English

11/12 English Honors Credit

Students seeking challenge beyond the already rigorous college prep curriculum may earn honors credit in any English literature course in eleventh or twelfth grade by enrolling in the honors section, where they will complete independent readings (novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short story), annotating additional texts, meet with other honors students to discuss texts, and complete timed analytical in-class essays or analytical essays outside of class.

11/12 English AP Credit

To earn AP credit, students must complete TWO literature classes at the honors level--one semester-long course in their junior year and one quarter-long literature course in their senior year, and all assignments within these courses to complete the AP Portfolio, meeting College Board Advanced Placement standards. Each semester or quarter-long course requires reading an independent text; annotating the work(s); discussing it with other honors students; and writing lengthy essays outside of class and completing in-class, analytical essay responses. These essay prompts are similar to open-ended questions from the national AP Literature and Composition test but adjusted to encompass the themes, symbols, and meanings of the AP literature options in ARHS courses. 

Note: *Students exiting our ELL program or Special Education English courses into mainstream English classes will take (tenth grade) Literature, Writing, & Public Speaking before moving into upper-level literature and writing courses, regardless of grade. This provides a critical foundation needed to access skills and concepts in upper-level courses and sets students up for success.

Course Descriptions:

Writing and Literature (0023) (English 9)

Credits: 4

Prerequisite: None. Students may select the honors option after experiencing several weeks of class.

In this introductory writing and literature course, students read a variety of genres including an epic, modern drama, a memoir, a graphic novel, and narrative non-fiction. All are selected to acquaint them with examples of great literature from ancient to modern and contemporary times.  The texts include most of the following: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Marjane Satrapis’s Persepolis, Dashka Slater’s The 57 Bus, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Elie Wiesel’s Night, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. These works serve as models for students’ own compositions; students experiment with a variety of personal, analytical, and imaginative pieces. Fundamentals of grammar and usage, paragraph and essay development, voice and style, and the responsible use of outside sources for research assignments are introduced and reinforced.  

Literature, Writing, and Public Speaking (0025) (English 10)

Credits: 4

Prerequisite: English 9.  Students may select the honors option after experiencing several weeks of class.

In Literature, Writing, and Public Speaking, required for all tenth graders, students will study literature as social criticism, largely focusing on texts written by BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled writers. Their study will be framed by essential social justice questions about culture and belonging, power and voice, identity, and oppression and liberation. Students will read Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, August Wilson’s Fences, Rebekah Taussig’s Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body; and contemporary living poets. Honors choices include Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You, Jimmy Santiago Baca’s A Place To Stand, Jacob Tobia’s Sissy, and J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. All students will learn to deconstruct complex literary themes, symbolism, and figurative language; craft analytical, creative, and reflective papers for a writing portfolio; and participate in class discussion with their peers. Students will master the art of public speaking, learning to write and speak with passion, in order to perform lively persuasive, emotional, and informative speeches.

ELEVENTH GRADE LITERATURE COURSE OPTIONS

These courses are semester-long. Students may take ONE.

African-American Literature 11 (010a)

African-American Literature/Honors 11 (010b)

Credits: 4

Prerequisite: English 10

In African-American Literature students study major texts written by Black authors and then work with a community of writers and activists to analyze literature and film. Texts include: Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Richard Wright’s Native Son, Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and Octavia Butler’s Kindred. The major texts are supplemented with close analysis of Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, Spike Lee’s feature film Malcolm X, and poetry, short stories, and essays, providing a rich cultural and historical context for literary analysis. Throughout the course, students will address systemic and institutional racism; slavery, colonialism, and mass incarceration; and literary resistance, activism, and radicalism. In addition to reading and thinking about racial justice, students will become part of a connected community of writers, actively engaged in the world of literary analysis.

American Literature and Nature (012a)
American Literature & Nature/Honors (012b)
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: English 10

Through a variety of voices, genres, and media, this class will explore the tension between the myth of the "American Dream" as it exists alongside the "American Reality" via John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and selections from Emerson and Thoreau, as well as an assortment of poetry, articles, and film. Students will not only learn about nature as a symbol in literature, but they will also keep a nature journal where they will deepen their own connection to and understanding of the natural world.

American Literature and Society 11 (015a)

American Literature and Society/Honors 11 (015b)

Credits: 4

Prerequisite: English 10

Journalist and educator Nikole Hannah-Jones has called the U.S. “a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie.” This course invites students to engage with the hope and harm embedded at the core of the American experiment through texts including, but not limited to: Toni Morrison’s Sula, Hanif Abdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. Students will also help explore and share new works, across multiple mediums, that decenter the United States in favor of the Americas, enabling us to better explore indigeneity, migration, colonization, and reflect the U.S. as one version of a colonial project rather than a universally accepted goal. Students should expect extensive reading, writing (both narrative and analytical), and significant opportunities to practice meaningful discussion.

Bible and Related Literature  (011a)

Bible and Related Literature/ Honors (011b) 

Credits: 4

Prerequisite:  English 10

This course examines the Bible as a collection of literature. Students read and discuss excerpts from Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel I and II, Job, and the story of Jonah as well as selections from the Christian Bible. Course readings also include classic and modern stories, poems, and plays related to the Bible. Students write commentaries, analytical essays, and original compositions. Students also prepare oral presentations on biblical books not studied in class and collect references to the Bible from popular culture. Related texts may include Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, José Saramago’s Cain, Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent, Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, and Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.

Contemporary Literature 11 (0252a)

Contemporary Literature/Honors 11 (0252b)

Credits: 4 

Prerequisite: English 10

Contemporary Literature covers novels, short stories, and poems written by authors of a variety of races, ethnicities, backgrounds, and classes; each text we study was published within the last 20 years. Through their study of literature, students will critically question and discuss complexities regarding immigration, dislocation, discrimination, intergenerational trauma, family dynamics, personal freedom, social responsibility, and the resilience of the human spirit. Texts include: Station 11, by Emily St. John Mandel; The Namesake and short stories, by Jhumpa Lahiri; Citizen Illegal by Jose Oliverez; The Leavers by Lisa Ko; and There, There by Tommy Orange. Honors texts and choice texts vary year to year.

LGBTQ Literature 11 (020a)

LGBTQ Literature/Honors 11 (020b)

Credits: 4

Prerequisite: English 10

The resilience, resistance, and revolution in the queer community is inspiring. The LGBTQ Literature class is divided into five major sections, moving in chronological order from the mid-1900s to the present day. Primary texts were written by LGBTQ authors during eras of legal and social oppression; conformity and self-loathing; anger and activism; and finally, pride and acceptance. The course focuses on renowned modern and contemporary American literature, including James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle or Isabel Miller’s Patience and Sarah, Gabby Rivera’s Juliet Takes a Breath, and Amy Ellis Nutt’sBecoming Nicole or Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars. The honors text is Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Each unit includes a combination of critical essays, poetry, short stories, and film, providing a rich cultural and historical context for literary analysis. 

TWELFTH GRADE QUARTER-LONG LITERATURE COURSE OPTIONS 

Students should choose at least one literature elective. The other elective choice can be another literature elective OR a writing elective (in section following this one). Students cannot select a senior version of a course they previously took in junior year (African American Literature in 11th and then again in 12th, for example).

African-American Literature 12 (0363)

African-American Literature/Honors 12 (0363b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12.

In African-American Literature students study major texts written by Black authors and then work with a community of writers and activists to analyze literature and film. Texts include: Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Richard Wright’s Native Son, Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and Octavia Butler’s Kindred. The major texts are supplemented with close analysis of Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, Spike Lee’s feature film Malcolm X, poetry, short stories, and essays, providing a rich cultural and historical context for literary analysis. Throughout the course, students will address systemic and institutional racism; slavery, colonialism, and mass incarceration; and literary resistance, activism, and radicalism. In addition to reading and thinking about racial justice, students will become part of a connected community of writers, actively engaged in the world of literary analysis.

British Literature 12 (0342a)
British Literature/Honors 12 (0342b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12

This quarter-long course includes selections of British Literature from its beginnings in the Middle Ages to the present, with a strong emphasis on the expanded literary diversity of the twentieth century. British Literature spans over a thousand years, from its beginnings in the early Middle Ages to the present; “surveying” this tradition would be an impossible task for a single quarter. Additionally, Britain’s colonial history has had a dramatic effect on what can be considered “British Literature.” This course will take into deep consideration the colonial history of British culture through literature. Students will read a variety of texts with supplemental material to provide historical and cultural context. Response assignments will explore the historical and cultural aspects raised by the texts. Foundational course texts will include: Beowulf and Frankenstein, as well as the contemporary text Exit West.  The honors project is an independent project that includes a choice from a selection of Booker Prize-winning texts and short-listed nominees.

Disability Justice Literature 12 (0364a)

Disability Justice Literature Honors/12 (0364b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12

Though people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world, and a sizable percentage of students have diagnosed and undiagnosed disabilities, literature by disabled writers and concepts of disability justice are rarely centered in public school curricula. This quarter-long course will introduce students to important disabled writers and activists; critical moments of disability history in the United States (including activism to pass ADA and 504 legislation and to end institutionalization); and the transformative work of the BIPOC and queer-led Disability Justice Collective over the last two decades. Students will explore social and cultural models of disability; visible and invisible disabilities; ableism and disability justice; and communities of care, especially among disabled people on the margins. Class readings are non-fiction focused (mostly memoirs, essays, films, and podcasts). They include Year of the Tiger and Disability Visibility, by Alice Wong; The Secret Life Of A Black Aspie, by Anand Prahlad; The Pretty One, by Keah Brown; Deaf Utopia, by Nyle DiMarco; and Brilliant Imperfection, by Eli Clare, as well as numerous films that explore the lives and experiences of disabled people. 

LGBTQ Literature 12 (0211a)

LGBTQ Literature/Honors 12 (0211b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12

The resilience, resistance, and revolution in the queer community is inspiring. The LGBTQ Literature class is divided into five major sections, moving in chronological order from the mid-1900s to the present day. Primary texts were written by LGBTQ authors during eras of legal and social oppression; conformity and self-loathing; anger and activism; and finally, pride and acceptance. The course focuses on renowned modern and contemporary American literature, including James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle, Gabby Rivera’s Juliet Takes a Breath, and Amy Ellis Nutt’s Becoming Nicole or Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars. The honors text is Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Each unit includes a combination of critical essays, poetry, short stories, and film, providing a rich cultural and historical context for literary analysis. 

Renaissance & Modern Literature & Philosophy (014a)

Renaissance & Modern Literature & Philosophy/ Honors  (014b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12

This quarter-long course will introduce significant texts from the Renaissance to the modern era. Students examine the nature of Western culture, unearth its foundations and explore alongside the great writers of the past such philosophical questions as the nature of God, the nature of humanity, the meaning and purpose of human existence. In class discussions and written commentaries, students trace the history of Western thought from Shakespeare to the twentieth century and examine how the creative imagination has transformed ideas not only into literature but also into architecture, visual art, and music.  The course texts may include any of the following: William Shakespeare’s King Lear, John Milton’s Paradise Lost,  Molière’s Tartuffe, Voltaire’s Candide, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women,  Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, and Jean Paul-Sartre’s No Exit, and Albert Camus’s The Stranger.

TWELFTH GRADE QUARTER-LONG WRITING COURSE OPTIONS 

Students must choose at least one literature elective (above). Students may pair this with a writing course (below) or with a second literature elective.

Creative Writing 12 (036a) 

Creative Writing/Honors 12 (036b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12

This course is designed for students who want to be part of a community of writers, actively engaged in the world of creative writing. Students will write in various genres and styles, including short stories, poetry, monologue/dialogue, and plays. After students generate new material, they will work in groups to learn how to revise deeply.  As they are writing, all students will study mentor texts to develop a deeper understanding of the craft of writing. For the final project, students may choose to explore any genre of interest. Throughout the course, students are strongly encouraged to submit their work for publication to ARHS' literary journal, The Minks. The Honors option is an independent, quarter-long reading and writing project.

Journalistic Writing 12 (035a)

Journalistic Writing/Honors 12 (035b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12

Journalistic Writing is an English course dedicated to helping students to write with clarity and economy, improve organization, and tell compelling stories with accuracy, objectivity, and bravery. The course often utilizes a workshop format, and its main business is to produce high-quality written work that will likely see a real audience.  Students have the opportunity to submit stories to The Graphic, the award-winning ARHS school newspaper, which publishes approximately two times a semester (by an after-school staff). Students learn the fundamentals of reporting and interviewing and master news, profile, club, sports, editorial, feature, and investigative styles. They also read extensively in regional and national newspapers, analyze the reporting of current events, and discuss the role of the media in society. The Honors option is an independent, quarter-long reading and writing project; students will read lengthy non-fiction text(s) by Pulitzer-prize-winning journalists and will write an essay exploring themes in their work. 

Expository Writing: Writing About Music (047a)

Expository & Narrative Writing/Honors: Writing About Music (047b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 10 and 11. Open to grade 12

This new iteration of Expository Writing invites students to center music as an essential text for close listening, reading, and writing. Using the United States as a starting place, students will survey ~100 years of recorded sound, and consider the social, political, and technological forces that have made music central to how humans make sense of ourselves and the world. In addition to weekly exploration of and engagement with musical eras, genres, and technologies, students will also reflect on and write about the role music has played in their own lives. Students should expect to listen deeply in and outside of their preferred genres and eras, write every day, and read widely through various selections and eras of music criticism and histories. Our core text -  How To Write About Music - will be supplemented by excerpts from texts including, but not limited to, Hanif Abdurraqib’s Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on A Tribe Called Quest, Michael Azzerad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, Questlove’s Hip Hop is History, Jessica Hopper’s The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, and many more.

Expository Writing 12: Creative Nonfiction (048a)

Expository Writing 12 Honors: Creative Nonfiction (048b)

Credits: 2

Prerequisite:  English 11. Open to grade 12.

In this course, students write in a range of essay formats, with an emphasis on creative non-fiction. Students regularly read and comment on one another’s work, then re-draft their work in light of comments from the teacher and one another.  This close contact with their readers is the writer’s opportunity for experimentation.  The course has no textbook but uses examples of short essays to demonstrate writing techniques.  Most classes will also use some form of reader’s journal, to encourage each student to practice styles and strategies encountered in books they read on their own. A final writing project is required. The Honors option is an independent, term-long reading and writing project.