, role of art, imagination), apostrophe, symbol, tone, and voice


• Compare to odes/ lyrical poems from other cultures and/or time periods

Keats, John

"Ode on a Grecian

Urn" p. 884-885

More challenging

Poetry: Ode

19th Century/

Romantic



• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of dramatic monologue (Victorian)

• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: blank verse, voice, tone, sound, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery, structure (dramatic monologue), themes (immortality, philosophy of life)


Tennyson,

Alfred, Lord

"Ulysses"

pp. 936-937

On level

Poetry

Dramatic Monologue

19th Century/

Victorian

Setting: Ancient Greece


Revised August 2016

• Compare to poems from other cultures and/or time periods SOL 12.3c SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g SOL 12.5f


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of dramatic monologue (Victorian)

• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: structure (dramatic monologue), voice, tone, irony, figures of speech, sound, rhythm, meter, imagery, diction, symbols, themes

• Explain effects of sound devices which support themes and mood: rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism

• Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied information


Browning,

Robert

"My Last Duchess"

pp. 946-948

On level

Poetry:

Dramatic Monologue

19th Century/

Victorian

Setting: Italian Renaissance



the meaning of sonnet (Victorian) • Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: structure (sonnet),

voice, tone, figures of speech, sound, meter, imagery, diction, themes


• Compare to other sonnets

Browning,

Elizabeth Barrett

“Sonnet 43”

p. 954

Less challenging

Poetry

19th Century/

Victorian

SOL 12.3c SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.5f


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of Victorian poem

• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: structure, voice, tone, figures of speech, sound, rhythm (sprung), imagery, diction, syntax, themes


• Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied information

Hopkins,

Gerard Manley

“Pied Beauty”

p. 964

On level

Poetry

19th Century/

Victorian

SOL 12.3f SOL12.5a SOL 12.4b

• Compare and contrast the development of literature in its historical context

Gaskell, Elizabeth

“Christmas Storms and

Sunshine”

Fiction:

Short Story

19th Century/

Victorian – Realism


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.5a SOL 12.5f

• Relate literary works and authors to major themes/ issues of their eras (rise of the middle class, social issues, reform, moral life)

• Recognize characteristics of major literary developments, i.e., realism and/or naturalism

• Recognize and analyze short story and its elements • Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied


Cleghorn (British)

Chekhov, Anton

(Russian)

pp. 996-1006

OR “The Darling” pp. 1019-1026

On level

19th Century/ Victorian - Naturalism



• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: voice, tone, figures of speech, symbols, imagery, structure (stanzas, lyrical), themes

• Recognize characteristics of late Victorian • Explain effects of sound devices which support themes and mood:


• Compare to poems from other cultures and/or eras

Arnold, Matthew

"Dover Beach"

pp. 930

More challenging

Poetry

19th Century/

Victorian


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of lyric poem

• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: imagery, figures of speech, diction, structure, tone, structure, theme (experience)

• Explain effects of sound devices which support subject and mood: rhyme, rhythm, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism


Houseman, A.E.

“When I Was One and

Twenty” pp. 984

Less challenging

Poetry: Lyric

19th Century/

Victorian



• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: imagery, figures of speech, diction, mood, structure, voice, tone, structure, themes (time)



Hardy, Thomas

“The Darkling Thrush”

p. 1070

More challenging

Poetry: Lyric

19th Century/

Victorian

SOL 12.3d SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g SOL 12.5f

• Identify the meaning of common idioms, literary and classical allusions in text

• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of poem

• Relate literary work and author to major themes and issues of his era (disillusionment, alienation, mechanization, loss of individualism)

• Recognize and analyze elements of modern poetry: voice, tone,

Eliot, T.S.

“The Hollow Men”

pp. 1120-1122

More challenging

Poetry

20th Century/ Modernism


Revised August 2016

sound, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery, structure, themes (isolation, meaninglessness,) allusion, epigraph, symbolism, diction, stanza, rhythm, speaker(s), ambiguity

• Recognize characteristics of modernism • Explain effects of sound devices which support themes and mood:

rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, allusion, alliteration, consonance, and parallelism

• Compare to poems from other cultures, eras • Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied


SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g SOL 12.5f


• Relate literary work and author to major themes/ issues of his era • Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: allusion, voice, tone,

sound, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery, irony, structure, allusion, themes (universality of suffering)


• Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied information using textual support

Auden, W. H.

“Musée des Beaux Arts”

pp. 1176

On level

Poetry



• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of villanelle

• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: villanelle structure, voice, tone, sound, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery (sun, dying light, meteors), allusion, themes (confronting death), syntax


• Compare to poems from other cultures, eras

Thomas, Dylan

“Do Not Go Gentle Into

That Good Night” pp. 1184

On level

Poetry:

Villanelle




• Relate literary work and author to major themes and issues of era • Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: symbols, word choice,

voice, tone, sound, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery, allusion, themes (immortality, aging), syntax



Yeats,

William Butler

“Sailing to Byzantium”

p. 1192

More challenging

OR

“The Second Coming” p. 1195

Poetry



Revised August 2016

• Compare to poems from other cultures, eras SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g


• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: imagery, figures of speech, synesthesia, diction, structure, voice, tone, structure, themes (time, choices)



Heaney, Seamus

“Digging”

p p. 1304-1306

Poetry: Lyric

20th Century/

Contemporary


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of short story/ short fiction

• Relate literary work and authors to major themes and issues of their era

• Recognize and analyze short story elements and their effects, including setting, characterization, plot, theme, point of view, voice, tone, word choice, symbols


Mansfield, Katherine

Woolf, Virginia

Lawrence, D.H.

“A Cup of Tea” 640L

pp. 1128-1136 OR

“The Duchess and the Jeweller” 810L pp. 1140-1147

OR “The Rocking-Horse

Winner” 690L

pp. 1154-1168

Fiction:

Short Story


SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.5a SoL 12.5b SOL 12.5d SOL 12.5f

• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of essay

• Relate literary work and authors to major themes and issues of their era

• Recognize and analyze elements of the essay • Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature • Analyze and synthesize information in order to solve problems,

answer questions, and generate new knowledge • Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity, contradiction, paradox,

irony, overstatement, and understatement in text • Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied


Orwell, George

Huxley, Aldous

“Shooting an Elephant”

pp. 1252-1259 1070L

On level

OR “Words and Behavior”

1260L pp. 1266-1276

Literary Nonfiction:

Essay


Instructors will select one of the following dramas for instructional examples.

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c

• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of drama

• Relate literary work and author to major themes and issues of his era: appearance vs. reality, search for self, search for love,

Wilde, Oscar

The Importance of Being

Earnest Not in H-M text

Drama: Comedy

Late 19th

Century/Victorian


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4h SOL 12.5f

conventionality • Analyze the social and cultural function of drama • Analyze how dramatic and comedic conventions including

comedy of manners, character, scene, dialogue, and staging contribute to the themes and effects

• Analyze the role of satire and the use of tone and of irony, ambiguity, word choice

• Compare and contrast dramatic elements of plays from American, British, and other cultures


On level

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4h SOL 12.5f


• Relate literary work and author to major themes and issues of era • Analyze the social and cultural function of drama • Analyze how dramatic and tragic conventions inc. character,

scene, dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect • Analyze the use of tone and of ambiguity and word choice • Compare and contrast dramatic elements of plays from American,

British, and other cultures • Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied


Synge, J. M.

Riders to the Sea

pp. 1214-1222

Less challenging

Drama: One Act Tragedy

20th Century/Irish

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4h SOL 12.5f


• Relate literary work and author to major themes and issues of his era: appearance vs. reality, search for love, conventionality, search for self

• Analyze the social and cultural function of drama • Analyze how dramatic and comedic conventions including

character, scene, dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect

• Analyze the use of tone and of irony, ambiguity, word choice • Compare and contrast dramatic elements of plays from American,

British, and other cultures • Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied


Shaw,

George Bernard

Pygmalion

Not in H-M text

On level

Drama: Comedy

20th Century/Irish


Revised August 2016

Instructors may select from the following for additional instructional examples in poetry, nonfiction, and fiction.

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g SOL 12.5d SOL 12.5f

• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of poems

• Compare and contrast the development of British literature in its historical context

• Recognize and analyze elements of poetry: voice, tone, sound, rhyme, rhythm, meter, figures of speech, imagery, allusions, structure, themes, syntax

• Relate literary works and authors to major themes and issues of their eras

• Analyze the social and cultural function of British literature • Explain effects of sound devices which support themes and mood:

rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance • Compare and contrast traditional and contemporary poems

from many cultures • Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity, contradiction, paradox,

irony, overstatement, and understatement in text • Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied

information using textual support • Compare/contrast to poems from other cultures and/or eras

Anonymous Anglo-Saxon

poets William

Langland Anonymous

Medieval poets Christopher

Marlowe Sir Walter Raleigh

Edmund Spencer Francesco Petrarch

Amelia Lanier Alexander Pope Thomas Gray Aphra Behn

Charlotte Smith Heinrich Heine Emily Brontë Rupert Brooke

Siegfried Sassoon

Ted Hughes Stevie Smith

Wole Soyinka

Selections determined by teacher to reflect a

variety of literary periods and themes.

On level

In H-M text

Poetry

Anglo-Saxon to 20th Century

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL12.5a SOL 12.5b SOL 12.5c SOL 12.5d SOL 12.5e

• Recognize and analyze elements of nonfiction appropriate to sub-genres

• Use knowledge of effects of language, e.g., diction and syntax, to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of texts

• Recognize literary characteristics of the eras represented • Compare forms and themes or issues between cultures and time

periods • Analyze social and cultural function of literature • Generate and respond logically to literal, inferential, evaluative,

synthesizing, and critical thinking questions

Venerable Bede Margery Kempe Paston Family Thomas More

Queen Elizabeth I

Machiavelli Francis Bacon

Margaret

Selections determined by teacher to reflect a

variety of time periods, genres, and themes in

coordination with literary periods

On level

In H-M text

Nonfiction:

Essay, Primary sources,

Speeches, Biography,

Autobiography

Variety of eras, 18-

20th Century British and American


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.5f • Analyze and synthesize information • Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity, contradiction, paradox,

irony, overstatement, and understatement in text • Identify false premises in persuasive writing • Analyze two or more texts addressing the same topic to identify

purpose and determine how authors reached similar or different conclusions


Cavendish John Donne

Samuel Johnson James Boswell Fanny Burney

Thos. Maccaulay Thos. Carlyle

George Orwell Aldous Huxley

Winston Churchill

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4e SOL12.5a SOL 12.5c SOL 12.5f

• Recognize and analyze elements of nonfiction appropriate to a variety of sub-genres

• Use knowledge of effects of language, e.g., diction and syntax, to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of texts

• Recognize literary characteristics of the eras represented • Compare forms and themes or issues between cultures and time

periods • Analyze social and cultural function of literature • Analyze two or more texts addressing the same topic to identify

purpose and determine how authors reached similar or different conclusions


Authors include, among others:

Barbara Tuchman Caxton

Holinshed Swift

Dorothy Wordsworth C.M. Bowra Wordsworth

Shelley Keats

Browning David Brooks Bob Herbert E.M. Forster

Selections determined

by teacher from Reading for Information

to reflect a variety of genres in coordination with literary periods

Selections found on pp. 74, 201-204, 262, 435-

438, 654, 717, 809, 837- 838, 875-876, 889, 958, 1045-1048, 1148, 1223,

1357-1360

On level In HM text

Nonfiction:

Informational Reading

Performance Review, Book

Excerpt, Magazine

Article, Map and Illustrations,

Historical document,

Travel article, Film Review,

Letter, Editorial, Newspaper

article, Literary criticism,

Preface, Essay, Interviews

Variety of eras from

medieval to 20th

Century Trans-cultural

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4a SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.4f SOL 12.4g SOL 12.5f

• Use knowledge of effects of language, esp. syntax and diction, to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of texts

• Compare and contrast the development of British literature in its historical context

• Relate literary work and authors to major themes and issues of their eras

• Recognize and analyze fictive and short story elements and their effects, e.g., setting, characterization, plot, theme, point of view, voice, tone, symbols, motifs, epiphany, flashback

Thomas Malory Thomas More John Bunyan

Jonathan Swift Voltaire

Charlotte Brontë Anthony Trollope

Charles Dickens

Selections determined by teacher to reflect a variety of time periods

and themes in coordination with literary

periods

On level

Fiction: Short

Stories and excerpts from longer works

Variety of eras from Middle Ages through

20th Century Trans-cultural


Revised August 2016


George Eliot Joseph Conrad

Elizabeth Bowen Elie Wiesel

William Trevor Nadine

Gordimer Anita Desai

In H-M text

Instructors will select from the novels, novella, or memoir below for instructional examples.

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.5a SOL 12.5b SOL 12.5f


• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: plot, conflict, characters, setting (written in 1970 America, set in Denmark in the 4th century) themes, motifs, point of view

• Recognize chronological era: literary characteristics of 20th century existential literature

• Analyze use of imagery and figures of speech (personification, simile, metaphor)

• Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., fate, good vs. evil, art, stories, isolation, anomie (absence or breakdown of social norms)

Gardner, John

Grendel

Entire companion novel to Beowulf or excerpts

920L 192 pp

On level

Novel

20th century post- modern American

perspective of Anglo-Saxon period

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d

• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of early novel

• Recognize and analyze elements of Horatian and Juvenalian satire: irony, sarcasm, wit, parody, understatement, overstatement used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity to mock or change something

• Recognize characteristics of the era: ethnic and cultural mores and traditions, power, political struggle

• Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., individual vs. society, alienation, limits of human understanding, might and right, British institutional power, religion

Swift, Jonathan

Gulliver’s Travels

1500L 240 pp

More challenging

Excerpts pp. 636-653 in H-M text

On level

Early Novel

Form

Neoclassical Period


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of novel

• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: satire and irony, plot, conflict, characters, setting, themes, diction

• Recognize characteristics of the era • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., marriage, class,

Austen, Jane

Pride and Prejudice

1190L 272 pp

On level

Novel

Early19th Century

England, reflecting end of Neoclassical

Period


Revised August 2016

reputation, search for love, gender relationships SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d


• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: plot, conflict, characters, setting, themes, motifs, symbols, diction

• Recognize characteristics of the era (Gothic Romanticism) • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., appearance vs. reality,

role of science, alienation and isolation, language and communication, compassion and forgiveness

Shelley, Mary

Frankenstein

1170L 208 pp

Challenging level

Novel: Gothic

Romanticism

19th Century British

Romantic



• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: plot, conflict, characters, setting, symbols, diction, point of view

• Recognize characteristics of the era: gothic romanticism, class and gender restrictions

• Develop and analyze themes, e.g., coming of age, search for self, passion vs. reason, appearance vs. reality, gender relationships and equity, and motifs, e.g., flight, heat/cold, Gothic elements

Brontë,

Charlotte

Jane Eyre

920L 352 pp

On level

Novel: Gothic Romanticism


Romantic


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of text

• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: plot, conflict (nature and culture), characters, setting, themes, motifs, point of view, structure (gothic elements, flashback), symbols, diction

• Recognize characteristics of the era: gothic romanticism, class and gender restrictions

• Develop and analyze themes topics, e.g., cultural mores and traditions, revenge/love, social class

Bronte, Emily

Wuthering Heights

1320L 288 pp

More challenging

Novel: Gothic Romanticism


Romantic



• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: plot, conflict, characters, setting, themes, motifs, point of view, symbols, diction

• Recognize characteristics of the era: naturalism (or determinism), social class/gender restrictions

• Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., fate, individual rights, gender equity, character and values

Hardy, Thomas

The Mayor of Casterbridge

1090L 400 pp

More challenging

Novel


Victorian


Revised August 2016

SOL 12.3f SOL 12.4b SOL 12.4c SOL 12.4d SOL 12.5d


• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: plot, conflict, characters, setting, themes, motifs, symbols, diction, allegory

• Recognize characteristics of the era • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., hypocrisy, imperialism,

primitive vs. civilized, moral confusion, evil, madness • Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity

Conrad, Joseph

Heart of Darkness

1320L 116 pp

More challenging

Novel


Late Victorian




• Recognize characteristics of the era: aesthetic movement • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., appearance vs. reality,

role of science, hedonism, vanity, aesthetics, force of evil, loss of innocence

• Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity

Wilde, Oscar

The Picture of Dorian

Gray 970L

244 pp

On level

Novel


Victorian


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of novella

• Recognize and analyze elements of a short story/novella: brevity, plot, conflict, characters, setting, themes, motifs, symbols, diction

• Characteristics of the era: existentialism/absurdist, anomie • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., isolation/alienation,

using others for gain, unrealistic dreams

Kafka, Franz

The Metamorphosis

1320L 76 pp

Above level

Novella

20th Century

Modern/Post-modern Czech


• Use knowledge of effects of language to comprehend and elaborate the meaning of text

• Recognize elements of the essay and of literary criticism • Recognize characteristics of the era: religious conservatism,

censorship • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., universality and power

of literature, effects of violence, intellectual freedom, religious fanaticism

Nafisi, Azar

Reading Lolita in

Tehran: A Memoir in Books (appropriate

excerpts) 400 pp

On level

Nonfiction:

Memoir/Essay

20th Century Iran




• Recognize characteristics of the era • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., guilt, betrayal,

repression, struggle for identity

Crowther, Yasmin

The Saffron Kitchen

272 pp

On level

Novel

Contemporary England, Iran


Revised August 2016




• Recognize characteristics of the era • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., survival, human desire

for companionship, storytelling, religion • Recognize and analyze use of ambiguity

Martel, Yann

Life of Pi

830L 326 pp

Less challenging

Novel

Contemporary India



• Recognize and analyze elements of the novel: plot, conflict, characters, setting, themes, motifs, point of view, symbols, diction

• Recognize characteristics of the era: poverty, struggle, change • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., individual rights, ethnic

and cultural mores/traditions, religious diversity, gender equity

Markandaya,

Kamala

Nectar in a Sieve

900L 208 pp

Less challenging

Novel

20th Century India




• Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., family relationships, coming of age, courage, race relationships, Post-colonialism, love, evil, gender equity

Kingsolver,

Barbara

The Poisonwood Bible

960L 576

On level

Novel

20th Century

Africa/America




• Recognize characteristics of the era • Develop and analyze theme topics, e.g., complacency, women’s

bodies as political tools, dystopia, gender equity, language

Atwood, Margaret

The Handmaid’s Tale

750L 392 pp

Below level

Challenging themes

Novel:

Dystopia

Futuristic America

(Canadian)


Revised August 2016

Synopses of Long Nonfiction and Novels

Frankenstein: Swiss medical student Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of life - which he never reveals, lest someone repeat the mistake. He then puts together a body, essentially a man, from various corpses. Horrified by what he has built, he abandons the creature, who suffers a great deal of neglect and abuse but still manages to get a thorough education and learn of his lineage. After murdering Victor's younger brother, and framing the family maid, the creature tells his, admittedly, sad tale to his "father," and then demands a mate. Victor, in a panic, agrees, but thinking better of it at the last moment, destroys the new bride. In retaliation, the creature murders all of Victor's loved ones, in including his wife, and leads Victor on a chase across the world. Mary Shelley's masterpiece, a story within a story, is an early vessel of many archetypes found in science fiction and horror, framed in the sweeping force of her prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes.

Grendel: Gardner takes the Anglo Saxon Beowulf epic and uses varying translations of the poem and other writings from the period to tell the story from the poor monster's viewpoint (and a 20th century perspective). The monster observes humans from a revealing and telling vantage, capturing the essence of our collective struggle to understand our reason and purpose. Life is Grendel's great burden, and he draws the reader into his world of confusion and hypocrisy.

Gulliver’s Travels: From the preeminent prose satirist in the English language, Gulliver’s Travels is a great classic recounting the four remarkable journeys of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver. For children it remains an enchanting fantasy; for adults, a witty parody of political life in Swift's time and a scathing send-up of manners and morals in 18th-century England.

Heart of Darkness: A significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon, the story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferryboat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the myth behind colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters--the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Europeans’ cruel treatment of the natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: Thomas C. Foster introduces readers to the basics of literature and literary analysis using wit and humor. This how-to book assists the reader in discovering the hidden meaning in literature focusing on symbolism, themes and literary models, contexts, and narrative devices. The book is best described as a “broad overview of literary study.”

Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte's impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine--one whose virtuous integrity, keen intellect, and tireless perseverance broke through class barriers to win equal stature with the man she loved. Hailed by William Makepeace Thackeray as "the masterwork of great genius," Jane Eyre is still regarded, over a century later, as one of the finest novels in English literature.

Life of Pi: Martel displays a clever voice and tremendous storytelling skills in his romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing, and resilient. The peripatetic Pi (ne the much-taunted Piscine) Patel spends a beguiling boyhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper. Growing up beside the wild beasts, Pi gathers an encyclopedic knowledge of the animal world. His curious mind also makes the leap from his native Hinduism to Christianity and Islam, all three of which he practices with joyous abandon. In his 16th year, Pi sets sail with his family and some of their menagerie to start a new life in Canada. Halfway to Midway Island, the ship sinks into the Pacific, leaving Pi stranded on a life raft with a hyena, an orangutan, an injured zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. After the beast dispatches the others, Pi is left to survive for 227 days with his large feline companion on the 26-foot-long raft, using all his knowledge, wits, and faith to keep himself alive. Martel's potentially unbelievable plotline soon demolishes the reader's defenses, cleverly set up by events of young Pi's life that almost naturally lead to his biggest ordeal.


Revised August 2016

Nectar in a Sieve: Rukmani, a peasant from a village in India, lives a life of constant struggle, yet she is a source of strength for many. At age twelve she marries a man she has never met and moves with him to his rented farmland. Over the years their marriage fills with love, mutual respect, and children. The changes in village life from an agricultural to an industrial community frighten Rukmani; her life becomes one of "hope and fear.” Kenny, a white doctor in Rukmani's village, watches with a palpable foreboding his patients' daily struggle to survive. Rukmani and Kenny's conversations make apparent their individual and shared suffering, and while their experiences of the world are completely different, their friendship is based on respect and mutual reliance. Nectar in a Sieve is a powerful, and ultimately, hopeful novel of a life lived with love, faith, and inner strength.

Pride and Prejudice: In a remote Hertfordshire village, far off the good coach roads of George III's England, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet -- a country squire of no great means and his scatterbrained wife -- must marry off their five vivacious daughters. At the heart of this all-consuming enterprise are the headstrong second daughter Elizabeth and her aristocratic suitor Fitzwilliam Darcy, two lovers in whom pride and prejudice must be overcome before love can bring the novel to its magnificent conclusion. Austen’s classic novel is a gem of satiric commentary on English society and manners at the end of the 18th century.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books: A blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. Azar Nafisi, a university professor, invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. They used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however. Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds.

The Handmaid’s Tale: Canadian poet and novelist Atwood presents a powerful, memorable fable of the near future. In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right ideals have been carried to extremes in the mono-theocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives. The tale is told by Offred, a Handmaid who recalls the past and tells how the chilling society came to be.

The Mayor of Casterbridge: In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled “A Story of a Man of Character,” Hardy's powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.

The Metamorphosis: Often cited as one of the most influential works of short fiction of the 20th century, in this novella, Gregor's choice to work like a drone delivers a most unspeakable transformation. He becomes a giant beetle. The existential/absurdist story, a modern allegory, focuses on a family that has to readjust to the breadwinner becoming a hideous burden, a totally inexplicable and unforeseen event.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes. The novel's drawing-room discussions form a centerpiece for Wilde’s theories of art and morals.


Revised August 2016

The Poisonwood Bible: This intense family drama is set in an Africa on the verge of independence and upheaval. In 1959, evangelical preacher Nathan Price moves his wife and four daughters from Georgia to a village in the Belgian Congo, later Zaire. Their dysfunction and cultural arrogance proves disastrous as the family is nearly destroyed by war, Nathan's tyranny, and Africa itself. Told in the voices of the mother and daughters, the novel spans 30 years as the women seek to understand each other and the continent that tore them apart. Kingsolver has a keen understanding of the inevitable, often violent clashes between white and indigenous cultures; yet she lets the women tell their own stories without being judgmental.

The Saffron Kitchen: Maryam is the willful daughter of an Iranian general who backed the Shah of Iran during the U.S.-backed 1953 coup that toppled Iran's prime minister, Mossadegh. In the midst of the turmoil, and with the threat of an arranged marriage hanging over her, Maryam is sheltered chastely overnight by Ali, her father's trusted assistant, a young man near her age -16- for whom she feels a shy attraction. Maryam is sent away by her aloof father ("she is no daughter of mine"), a painful memory that, decades later, shatters her settled marriage to an understanding if pained British husband, and bewilders and angers her own daughter. A 40-year separation from Ali and a tender reunion in a remote village are just a few turns of the intense plot, full of tragic coilings and romantic passion, that make this a wonderfully intricate novel. Crowther, daughter of a British father and an Iranian mother, powerfully depicts Maryam's wrenching romantic and nationalistic longings, exploring the potency of heritage and the pain of exile.

Wuthering Heights: Over a hundred and fifty years after its initial publication, Emily Brontë's turbulent portrayal of the Earnshaws and the Lintons, two northern English households nearly destroyed by violent passions in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, continues to provoke and fascinate readers. Heathcliff remains one of the best-known characters in the English novel, and Catherine Earnshaw's impossible choice between two rivals retains its appeal for contemporary readers. At the same time, the Gothic novel’s highly ambivalent representations of domesticity, its famous reticence about its characters and their actions, its formal features as a story within a story, and the mystery of Heathcliff's origins and identity provide fascinating points of discussion.


Revised August 2016

Rationales, Controversial Content, and Alternative Text Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde Rationale: Moral and philosophical lessons of good vs evil. Shines a light on the historical corruption of 19th century British society. Explores the aesthetic movement; analyzes themes of appearance/reality, science/nature, hedonism, and innocence/experience. Controversial Content: None Alternative Text: Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka Rationale: Considered one of the most influential pieces of 20th century short fiction. Existential/ absurdist fiction invites exploration of the elements of the short story, and the themes of isolation/alienation, exploitation, and unrealistic dreams.

Controversial Content: None Alternative Text: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi Rationale: Blend of memoir and literary criticism set in modern Iran, following a female reading group who uses a study of Western literature as a springboard for debate on living under Islamic rule. Themes of hope and individual, universality and power of literature, liberation of the mind, and women’s desire for equality in a male-dominated society. Explores elements of the essay and literary criticism. Controversial Content: Criticism of Iranian government. Possibly conflicting religious viewpoints. Alternative Text: The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, by Olaudah Equiano


Revised August 2016

Saffron Kitchen, by Yasmin Crowther Rationale: Journey of mother and daughter across 30 years from London to Iran, exploring themes of guilt, betrayal, repression, and the struggle for identity. Controversial Content: Adultery and parental relationships. Alternative Text: Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel Rationale: Fantasy adventure issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. After surviving a shipwreck with only a tiger as a shipmate, Pi uses his wits to keep himself alive. Text invites exploration of the elements of the novel and of ambiguity as a storytelling tool; themes include survival, human desire for companionship, and religion.

Controversial Content: None Alternative Text: Max and the Cats, by Moacyr Scliar*

Grendel, by John Gardner Rationale: Post-colonial recasting of Anglo-Saxon culture that complicates the concepts of hero/monster, good/evil, the individual/the collective. The text explores consequences of the displacement of marginalized people under colonial oppression. Themes of fate, good/evil, art, isolation, social norms/anomie. Controversial Content: Violence. Alternative Text: A Tempest, by Aime Cesaire*


Revised August 2016

Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift Rationale: Satirical fiction exploring the political and social climate of 18th century England. Explores elements of satire (irony, sarcasm, parody); characteristics of the era (ethnic and cultural mores, power struggles); themes of individual/society, alienation, might/right, religion, institutional power. Controversial Content: None. Alternative Text: Catch 22, by Joseph Heller

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Rationale: Victorian novel of manners examining themes of class and gender inequalities, rebellion and conformity, and familial dynamics. Explores elements of the novel, satire and irony, and characterization; themes include marriage, class, reputation, and gender relationships. Controversial Content: None. Alternative Text: Middlemarch, by George Eliot

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley Rationale: A discussion of the conflicting views of the Enlightenment and the British Romantic movement. Exemplary presentation of literary characteristics of the era of Gothic Romanticism, framed epistolary narrative, and literary allusion. Themes include appearance/reality, the role of science, alienation and isolation, language and communication, compassion and forgiveness. Controversial Content: Possibly conflicting religious viewpoints and violence. Alternative Text: Dracula, by Bram Stoker


Revised August 2016

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte Rationale: A gothic depiction of the social and gender inequalities of the Victorian Era celebrating the power of education and indomitability of the human spirit. Explores characteristics of the era of Gothic Romanticism, including class and gender restrictions. Analyzes themes of cultural mores and traditions, revenge/love, and social class. Controversial Content: None. Alternative Text: Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte Rationale: Gothic romantic novel examining themes of class and gender inequalities, rebellion and conformity, familial dynamics, revenge, and love. Explores the elements of the novel, including plot, character, and point of view. Controversial Content: None. Alternative Text: Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy Rationale: A novel of Victorian naturalism focused on problematic family dynamics, individual rights, social treatment of women, and character and values. Controversial Content: None. Alternative Text: Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens


Revised August 2016

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad Rationale: British colonial text that explores elements of the novel including character, setting, motifs, symbols, diction, and allegory. Themes include hypocrisy, imperialism, primitive/civilized, moral confusion, evil, and madness. Use of ambiguity as a narrative tool. Controversial Content: Racist treatment of indigenous peoples and violence. Alternative Text: Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

Nectar in a Sieve, by Kamala Markandaya Rationale: A reflection upon the cultural and economic evolution in rural India, narrated from the perspective of Rukmani, a peasant whose unlikely friendship with Kenny leads to conversations spanning her marriage at twelve to her ultimately hopeful vision of a life filled with love, faith, and respect. Themes include individual rights, ethnic and cultural mores/traditions, religious diversity, and gender equity. Controversial Content: Classism, prejudice, and religious controversy. Alternative Text: A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid*

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver Rationale: An intense family drama set in Africa told in the voices of the mother and daughters, the novel spans 30 years as the women seek to understand each other and the continent that tore them apart. Explores elements of the novel, particularly character and setting. Themes include family relationships, coming of age, race, Post-colonialism, evil, and gender equity. Controversial Content: Violence and potentially sensitive political controversy. Alternative Text: Little Bee, by Chris Cleave*


Revised August 2016

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood Rationale: A powerful, memorable fable of the near future in which far-right ideals have been carried to extremes in the mono-theocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist nightmare where women are strictly controlled. Themes include the consequences of complacency, women's bodies as political tools, dystopia, gender equity, and the power of language. Controversial Content: Sexual situations, potentially sensitive political controversy. Alternative Text: Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

*vetting in process

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS TWELFTH …

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