English

This course emphasizes the development of strong skills in thinking, reading, writing, speaking, and good basic study habits.  Written work will include a journal plus other spontaneous writing and the following essay forms:  Autobiography and narrative response to literature, expository and persuasive writing.  Particular attention will be paid to the study of whole novels and plays, as well as looking at poetry and literary non-fiction.

 

This course will emphasize the major literary themes and turning points in the modern era, as well as focus on the growing global interdependence of all peoples and cultures.  Students will read broadly in literary texts and consider issues from both Western and ethnically diverse World Traditions.  Written work will include journal, spontaneous, research writing, and the following essay forms:  autobiographical and narrative response to literature, expository, persuasive, and technical writing.

 

English 3 (P) introduces students to the great American writers, their works, and movements in literature.  Based on a group of core works and extended core works, the course encourages students toward a critical reading of, thinking, and writing about individual works, styles of writers, periods of time in which writings are set, and the historical influences on writers and their characters.  This course emphasizes extensive reading and expanded writing forms—from journal writing to various essay forms.  Fictional narrative, response to literature, reflective compositions, historical investigation and resume writing; autobiographical incident, reflection, evaluation, persuasion, research, compare and contrast, and interpretive analysis.

 

AP English 3 (HP) is a rigorous, expanded version of English 3 (P) for students who elect an accelerated historical survey of great American literature with a focus on how major American authors have interpreted and shaped American thought.  Students will read, write, and discuss extensively, explore and examine critical and creative connections in reading, writing, and thinking processes.  Students will commit substantial time to advanced writing forms:  character/theme/form analysis, textual research, and literary interpretation.  Readings will include core and substantially extended works.  This course will include in-class and out-of-class preparation for the Language and Literature Composition Advanced Placement Examination. Students should see AP English 3 (HP) as a solid preparatory step toward AP English 4 (HP).  

Note:  AP English 3 (HP) is fully integrated with AP U.S. History (HP).  Students are encouraged to enroll in both courses.  Students are encouraged but not required to take the AP English Language and Composition Exam.

 

Get Reel: English Through Your Lens challenges students through intensive analysis of text, including visual media, informational writing, and fiction.  Students develop the abilities and skills necessary to effectively produce powerful video messages, oral presentations, and written works that critically examine and deconstruct ideological and social influences in an effort to understand how these influences have an impact on both individual and group identity.

 

Mental Health Matters is a course that explores all of the issues that affect our mental health:  self-esteem, eating disorders, abuse, the media’s depiction of men, women, and ethnic minorities, various mental disorders, and bullying, just to name a few.  We read high-interest novels (most of them teen fiction) and watch films and documentaries that focus on the characters plagued by these mental health issues so that we can discuss and write about them.  This course counts for either 11^th or 12^th grade English and can also be taken as an elective when taken with another English class.

 

Sports in Literature will examine the role of sports in our society.  Do sports reflect our culture or reveal it?  What is the power of sport?  Why is it that sport seems to bring out the very best, and worst, of the human spirit?  To find out, we will use short stories, non-fiction novels, and poems as our guide.  This course will also examine how sports can be an agent for social change, for breaking social barriers, and teaching tolerance.  Through discussion and writing, students will grow in awareness of the relationship between athletics and contemporary society and come to recognize sports as a metaphor for the human condition, its social behavior, and the roles men and women play within it.

 

Students will read 6-8+ complete works over the year. The English 4 Curriculum extends the California Common Core State Standards for reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In addition to the study of sophisticated classic and modern literature, students also read and analyze a number of non-fiction pieces. The core works studied are Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, supplemented by many other works from the extended reading list, such as Lord of the Flies, 1984, and The Kite Runner. Students continue to write responses to literature but also learn to develop rhetorical modes useful to college and work situations, such as the college entrance essay. There is extensive study and application of literary terms (both in poetry and prose) as well as systematic vocabulary acquisition.

 

AP English 4 (HP) is a rigorous and expanded version of English 4 (CP) and is equivalent to an introductory college humanities course in Western Literature.  Students will gain a secure grounding in Western mythology and religious literature and be able to critically read, analyze and interpret several genres of ancient literature through contemporary texts:  epics, novels, plays, essays, short stories, and poetry.  Students will read extensively in the Western literary tradition, developing a clear understanding of significant literary forms, such as tragedy and the evolution of the tragic hero, and will broaden their understanding of perspectives and concerns raised by the rich selection in contemporary ethnic literature.  Considerable time will be given to textual analysis, both in regular class discussion and weekly written essay responses.  Special emphasis will be given to developing strong, polished, critical writing skills.  Students will be able to clearly analyze and effectively synthesize their interpretations of sophisticated pieces of writing, especially under college-type, time-pressured conditions.  Students should see AP English 4 as a solid preparatory step toward successful college and university study. 

Note:  Students are encouraged but not required to take the AP English Literature & Composition exam.