Language Arts/English Curriculum Frameworks - Albemarle County ...

11 th Grade – American Studies
Course Description:
American Studies is an integrated course designed to help students develop a comprehensive view of
American literature, history, and culture. In gathering together the many threads of American culture,
students leave this course with a better understanding of who they are and what it means to be an
American. Through a variety of learning experiences, students discover relevant connections among
movements in American art, literature, music, economics, and politics. This course integrates standards
from English 11 and Virginia and United States History, thus preparing students for End-of-Course tests in
each subject. Students may take these courses at different levels.
Advanced Placement Option:
American Studies is an integrated course designed to help students develop a comprehensive view of
American literature, history, and culture. This course is highly rigorous and prepares students to take AP
exams. Students concentrate on reading and analyzing historical material, weighing historical evidence
and interpretation, reading and analyzing works of literature, and synthesizing and evaluating information
in analytical writing. Students in this course are encouraged to take the associated AP exams.
Advanced Proficient Stage of Reading
Advanced proficient readers differ from early proficient readers in the complexity of the topics with deal
with, their vocabulary and concept knowledge, and the sophistication of the cognitive abilities they bring
to interface with text.
Books appropriate for readers in this stage are complex, containing more difficult vocabulary and
concepts. They feature multiple themes and dynamic characters and situations. Topics are of interest to
young adults and adults.
Stages of Writing:
Refer to ASPIRE (appendix B).
NOTE: Because American Studies is an interdisciplinary course (English language arts and social studies),
a separate curriculum writing team has been formed to articulate curriculum for this course. The same
curriculum will be put in place in this English Language Arts articulation and in the Social Studies
articulation.
© Albemarle County Public Schools, May 2006 69