English Class for High Schoolers: Common Core Reading and Writing Skills

This course functions as a drop in English Literature course for high school students, learners preparing for college, or learners looking to enrich their literary knowledge. As a certified English Language Arts teacher, I have over ten years experience preparing high school students getting ready for their Common Core ELA assessments. This course will assist students in reading comprehension strategies that include identifying vocabulary through context clues, analyzing literary elements, exploring text from a cultural/historical lens, and identifying an author's purpose. Students will also practice identifying a story's central idea and learning to use textual evidence to back up their opinions. For more advanced learners, I discuss how a central idea is how a literary analysis or critique starts. After reading the text, we will discuss ideas for a possible thesis statement from different analyses lenses. I will occasionally choose short stories from past New York State Regents Examinations with comprehension questions to assist learners in preparing for questions seen on state exams. This course would benefit high school students who are preparing for college level English classes. I try to ask open ended discussion questions and encourage an environment where students can share their thoughts on a story. We often try to make present day connections to the themes that come up in literature from the first half of the 1900's to see if society has changed for the better. I explore the social implications the literature had on audiences at the time if it is applicable. Students can enter the course at any time to read a short story in its entirety. Students who enroll on an ongoing basis will build upon the skills learned in past classes to continue to excel in reading comprehension and writing skills. Students can enter at any skill level and at any time as well as no prior knowledge is necessary upon enrollment. 

Depending on class enrollment, I provide the text for that week prior to meeting but students are not expected to read the text before class. If students do read prior to class it will benefit their comprehension skills as it is good practice to always read through a story at least twice (more if writing an essay on the work). Some stories may take two class periods to read through, as this is an ongoing English course I will make sure that new learners know what to have read before the start of class. Students will learn a variety of strategies to use to understand complex short story text such as deciphering vocabulary words through context clues, learning ways to identify an unknown setting, and chunk reading text to further understanding of complex passages. 

I regularly pull literature from 'The Norton Anthology of Literature' as it is one of the most commonly assigned book in American universities. 
1800's Authors:
Elizabeth Glaskell
Charlotte Bronte
Guy De Maupassant
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Kate Chopin
O. Henry
Mark Twain
Frederick Douglass 
Nathaniel Hawthorne

1900's:
Saki
HG Wells
Stephen Crane
JD Salinger 
Liam O'Flaherty
Ernest Hemingway
Shirley Jackson
Ray Bradbury
Roald Dahl
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Isaac Asimov
Ghassan Kanafani

Contemporary (2000's):
Yann Martel
Mosab Abu Toha
Refaat Alareer
Adania Shibli
Rania Mamoun