World Literature, 1500-1900 AD
Taught by:
About the course
The purpose of this course is to train students to become skilled and articulate thinkers and writers. Within the context of a regard for truth and a commitment to the imitation of Christ, students are challenged to hone their skills in logic, analysis, research, and eloquence. Students will be challenged not only to become more persuasive, but also to become more sophisticated in their ability to respond critically to written, oral, and visual communication styles.
Students will be assigned a weekly pre-recorded lecture, required reading, and relevant reading questions for class discussion. Class discussion will also include brief grammar review. Two 500 word essays are assigned per quarter. Grades are given for first and final drafts and require one teacher conference per essay. During the year, students will also write creatively, formulating a dialogue, an original Shakespearean sonnet, and their own satire.
Course Objectives:
- Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.
- Recognize and use a range of diction from casual to formal, effectively employing a varied and discerning vocabulary.
- Implement clear organization and development in both informal and formal writing.
- Learn and master the revision process using peer review and teacher conferences.
- Demonstrate understanding of citing primary and secondary source material using MLA standards.
Texts:
- The Plague by Albert Camus
- Faustbuch: Historia & Tale of Doctor Johannes Faustus
- Excerpts from Preface to Shakespeare by Samuel Johnson
- Shakespeare’s Sister by Virginia Woolf
- Various sonnets by Francesco Petrarch
- Macbeth and various sonnets by William Shakespeare
- Tartuffe by Jean-Baptiste Moliere
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Essay on Man and other poems by Alexander Pope
- A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
- Selections from Rasselas by Samuel Johnson
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other short stories by Leo Tolstoy
- The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan Payne