Academics

This course is designed around grade-level literary and informational texts to develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening that are the foundation for creative and purposeful expression. Emphasis will be placed on close, attentive and critical reading to tackle complex texts and to evaluate intricate arguments. Writing will be developed as a means of asserting and defending claims, demonstrating what the students know and conveying what they have thought, felt, or experienced. Each grade level addresses the English Language Arts standards by concentrating on literature of a specific thematic orientation or national origin. The course options available under each grade heading are designed to address the needs of students according to ability level. Each English 9 course offering is a survey of various literary genres and time periods.

Prerequisite: None Full-year course – 1 credit

Key Skills:

• Analyze literature independently and proficiently. 
• Analyze non-fiction texts independently and proficiently.
• Discuss topics, texts, and issues collaboratively. 
• Compose narrative, expository, analytical, synthesis, and argumentative essays on a variety of topics. 
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and rhetoric when writing or speaking.

Anchor text(s):

• The Call of the Wild
• Bless the Beasts and Children (HP)
• Old Man and the Sea
• Outliers
• Tipping Point
• Of Mice and Men
• The Illustrated Man
• I, Robot
• Hamilton’s Mythology
• Bullfinch’s Mythology
• Romeo and Juliet
• Our Town
• Edgar Allan Poe Short Stories

(English II Honors is available zero bell)

Students analyze and evaluate the works of a variety of authors and selections from the classics to the modern age through reading, thinking, organizing ideas, developing interpersonal communication skills, and expressing them through discussion and composition. In doing so, students explore various genres such as poetry, epic poetry, short stories, novels, drama, and nonfiction. In addition, a significant emphasis is placed on developing the writing skills of the student through varied writing assignments, which include writing to understand, writing to explain, writing to evaluate, and writing to persuade, with particular emphasis on the research process and synthesis essay. Students also engage in grammar studies (especially as it relates to the skills needed for AP Language and Composition), correctness of writing style, and vocabulary building.

Prerequisite: CP English I Full-year course - 1 credit

Key Skills:

• Analyze literature independently and proficiently. 
• Analyze non-fiction texts independently and proficiently.
• Discuss topics, texts, and issues collaboratively. 
• Compose narrative, expository, analytical, synthesis, and argumentative essays on a variety of topics. 
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and rhetoric when writing or speaking.

Anchor Texts:

• Fahrenheit 451 
• The Odyssey
• Beowulf
• Night 
• The Book Thief 
• Othello or Hamlet or Macbeth

Other Texts (optional):

• Dawn
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces, selections
• Dante’s Inferno

Students analyze and evaluate American literature from Colonial to contemporary times through reading, thinking, discussing, and writing. In doing so, students examine various literary periods (neoclassicism, romanticism, transcendentalism, regionalism, realism, naturalism and the moderns) as well as explore various genres (poetry, short stories, novels, drama, and nonfiction). In addition, a significant emphasis is placed on developing the writing skills of the student through varied writing assignments, which include writing to understand, writing to explain, and writing to evaluate, and writing to persuade, with particular emphasis on the rudiments of style and rhetorical analysis.

Prerequisite: English II Full-year course - 1 credit

Key Skills:

• Analyze literature independently and proficiently. 
• Analyze non-fiction texts independently and proficiently.
• Discuss topics, texts, and issues collaboratively. 
• Compose narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays on a variety of topics. 
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and rhetoric when writing or speaking.

Anchor Texts:

• Elements of Literature
• Walden
• The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
• Hiroshima
• The Great Gatsby
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Death of a Salesman
• The Crucible
• The Road
• A Raisin in the Sun, Fences
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• Tender is the Night
• Tonto and the Lone Ranger 
• Fistfight in Heaven
• Nine Stories
• Everything that Rises Must Converge

English IV is designed around grade-level literary and informational texts to develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening that are the foundation for creative and purposeful expression. This course is a combination of science fiction, drama, mythology, and short stories. Emphasis will be placed on close, attentive and critical reading to tackle complex texts and to evaluate intricate arguments. Writing will be developed as a means of asserting and defending claims, demonstrating what the students know and conveying what they have thought, felt, or experienced. Each grade level addresses the English Language Arts standards by concentrating on literature of a specific thematic orientation or national origin. The course options available under each grade heading are designed to address the needs of students according to ability level. English IV is an advanced survey of various literary genres, time periods, and national origins. 

Prerequisite:  English III Full-year course - 1 credit

Key Skills:

• Analyze literature independently and proficiently.
• Analyze non-fiction texts independently and proficiently.
• Discuss topics, texts, and issues collaboratively.
• Compose narrative, expository, analytical, synthesis, and argumentative essays on a variety of topics.
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and rhetoric when writing or speaking.

Anchor texts: 

• Tuesdays with Morrie
• The Things We Carried
• Huckleberry Finn
• The Scarlet Letter
• 1984
•  Feed
• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff
• Lost in Yonkers
• No Exit
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Heart of Darkness/The Secret Sharer
• The Grapes of Wrath, Hunger Games
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century
• Macbeth
• Grendel
• Beowulf

This course is designed for students reading and writing at the college level. In AP Literature and Composition, students analyze and evaluate great works of literature by major authors since the Renaissance through reading, thinking, discussing, and writing.  In doing so, students examine various schools of thought and literary criticisms and apply them to the text, establish the historical context and literary period in which the text was created, and hone the skills that effective readers use in the analysis of literature and that good communicators use in both oral and written formats.  In addition, a significant emphasis is placed on developing the writing skills of the student through varied writing assignments, which include writing to understand, writing to explain, and writing to evaluate, with an emphasis on style analysis of both poetry and prose. Ultimately, the student will take an AP exam in the spring to earn college credit.

Prerequisite: ACP or HP English III Full-year course - 1 credit

Key Skills:

• Analyze college-level literature independently and proficiently.
• Analyze college-level non-fiction texts independently and proficiently.
• Discuss college-level topics, texts, and issues collaboratively.
• Compose narrative, expository, analytical, synthesis, and argumentative essays on a variety of topics.
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and rhetoric when writing or speaking.

Anchor Texts:

• An Introduction to Poetry  
• AP Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing
• The Plague