The California CCSS put grades 11 and 12 in one band: the same 76 standards govern English 11 and English 12. English 11 in this curriculum is American literature; English 12A is a rhetoric and argument semester, and English 12B turns to British and world literature. Because the standards do not change, the demand has to rise through what students read, how independently they work and how long and complete their writing is. Hold them to it.

Reading rhetorically, not just critically. The course follows the expository reading and writing approach many California high schools use: students reconstruct the rhetorical situation — writer, audience, occasion, purpose — before they judge an argument. RI.11-12.6 asks students to determine a point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective. In English 11 students often identify ethos, pathos and logos; in 12A they must explain what a strategy does to a particular audience and why the writer chose it. “Swift uses pathos” is an English 11 sentence. “Swift’s deadpan persona withholds the outrage so that the reader must supply it” is a senior one.

Legal and constitutional reasoning. RI.11-12.8 asks students to delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including Supreme Court opinions and dissents. Unit 2 is where this lands, with Holmes and Brandeis read beside Mill. Most students have never read a court opinion. Teach the moves — principle, facts, test, reasoning, assumption — and expect errors about the difference between a concurrence and a dissent.

Independence. Every essay prompt in 12A lets students choose: the satire to analyze, the free-expression question to argue, the public question for the speech, and their own research question. The rubrics reward a precise claim the student has found. Resist the temptation to hand out the thesis when a student is stuck; hand out a sharper question instead.

Length and research. Essays run 1,300-1,800 words, and the researched argument 1,800-2,500 with an annotated bibliography of at least eight sources. This is the longest piece of writing most students will have produced, and it comes just as many are writing college application essays. Time it well (Lesson 1.3).

Full-length work. On Liberty is the semester’s full-length work and is read complete. Some reviewers expect a novel; point them to the course description, which explains that 12A’s full-length reading is a work of argument and 12B carries three full-length literary works.

Coverage. 12A and 12B together cite every code in the grades 11-12 file. 12A carries most of RI, the argument and research writing standards, and SL.11-12.4.b (the California addition on presenting an argument); 12B carries most of RL, narrative writing and SL.11-12.4.a.