GRADE 12: Developing Core Literary Proficiencies

Students practice close reading in two initial units: one on sources about the separation of government and religion, including a Thomas Nast engraving. The First Amendment, the PBS video God in America, Justice Stevens’s opinion in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, a speech by President Kennedy, and a selection from de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, and one on sources about human nature and the human experience, including visuals, a video, a website, a poem, a speech, and philosophical treatises; compare speeches by President Reagan and Hillary Clinton to learn how to make text-based claims; analyze and assess Raymond Carver’s literary technique in "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love"; conduct research on how design influences innovation and progress; and construct an argument about social responsibility, specifically concerning the issues of poverty and charity.

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