Course Syllabus
English 12 H: Mr. Esposito
Welcome to English 12 H, a course designed to inspire reflection on where you have been and to refine reading, writing, speaking, and thinking abilities for where you are going.
Office Hours:
In Room 243 or in Conference Room 237 every day after school, and at whatever times that are mutually available.
Contact: espositop@wellesleyps.org
Assessments:
Quizzes, written commentary, essays, and contributions to discussion: These assignments and activities receive weight on a point system appropriate to the depth and range of expected and demonstrated learning.
Our Y1 grade will be calculated such that: Q1 - Q4 = 100% (25% each)
DCAP at WHS
District accommodations (DCAP)Links to an external site. are available to all students, and in the 2026-27 school year, WHS is committed to moving this forward with fidelity.
While some accommodations can be offered at the moment, others require advanced notice.
For example: Extended time on an in-class assessment is a collaborative decision made by the teacher, student, and family to meet individual student needs. The WHS guideline is up to 25% extra time. This accommodation relies on proactive student communication prior to the date of the assessment. The student and teacher must establish how the accommodation will be provided.”
Objectives:
To learn how to read books and poems, and how to write and talk about them.
We shall continue to grow as individuals and as members of a group of people who support each other and who hold in common the highest ideals of the spirit of the humanities.
We shall make connections between literature and our lives by working to refine our powers of self-expression and so better articulate the meaning we find in literature and in our world.
Our 12 H-curriculum will help us explore and start to answer these essential questions:
- Who am I? What is my story, and what forces and choices influence my perceptions?
- How does writing help me tell stories? How do I use the stylistic techniques and literary conventions that I have explored to tell my stories and the stories of others?
- What does literature reveal to me about looking outward, so that I may understand and connect with the thoughts and feelings of other people?
Some of our potential texts and materials, which are subject to change, include the following:
The Elements of Style William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White
The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri
The Odyssey Homer
Hamlet William Shakespeare
All the King’s Men Robert Penn Warren
The Stranger Albert Camus
Possible additional works: Shakespeare, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim; Eudora Welty, The Ponder Heart; Claire Keegan, Foster
Short stories Various selections
Poetry Various selections
Activities and expectations:
Close and thorough reading, open and thoughtful conversation, honest and careful writing, diligent and purposeful intellectual improvement.
Attention to vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, paragraph development, clear expression, and resolution of ideas.
Second-semester projects:
The Senior Paper
The Senior Paper, of about eight to twelve typed pages, involves a taking stock of where you are thus far in your life's journey at a time when you are about to embark on a new one. It offers a chance to Evaluate and to articulate the meaning you have made of some part of your experience. You will have come to a decision about what idea you want to express and about the words and sentences that best convey it.
Senior Speech
The Senior Speech gives you a last chance to speak to your English friends and colleagues about something of significance in your life. It allows you to talk about things that matter to you in such a way that they come to matter to others as well. You can describe who you are and who you expect to become without revealing confidential details about yourself. Reading your speech, of approximately ten to twelve minutes, will add an oral dimension and vocal vigor to your thoughts and reflections.
Course Summary:
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