High School English Level 6 Year 2 Course

High School English: Modern English Literature (Honors)

Recommended for Level 6 Year 2, but appropriate for any student.

The Mater Amabilis English courses are very challenging. If they are done as written (or nearly so), Honors credit may be awarded. Within the Books and Resources, notes have been made of adaptations for students who would prefer a less challenging course.

All previous versions of lesson plans can be found on the Archived Lesson Plans page.

Course Description

This honors-level course develops literary criticism and analytical skills through study of poetry, drama, and modern novels. Students engage with works by Cather, Fitzgerald, and Sayers alongside three Shakespeare plays, exploring universal themes of redemption, grace, and human nature through close textual analysis. The curriculum emphasizes critical thinking and interpretive skills essential for college-level literary study. Students practice advanced composition techniques through formal academic essays, detailed poetry analysis papers, and a substantial culminating research project. Students maintain a commonplace book for reflection and personal literary canon development, plus memorization of selected passages to deepen a personal relationship with the texts. This challenging curriculum builds the analytical reading, critical interpretation, and academic writing capabilities essential for university-level humanities coursework.

Books and Resources

Mater Amabilis participates in affiliate programs with Amazon and Living Book Press.

Literary Genre Study:

Structure, Sound, and Sense, Perrine – Use any edition.

Note: It’s worth searching for inexpensive early editions with Perrine as sole author. Any edition you can find will work. The lesson plans avoid page numbers, as they will be inconsistent between editions. These general plans should allow you to use whatever edition you can find at a reasonable price.

Modification – Schedule fewer of the poems, short stories, and plays.

Novels and Modern Drama (ad lib / free reading):

Term 1: My Antonia, Cather [Amaz]
Term 2: The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald [Amaz]; Gaudy Night, Sayers [Amaz]
Term 3: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston [Amaz]; A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry [Amaz]

Note: Parents may wish to pre-read Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Modification – Choose only two or three of the novels.

Drama:

Term 1: The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare
Term 2: King Lear, Shakespeare
Term 3: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare

Modification – Read only one or two of the plays. A family may also choose instead to watch a live or filmed version of these plays. Please note: productions of King Lear should be previewed and will probably not be appropriate for younger siblings.

Composition:

Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay, Crider (Term 1 only) [Amaz]

High Honors option: a year-long Senior Thesis on a topic of the student’s choice, researched, written, and (optionally) delivered as a presentation at the end of the year. This project could replace the normal scheduled research paper in Term 3, if desired, and that time could be dedicated to the Senior Thesis instead.

Lesson plans

All readings are narrated, orally or in writing. For Honors credit, written narrations should be the norm.

The student should be encouraged to keep a commonplace book, in which to write down any striking or memorable passages that stand out in reading. The student should also be encouraged to commit favorite poems to memory, or at least favorite passages from longer poems.

Abbreviations:

SSS = Structure, Sound, and Sense (aka Perrine’s Literature) – Chapters of SSS are narrated, but students are asked to respond to study questions following a story, poem, or dramatic piece, to be invited to closer reading and meditation on the work.
OA = Office of Assertion

TERM 1

Week 1
Day 1: SSS Fiction 1, Escape and Interpretation
Day 2: SSS Fiction 1, Short story, study questions – Remember: Chapters of SSS are narrated, but students are asked to respond to study questions following a story, poem, or dramatic piece, to be invited to closer reading and meditation on the work.
Day 3: The Winter’s Tale, Act I
Day 4: SSS Fiction 1, Short story, study questions (choose a different story)
Day 5: OA 1, Introduction, pp. 1-14. Also, choose one poem to read from the “Poems for Further Reading” section in SSS

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 2
Day 6: SSS Fiction 2, Plot
Day 7: SSS Fiction 2, short story, study questions
Day 8: The Winter’s Tale, Act II
Day 9: SSS Fiction 2, short story, study questions (choose a different story)
Day 10: OA 2, Invention, pp. 15-30, Poem for Further Reading

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 3
Day 11: SSS Fiction 3, Character
Day 12: SSS Fiction 3, short story, study questions
Day 13: The Winter’s Tale, Act III
Day 14: SSS Fiction 3, short story, study questions (choose a different story)
Day 15: OA 2, Invention, pp. 31-42, Poem for Further Reading

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 4
Day 16: SSS Fiction 4, Theme
Day 17: SSS Fiction 4, short story, study questions
Day 18: The Winter’s Tale, Act IV
Day 19: SSS Fiction 4, short story, study questions (choose a different story)
Day 20: OA 3, Organization, pp. 43-58. Poem for Further Reading

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 5
Day 21: SSS Fiction 5, Point of View
Day 22: SSS Fiction 5, short story, study questions
Day 23: The Winter’s Tale, Act V
Day 24: SSS Fiction 5, short story, study questions
Day 25: OA 3, Organization, pp. 59-72. Poem for Further Reading

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 6
Day 26: SSS 6, Symbol and Irony
Day 27: SSS 6, short story, study questions
Day 28: reading makeup day
Day 29: SSS 6, short story, study questions
Day 30: OA 4, Style, pp. 73-85

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 7
Day 31: SSS 7, Emotion and Humor
Day 32: SSS 7, short story, study questions
Day 33: Begin planning an academic essay which will argue for the action of redemptive grace in the plays of William Shakespeare. The ideal form for this essay would be to choose three plays, including The Winter’s Tale, but also any two others read over the last few years, and to devote each section to asserting the ways that redemptive grace reveals itself in the action of the play under discussion. For each play, the paper should answer the questions: Who is in need of redemption, and how is this need signaled? What has to happen in order for that character or characters to obtain redemption and restoration? What is the outcome/how is it understood that the character or characters has/have experienced the action of grace in their lives? This should not be a researched paper, only a close reading of the three chosen plays with this theme in mind. Think 10-12 pages. This essay will be due on Day 55.
Day 34: SSS 7, short story, study questions
Day 35: OA 4, Style, pp. 86-106. Poem for Further Reading

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 8
Day 36: SSS 8, Fantasy
Day 37: SSS 8, short story, study questions
Day 38: Work on the essay assigned in Week 7.
Day 39: SSS 8, short story, study questions
Day 40: OA 5, Re-Vision, pp. 107-118. Poem for Further Reading.

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 9
Day 41: SSS 9, The Scale of Value
Day 42: SSS 9, short story, study questions
Day 43: Work on Shakespeare essay
Day 44: SSS 9, short story, study questions
Day 45: OA 6, Conclusion, pp. 119-124, Student Paper pp. 125-136. Poem for Further Reading

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 10
Day 46: SSS choose a story not chosen in previous chapters, study questions
Day 47: SSS choose a story for “further reading,” study questions
Day 48: Work on Shakespeare paper.
Day 49: SSS choose a story for “further reading,” study questions
Day 50: Work on Shakespeare paper.

ad lib: My Antonia

Week 11
Day 51: SSS: choose a story for “further reading,” study questions
Day 52: Work on Shakespeare paper
Day 53: Shakespeare paper: Revision conference
Day 54: Revise Shakespeare paper
Day 55: Finish and turn in Shakespeare paper.

ad lib: My Antonia

WEEK 12: DAYS 56-60 MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose four of the questions to answer.

Tell everything you can about your favorite short story of the term, focusing especially on elements like plot, character, theme, symbolism, and other literary terms which we might use to expand our thinking about a piece of short fiction.
Tell everything you can about the action of grace in The Winter’s Tale.
Tell how The Winter’s Tale might have ended if it were a tragedy instead of a comedy, and how this would change your understanding of the characters, the action, and the universe in which the play takes place.
Tell everything you can about My Antonia.
Tell everything you can about your favorite poem of the term.
Tell everything you can about what constitutes good academic writing.

TERM 2

Note that this term includes two shorter/faster novels, The Great Gatsby and Gaudy Night. The student should plan to finish Gatsby by Week 18 at the latest.

Also note that the Shakespeare play for this term is King Lear. It is one of the greatest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, not least for its portrayal of the potential for human evil in a fallen universe. Be aware that there are scenes of cruelty in this play, including the deliberate blinding of a character. There are excellent filmed productions, including the Paul Scofield version, but a family will want to exercise caution in viewing a filmed version. This is NOT a play for younger children to watch, in any version, and depending on your older teen’s level of sensitivity, you may wish to skip a filmed version altogether. Still, Lear is an important play for the maturing young Catholic to come to grips with, and has much to say for any person’s moral formation. Human beings have within us the capacity for terrible cruelty to each other, as well as the capacity to receive grace and healing; the play holds up that mirror for us all. It might be useful to discuss how this capacity plays out on our current cultural landscape, both in person and online, in the form of “cancellation culture,” for example. It is also useful to be alert, even in the horribly bleak and despairing world of the play, for the action of grace, the presence of hope.

Week 13
Day 61: SSS Poetry 1, What Is Poetry
Day 62: SSS Poetry 1, read all poems
Day 63: King Lear, Act I, scenes 1-3
Day 64: SSS Poetry 1, choose one poem, study questions
Day 65: SSS Poetry 1, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: The Great Gatsby

Optional resource – Close Reads Podcast The Great Gatsby: Chapters 1-3 (June 9, 2025)

Week 14
Day 66: SSS Poetry 2, Reading the Poem
Day 67: SSS Poetry 2, read all poems
Day 68: King Lear, Act I, scenes 4-5
Day 69: SSS Poetry 2, choose one poem, study questions
Day 70: SSS Poetry 2, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: The Great Gatsby

Week 15

Day 71: SSS Poetry 3, Denotation and Connotation
Day 72: SSS Poetry 3, read all poems
Day 73: King Lear, Act II, scenes 1-2
Day 74: SSS Poetry 3, choose one poem, study questions
Day 75: SSS Poetry 3, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: The Great Gatsby

Optional resource: Close Reads Podcast The Great Gatsby: Chapters 4-6 (June 16, 2025)

Week 16
Day 76: SSS Poetry 4, Imagery
Day 77: SSS Poetry 4, read all poems
Day 78: King Lear, Act II, scenes 3-4
Day 79: SSS Poetry 4, choose one poem, study questions
Day 80: SSS Poetry 4, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: The Great Gatsby

Week 17
Day 81: SSS Poetry 5, Figurative Language 1
Day 82: SSS Poetry 5: read all poems
Day 83: King Lear, Act III, scenes 1-4
Day 84: SSS Poetry 5, choose one poem, study questions
Day 85: SSS Poetry 5, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: The Great Gatsby

Week 18
Day 86: SSS Poetry 6, Figurative Language 2
Day 87: SSS Poetry 6, read all poems
Day 88: King Lear, Act III, scenes 5-7
Day 89: SSS Poetry 6, choose one poem, study questions
Day 90: SSS Poetry 6, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: The Great Gatsby

Optional resources

Week 19
Day 91: SSS Poetry 7, Figurative Language 3
Day 92: SSS Poetry 7, read all poems
Day 93: King Lear, Act IV, scenes 1-4
Day 94: SSS Poetry 7, choose one poem, study questions
Day 95: SSS Poetry 7, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: Gaudy Night

Week 20
Day 96: SSS Poetry 8, Allusion
Day 97: SSS Poetry 8, read all poems
Day 98: King Lear, Act IV, scenes 5-7
Day 99: SSS Poetry 8, choose one poem, study questions
Day 100: SSS Poetry 8, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: Gaudy Night

Week 21
Day 101: SSS Poetry 9, Meaning and Idea
Day 102: SSS Poetry 9, read all poems
Day 103: King Lear, Act V
Day 104: SSS Poetry 9, choose one poem, study questions
Day 105: SSS Poetry 9, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: Gaudy Night

Week 22
Day 106: SSS 10, Tone
Day 107: SSS 10, read all poems
Day 108: reading makeup day
Day 109: SSS 10, choose one poem, study questions
Day 110: Choose one poem from SSS Poetry 1-10, and draft an essay doing a reading of that poem in terms of its use of poetic language. Draw on literary terms from the first ten chapters, choosing three that apply to the selected poem. This essay, which should be roughly 5-7 pages in its final form, should consider the ways that attention to the poem’s language expands its capacity to mean. What I mean is that given words and phrases can resonate with additional meanings (our personal or cultural associations with those words and phrases, for example), so that we begin to see glimpses of something larger and more universal than whatever the immediate literal, surface meaning of the poem is. This essay should enact a reading of the poem that moves from that most literal, surface meaning to those larger possibilities. Due on Day 115. Draw on what you learned about academic writing in Term 1 for the style, tone, and shape of this paper.

ad lib: Gaudy Night

Week 23
Day 111: Work on poetry paper
Day 112: Work on poetry paper
Day 113: Revision conference
Day 114: Revise poetry paper
Day 115: Finish and turn in poetry paper

ad lib: Gaudy Night

WEEK 24: MAKEUP/EXAM WEEK

Examination questions for exam week
To be answered as short in-class essays, taking roughly 30-45 minutes each.
The student will choose four of the questions to answer.

Tell everything you can about the human capacity for evil in the world of King Lear. Tell whether the play seems to you to indicate that people are horrible, period, and the world is irredeemably fallen, bleak, and cruel, or whether you discerned the presence of grace and hope in the action of the play. Note that you aren’t commenting on whether the world IS irredeemably fallen, bleak, and cruel: only the world of the play itself, as Shakespeare presents it. Assume that anybody reading your answer KNOWS what the Catechism says and that the Church’s view is the true one. Simply focus on the world Shakespeare has created out of words, and tell what you can about how that world seems to work.
Tell everything you can about what a poem is.
Tell everything you can about the use of figurative language in poems.
Tell everything you can about what contributes to the tone of a poem.
Tell everything you can about The Great Gatsby, though you might particularly recall Aristotle’s definition of the tragic hero and consider whether, and if so, how, Gatsby fits this definition.
Tell everything you can about Gaudy Night.

TERM 3

Week 25
Day 121: SSS Poetry 11, Musical Devices
Day 122: SSS Poetry 11, read all poems
Day 123: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I
Day 124: SSS Poetry 11, choose one poem, study questions
Day 125: SSS Poetry 11, choose one poem, study questions

ad lib: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Note: Parents may want to pre-read this novel.)

Week 26
Day 126: SSS Poetry 12, Rhythm and Meter
Day 127: SSS Poetry 12: choose several poems to read ALOUD, listening for stressed syllables
Day 128: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II
Day 129: SSS Do Exercise 1 between the Chapter and the poems
Day 130: SSS Exercise 2 in the same set.