Students will gain valuable cultural insight as they read and write about works depicting the social, personal, religious, and political struggles and triumphs faced by people all over the world and all through history. Students will continue to build their literacy skills by engaging in active reading, composition, speaking and listening activities, vocabulary study, and focused research projects. To become critical consumers of text, students will be exposed to increasingly more complex texts to which they apply those skills. As a result of the reading, writing, speaking, and listening students will do in this course, they will continue to develop their understanding of effective communication, as well as gain a broader perspective of literature.