United States 12th Grade English Language Arts Curriculum

This curriculum typically includes literature, composition, grammar, and vocabulary, aiming to prepare students for college-level work by enhancing critical thinking, analytical reading, and advanced writing skills. A strong emphasis is placed on research skills, including formulating research questions, evaluating sources, and synthesizing information. Students learn to navigate various research methods and present their findings effectively. Confident and effective communication is developed through activities like debates, presentations, and speeches. The curriculum often explores American Literature, British Literature, and sometimes World Literature, covering various genres, periods, authors, and literary movements within their historical contexts.

Literature

Twelfth grade literature often focuses on American and British literature, sometimes expanding to World Literature. Commonly studied works include: Things Fall Apart, Angela's Ashes, Beloved, Night, Great Expectations, Crime and Punishment, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Feed. Other frequently studied works include Hamlet, Macbeth, Beowulf, The Great Gatsby, Native Son, The Scarlet Letter, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. British Literature curriculum may cover works from Anglo-Saxon to the twentieth century.

Composition and Rhetoric

Building on previous years, 12th grade emphasizes advanced composition and rhetorical skills. Students refine their abilities in argumentation, persuasive writing, and various rhetorical strategies. Analysis of speeches is a common activity, focusing on identifying and explaining the author's use of rhetorical strategies. Students learn to analyze how style and content contribute to the effectiveness of rhetoric. Key rhetorical strategies include repetition, alliteration, hyperbole, irony, allusion, tone, imagery, and rhetorical questions.

Grammar and Vocabulary

Grammar instruction in 12th grade reinforces and expands upon previously learned concepts. Key areas of focus include subject-pronoun agreement, parallel sentence structure, verb tense, comparatives and superlatives, noun agreement, and commas and conjunctions.