St. Joseph High School Syllabus: Hon.

English III

Teacher: Mr. Matarazzo

Department: English

Email: cmatarazzo@stjoek12.org

Course Objectives:
This class will encompass both the essential literary works of American and of British Literature.
It is designed to prepare students, should they decide to take AP English Literature and
Composition during their senior year. Studying the essentials of each culture will mean that some
of the informational and ancient works from both sides of the Atlantic will be omitted, but the
foundational literary pieces will be closely studied. Students will develop skills of close literary
analysis and will practice the interpretation of literature with close connection to the devices and
craft that authors use in order to present their messages.

Course Outline:
Quarter 1:
Unit 1: The Realities of Imagination. Together, we will explore the works of writers
whose works explored the dark corners of imagination. We will evaluate their themes and
messages and determine how those themes and messages fit into the concept of the American
ideal. In this unit, we will study Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville and
Nathaniel Hawthorne. We will also study the works of some current writers, including Joyce
Carol Oates.
Unit 2: Nature and Human Nature. In this unit, students will be introduced to the
works of the American Transcendentalists: Emerson and Thoreau. Overall, we will explore the
idea of balancing the need for a place in the world with the need for individuality.
Unit 3: The Rise of American Poetry. After a review of the elements of poetry, students
will practice the skills of poetic explication and interpretation. Along with our study of the works
of the original American poets, we will delve into modern American minority poetry. Here, we
will study, primarily, the poetic works of Dickenson and Whitman, but we will branch into
modern American poetry as well.

Quarter 2:
Unit 4: Twain and Beyond: In the post-Civil War era, Mark Twain emerges as a giant
whose shadow is cast over all of American literaturebut soon after his emergence as perhaps
our greatest American writer, there was a flowering of literature written by women like Kate
Chopin, Edith Wharton and Willa Cather. We will watch as Twain uses satire to expose the
darkness in American society and as the women take on a world that is constructed to keep them
in the house and out of the world to which they so badly want to and certainly did, despite the
challenges contribute.
Unit 5: Modern American Masters: This catch-all unit will bring us from the
literature of the WWI era, through the masters of modern literature. We will sample but closely
study the works of the most influential American writers, including (but not limited to) T.S. Eliot,
John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, Zora Neale Hurston and
Langston Hughes and Raymond Carver.
Quarter 3:
Unit 6: Medieval British Literature. In this unit, after a short lesson on the history of
the English language, we will study the two most important works from the British Medieval
periods: the Epic poem Beowulf and Chaucers satirical Canterbury Tales. In the study of
Beowulf, we will see the roots of English poetic form, especially alliterative verse, and, in
Chaucer, we will gain a strong understanding of the concept of social satire.
Unit 7: The Renaissance. Centered around a study of Shakespeares Hamlet, this unit
will be a study of the Renaissance in England, with attention to the work of Spenser, Marlowe
and Sidney, as well as, of course, to the shorter works of The Bard, himself.
Unit 8: Great Writers of Post-Renaissance Literature. Here, we will become familiar
with the writers leading up to the Romantic era, including samplings from: John Donne, John
Milton, Ben Johnson, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson.
Quarter 4:
Unit 9: The Romantics. In this unit, we will study the works of the writers of what is
possibly the most important poetic movement in literary history: the British Romantics. We will
explore the poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats, as well as the
prose of Mary Wollstoncraft Shelley, author of the book that can be called the first work of
science fiction: Frankenstein.
Unit 10: The Victorians. The Victorian writers were confronted with a new age of
industry and urban expansion. We will study the periods most important writer, Charles

Dickens, as well as the poetry of Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Browning and
selections from some of the periods novelists, like the Bronte sisters.
Unit 11: Post Modern Literature. For lack of a better title, we use the ridiculous
terms postmodern to describe the British writers after 1900. We will study the work of Yeats,
Eliot, Auden and Orwell, among others.

Grading Breakdown:
Unit Tests:

30%

Reading Quizzes:

30%

Journal:

20%

Projects, Papers and Presentations:

20%

Necessary Materials:
Each day in class, students should have their journals and their textbooks. Separate notebooks
should be kept for in-class notes notes should not be in student journals.

Procedures and Policies:

Just be ladies and gentlemen. I promise to treat you with respect and I would ask the same in
return. I trust you to make good decisions and to behave with decorum; hopefully I am right to
do so.

Personal Technology in the Classroom:

Cell phones, computers, tablets, or any other electronic devices, are not to be used during class
time without the permission of the teacher. Students may not record any audio or any visual
element of class without the teachers permission. Doing so without permission will result in
disciplinary action. Any infraction of the Acceptable Use Policy, as explained in the student
handbook, will be reported to the administration.