English Courses
AP English Literature
This course will follow the curricular requirements outlined by the College Board in the AP English Literature and Composition Course Description which focuses on building the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, critical and analytical thinking. Aside from an extensive study of Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, materials will include works from a variety of time periods and genres, and writing assignments will include in-class essays as well as formal process essays with several opportunities for revision. This is considered a college-level course, meaning you will be asked to read and analyze challenging, provocative, dense and sometimes controversial material. You will also be expected to come prepared to challenge yourself and others with interesting discussion points on a regular basis.
AP English Language and Composition
This full-year English course is designed to engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of a variety of predominantly non-fiction writings. A primary goal will be to move beyond a reader response approach to a clear understanding of the author’s purpose, audience, and linguistic and rhetorical choices. The course is centered around rhetoric – the art of constructing and presenting arguments in writing. Therefore, it is important for students to understand rhetorical strategies and how to effectively use them to construct arguments for their intended purposes and audiences. In addition, it is crucial that students possess a high level of motivation and self-discipline in order to keep up with the amount of reading and to come to class prepared to engage in critical discussions and writing. Over the course of the year, students develop their own abilities to craft language and become familiar with the seven modes of discourse. Besides frequent informal and formal writing assignments, students should also expect to be challenged to examine and apply language strategies through small and large group discussions, activities, presentations, and debates.
British Literature: 12th Grade
This year long college preparatory course emphasizes and explores the rich variety of British Literature throughout time. A diverse collection of poetry, short stories, and novels will be read and analyzed from the perspective of self-discovery. The course highlights the skills and themes important to an emerging college student and helps to develop the individual through writing and personal expression. Supplementary units will be taught simultaneous to traditional novels and course-level writing standards and expectations, to enrich the student with the wide spectrum of learning English literature offers. Students will also be required to compose a college essay for admissions to University.
Students may look forward to reading several of the following for their study of British Literature: Frankenstein, Macbeth, 1984, Canterbury Tales, Heart of Darkness, and/or A Brave New World. They will also focus on several writing types such as the college essay, cause and effect, the comparative essay and literary analysis. Other units of study will include Allusions and Mythology, Satire and other literary devices, Controversial issues Debate, Creative writing and Independent study.
American Literature: 11th Grade
In this course, we will read, discuss, analyze, and write about a wide variety of texts, primarily by authors from the United States. As we read, we will consider the following questions: How do pressures of conformity and non-conformity affect our lives? How do one’s race, ethnicity, gender, income level, and/or sexuality affect one’s image and self-perception as American? For whom is the American Dream a reality and for whom is it a myth?
The major novels covered in this course are: The Crucible (Arthur Miller); The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald); Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger); The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan). In addition, we will read and analyze a variety of poetry, short stories, song lyrics, and non-fiction selections.
World Literature: 10th Grade
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive overview of World Literature. We study the classics, such as Dante’s Inferno and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to more contemporary works of Elie Wiesel’s Night, Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and John Knowles’ A Separate Peace. We also study themes in literature such as existentialism, irony, motif, allegory and the Holocaust. In this course, students will interpret, analyze, evaluate and critique these texts to show their understanding of the literature. Students will consider how these texts can relate to their own lives and personal experiences. In addition, students will have many writing assignments. Students will write in the following forms: research paper, poems, expository essay, persuasive essay, biography and creative writing. Students will demonstrate their understanding through discussions, homework, essays, exams, presentations and projects.
World Literature: 9th Grade
Students will explore literature from different cultures and eras, identifying the many factors that affect the final product and reader; these factors include, but are not limited to, bias, author background, and social context. Students will interpret, analyze, evaluate, and critique literature to deepen their understanding and enhance their pleasure in literature. Students will consider literary works in relation to their own lives and experience. They will demonstrate their understanding through discussions, presentations, quizzes, essays and journaling. Research will be an important element introduced in writing, and students will research many topics throughout the year, producing a major research paper. In addition, students must demonstrate mastery of grammar and usage and will develop their written and spoken vocabularies. Summer readings are required.
