Heroes and Villains

120--Heroes and Villains Half Year ½ credit

Recommended: 11th and 12th grade

Prerequisite: English 10 or AP Seminar

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student's senior year.

Good Guys and Bad Guys are all around us! Who doesn’t love a good villain and who doesn’t want the hero to win? While literature is full of heroes we love and villains we love to hate, we will also discuss the characteristics of heroes and villains in our society today. We begin in British Literature where we will study the origin of the hero story, focusing on the classic story of good and evil in Beowulf. Arguably the most celebrated hero of all time is King Arthur who saved England from ruin but then watched it fall around him. We then end our semester with our mythological study of the hero’s journey in Harry Potter. As this is a senior English elective, we will focus on skill study on close reading and literary analysis as well as continue to hone our writing skills, all while we read about heroes and their fight against villains.

Creative Writing B - Nonfiction

115—Creative Writing B – Nonfiction Half Year ½ credit

Recommended: 11th and 12th grade

Prerequisite: English 10 or AP Seminar

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student's senior year.

Creative Writing B—Nonfiction is the class to take for practice in writing many different types of nonfiction genres. As this class is designed in a workshop model, students will be writing daily, often using mentor texts from published authors as sources of inspiration for content and style. You will work together in writer’s groups to provide feedback and support as we participate together in the writing process. You will work with the college essay, write a memoir piece, complete food/review writing, opinion writing, travel writing, and personal profiles. For each unit, you will learn to apply the best methods, techniques and literary devices to the writing genre. Each unit has a culminating product; an application-ready college essay; a personal memoir; a published restaurant review and food personality research presentation; an opinion article on a current social issue; a travel piece, and a profile of a community member.

Mythology I

114 - Mythology I Half Year ½ credit

Recommended: 11th and 12th grade

Prerequisite: English 10 or AP Seminar

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student’s senior year.

Did you know that when people panic, they are reacting in the same way that the Titans did during their final battle with the Olympian gods when Pan shouted and startled them into flight?  Or that when you “dress to the nines,” the number refers to the nine Muses of Greek mythology, who were the epitome of beauty and creativity?  And that if people go berserk, they are emulating the Viking warriors of Norse myth—who believed that they were protected by Odin, and fought like wild beasts, going to battle dressed only in fur? (Bjorn meant “bear” and serkr meant “shirt.”)  In this course, we will study the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the Norse myths, focusing on the major gods and goddesses, stories, heroes, archetypes, and cultural messages, while also examining how mythology still appears in society today. 

Horror Fiction

158- Horror Fiction Half Year ½ credit

Recommended: 11th & 12 grade

Prerequisite: English 10 or AP Seminar

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student’s senior year.

This course explores the evolution, themes, and cultural significance of horror fiction from the Gothic tradition to modern psychological and supernatural horror. Students will analyze how writers use fear, suspense, the uncanny, and the monstrous to explore human nature and societal anxieties. Core texts include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, foundational Gothic works, and a range of short stories and contemporary pieces.

Film and Literature

134 - Film and Literature                                Half Year                                         ½  credit 

Recommended: 11th and 12th grade

Prerequisite: English 10 or AP Seminar

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student’s senior year.

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student’s senior year.  This course will examine the increasingly complex relationship between the moving image and the printed page. As media becomes ever more prevalent in all of our lives, it is important to recognize that film and its related media have a language that can and ought to be recognized, parsed, analyzed, and deeply understood. There will be high level reading of film study texts, film journal articles and film reviews. Students will be required to be active participants in film viewings and discussion. Student writings will include their own reviews of films they watch outside of class sessions, analyses of the dramatic, cinematic, narrative aspects of films, and comparisons of literary works and their cinematic adaptations. Concepts and information to be studied in this class will also include:  Narrative structures common to both film and fiction will be analyzed: for example, plot structure, characterization, point of view, setting, motif, symbolism, flashback and flash forward, irony, parody, and satire. As well, we will examine the translational issues inherent in converting non-fiction literature into documentary and/or docudrama productions. The history of film and film genres will also be studied.

American Crime

138 - American Crime Half Year ½  credit

Recommended:  11th and 12th grade

Prerequisite: English 10 or AP Seminar

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student’s senior year.

This course is for students interested in criminal justice topics. In this class, we will read and listen to a combination nonfiction articles, narrative novels, and podcasts that tell stories about real crime in America over the last two centuries. Some criminal cases could involve serial killers, mafia hits, museum capers, unsolved mysteries, or legendary murders. We will then research the current justice system, federal and state laws, plus any of the specific criminal cases from these stories, and argue about “whodunnit?” and if they got the sentence they deserved. There will also be an independent reading/listening component, and possible interactions with forensics teachers, local lawyers, and law enforcement officers.

College Composition 

157--College Composition         Half Year                       ½  credit

Recommended: 12th grade

Prerequisite: American Lit A&B or AP Language & Composition

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student’s senior year.

*An Early College Class (3 NHTI credits) 

In this course, students learn to write clearly and effectively for defined audiences through a variety of strategies. Emphasis is on the writing process from pre-writing through drafting, revising, and editing. Students gain confidence through learning the basic principles in writing essays and documented papers. Students become aware of the variety of strategies, behaviors, habits, and attitudes and choose those that help them improve. Through the Early College at Your High School program, students are eligible to receive college credit at NHTI.

Revenge and Redemption

159 - Revenge and Redemption Half Year 1/2 credit

Recommended: 11th and 12th grade

Prerequisite: English 10 or AP Seminar

This course is an approved senior English elective if taken during the student’s senior year.

This semester-long interdisciplinary course explores Alexandre Dumas' masterpiece The Count of Monte Cristo as a lens for understanding complex historical, cultural, and literary dynamics. Students will engage in a comprehensive examination of 19th-century French society, literary analysis, and global human experiences through an immersive, multi-perspective study.