British Literature Course Syllabus

2010-2011
Madison High School
Miss Bedillion
804-878-5349

MISSION STATEMENT
Madison High School English Department is committed to helping students firmly grasp
grammar, writing, critical analysis, rhetorical, and literary skills based on Virginia state
standards.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Students read an overview of British literature from the Medieval period to the Modern,
integrating a study of history to better supply a context for an appreciation and understanding
of the literature, with emphasis on a variety of prose and poetic genres. Students write critical
and argumentative essays, complete a research paper, engage in creative writing projects,
and make technology-assisted oral presentations. Students prepare for the ACT, SAT, and
college entrance exams.

MATERIALS REQUIRED
• Textbook: Glencoe’s Literature
• Three-ring binder or spiral notebook

TEXTS
• Beowulf
• The Canterbury Tales
• Morte d’ Arthur
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Hamlet
• Oedipus
• Macbeth
• The Taming of the Shrew
• “A Modest Proposal”
• Selections from Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats
• “The Lady of Shallot”
• Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning-Selected poems
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Victorian era novels
• An Academy for Women” (Defoe)
• Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Wollstonecraft)
• “A Modest Proposal” (Swift)
• The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde)

RESEARCHED TERM PAPER: Literary Criticism

(An analysis of an approved British novel taking a chosen formal critical stance and with a
specific thesis stated simply and backed up with quotations from the text and professional
criticism on the chosen novel. This project will be an on-going one throughout the fall
semester.

GRADING SCALE
A= 93-100
B= 92-85
C= 84-77
D= 76-70
F= 69 and Below

GRADING POLICY
Essays/ Research Paper= 30%
Class work= 10%
Homework= 20%
Quizzes= 20%
Tests= 20%