Literary and Non-Literary Genres

Grade Level: 10

Credit: 2 English Credits

Full-year, 5-day per week course

Literary and Non-Literary Genres will prepare students as active readers, critical thinkers and accurate writers through the study of literature and non-literary texts—short stories, propaganda, novels, advertisements, dramatic works, memoirs and poems—from a variety of time periods and cultural origins. Students will explore complex texts through discussion and extensive writing assignments designed to cultivate the ability to interpret literary and stylistic elements and write substantive analysis. Special attention will be paid to developing an academic vocabulary and the skill of close-reading—the focused re-reading of shorter passages to produce a detailed analysis of the effect of the author’s choices about language, structure and meaning. Students will have opportunities to write creatively and will routinely present work to their class for both feedback and celebration. Previously studied works include: Fahrenheit 451, Night, Frankenstein, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Julius Caesar, as well as short stories and poems by Junot Diaz, Amy Tan, Ursula LeGuin, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath and others.

Note: Students will take the Common Core English Regents exam up completion of this course (June of the sophomore year)