English 3 DLR
Contents
Literature and Language Arts
06.30.2012
Literature
- What's the point of reading American literature?
- What is American literature?
- Given that one can't read all of "American literature" in a year, why are certain works chosen and others not?
- Who chooses?
- On what criteria?
General Tips for Reading Literature
- Look for where things change or don't seem to make sense
Language Arts
The purpose of junior English is to further the students' ability to formulate, substantiate, and articulate an analytical argument. Alongside and working with that is the additional purpose of reinforcing (teaching?) higher-level reading skills--inference, for example. A major assumption is that reading the works of thoughtful, innovating authors makes people more aware of 'style' in the writing they encounter (and its influence on them) and might even occasion more effective implementation of style in the writing they produce. The emphasis on style has become more thoughtful and pointed as students have needed the terms for an understanding of rhetorical devices (and realities) for the AP test.
Tone
Probably the single most important thing to be able to distinguish in a piece of writing.
Of the various types of tone, irony is probably the most difficult to discern because it says at least two contradictory things at once.
