English Language syllabus, dot point by dot point

Analyzing the author's craft: reading deliberate choices of diction, sentence structure, organization, and tone as purposeful, explaining how a specific choice advances the author's purpose or central idea, and analyzing craft in both informational and argumentative passages on an unseen NC English II EOC text.

Bias, perspective, and counterclaims: detecting bias and one-sidedness through word choice and selection or omission of evidence, distinguishing fact from opinion, and analyzing how an author's acknowledgment and rebuttal of counterclaims strengthens an argument on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Delineating an argument and its claims: identifying the central claim (thesis) of an argumentative text, separating it from the reasons and evidence that support it, distinguishing a claim from a counterclaim, and mapping how the parts of an argument fit together on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Evaluating reasoning and evidence: judging whether the reasoning in an argument is valid and whether the evidence is relevant, sufficient, and credible, recognizing common logical fallacies (such as hasty generalization, false cause, and either-or), and assessing how well evidence supports a claim on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Rhetorical appeals and techniques: identifying ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) and recognizing persuasive techniques such as repetition, rhetorical questions, loaded language, and appeals to authority, then explaining how each works to persuade a reader on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Answering with text evidence: selecting the most relevant evidence for a constructed-response point, quoting briefly or paraphrasing accurately, and explaining how the evidence supports the point rather than letting a quotation stand alone, on the NC English II EOC.

Common constructed-response tasks: recognizing the recurring prompt types (analyze a theme or central idea, explain how an author develops an idea, analyze a craft or structural choice, compare across a passage, and draw an inference) and adapting the point-evidence-explanation answer to each on the NC English II EOC.

The two-point scoring rubric: how the short constructed-response items are scored out of 2 points, what separates a full-credit answer (a correct point fully supported with relevant evidence) from a partial-credit answer and a no-credit answer, and how to write toward the rubric on the NC English II EOC.

Understanding the constructed response: what the short constructed-response items are on the NC English II EOC, how the test includes four (three operational and one embedded field test) worth 2 points each, the paragraph-or-less format with a 1,000-character limit online, and how they differ from the multiple-choice and technology-enhanced items.

Writing a clear paragraph answer: structuring a constructed response with a topic sentence that answers the prompt, supporting evidence, and an explanation, keeping it concise within the 1,000-character limit, and writing with clean conventions so the point reads clearly on the NC English II EOC.

Achievement levels and proficiency: the five achievement levels on the NC English II EOC (Level 1 to Level 5), with Level 3 as grade-level proficient and Level 4 as College-and-Career Ready, what proficiency and CCR mean, and the State Board policy that the EOC counts as at least 20 percent of the final course grade.

Multiple-choice and technology-enhanced item types: how four-option multiple-choice items and technology-enhanced items (such as multiselect, two-part, hot-text, and drag-and-drop formats) work on the NC English II EOC, the elimination and evidence techniques that suit each, and how they differ from the constructed responses.

Pacing the NCTest session: budgeting time across the reading selections and their items, deciding how long to spend reading a passage versus answering its questions, leaving time for the 2-point constructed responses, and using flag-and-return on the NCTest online platform on the NC English II EOC.

Reading strategies for unseen texts: active reading techniques (previewing, reading for gist and structure, noting key moments, and annotating where allowed) for tackling previously unseen literary and informational passages, and answering questions with the text in reach on the NC English II EOC.

The test format and blueprint: the reading-only structure of the NC English II EOC built on the NCSCOS, the reporting-category weights (Reading for Literature, Reading for Informational Text, Language), the selections and item counts, the mix of multiple-choice, technology-enhanced, and constructed-response items, and the NCTest online platform.

Denotation, connotation, and nuance: distinguishing a word's literal denotation from its emotional connotation, recognizing positive, negative, and neutral shades, and choosing among near-synonyms that share a denotation but differ in nuance on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Figurative and connotative meaning: interpreting figures of speech (idioms, hyperbole, understatement, irony, and figurative comparisons) in context, recognizing that the intended meaning is not the literal one, and choosing the best interpretation on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Standard English conventions: applying grammar, usage, and mechanics (subject-verb agreement, pronoun reference, verb tense, common confusables, and punctuation) so that meaning is clear, recognizing how a convention can change meaning, and writing clean constructed responses on the NC English II EOC.

Vocabulary in context: using context clues (definition, example, contrast, and inference clues) to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word or a familiar word used in a new sense, and choosing the meaning that fits the sentence on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Word parts: using common Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes to predict the meaning of an unfamiliar word, recognizing how a suffix can change a word's part of speech, and confirming the meaning against context on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Analyzing graphics and text features in informational texts: reading charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, headings, captions, and other features, integrating their information with the prose, and evaluating how a visual or feature supports or extends the central idea on an unseen NC English II EOC informational passage.

Author's purpose and perspective in informational texts: identifying whether the author writes to inform, persuade, or describe, determining the author's point of view or perspective on the topic, and reading how word choice, tone, and selection of detail reveal that perspective on an unseen NC English II EOC informational passage.

Central ideas in informational texts: stating the central idea as a full sentence rather than a topic word, distinguishing a central idea from supporting details, tracing how a central idea develops across a passage, and writing an objective summary on an unseen NC English II EOC informational passage.

Comparing paired texts: analyzing how two texts on the same topic or theme relate, comparing their central ideas, evidence, structure, and the authors' purposes or perspectives, and synthesizing across both in multiple-choice, technology-enhanced, and constructed-response items on the NC English II EOC.

Text evidence and inference: making a logical inference from what a text states and implies, distinguishing a supported inference from a guess, and citing the strongest, most relevant evidence (including in two-part evidence-based items) on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Text structure and organization in informational texts: recognizing common patterns (cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological or sequential, description, and order of importance), explaining how a paragraph or section fits the whole, and reading why an author chose a structure on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Analyzing theme and central idea in literary texts: stating a theme as a complete sentence about life or human nature rather than a topic word, distinguishing theme from subject and from moral, and tracing how a writer develops a theme through plot, character, and detail across an unseen NC English II EOC literary passage.

Analyzing word choice and tone in literary texts: how diction and connotation create tone (the writer's attitude) and mood (the feeling in the reader), naming tone with a precise word, and tracing how a shift in word choice signals a shift in tone on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Character and point of view in literary texts: inferring traits and motivation from indirect characterization, tracking how a character changes, and explaining how first-person, third-person limited, and third-person omniscient narration shape what the reader knows on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Figurative language and literary devices in literary texts: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism, hyperbole, and irony, and explaining the effect each creates (the feeling, picture, or meaning) on an unseen NC English II EOC passage, since the standards reward analysis over labeling.

Plot, conflict, and structure in literary texts: the stages of plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), internal and external conflict, and how an author's structural choices such as flashback, foreshadowing, and in medias res shape meaning and effect on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.

Reading poetry and drama on the EOC: paraphrasing a poem for meaning before analyzing structure and sound (line, stanza, rhyme, repetition, meter) and reading a dramatic scene through dialogue, stage directions, and dramatic irony on an unseen NC English II EOC literary passage.