Students will: 
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person's life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 
Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

I have been an English teacher in middle and high school as well as at the college level and discussed literature with mature topics for decades.  Additionally I am a Holocaust and genocide educator who has taught for nearly 2 decades about the atrocities committed by humans on one another.  This mature content is ALWAYS handled in a way that gives the victim(s) faces and identities without sensationalizing their trauma and experience.  The intent is to demonstrate the humanity in each situation and how we can be better humans by learning from the literature to treat one another with love and respect.  
I have a graduate degree in English, as well as another in Education and countless courses on how to teach content as described above. 

Homework Offered
Students will need to read each book before class begins.  
2 - 4 hours per week outside of class
Assessments Offered
Informal
Grades Offered