The Central York High School English Department utilizes both whole class novel instruction as well as literature circle/small group book study throughout the semester. Some of the novels that are available to our students contain some mature content (such as violence, references to drugs or alcohol or criminal behavior, and/or sexual references).
We encourage parents to participate in the selection of the novel(s) that your student will read. Remember that the purpose of literature is to push the limits of our understanding, to open our minds to new ideas and new worlds, to impart sympathy and empathy, and even gratitude. We have selected works that we hope will expand your child’s perspectives and open his/her eyes to the complexities and challenges that individuals encounter.
As the English department, we have carefully selected literature for each grade level/course that meets the following guidelines: • possess literary merit. • contain universal themes, which can be integrated into at least one other curriculum area or the student’s personal lives. • speak to students’ interests, concerns, or social issues. • exemplify a desired genre or a style of writing. • support our curriculum objectives as well as the State standards.
The novels utilized in this course are listed below, and those with mature content are marked with an asterisk (*). It is our hope that you will review the book titles prior to the start of our studies or discuss the content with your student as we read. If you have concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact the individual teacher.
Student Name: ______Parent Name: ______
Parent Signature: ______Date: ______
11th Grade English Class Texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
11th Grade English Literature Circles
Unit - Establishing Roots Unit - American Dream
Fiction Fiction Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier- Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson Drown by Junot Diaz Native Son by Richard Wright When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmerelda Santiago The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros East of Eden by John Steinbeck Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan Our Time on the River by Don Brown My Invented Country by Isabel Allende The Chosen by Chaim Potek Jake Reinvented by Gordan Korman Copper Sun by Sharon Draper The Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Non-fiction Sherman Alexie A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley* The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien An American Plague by Jim Murphy Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway Unit - Justice for All The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time by Mark Haddon Fiction Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie Old School by Tobias Wolff The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper Native Son by Richard Wright October Sky by Homer Hickam Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolpho Anaya The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Break With Charity by Anne Rinaldi I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou* Non-fiction The Green Mile by Stephen King Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan Snow in August by Pete Hammill Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Lesson Before Dying by Earnest Gaines Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out The Chosen by Chaim Potek of Idaho by Jon Katz Ceremony by Leslie Marmo Silko The Pact by Samson Davis Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Unit - American Philosophical Thought-Dystopia Maggie, A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Fiction The Road by Cormac McCarthy On the Road by Jack Kerouac Brave New World by Aldous Huxley* Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Feed by M.T. Anderson* 1984 by George Owell