Critical Reading and Writing II will build on the material and lessons from Critical and Reading I. It will include a classroom focus on the major elements in strong analytical writing, addressing those challenges that students will face in their English courses in the coming years. Those elements include (among others):

Subject-verb agreement
Transitioning from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to paragraph
Parallel structure
Paragraph organization
Thesis formation
Punctuation
Vocabulary

In addition to these essential elements of composition, students will address additional components of strong critical writing, including overall organization and essay structure, supporting arguments and clarifications, relevant textual details and quotations, and independent conclusions and implications. Students will address these concerns in the weekly class periods, and on the weekly reading and writing assignments.

In conjunction with this work on writing skills, students will have weekly reading assignments as well. These assignments will be the focus for writing throughout the course. Titles include:

Poor Dear Margaret Kirby by Kathleen Norris
Interlopers and Tobermory by H. H. Munro
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
The Friday that Changed Everything by Anne Hart
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin
The Treasure in the Forrest by H. G. Wells
The Scholarship Jacket by Martha Salinas
Seventh Grade by Gary Soto

Critical Reading and Writing II (5-7th)