English

This course integrates the study of literature with instruction in the writing process. Students will explore the ideas and issues of literature while improving their writing, speaking, listening, thinking and language skills. Materials include poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction.

Using works of world literature, the student will explore themes of human experience and inquiry. The literature will include novels, plays, stories and poetry by historical and contemporary authors from around the world. This literature-based program provides instruction and experiences for students to build their listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking skills.

This course provides rigorous and challenging experiences for the student in the areas of critical reading, critical thinking, effective discussion, note-taking, expository writing and research. The core of the curriculum is a chronological or thematic study of American literature, its literary periods and major writings.Selected readings will include both classic and contemporary authors from a variety of cultural backgrounds to demonstrate how their collective voices and experiences create the fabric of American culture.

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 also shows how generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing This course uses a survey of American literature and writing from the beginning of the country to modern times with which to frame the studies of language and composition.

This course presents students with new ways to view multiple literary genres including, but not limited to, drama, speech, multimedia text, expository text, and the novel. Students will analyze and evaluate their world through the lenses of the texts they read and write about during this course. They will become more critical consumers of the written and spoken word through an ongoing examination of how an author manipulates a text's structure and syntax to illustrate a point. Students will explore themes of personal reflection and the human condition through expository and literary essays, creative non-fiction, persuasive speeches, and class discussions. Students will complete a senior thesis, which involves extensive, in-depth research on an individual topic and interaction with members of the community.

This Advanced Placement English course in Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style and themes, as well as smaller-scale elements, such as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone. The course includes intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods, concentrating on selections that do not yield all of their pleasures of thought and feeling the first time through. Students will read deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a work’s complexity in order to absorb its richness of meaning and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form.

Grade level: any
College eligibility: Does not meet A-G requirements
Recommended Coursework: Placement determined by appropriate English Language Assessment

This course is designed for students who already have a foundational knowledge of English in academic and communicative vocabulary, sentence structure, reading of non-fictional and fictional texts, and writing. Through quality interactive instruction and activities, students will continue to build cognitive academic language proficiency in all four skill areas. Texts will be of greater length and complexity. Students will be introduced to additional expository and narrative writing genres, including persuasive, research and biographical essays.

Grade level: any
College eligibility: UC and CSU approved college preparatory English, subject area B
Recommended Coursework: ELD 2 or placement determined by English Language Assessment

This course is designed for advanced learners of English as an additional language. Students acquire sophisticated academic and communicative vocabulary, sentence structure, reading of non-fictional and fictional texts, and writing. Students read non-fictional and fictional texts of demanding length and complexity in various genres to prepare them for advanced mainstream English and courses in other content areas. Through quality interactive instruction and activities, a print-rich environment, and public speaking experiences, students will continue to solidify cognitive academic language proficiency in all four skill areas. Students will be introduced to additional expository and narrative writing genres, including full research reports and reflective essays.