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Grade 11 ELA Banner

Grade 11 ELA

Grade 11 English Language Arts continues to develop students’ skills in analyzing complex literary and informational texts as students delve deeply into works by acclaimed authors and historical figures, including classics from William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, and Kate Chopin; seminal pieces from W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Elie Wiesel; and contemporary literature from Tim O’Brien and Louise Erdrich. Through the study of a variety of text types and media, students build knowledge, analyze ideas, delineate arguments, and develop writing, collaboration, and communication skills.

Unit 1

1 - Sure Madness

“O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!”

Module 11.1 considers the role point of view plays in literature and literary nonfiction and how authorial choice contributes to character development, setting, meaning, and aesthetic impact. The first unit begins with a close reading of Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” in which students examine character development and choices regarding point of view as they analyze the development of central ideas in the poem. In the second unit students engage in a close reading of William Shakespeare’s soliloquies, monologues, and dialogues in Hamlet to explore how an author may use characterization and point of view to shape central ideas. Finally, in an examination of rhetoric and point of view in an excerpt from Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” students use Virginia Woolf’s contemporary feminist perspective as a lens through which to consider the relationship of power and gender in Shakespearian England. Module 11.1 is comprised of three units:

  • Unit 1: “Then all smiles stopped together.”

    • Text: “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

  • Unit 2:“Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.”

    • Text:Hamlet by William Shakespeare

  • Unit 3: “Anonymity runs in their blood.”

    • Text: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Module 2

2 - The Sound of Conflict

How do authors use figurative language or rhetoric?

Module 11.2 develops the concepts of oppression and power structures in the study of historical American nonfiction and contemporary American poetry. Students begin the module with a focus on how rhetoric becomes a tool to combat oppression through a close reading of the first chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, followed by Booker T. Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise Speech.” Students then broaden their exploration of struggles against oppression to include issues of gender as they consider point of view and purpose in “An Address by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,” a foundational speech in the women’s rights movement, and analyze imagery and figurative language in Audre Lorde’s contemporary poem “From the House of Yemanjá.” Module 11.2 is comprised of two units:

  • Unit 1: “He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.”

    • Text: The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Chapter 1: “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”
    • Text: “Atlanta Compromise Speech” by Booker T. Washington

  • Unit 2: “I am / the sun and moon and forever hungry”

    • Text: “From the House of Yemanjá” by Audre Lorde
    • Text: “An Address by Elizabeth Cady Stanton”
    • Text: ““How to Write the Great American Indian Novel” by Sherman Alexie

Unit 3

3 - The Inquiry and Writing Process

Researching Multiple Perspectives to Develop a Position

In Module 11.3, students engage in an inquiry-based, iterative research process. Students examine Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, “Hope, Despair and Memory,” as a springboard for potential research topics. Using evidence-based analysis to explore topics that support multiple positions and perspectives, students generate a written evidence-based perspective. Students use this perspective as the early foundation of a written research-based argument paper. Students read, vet, and analyze sources to gather additional information and evidence and develop and strengthen their writing by revising and editing. Student learning culminates in a research-based argument paper that includes several claims supported by valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Students use this paper as the basis for a short video in which they distill and reorganize their arguments to make strategic use of the digital format. Module 11.3 is comprised of three units:

  • Unit 1: Using Seed Texts as Springboards to Research

    • Text: “Hope, Despair and Memory,” The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, December 11, 1986 by Elie Wiesel

  • Unit 2: Engaging in an Inquiry-Based, Iterative Research Process to Support Argument Writing


  • Unit 3: Synthesizing Research and Argument Through the Writing Process



Macbeth

4 - Getting Personal

How do authors use narrative techniques to craft fiction writing?

Module 11.4 examines contemporary and canonical American literature, focusing on how authors structure texts, establish point of view, and develop complex characters. Students read, discuss, and analyze two short stories, “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien and “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, and Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening. These texts continue the conversation around point of view and character development initiated in the first two modules and serve as models for narrative writing instruction. Students develop and strengthen the techniques and skills necessary to craft their own narrative texts that clearly and effectively develop real or imagined experiences. Module 11.4 is comprised of three units:

  • Unit 1: “You’re twenty-one years old, you’re scared, and there’s a hard squeezing pressure in your chest. What would you do?”

    • Text: “On the Rainy River” from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
    • Text: “The Red Convertible” from The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich

  • Unit 2: “She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.”

    • Text: The Awakening by Kate Chopin
    • Text: “On the Rainy River” from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
    • Text: “The Red Convertible” from The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
    • Text: “On the Rainy River” from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Writing Lab

Online Writing Lab

This page contains resources for writing a research paper and other academic writing, including comprehensive details about MLA, APA and Chicago Manual of Style citation and format styles. This page also contains sample papers, slide presentations, and posters.

ELA Resources

ELA Resources

Additional resouices for the study of English Language Arts include:

  • CCSS Appendix A - Research Supporting Key Elements of the ELA Standards

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