Introduction to Literature

Units

1. 1

   Short fiction I

   2 lessons

   1. Character: motive and contrastShow how a character's words, choices and contrast with another character reveal what the character wants, using Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour."
   2. Setting as mood and conflictExplain how the time and place of a story create mood, shape its characters and become part of its conflict, using Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher."
2. 2

   Poetry I

   2 lessons

   1. Speaker and situationIdentify who is speaking in a poem, to whom, and in what situation, and explain how that frame shapes what the poem means, using Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess."
   2. Imagery and dictionAnalyze how concrete images and chosen words, with their connotations and register, build tone and meaning, using William Blake's "London."
3. 3

   Longer fiction or drama I

   2 lessons

   1. Character arcs across a longer workTrace how a character changes across a novel or play, name the turning points that cause the change, and say what the change means for the whole work, using Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."
   2. Dramatic conventions: soliloquy and foilExplain how the soliloquy, the aside, the foil and dramatic irony work in a play and what each tells us about character and theme, using Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
4. 4

   Short fiction II

   2 lessons

   1. Plot structure and pacingAnalyze how a story's plot, the order of its events, its pacing and its turning point create meaning, using O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi."
   2. Narrator and point of viewExplain how a narrator's perspective, first person, third limited or omniscient, shapes what the reader knows and feels, using Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and Chopin's "The Story of an Hour."
5. 5

   Poetry II

   3 lessons

   1. Figurative language and the extended metaphorAnalyze metaphor, simile, personification and conceit and say what each does that literal language could not, using Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the thing with feathers" and John Donne's compass.
   2. Structure, form and shiftsExplain how line, stanza and fixed forms such as the sonnet and the villanelle, and a turn or volta, contribute to a poem's meaning, using Shakespeare's Sonnet 130.
   3. Q1 poem essay: a thesis about complexityWrite a defensible thesis for a poetry analysis that explains how the poet's choices create meaning and holds a tension or complexity, using Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."
6. 6

   Longer fiction or drama II

   3 lessons

   1. Structure of a longer workExplain how the structure of a novel or play, its frame, its subplots and its division into parts, shapes meaning, using Shelley's "Frankenstein," Shakespeare's "King Lear" and Brontë's "Jane Eyre."
   2. Setting and society in a longer workAnalyze how a work's society, time and place create conflict and constrain its characters, using F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."
   3. Q3 literary argument: choosing a workPlan a literary argument by reading a prompt's concept, choosing a work that fits it and gathering specific evidence from that work, using a practice prompt about loyalty and "King Lear."
7. 7

   Short fiction III

   3 lessons

   1. Irony and the unreliable narratorIdentify verbal, situational and dramatic irony and explain how an unreliable narrator changes how we read, using Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado."
   2. Symbol and motifAnalyze how an object, image or repeated pattern comes to carry meaning in a story, using the green light and the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg in "The Great Gatsby."
   3. Q2 prose essay: a body paragraph on narrative choicesWrite a body paragraph that links a specific narrative choice in a prose passage to its effect and to the whole passage, using Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado."
8. 8

   Poetry III

   2 lessons

   1. Sound, meter and rhythmExplain how rhyme, meter, alliteration and enjambment create effects of sound and sense, using Tennyson's "The Eagle," Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and lines from Frost.
   2. Comparing two poemsCompare two poems on a shared subject and explain how their choices produce different effects, using William Blake's "The Lamb" and "The Tyger."
9. 9

   Longer fiction or drama III

   2 lessons

   1. Character and theme in a longer workConnect a character's conflict and change to a work's themes and its claims about human experience, using Shakespeare's "Macbeth."
   2. The sophistication point in literary argumentExplain tensions or complexities in a work and connect them to a broader context to earn the sophistication point, using Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."