This course provides high school students with college-level instruction in active, close reading, and analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of works of literary merit, students learn to consider how a work’s style, figurative language, theme, and other literary elements contribute to its meaning and cultural significance. This approach to analyzing prose and poetry allows students to establish connections, make observations about textual details, and sharpen their understanding of these nuances through their own writing. This course will effectively prepare students for the AP Exam and beyond by enabling them to read and analyze complex texts. Texts include Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Students will also have a list from which to choose another novel with authors such as Margaret Atwood, Nnedi Okorafor, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Joyce, Jesmyn Ward, Khaled Hosseini, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and others.
Prerequisite: Minimum of a B in English Language Arts 9 and 10 (or equivalent).

This rigorous, college-level course engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. Students transform into skilled writers who analyze rhetoric, craft arguments, and synthesize ideas. Writing and reading lessons and activities foster an awareness of a writer’s purpose, audience expectations, and message, and of the way conventions and choices in language contribute to effectiveness in writing. Readings include Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, excerpts from Great Expectations and Grapes of Wrath, Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, and student choice novels from a list which includes the authors Azar Nafisi, Jeanette Walls, Frederick Douglass, Annie Dillard, Eric Larson, Zora Neale Hurston, Isabell Wilkerson, Naoki Higashida, and more.
Prerequisite: Minimum of a B in English Language Arts 9 and 10 (or equivalent).

Journalism provides students with the fundamental basics of journalism. Students begin by exploring the history of American journalism, examining different media such as print, radio, television, and internet journalism. Students learn how to write a news story, a feature story, and an editorial, with a focus on research, analyzing the reliability of sources, conducting interviews, writing leads, revising, and self-editing. Students will also take a close look at different careers in journalism, ethics in journalism, and visual layouts using technology, including Web 2.0 tools.

In College Preparatory English 12, we will revisit the basics of composition and literary analysis. We will read the stories of real-life legends, examine the nature of personal freedom, and experience the power of writing to persuade. Students craft short essays, creative narratives, and other persuasive texts

In English 12, students explore history’s impact on modern texts. By focusing on elements like universal theme, author’s purpose and perspective, and historic influence, students are able to see literary works as a whole and understand the deeper experiences that surround these texts. Core texts include Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes and an assortment of speeches, poems and historical texts. With a strong focus on writing, speaking, and presenting, students engage with their audience and explore elements of English that are highly applicable to both college and the workforce.

This course introduces students to the powerful relationship between history and literature, as they consider not only the impact of persuasive techniques on key moments of history, but also how interpretations of literature are shaped by their historical context. Using persuasive and literary techniques, students will also craft their own narrative, persuasive, and argumentative essays.

In English 10, students learn how the human experience–real life–is the foundation of the best literature. Through reading short stories, fables, plays, and even analyzing film, students encounter and analyze the concepts of happiness, human rights, fear, and ethical dilemmas. Students examine literature through close readings and analysis of literary techniques. To improve writing, lessons focus on strategies for using textual evidence in writing, methods of argumentation such as Toulmin, and the application of writing and revision strategies. Additionally, students study new vocabulary, refine the grammar and mechanics of their writing, and create engaging projects. Authors include Hawthorne, Maupassant, Steinbeck, Zora Neale Hurston, Poe, and Shakespeare.

Take an epic journey to refine your reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. You will dive into literary and informational texts to discover the tools authors use to achieve their purpose and voyage through classic and contemporary works to reach new limits of comprehension. As a student in this course, be prepared to grow both your creative and analytical skills.

Using a motif of heroes, helpers, and hope, students will learn to effectively write narrative, informational, and argumentative pieces and present their ideas clearly and cohesively. They will also work on reading comprehension with units such as a novel/short story study and analysis. Students will explore the world around them, learn about real-life heroes, and create heroes from their own imagination. Authors include Madeline L’Engele, RJ Palacio, and Kristin Levine.

By examining powerful literary and nonfiction texts by a wide array of authors, students build upon their foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and speaking using engaging mentor texts and scaffolded opportunities. Students also fine-tune their writing by planning and producing effective narratives, argumentative essays, and expository essays using guided practice and exemplar texts. Students dive into the world of rhetoric by exploring important historical texts, demonstrating proficiency in identifying effective rhetorical appeals and ineffective fallacious reasoning that weakens communication.

English 8 focuses on laying a strong foundation for literary analysis, persuasive, argumentative, and narrative writing. Students will learn about citing internet sources, writer’s voice, revision, textual evidence, distinguishing between valid and invalid claims, how modern fiction can draw from myths, creative writing, and more. Authors include Anne Frank, Anna Sewell, Sharon Draper, HG Wells, and Edwidge Danticat.