1051y / 1052y-H              

Perspectives in Language & Literature                         

Full Year / 1 credit / Grades 11, 12

Prerequisites: 

No prerequisites for students taking this course for Standard level credit.

Students who wish to take the course for Honors credit must complete all assigned honors summer work and receive teacher recommendation based on Q1 performance and grade (minimum B+) in Perspectives in Language and Literature.

Course Description: 

Perspectives in Language and Literature is a two-year course that explores multiple perspectives through the lens of culture, gender, race, and psychology in a variety of literary and non-literary texts.  These texts will vary in length, subject matter, and point of view, but will be connected by the overarching theme of identity and self in the first year and power in the second year.  This course places considerable importance on developing the students' reading ability to confront and understand unfamiliar perspectives, independently research unknown and complex materials, and draw inferences from or make connections to perspectives perhaps different from their own.

In addition to a wide-range of reading, students will be challenged to think critically about texts and ideas and communicate their own opinions effectively through writing and speaking.  Students will hone their voice in writing while practicing thesis statement construction, essay organization and development. Discussion, seminars, and oral presentations will also be used throughout the course to strengthen student speaking and listening skills.

Students will also use new technologies, such as podcasting, to enhance their long-form storytelling, oral communication, researching and speech delivery skills.

Students will also strengthen their research skills through further study of the authors, cultures, philosophies, politics, literary / aesthetic movements, and subjects represented by the diverse texts.  The goal of this class is for students to understand the literary and non-literary works in the context of different perspectives and through their connections gain a better understanding of the complex factors that comprise the self.

Students may choose to take the course for one or both years of the two-year cycle.