Prerequisite: Teacher Recommendation

 

This course requires students to analyze works from a variety of literary genres, examining the forms, rhetorical devices, and themes utilized in complex fiction and nonfiction texts.  In addition to using these texts as the basis for original literary analysis, the readings will also function as mentor texts when students write their own narrative pieces, poetry, and essays that focus on argument and synthesis.  The course progresses at an accelerated pace and is highly demanding in its reading and writing requirements.  

 

Typical Readings:  The Book Thief, The Taming of the Shrew, Lord of the Flies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1984, and selections of poetry, short fiction, essay, and biography/memoir

 

Prerequisites: English 10: Pre-AP or English 10: Composition with teacher recommendation

 

This course is designed to be the equivalent of a college composition course and will engage students in close and extensive reading of non-fiction texts in a variety of genres including speeches, letters, editorials, newspaper articles, etc., analytical writing about author’s purpose and rhetorical strategies, argumentative writing regarding contemporary issues while synthesizing primary and secondary sources, and essay writing within 30-40 minute time constraints.  Students will carry out a vocabulary study, write timed essays, and annotate multiple choice passages, plan and compose independent essays, and write a research synthesis packet using primary sources along with library and internet sources.  Students will focus primarily on the writing of rhetorical analysis, argumentation, and the synthesis essay--the three modes of discourse on the AP exam that form the basis of academic writing and professional communication.

 

Typical Readings:  Thank You for Arguing, Brave New World, In Cold Blood, Brain on Fire, Into the Wild, The Glass Castle, and assorted non-fiction passages

Prerequisites: AP Language and Composition

Needed: Reading Journal

                                                                   

This course, which is equivalent to a first- or second-year college English course, challenges students to read, analyze, and evaluate complex literary texts, including novels, plays, short stories, poetry, and essays. Students will learn to consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of diction, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Students will also develop greater stylistic maturity in their writing. To achieve this end, the class will focus on increasing vocabulary, varying sentence structure, organizing cohesive essays, supporting generalizations with specific details, and maintaining an effective use of rhetoric through focus on tone and voice.

 

Typical Readings: Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, All the Pretty Horses, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Things They Carried, Slaughterhouse-Five, Jane Eyre, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hamlet, The Glass Menagerie, and a college-level poetry text

 

Composition focuses on developing the student’s ability to find and use source materials in asking questions and presenting information through writing. The course emphasizes reading and writing skills appropriate to academic discourse across various genres. The course integrates the writing process and rhetorical modes into writing assignments of various lengths throughout the year. The student will learn how to use research and analytical skills to locate and evaluate appropriate source material, understand rhetorical strategies, formulate a position, and correctly summarize, paraphrase, quote, and cite source materials in his or her own writing. The composition student will also learn to write and organize academic papers through the use of thesis, sources, and subordinate ideas with evidence. The student will also learn and be expected to articulate opinions and questions over assigned reading material. 

The American Experience course is designed to develop critical reading and writing skills in order to concentrate on students’ abilities to read critically, insightfully, and analytically. Students will also learn how to use their analytical skills to locate and evaluate appropriate secondary source material, understand rhetorical strategies in application to their own writings, and formulate an argumentative position. Reading, writing, and revision are all inseparable parts of the composition process, and students will apply the skills developed in Composition to writing and research in the field of literary analysis. Vocabulary study will also be emphasized as necessary to the sophisticated writer. Students will explore contemporary American literature alongside classics with various supplemental readings in order to gain a thorough understanding of what it means to be an American and the ways the American identity is created, shaped, and experienced.

Typical Readings: The Crucible, The Devil in the White City, The Great Gatsby, Fences, and various American short stories, poems, and essays.

This course builds on the students’ existing knowledge of grammar and mechanics, placing special emphasis on sentence structures, phrases, and clauses. In addition to grammatical correctness, students focus on building strategies for thinking, for organizing, and for producing writing that reflects careful consideration and deep questioning of ideas. Students compose various types of texts from different genres, focusing especially on the basic conventions of the American academic essay and producing a formal research paper. Students also gain experience identifying patterns, engaging in inquiry, and uncovering assumptions in various texts, with an emphasis on using evidence and reason to become more independent readers, thinkers, and communicators. Vocabulary study is also a focus of the course.

 

Typical Readings: Wool, Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, and selections from the Junior Great Books anthology