English 10A asked when it is right to defy authority or refuse responsibility. English 10B turns to how power speaks and how voices change things: a play about political persuasion, poems of protest and change, presidential addresses at moments of crisis, and a memoir about gaining language itself. The analytical demands of English 10A continue — precise claims, counterclaims with their own evidence, synthesis — and three new demands are added.

Performance. Three of the four units include a performance or recorded speaking component: a scene defense for Julius Caesar, a recorded poetry performance in which every pause must be justified, and a three-minute public address in Unit 3. English 10A’s recordings were mostly defenses of written work; English 10B treats speaking as a form of interpretation in its own right. SL.9-10.4 and SL.9-10.6 are assessed seriously.

Form and verse. Students read Shakespeare’s blank verse, a range of poetic forms, and the architecture of formal oratory. They must quote verse correctly — by act, scene and line for the play, with line breaks marked in poems — and analyze how form produces meaning. Many students have never been asked to explain why a line breaks where it does.

Narrative writing. English 10A was almost entirely analytical and argumentative. English 10B adds W.9-10.3: an original narrative in Unit 2, rendering the scene a poem implies, and a reflective narrative in Unit 4 about a moment when language changed what the student could do. Narrative writing is often where quiet students do their best work.

The year’s arc. The semester ends with a portfolio defense in which students trace one writing skill across three pieces from the year, quoting their own earlier sentences. This requires work from English 10A. Check in the first week that every student’s portfolio page holds their English 10A essays.

A-G area B. The semester continues the full-length reading and revised writing UC expects, adds a complete Shakespeare play and a complete memoir, and closes with reflective work that shows growth over time.

The reading load. Julius Caesar and The Story of My Life are read complete. Julius Caesar is short for a Shakespeare play, and a public-domain audio recording is available; use it. Keller’s memoir is accessible in its language but long; assign it on a schedule starting in Unit 3.