This course is designed to mirror the reading and writing rigor of a university level English course while preparing students to take the associated AP exam in May. Students might gain college credit if they earn a score on the AP exam that meets their future university’s requirements. This course emphasizes the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing styles that are commonly encountered in post- secondary education and professional fields. Literature in this course focuses on non-fiction writing and American documents of cultural and historical significance. A Summer Enrichment Project is required.

The goal of the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) is to prepare college-bound seniors for the literacy demands of higher education. Through a sequence of several rigorous instructional modules, students in this year-long, rhetoric-based course develop advanced proficiencies in expository, analytical and argumentative reading and writing. Modules provide instruction in research methods and documentation conventions. Students will be expected to increase their awareness of the rhetorical strategies employed by authors, and to apply those strategies to their own writing. They will read closely to examine the relationship between an author’s argument or theme and his or her audience and purpose, to analyze the impact of structural and rhetorical strategies, and to examine the social, political, and philosophical assumptions that underlie the text.

This course will enable students to become critical viewers of all types of film and appreciate its cultural and societal relevance. Students will study a variety of film genres with the goal to open the film viewing experience and analyze a film’s components to better understand the workings of the whole process. Students will learn to critically analyze and express ideas clearly through writing projects. Students will engage in formal, structured writing utilizing MLA format and demonstrate a mastery of skill aligned with core English courses and Common Core Standards.