Welcome English 11 students. This semester we will be exploring many capacities of both reading and writing. Unlike many other English courses at Del Oro, English 11 is a survey course of American Literature. While we will be reading often and discussing the literary techniques and provoking questions of these individual readings, we will also be looking at these readings in the context of the culture they were created in. We will be looking at the different significant events in American history in order to better understand how these events changed the American people and how these changes were expressed through their writing.  We can go back and look at these pieces of writing and understand America better and we can begin to understand how we became the culture we are today. So, be forewarned: we will be studying history!

Through this class I hope that you also get many opportunities to improve your writing.  We will be focusing on building writing skills that will help you to successfully write your Junior Research Paper.  This paper will require you to be able to form a clear opinion and write a clear thesis statement. You will be expected to do exceptional research in order to find quality sources that support and prove your opinion. This writing project will be a culmination of a semester of exploring the concepts of the American Dream.  You will need to understand the American Dream and what place it has in our contemporary culture.

Important Docs for English 11