Topic outline

  • General

    English 11 Q1

    From slave narratives to F. Scott Fitzgerald's roaring 1920's—English 11 will focus on the unique literary works and themes of American Literature. Our comprehension of these texts will be facilitated by analyzing and evaluating the literary elements, plot, theme, and character development. As part of this course, we will continue to hone writing skills by practicing multiple forms of writing. English 11 will specifically focus writing personal narratives and analyzing literary texts. This course will allow students to make real world connections to literature through project based assessments, the use of the most up to date tech tools, thoughtful group discussion, and formative writing assignments.


    Creative Commons License
    English 11 course materials created by the Open High School of Utah are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. This course contains open educational resources produced by other organizations which may use a different open license. Please confirm the license status of these third-party resources before reusing them. See OpenCourseWare for additional information about licensing.

    • English 11 Q1 Moodle Course File

  • Topic 1

    • plymouth

    • 2.1

    • WATCH--Pilgrims & Puritans Page

    • 2.2

    • WATCH--On William Bradford Page
    • INTERACTIVE--Colonial House Page

    • 2.3

    • READ--About Bradford's On Plymouth Plantation Page
    • William Bradford's On Plymouth Plantation Book

    • 2.4

    • -LISTEN--Grammar Girl on Participle Phrases Page

  • Topic 2


    • It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.
      --George Whitefield

    • 3.1

    • LISTEN--NPR on Anne Bradstreet Page

    • 3.2

    • 3.3

    • READ/LECTURE--"To My Dear and Loving Husband" Page

    • 3.4

    • WATCH--The Great Awakening Page
    • READ/LISTEN--"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Page

    • 3.5

  • Topic 3


    • If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.--Frederick Douglass An address on West India Emancipation, 1857

    • 4.1

    • Text of Narrative of Frederick Douglass URL
    • WATCH--Frederick Douglass Page
    • WATCH--Impact of Frederick Douglass Page

    • 4.2

    • READ--Introduction to a Slave Narrative Page

    • 4.3

    • 4.4

    • READ--Frederick Douglass chapters 1-3 Page
    • WATCH--Negro Spirituals Page

    • 4.5

  • Topic 4


    • In 1879, when Frederick Douglass was approximately 60 years old, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle described him as "among the greatest men, not only of this city, but of the nation as well..." The praise went on, "Frederick Douglass can hardly be said to have risen to greatness on account of the opportunities which the republic offers to self-made men, and concerning which we are apt to talk with an abundance of self-granulation. To him, the republic offered no opportunities. It sought to fetter his mind equally with his body...So far as he was concerned, freedom was a mockery, and law was the instrument of tyranny...There is no sadder commentary upon American slavery than the life of Frederick Douglass. He put it under his feet and stood erect in the majesty of his intellect; but how many intellects as brilliant and powerful as his it stamped upon and crushed no mortal can tell...Not alone did his voice proclaim emancipation. Eloquent as was that voice, his life, in its pathos and in its grandeur, was more eloquent still...."

    • 5.1

    • Text of Narrative of Frederick Douglass URL
    • Audio of Frederick Douglass Narrative URL
    • READ--Spirituals Page

    • 5.2

    • WATCH--Themes of Frederick Douglass Page
    • WATCH--Maya Angelou on Slave Narratives Page

    • 5.3

    • 5.4

    • WATCH--Literacy Presentation Page

    • 5.5

  • Topic 5

  • Topic 6

    • Lincoln
      Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all. --Abraham Lincoln

    • 7.1

    • WATCH- Writing Tips Page
    • WATCH--Writing a Personal Narrative Page

    • 7.2

    • WATCH--GrammarGirl on Commas with Adjectives Page
    • RESOURCE--How to Take and Use a Snip Page

    • 7.3

    • READ--Abraham Lincoln Gettsbury Address Page
    • RESOURCE--Gettysburg Address Exhibition URL

  • Topic 7


    • And your very flesh shall be a great poem. --Walt Whitman

    • 8.1

    • Standards Page
    • WATCH--An Introduction to Walt Whitman Page
    • WATCH--About Walt Whitman Page

    • 8.2

    • 8.3

    • WATCH--Analyzing Whitman Page
    • READ--"Song of Myself" Selections Page

    • 8.4

    • 8.5

  • Topic 8


    • I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow. --Voltaire

    • 9.1

    • Standards Page
    • READ- Paper Rater Page

    • 9.2

    • READ--A Noiseless Patient Spider Page

    • 9.3

    • READ--Grammar Girl on Comma Splices Page
    • PRACTICE--Comma Splices Page

    • 9.4

    • READ--When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer Page

    • 9.5