English Electives - Half Year

ANIMALS IN LITERATURE: SPECIES EMPATHY
EN47 - ½ English Credit - ½ Year

Offered in the spring semester only.

This elective English course will explore the use of animals as pivotal characters in literature. The course will address both fiction and nonfiction, including novels, the work of various philosophers and naturalists, short stories, poetry and film. Students will write literary analysis, responses to writing and film, and articulate their own arguments and ideas about the animal/human relationship. There will also be an opportunity to write original poetry and experiment with memoir. Come ready to read and partake in lively discussion.

Animals in Literature includes a Reading to Dogs program where seniors will visit local elementary schools with therapy dogs trained to be good listeners, which helps struggling readers increase their fluency.

COLLEGE WRITING 101

EN42 - ½ English Credit - ½ Year

Offered in the fall semester only.

Using writing-centered activities and a workshop approach, this senior English elective teaches students writing techniques necessary for college success. The first term will be devoted to personal writing and the college application process. Literary selections will explore the theme of search for identity and voice. In this course, students will develop a portfolio of essays that includes different modes of writing: personal narrative (college essay), description, persuasive argument, comparison-contrast, and informative, Standards in research and integrating and citing sources will be applied. As well, students will study grammar as a means of improving rhetoric and style.

The second term will be devoted to researching, writing, and orally defending a Senior Thesis, on a subject of personal interest within an academic field. This project is inquiry-inspired.

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: DISCOVERING VOICE

EN49 - ½ English Credit - ½ Year

This class does not offer a designated fall unit on the College Essay.

Creative Writing Workshop is a serious writing class for students who enjoy writing (as well as reading) the kinds of pieces that are not commonly assigned in English classes.

Creative Writing is a workshop format; you will be writing every day.

(You will be sharing your drafts with other students in order to improve your pieces.) You may write 100-word stories, and you may write 1,000-word stories.

You will write poems and more poems. Poems about objects (maybe a toaster), poems about lunch (the café haiku), goofy love poems and hate poems, poems about the past and future, poems about cartoons and fairy tales, poems about photographs. And maybe a poem about Uncle Louie. You may paint poems and “poem” paintings. (Did you catch that?) You might write a one-act play.

You will read and respond to writing as well. It is also likely that you will write a personal essay about what you sincerely believe in—we call this the “This I Believe” essay. The hope is that you will find out that even those of us who have tiny voices have something very important to say.

Requirements for course:

1) an understanding of this course description

2) a positive attitude and an open mind

3) a serious work ethic and

4) the belief that the process of writing can unlock great ideas that have been hiding within us

FILM AS LITERATURE
EN46 - ½ English Credit - ½ Year

This class does not offer a designated fall unit on the College Essay

This half-year senior elective explores film as a visual text and attempts to transform students from passive audience members to active film analysts who are able to think and write critically about film. After studying the basic vocabulary and history of cinema, students will analyze the many ways in which films create meaning, including various editing techniques and key elements of mise-en-scène. A range of classic and modern films will be examined, such as the cinematic works of George Méliès, Buster Keaton, Alfred Hitchcock, Carol Reed, Milos Forman, and Christopher Nolan. Students in this course should expect regular assignments involving reading, writing, and oral presentation. Reading assignments will center on film history, film theory, and film criticism; and writing assignments will include film analysis essays, film reviews, short responses to film, and even dialogue and action for possible movie scenes. If you are interested in studying film as far more than mere entertainment, then Film as Literature is for you!

HOME AND AWAY

EN50 - ½ English Credit - ½ Year

This class does not offer a designated fall unit on the College Essay.

Home and Away is a senior elective designed around the study of American travel novels. In this course, students will embark on a series of adventures around America, after briefly learning about our own literary history on Cape Cod.

Two novels of adventure and self-discovery by Steinbeck and Kerouac will provide the backbone for our trips across the country. If you are interested in learning about your community, your country, and yourself, this course is for you. Students will be required to complete reading assignments, essays, projects, and a journal-based final project.

SCREENWRITING, PLAYWRITING, and CREATIVE WRITING

TH40 - ½ Elective (English) Credit - ½ Year

This is a half year course designed as a writing workshop where students will learn the basic principles of writing screenplays, stage plays and short stories. Then they will use those principles to write their own works. As they work on their writings, they will share them with their classmates and critique one another. Students will then use the critiques to edit their work. The goal will be to have one or two finished works depending on their length.