Language Arts
Course Name |
Credit Type |
Description |
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Freshman Composition |
Core |
Literature and Composition 9th Grade |
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Freshman English is a course focused on composition--the act of writing. Students learn to use the writing process extensively. They also gain experience, through reading and writing, with a variety of literary genres. Grammar and vocabulary are emphasized, as are revising and improving the students’ own writing. Literature is used in the course as a starting point for writing or as examples of writing styles. Students write everything from research papers to speeches to screenplays. |
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Introduction to Literature |
Core |
Introduction to Literature 10th Grade |
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Sophomore English is primarily focused on orienting the students to literature. Students read a variety of genres and mediums of literature. The course provides an introduction to literary analysis as a thought process. Writing is also emphasized, focusing on building vocabulary, improving writing style and quality, and writing for the world beyond classroom walls. |
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Junior American Literature |
Core |
Junior American Literature 11th Grade |
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Junior English enjoys a college-prep atmosphere. The class is designed to help students recognize and appreciate American Literature; to enhance their desire and ability to read with comprehension; and to improve their writing skills for SAT/ACT tests--and for life. From our nation’s Native American origins to the present, genres explored include oral tradition, poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction. The textbook contains over 1,000 pages of stories and poems. Mixed throughout the readings are exercises on writing, research, language, grammar, speaking, and listening. |
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Senior World Literature |
Core |
Senior World Literature 12th Grade |
| Senior world literature is a college prep class designed to assist students in recognizing and appreciating world literature while improving their reading, comprehension, and writing skills for college and beyond. Examining literature from different cultures, students will view distinct human experiences to find both differences and connections between people around the world. Using the new perspectives gained from the literature of other cultures, students will write analytically to grow in understanding of literature and the diverse world around them. An underlying goal of the course is to foster a lifelong love of reading. | ||
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AP English Language |
Core/Elective |
AP English Language and Composition 11th Grade |
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The AP course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes . . . The course allows students to write in several forms—narrative, exploratory, expository, argumentative—on many different subjects from personal experiences to public policies, from imaginative literature to popular culture. But the overreaching purpose is to enable students to write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, the course will emphasize the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and professional communication, as well as the personal and reflective writing that fosters the development of writing facility in any context. Its purpose is to enable students to read complex texts with understanding and to write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers. |
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Core/Elective |
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As per the College Board’s 2001-02 Advanced Placement Program Course Description, an AP English course in Literature and Composition should engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students should deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students should consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. |
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Creative Writing |
Elective |
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Creative Writing is a course for students who want to develop the craft of writing. Students explore forms and elements of poetry and styles and elements of fiction. They then use these models for their own writing, which they develop with the help of peer response and teacher consultation. Students in the class may also work on the staff of the school’s literary magazine, participating in selection and editing of pieces and design and layout of the magazine. |
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