Welcome, seniors, to our English 12 page. Here you will find nearly everything you’ll need to navigate the wondrous waters of our Senior English class. We’ll dig deep into the literary landscape and our own writing as we explore the fascinating theme of self-discovery.
The timing couldn’t be better as you enjoy this perfect and pivotal moment in your lives, the end of your high school career, to consider who you’ve been and who you wish to become.
I’m eager to join this journey with you.
Course Materials
Just click on the links below to find daily lessons, homework assignments and other helpful resources.
INTRO STUFF
- Love Letter to My Students
- Introductory English 12 Letter
- Syllabus English 12
- Who Have You Been?
DAILY LESSON SUMMARY (Updated Regularly)
- Daily Lessons
GENERAL ENGLISH CLASS STUFF
- Daily Dose “Right Word” packet (See Metzler in person or SEE THIS LIST)
- Daily Dose Recording Sheet
- Your Journal Journey
- Literary Analysis: West Wing “Two Cathedrals” (Background)
- Literary Analysis: West Wing “Two Cathedrals” (Your Notes)
- More West Wing “Two Cathedrals” Stuff
- Aaron Sorkin Thinks We’re All Too Mean
- Most Interesting Character Ever
- Austin’s Butterfly (The power of revisions)
GRAMMAR GRIND
- Your Proofreading Partner
STUDENT SELECTED INDEPENDENT READING
- Intro Cover
- Letter Home
- Word Diary-vocab tracker
- Need to Read Recommendations
- Page Rage Recommendations
- Final Presentation
COLLEGE ESSAYS
- College Essay: Both Art & Science. Give It Structure. Make It Sing!
- Common App Essay Prompts (2015-16)
- Tips From Admissions Officers @ Leading Colleges
- Admissions Essays Go Onstage (NPR)
- 5 Exceptional Essays (NPR)
- The Most Famous College Admissions Essay Ever (Note: Been done!)
- Lessons From College Essays (NPR)
- The Art of the Essay (NPR)
- As Deadlines Near, Students Sweat It Out Over College Essays (Washington Post)
- The Famous U. of Chicago Essay Prompts (2015-16)
- U. of Chicago Past Prompts
- Writing the Common App. Essay (NOTE: Provided by commercial interest)
- 7 College Essay Topics to Avoid
- College Essays That Stand Out
- Admissions Revolution (Sept. 2015)
- College Essay Peer Eval & Rubric
LITERARY CRITICISM – LIT LENSES
- Literary Lenses Group Presentation Packet 2015
- William Carlos Williams, The Use of Force
- Use of Force Presentation by G. Vassiliou
- Modern Literary Theory
- Types of Literary Criticism
- Critical Approaches to Literature
- Literary Theory & Schools of Criticism
- Critical Theory – Approaches to Analysis and Interpretation of Literature
- What Makes a Hero? Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey (Video)
- The Hero’s Journey – Interactive Adventure
- Freud – Psychoanalytic
- Freud’s Id-Ego-Superego
- Jung’s Collective Unconscious & Archetypes
- More Archetypes
SOME SHORT STORIES
- The Lottery by Shirley Jackson*
- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman*
- Boys & Girls by Alice Munro
- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates
- An Act of Vengeance by Isabel Allende
- A&P by John Updike
LORD OF THE FLIES
- Four Desires Driving All Human Behavior (Bertrand Russell)
- LOF Meets Simpsons (“Das Bus”)
- William Golding Nobel Prize Lecture (1983)
- Thomas Hobbes Political Philosophy
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Nature, Wholeness & Education
- John Locke – Two Treatises on Government
- Survival IQ
- Man vs. Wild
- Survivorman
- Naked & Afraid
- The Power of the Situation (Stanford Prison Experiment)
- Our Capacity for Evil (Zimbardo’s Prison & Milgram’s Shocks)
*You may have encountered these first two before, but I ask that you look at them anew with fresh eyes, through a fresh lens.