English 12 Options
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Senior English Options
Senior English Options
In this course, students will compose several forms of creative writing (fiction, poetry, short film, lyrics, essays, drama, and multi-media forms that blend written and visual language). Students will also examine how creative literature from America and the world written after 1970 fits into the contemporary landscape and how these texts compare to classic writers and time periods. Students’ creative writing projects will reflect the contemporary themes that are important to them.
UNITS OF STUDY:
Unit 1 – FILM: We study contemporary film (2000-present) with the goal of figuring out what contemporary films say about how we as people and as a society have changed from previous generations. You will write analytical notes and participate in a small group discussion circle.
Unit 2 – SETTING: We study setting in contemporary fiction, and we learn how to write interesting, engaging settings for our own stories. You will close read texts and write a setting description.
Unit 3 – CHARACTER: We study character in contemporary writing, and we learn how to create interesting, engaging characters for our stories. You will close read texts and write character sketches.
Unit 4 – DIALOGUE: We study dialogue in contemporary writing, and we learn how to create interesting, engaging dialogues for plays and stories. You will write a scene of dialogue.
Unit 5 – CONFLICT: We study conflict in contemporary writing, and we learn how to create engaging, suspenseful plots. Additionally, we study archetypes and how contemporary writers approach archetypes. This unit requires close reading notes and a short story (which can be a fairytale transformation tale).
Unit 6 – POETRY: we study several specific strategies for developing engaging, interesting poetry. This unit requires a poetry portfolio.
Unit 7 – MULTI-MEDIA: we study the role of art, music, and technology in contemporary writing, and, in turn, collaborate with the art department to create a piece of contemporary multi-media.
For more information you can view the course syllabus.
Speculative fiction, both science fiction and fantasy, explore society and human nature by holding up a mirror to reality. This class will ask students to do the same, by reading science and fantasy fiction, by studying the non-fiction history, mythology and science that fuels them, and by writing their own. It will ask students to develop their own opinions about society by analyzing class readings and writing some of their own science fiction and fantasy.
UNITS OF STUDY:
Semester 1
Unit 1: I Need A Hero
Major Text: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Assessment: Fantasy Short Story
Unit 2: With Great Power Comes Great Research
Major Text: Student-Selected Lit Circle Novel
Assessment: Research Project
Semester 2
Unit 3: First Contact
Major Text: Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Assessment: Design an Alien Civilization
Unit 4:Riding the Tech Wave
Major Text: Student-Selected Lit Circle Novel
Assessment: The Technology Ad Campaign
For more information you can view the course syllabus.
Leadership Studies will focus on the concept and application of leadership in society. The class will explore how leadership has evolved and investigate what it means to be a leader. Students will study qualities needed to develop effective leadership and ultimately determine their own preferred leadership style. The course will culminate in an extended Service Learning project where students will determine a community issue, solicit a community mentor, and then research and plan a solution. Due to cap size limitation to meet the Service Learning component of this course, application is required.
For more information you can view the course syllabus.
While studying a region’s literature, students will experience its culture first-hand through local field trips and guest speakers. Assessments will include presentations, essays, quizzes, a multimedia project, and an inquiry research essay. The broader aim of the course is to develop post-high school readiness alongside cultural literacy.
For more information you can view the course syllabus.
This course allows students to see how their perception is created and ultimately bleeds into the literature they read and view. Throughout the course, students build understanding of the relationship between point of view and critical theory as they are asked to move beyond the text and look at the social impacts of both film and literature. They apply multiple critical perspectives to film, non-fiction, fiction and non-print texts and investigate influences on a text.
UNITS OF STUDY:
Unit 1: Post High School Research –Students will research their post high school avenue of interest (college, military, etc).
Unit 2: Critical Lens and Theory Study – Applying multiple critical perspectives to drama, non-fiction, and non-print texts.
Unit 3: A Novel Study – Investigating multiple influences on a text, including character’s voices, setting, literary devices and events.
Unit 4: Research Portfolio – Creating and revising a self-selected guiding question for research and composing an argumentative essay portfolio and possible presentation.
Unit 5: Shakespeare Study–Exploring multiple interpretations of drama and developing argumentative writing skills through the use of critical perspectives.
Unit 6: Media Study – Investigating different forms of media and how they shape or interpret a variety of perspectives on any given event/concept.
For more information you can view the course syllabus.
World Mythology will focus on the study of the beginnings of world culture and present a cross-cultural and historical survey of world myths. It will take students on a mythological journey beginning with Greek and Roman then Middle Eastern to Norse and Celtic then continuing with Asian and South Pacific then on to India and finishing with the Americas and African mythology. This course will enable students to recognize the relationship of mythology to other fields; i.e. philosophy, science, art, history and find connections to our world today.
UNITS OF STUDY:
Unit 1: Post High School Plans/College Essay/Personal Statements
Unit 2: Greek and Roman Mythology
Unit 3: Middle Eastern Mythology
Unit 4: Mythology and its impact on classical literature
Unit 5: Norse and Celtic Mythology
Unit 6: East Meets West Mythology (Eygptian, African, Indian, Asian, Native American & Polynesian)
TEXTS: Introduction to Mythology : Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths (Eva M. Thury and Margaret K. Devinney)
Medea (Euripides)
The Theban Plays (Sophocles)
The Inferno (Dante Alighieri)
The Children of Odin (Padraic Colum)
The Ulaid Cycle: The Tale of Cu’Chulainn (multiple authors)
King Arthur: Tales from the Round Table (Andrew Lang)
For more information you can view the course syllabus.
College Preparatory English
College Preparatory English is a course that develops skills in reading, critical thinking, research and writing to support student success across all college majors and career pathways. Throughout this course, students will engage in the exploration of self, community, and advocacy. Students will evaluate social issues and how they are created, reinforced, silenced or supported. Students will select a topic of interest to research and present as a capstone project. In addition to the development of valuable insight, skills, and competencies, successful completion of the course with an overall grade of C or better guarantees student placement into college credit-bearing courses with a reading or writing prerequisite at any Illinois community college and select universities in Illinois.
Dual Credit
Dual Credit
English 101
English 101
First semester of one-year college English course normally required by all universities and colleges. Emphasis on improvement of communication through intensive work in composition, reading and skills of discussion. Major objective of course is to develop proficiency in writing thoughtful, well-organized, effective essays. Various forms of prose are studied to help the student achieve a critical understanding of both form and content and to serve as the basis of student essays. Course fees apply. For more information you can view the English 101/102 syllabus.
English 102
English 102
Second semester of one-year college English course normally required by all universities and colleges. Emphasis on achieving logic and precision in handling such extensive compositions as the research paper and persuasive and critical themes based on literature or other academic disciplines. Course fees apply. For more information you can view the English 101/102 syllabus.
AP
AP
UNITS OF STUDY: The AP English Language and Composition course enables students to read and listen to complex texts with understanding and to write and speak “prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers” and listeners (AP Course Description). Students read and listen to engaging and challenging texts providing them with ideas and models for their own writing and speaking. Through exposure to multiple perspectives, genres, and ideas, students will expand their reading and listening interests and enjoyment even as their analytical abilities and writing skills mature.
Upon completion of AP English Language and Composition:
students will be able to analyze and interpret a wide variety of texts (primarily nonfiction) with a strong understanding of rhetorical strategies and techniques.
students will be able to analyze how an author or speaker creates and uses tone, voice, diction, figurative language, and sentence structure to effectively communicate meaning to specific audiences. They then will be able to apply appropriate rhetorical structures and modes in their own written and oral communication.
students will be able to describe their own use of and move effectively through the stages of the rhetorical process.
students will be able to write and speak in a variety of modes (including narrative, exploratory, expository, analytical, and argumentative), drawing on source texts to support a complex and mature position.
Semester 1
Summer Writing Assignment
Destination Essays
Journalism Project
Rhetorical Analysis Student Led Discussion
Literary Analysis Paper (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)
Lit Circle Project: Non-Fiction Book of Ideas
Synthesis Essay
Current Events: Student-Led Discussions of Brief Issue Articles
AP Test Prep
Semester 2
Humor Piece
Argumentation: Persuasive Essay
Problem/Solution Research Paper
Language Study Essay
Advertising Analysis Presentations
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Critical Review: Documentary Film Analysis Presentation
Argumentation: Persuasive Essay
Problem/Solution Research Paper
Language Study Essay
Advertising Analysis Presentations
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Critical Review: Documentary Film Analysis Presentation
Current Events: Student-Led Discussions of Extended Essays
AP Test Prep
For more information you can view the syllabus here.
AP English Literature and Composition is a college-level study of challenging American, English, and World literature in all genres. Students read and analyze literary works from thematic, historical, and critical perspectives, and are expected to write complex prose that communicates effectively with mature readers.
UNITS OF STUDY:
What does it mean to be a student of literature?
What makes writing and thinking sophisticated?
What does it mean to be a student of poetry?
What separates man from the divine?
What does it mean to be human in a world filled with blindness?
Is an individual’s sense of self impacted by how others see them?
What does it mean to be an individual within a changing world?
How does power and ambition impact humanity?
What does it mean to be human?
TEXT: The Bedford Introduction to Literature 10th Edition Michael Meyer, 2013
NOVELS: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Paradise Lost by John Milton, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Various Independent Reading novel from the AP Central List.
For more information you can view the syllabus here.
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