ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE
Unit 1:
Topic: American voices
Students can talk about their personal identity and nationality
What does it mean to belong to a place?
Belonging in means to feel accepted, included and a part of
something. Belonging to a place can mean many things, it
doesn’t necessarily mean a person was born there, someone
who lives in a completely different country from where they were
born can still feel connected and included in said country’s
culture.
Topic: Rhetoric devices: analogy
Students can identify and explain analogies in text
An analogy is a comparison between one thing and another,
typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
Anna Quindlen organizes this essay around a central analogy- a
comparison of two unlike things that works to clarify an idea.
Ex. From A quilt of a country (pg.19)
Paragraph Passage How it develops
the analogy
2 Many of the oft-told The text develops
stories of the most the analogy by
pluralistic nation comparing the
on earth are stories concept of the
not of tolerance, United States as
but of bigotry. the most pluralistic
slavery and nation on earth
sweatshops, the with its history of
burning of crosses intolerance and
and the ostracism discrimination.
of the other
4 Other countries The text compares
with such divisions the United States to
have in fact divided other countries
into new nations that, when faced
with new names, with significant
but not this one, internal divisions,
impossibly have split into
interwoven even in separate nations,
its hostilities the text then states
that the US even
after facing such
issues has not
divided.
8 When photographs The text is talking
of the faces of all about the diversity
those who died in the United States
the World trade has, specifically
center destruction the diversity the
assembled in one victims of the
place, it will be World Trade center
possible to trace in destruction,
the skin color, the comparing it to a
shapes of eyes and map
the noses, the
texture of the hair, a
map of the world
Topic: Vivid Language
Students can use vivid language in sentences
Vivid language consists of words that tend to simulate others.
Vivid language helps sketch images in the readers mind, it
makes description more accurate.
Ex. From A quilt of a country (pg. 21)
Passage Rewrite
What is the point of this What is the meaning behind
splintered whole (paragraph 4) this fragmented unity
Historian today bemoan Historians today lament
(paragraph 3)
But tolerance is a vanilla- But tolerance is a bland,
pudding word (paragraph 8) flavorless word
And there is a grudging And there is a reluctant
fairness among the citizens of fairness woven into the fabric
the United States (paragraph of American society
7)
Topic: internal or external conflicts
Students can differentiate internal and external conflicts and
explain them
Internal conflicts are when characters grapples with his or her
own believes, values, needs, or desires. For example, a
character may know something is wrong but still be pulled to do
it.
External conflicts are when a character struggles against an
outside force. This force may be another character, nature, or
society. For example, a character trying to survive a hurricane at
sea is experiencing an external conflict.
Ex. American History (pg.47)
External conflict Internal conflict
Elena experiencing racism Being in love
Rejection Missing her home
Disapproval Kennedy’s death
Elenas mother Feeling like she isn’t accepted
Topic: Idioms
Students can explain different idioms in appropriate contexts.
An idiom is an expression that holds a different meaning to its
literal meaning
Examples:
I’m feeling under the weather today
(They are feeling sick)
I see her once in a blue moon
(You don’t see them often)
Ex. Poetry collection (pg. 108)
Idiom Rewrite in formal
language/ meaning
Look who´s talking Same as you
The flags are painting the The decoration covers the
town town in color
Like a chicken with the head Their running all over the
loose place
He´s on a ball He´s rumbling
Unit 2:
Topic: Survival
Students can discuss different strengths that come in play in
survival situations.
What does it take to survive?
Survival takes different aspects, some of them is to remain
calm, having enough resources, having determination and never
losing hope
Topic: Frame Story
Students can identify the story with-in another story
The frame story is usually found at the beginning and again at
the end o the work. Within this frame, the author shifts the
narrative to a second, or interior, story. The interior story may
be told by a different narrator shift to a different point of view
An example of a frame story could be an old woman telling her
grandchildren a story. The outer story would be the present,
while the inner story could be the past.
Topic: Complex Characters
Students can explain complex characters actions
Complex characters are those that show both strengths and
weaknesses and experience a mix of emotions. They have a
variety of reasons, or multiple motivations, for behaving or
reacting that way. As the story progresses, they change, they
are dynamic rather than static or unchanging.
Ex. Life of pi (pg. 213)
Paragraphs Pi´s Pi´s Pi’s words What is pi
actions feeling or like
thoughts
4-5 Carefully Frustrated Richard Impatient
at first but and parker or hungry
impulsive stressed
later
7-9 Trying to Guilty, He thinks Sensitive,
get resentful,
about brave,
courage desperate
failure to determined
catch fish
23-27 He kills Suffering, He Religious
the fish guilty, needed to loyal to his
sorrowful catch fish beliefs
28-35 He Confident, He needs Adaptable
catches thankful to to survive
the dorado Vishnu
Topic: Rhetoric devices: metaphors
Students can explain and use metaphors
A figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as thought it
where something else
Examples: The clouds are a thick blanket, or my couch is a
rock
Unit 3:
Topic: Civil Rights
Explain how can words inspire change?
When used correctly, words can inspire more than change,
many politicians, activists, teachers, etc., use words to help
change people’s perspective. During the civil rights movements
many activists used the power of words to help people realize
the unfair world they were living in.
Topic: Rhetoric devices: Repetition, Parallelism
Students can identify and explain the different rhetoric devices.
Parallelism is the repetition of a grammatical structure or an
arrangement of words to create rhythm and momentum.
Repetition is using the same words frequently to reinforce
concepts and unify the speech
Ex. I have a dream (pg. 267)
Rhetorical device Example from the Explanation
speech
Parallelism One day every Valle Repeat shall be in
shall be exalted, one sentence
and every hill and
mountain shall be
Repetition Let freedom ring Repeating let
freedom ring in
different sentences
Topic: Rhetorical devices: antithesis, allusion, Rhetorical
question.
Students can identify and explain the different rhetoric devices
Antithesis is a technique of putting two opposite ideas near
each other in a sentence to create a powerful effect
We are at war wanting peace – Richard Nixon
Allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to people,
places, events, or literary works directly or by implying them. It is
up for the audience to make the connection.
He´s a real Romeo with the ladies
A rhetorical question is when a question is posed to make a
point, not because you want an answer, or the answer is
obvious, and it does not need to be stated
Do you think the pope is catholic?
Ex. Letter from Birmingham jail (pg. 289)
Rhetorical device Example form the Explanation
letter
Antithesis What affects one There is injustice
directly affects all
for one person that
individuals affects all the
community
Allusion The white man is an Compares the
incurable devil white man with the
devil
Rhetorical question Now could I do He wants people to
otherwise? understand his
situation
Topic: Lyric poem: Pantoum
Students understand poetic from structure
A lyric poem expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single
speaker, often in vivid, musical language. Although it may
describe characters and events, a lyric poem does not tell a
complete story. Instead, it captures an emotion or a moment in
time.
This structure involves stanzas:
❖ Couplet: two lined stanza
❖ Tercet: three lined stanzas
❖ Quatrain: four lined stanzas
❖ Sextet: six lined stanzas
❖ Septet: seven lined stanzas
❖ Octet: eight lined stanzas
Ex. Poetry Collection (pg. 319)
Stanza Lines repeated from
previous stanzas
2 We peered from the window
Shades drawn
3 At the cross trussed like a
Christmas tree
4 The wicked trembled all night
in their fronts of oil
5 When they where done, the
men left quietly. No one
came.
Unit 4:
Topic: Elements of a drama
Students can discuss and explain the most important
elements in drama
The most important elements of drama are dialogue, the
conversation between two or more characters, and stage
directions, the notes that describe how the most work should
be performed.
In dramas, dialogues generally follow the name of the
speaker:
Benvolio: my noble uncle, do you know the cause?
Montague: I neither know it nor can learn of him.
Dialogue reveals characters personalities and
relationships, advances the actors, and captures the
language of the time and place in which a play is set.
Stage directions describe scenes, lighting, sound, and
characters, actions. Stage directions are usually italicized
and enclosed in brackets or parenthesis
Scene i. Verona. A public space.
[Enter Sampson and Gregory, with swords and bucklers, of the
house of Capulet]
Topic: Dramatic elements
Students can explain dramatic irony
Dramatic irony is a contradiction between what a character
thinks and what the audience knows to be true. Dramatic
irony engages the audience emotionally because it allows
tension and suspense to build as the audience waits for the
truth to be revealed to the characters.
Dramas also use comic elements such as comic relief, which
consists of the introduction of a humorous character during a
sad or tragic scene. Puns are also used as comics elements; a
pun is a play on words involving either one word that has two
different meanings or that sound alike.
Topic: tragedy
Students can identify motives in fate that lead to tragedy in
drama
A tragedy is a drama in which the main character, who is of
noble stature, meets with great misfortune. Often the hero’s
motives or reason for his or her actions, are good but
misguided, and the heroes suffers a tragic fate that seems
undeserves.
In Shakespearean tragedies, the heroes doom is the result of
fate, a tragic flaw, or a combination of both.
Often characters personalities could also lead to their
deaths, an example of this is Romeo and Juliets lovesick
personality, which lead them to die due to
miscommunication.
Unit 5:
Topic: Epic hero
Students can identify the characteristics of a hero in literature
Heroes usually have strong personalities, they aren’t afraid of
an adventure, they like to challenge the unknown and put life
at risk. They usually have courage, nobility, selflessness,
strength, resilience, humility, empathy, etc.
Topic: epic similes
students can identify and transform similes into epic similes.
A simile is the comparison of two fundamentally different
things using the words like or as.
An epic simile is an elaborate simile that may continue for
several lines. Unlike a regular simile, which draws a relatively
limited comparison and creates a single image, an epic
simile might recall an entire place or story.
Ex:
Telemachus began to weep. Salt tears
Rose from the wells of longing in both men,
And cries burst from both as keen and fluttering
As those of the great taloned hawk,
Whose nestlings’ farmers take before they fly.
Topics: foreshadowing and situational irony
Students can identify the elements that foretell events in a
story and that give irony
Foreshadowing is the use of clues carefully placed through a
story that hint at later events. For example, in the return, the
strange behavior of the woman in the river raises questions in
readers minds about how Kamau will be received at home.
This clues help to pull readers thoughts the story and make
the sequence of events feel logical and unified.
Topic: similes and metaphors
Students can identify similes or metaphors in text.
Ex. Poetry collection (pg.679)
Metaphor or Things compared Effect on reader
simile
When your heart Your heart Uses the
on a journey all Travel metaphor to show
alone the lonely
experience during
a first-time
experience
And if you find her Ithaka Adulation of Ithaka
poor, Ithaka won’t A person
have fooled you
Travel is life, travel Travel Implies the
is home Life passion for travel
home
Topic: personification
Students can identify and use rhetorical device
personification
A personification is giving a human qualification to an object,
thing or animal.
Ex. There will come soft rain (pg.731)
example Analysis
Cleaning by itself A house can’t clean itself
Making task Houses can’t complete tasks
Mouses cleaning Mouses can’t clean
Dying Inanimate objects can’t die
pain Objects can’t feel pain
Topic: poetic structure
Students can determine the theme in poetry by their stanzas
Ex. Poetry collection (pg. 767)
events Details/images Possible
theme
The Roaches Roaches getting Roaches
beginning of take over the drowned
the end of world
the world
The powwow Everything is Making Floods
at the end of flooded cataphoresis
the world and drowning
cities
A song on The world is People Prophets
the end of ending disappointed
the world
Topics: Sound devices
Students can use and identify alliteration, consonance and
assonance
Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonants sounds in
nearby syllables, particularly stressed syllables
Consonance is the repetition of final consonant sounds in
stressed syllables that follow different vowel sounds
Assonance repetition of similar vowel sounds in stressed
syllables that end with different consonants sounds
Poem Alliteration consonance assonance
The When Soldiers Grim
beginning of We priests Sink
the end of watched
the world
The powwow Floodwaters Cause Drop
at the end of Find Rise Floodwaters
the world Salmons swim up Swallowed
Swim stream Salmon
A song on World Sun Those
the end of Woman Moon Long
the world Voice Expected Who
Violin disappointed Would
