English Core Courses

ESL/ELL ENGLISH

Grades: 9-12

Credits:  5

Prerequisite: None

Pequannock Township’s English as a Second Language Program is designed to ensure that English Language Learners in ninth through twelfth grade develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in English to enable their full participation in the school and community environments. The ESL program is delivered through small group instruction by a certified ESL teacher and focuses on BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). English Language Learners are provided access to on-grade level content and skills through the use of materials appropriate to the language proficiency levels of the students.

ENGLISH I 

Grade: 9

Credits: 5

Prerequisite: None

The English I course, an introduction to literary perspectives from around the world, develops critical reading, analytical writing, and vocabulary, grammar, and research skills. Students will closely read a variety of classic and contemporary fiction and nonfiction selections including novels, short stories, epics, poems, plays, and primary source documents. Each unit contains a comprehensive study of a particular writing genre (narrative, expository, persuasive/argumentative, and literary analysis) as well as an introduction and reinforcement of literary terms and devices. Students will be challenged to build and broaden their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, laying a foundation for their subsequent courses of study. Completion of a summer reading assignment is required for this course. 

ENGLISH I HONORS 

Grade: 9

Credits: 5

Prerequisite: Meets Honors Rubric Requirements

The English I Honors course allows students to enhance their critical reading, analytical writing, and research skills through exposure to literary perspectives from around the world. Students will apply close reading strategies to a wide variety of text. Students will enrich their vocabularies and understanding of grammar. In addition to the proficiencies required of the students in the English I course; the honors students will approach required and supplemental texts at an advanced speed with a greater emphasis on literary criticism and analysis. Completion of a summer reading assignment is required for this course.

ENGLISH II 

Grade: 10

Credits: 5

Prerequisite: Successful completion of English I

The English II course explores the developing “American voice” from 18th century to contemporary literature. Through a range of fiction and nonfiction texts, students will strengthen active and critical reading by examining text structures, cultural perspectives, point of view, and an author’s use of diction and syntax, and how combined they contribute to the work as a whole.  Students will incorporate varied writing methods such as narrative, analytical, and expository writing that will emphasize the use of logical subordination, organization, and appropriate transitional devices. The ability to present thorough and comprehensive arguments will be emphasized in discussion, debate, and writing. Vocabulary and grammar skills will be reinforced and enhanced throughout the units. Completion of a summer reading assignment is required for this course.

ENGLISH II HONORS 

Grade: 10

Credits: 5

Prerequisite: Successful completion English I and teacher recommendation

The English II course explores the developing “American voice” from 18th century to contemporary literature. Through a range of fiction and nonfiction texts, students will strengthen active and critical reading by examining text structures, cultural perspectives, point of view, and an author’s use of diction and syntax, and how combined they contribute to the work as a whole. Honors students should demonstrate their ability to write varied genres of expressive and transactional papers, incorporating source material into the text of a paper smoothly and correctly. Enrichment of vocabulary and advancement of grammar and research skills will be integrated throughout the units. The honors course work is designed to prepare students for higher level studies in English literature. In addition to the proficiencies required of the students in English II, the honors students must fulfill the additional reading and related writing, viewing or speaking assignments taken from the required and supplemental works. Completion of a summer reading assignment is required for this course.

ENGLISH III

Grade: 11

Credits: 5

Prerequisite: Successful completion of English II

This course builds upon the reading and writing standards from grades 9-10 to help strengthen their language arts skills within the context of British Literature. Students will closely read short and full-length works and engage in analytical discussions. This course will require students to write informal and analytical essays on a variety of personal and literary themes with an examination of British Literature.  Writing tasks across the course will develop the expressive power of student writing through stress on the logic of thought, the strength of evidence, and the refinement of style. Analytical writing will emphasize responses to close reading along with a required research paper.  SAT strategies, selected vocabulary, and grammar skills focusing on usage and mechanics in writing will be emphasized throughout the units. Completion of a summer reading assignment is required for this course.

ENGLISH III HONORS 

Grade: 11

Credits: 5

Prerequisite: Successful completion English II and teacher recommendation

This course builds upon the reading and writing standards from grades 9-10 to help strengthen their language arts skills within the context of British Literature. Students will closely read short and full-length works and engage in analytical discussions. This course will require students to write informal and analytical essays on a variety of personal and literary themes with an examination of British Literature.  Students must demonstrate that they are able to write with greater explanation, emphasizing logic of thought, the strength of evidence, and the refinement of style. Analytical writing will emphasize responses to close reading along with a required research paper. In preparation for advanced studies, the honors students will have additional readings and writing assignments that must be fulfilled. Completion of a summer reading assignment is required for this course.

AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 

Grade: 11 or 12

Credits: 5

Prerequisites: Successful completion of English II or III and department recommendation

The goal and purpose of AP Language and Composition is to help students “write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their profession and personal lives.” Organized according to the requirements and guidelines of the current AP English Course description, the course presents a variety of reading and writing opportunities whereby students first examine and identify writers’ rhetorical choices in several examples of a particular mode of writing, and then practice those strategies in crafting original personal narratives, expository writing, and argumentative essays. Students will become critical consumers of a variety of texts and articulate their analysis clearly in both writing and speech. Students will gain an awareness of how writers’ linguistic choices create effective writing and stylistic effects as well as how to incorporate these techniques in their own writing.

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION 

Grade: 11 or 12

Credits: 5

Prerequisites: Successful completion of English II or III and department recommendation

A college level course, AP English is designed to prepare students for the AP Literature and Composition test, which all students are expected to take.  Students will develop mastery of skills required for the test and excellence throughout their college studies.  The course provides a comprehensive overview and intensive study of major works and types of literature, taking into account works already studied in high school and supplementing this with intensive study of significant pieces of literature from a wide variety of genres, cultures and time periods. Students write frequently, demonstrating careful analysis and attention to textual detail. They analyze and discuss the structure, style and themes of works, bearing in mind the historical contexts in which the works were produced and the social structures they reflect.

ENGLISH IV/ENGLISH IV HONORS 

Grade: 12

Credits: 5

Prerequisites: Successful completion of English III

During Junior year students are given the opportunity to vote on the genres of literature that will be presented during their senior English classes.  Students choose from Dystopian Literature and Science Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, War and Genocide in Literature and World Mythologies. The top two choices of the grade 11 student population will be the linked English IV courses. In this course students will continue to develop their critical reading, writing and analytical skills by examining a variety of literature in an array of genres. Students will read, analyze, and compare selected articles, stories, epic poems, and excerpts of novels and participate in an array of assessments from writing literary responses to essays, analyze universal themes across genres, and make logical arguments and use evidence to defend their positions. Students will focus on mastering the various elements of writing such as developing a thesis, improving use of conventions and styles of writing, and providing a strong analysis, evidence, and support to create a research paper. Students are expected to complete a research paper in either the first or second semester of Grade 12. 

Additional readings and writing that involve critical analysis and reasoning will be required of Honors students.  The strands students will vote on include:

DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE & SCIENCE FICTION 

Here students will examine alternative societies through texts that reveal the negative or frightening aspects and realities of our world.  By analyzing concepts of mass devastation, political and cultural oppression, widespread poverty and suffering, or public distrust, students will explore authors who examine these topics and their impact on humanity and will be asked to write, compare, analyze, and present those ideas and themes as an assessment of their learning. 

CONTEMPORARY FICTION  

Contemporary fiction provides students with a window to the realistic world.  Unlike fantasy or science fiction, contemporary fiction is set in modern times and reflects the current challenges, situations, and lives of contemporary fictional individuals and young adults. Stories may explore political motivation, raise social awareness, and present society in a manner that expresses the cultural values and questions of contemporary society.  Students will be asked to analyze, write, and compare a variety of texts and examine their influences on today’s society. 

WAR & GENOCIDE IN LITERATURE   

War & Genocide in Literature will investigate the different ways that regimes shaped the radicalization of mass violence in the first half of the 20th century and from 1945 on. The course covers periods of war, the rise of the Cold War and corresponding peace culture in Europe during the 1980s, and the return of genocide across continents in the 1990s. Special attention will be paid to the analysis of political discourses, propaganda, and race and gender practices. Students will engage in critical analysis of scholarly work, written testimonies, literature, films, and propaganda materials and will produce essays that respond to their studies.

WORLD MYTHOLOGIES    

World Mythologies will examine the collection of stories designed to explain nature, history, and other human phenomenon.  Students will explore the mythological elements that define man and our history.  They will explore heroes from Greek, Roman, Norse, and Eastern cultures and will be asked to make comparisons between the gods of different societies and to draw parallels to those historical times and today.  Students will read, analyze, and compare selected articles, stories, epic poems, and excerpts of novels and participate in an array of assessments from writing papers, making classroom presentations, and creating original projects.