11th - 12th Grade Language

For eleventh and twelfth graders, this Common Core area helps students gain mastery of the rules for using the English language, including vocabulary use and language conventions, in order to improve their skills as writers and readers. Among the complete standards for this grade, eleventh and twelfth graders will be asked to: demonstrate that they understand standard English usage in writing and speaking by showing that they can properly punctuate and spell, apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested, and resolve issues of complex or contested usage by consulting references like Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, Garner's Modern American Usage, vary syntax for effect, consult references like Tufte's Artful Sentences for guidance as needed be able to use digital and print glossaries, dictionaries, and thesauruses to find meanings and etymology of words, interpret figures of speech like hyperbole and paradox in context, gather vocabulary knowledge sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level, understand and to assist in word choice and comprehension.