In these college-preparatory paced courses students will develop new perspectives through interpreting literature, expanding vocabulary, and writing creatively. Students will enhance their writing skills by examining point of view, character development, figurative language, and audience. Students will read functional informational and literary texts from different periods, cultures, and genres and speak in functional, information, and literary situations for various purposes and audiences.
Academic Writing
Class Description
Academic Writing aims to teach students the skills they need in order to be better writers than they were yesterday. Students will practice writing from a variety of non-fiction genres and will become more familiar with the writing fundamentals that will help them build on what they know.
Course Goals
By the end of this course, students should accomplish the following:
- Outline original and cohesive arguments
- Properly cite research source material in formal writing
- Effectively incorporate outside sources into various writing genres
- Revise writing for clarity, organization, and mechanics
- Respond with originality to outside texts
Unit Projects
- Unit 1: Research Report
- Unit 2: Persuasive Essay
- Unit 3: Rhetorical Analysis
- Unit 4: Literary Criticism
Materials
- Optional: Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark
American Literature
Class Description
American Literature is a chronological study of non-fiction and fictional texts beginning with the early United States colonial writings and ending with modern/present-day literature. Students will be exposed to works of varying complexity and will learn, individually and collaboratively, how to work through and come to an understanding of the layers of each text.
Course Goals
By the end of this course, students should accomplish the following:
- Explain the links between issues facing society during different historical periods and the literature produced during those periods
- Use close reading and analytical tools which will allow them to gain competence and confidence in understanding and analyzing a difficult text
- Acquire a cache of rhetorical strategies and literary devices to craft unique and interesting writing
- Express unique perspectives in class discussion and through writing
- Make connections between and among texts and between texts and the real world
Unit Themes
- Unit 1: Courage and conscience
- Unit 2: Revolutionary ideas
- Unit 3: Women on the margins
- Unit 4: The intersection of technology and values
Materials
- Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford (excerpts)
- The Bloody Tenent of Persecution by Roger Williams (excerpts)
- Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards
- The Crucible by Arthur Miller
- Declaration of Independence
- "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau
- "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- "Ain't I A Woman?" by Sojourner Truth
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
- Various poetry and primary source excerpts
British Literature
Class Description
British Literature is a chronological and thematic study of primarily fictional texts of a variety of genres, beginning with early medieval poetry and ending with the Victorian era. Students will be exposed to works of varying complexity and will learn, individually and collaboratively, how to work through and come to an understanding of the layers of each text.
Course Goals:
By the end of this course, students should accomplish the following:
- Explain the ways in which moral exploration is reflected through literature
- Use close reading and analytical tools which will allow them to gain competence and confidence in understanding and analyzing difficult texts
- Acquire a cache of rhetorical strategies and literary devices to craft unique and interesting writing
- Conduct research and compose organized writing guided by a clear thesis
- Express unique perspectives in class discussion and through writing
- Make connections between and among texts and between texts and the real world
Unit Themes
- Unit 1: Medieval Literature and the Hero's Journey
- Unit 2: Renaissance Literature and Leadership, Divine Right of Kings
- Unit 3: Metaphysical Poetry and Social Change
- Unit 4: Satire
- Unit 5: Victorian Literature and the Colonization
Materials
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by unknown author
- Excerpts from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Poems by John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick and Rachel Speght
- "An Immodest Proposal" and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Various poetry and primary source excerpts
Literature and Composition
Class Description
Literature and Composition surveys a variety of literary by genre. Students learn about each genre and its components and then study examples from each genre and explore the ways in which genre can help create meaning.
Course Goals
By the end of this course, students should accomplish the following:
Units
- Unit 1: Short Story
- Unit 2: Novel
- Unit 3: Drama
- Unit 4: Poetry
Materials
- Various Short stories
- Thing Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- Othello by William Shakespeare
- Various Poems