(HS100010, SCED 01055) 2 credits

Full Year

*Note: Students who successfully complete this course will earn 2 credits (1 English, 1 Social Studies)

American Studies combines a thorough study of history and literature to deepen students' understanding of America. Through interdisciplinary readings and collaborative instruction, students enhance their skills in analyzing. evaluating, and synthesizing literary and informational texts. Students develop their written and oral communication skills through use of a wide array of elaboration strategies and interactive listening. Students, collaboratively taught by English and history teachers, will receive English and Social Studies grades and will earn credit for completing both English 11 and United States History II. Enrollment is limited to 50 students.

(HS100001, SCED 01001) 1 credit

Full Year

English 9 is a college preparatory course organized around essential questions and designed to develop students' proficiencies as readers and writers. The course is designed to further develop a student's reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing skills. Various genres of literature will be introduced including short story, novel, non-fiction, poetry, and drama. Formal and informal writing assignments are designed to develop writing proficiencies named in the Common Core Standards. During the second semester, students will produce a research paper. Texts across a range of genres will be used to develop Common Core Standard proficiencies, including an emphasis on writing, presentations, and group work.

Required Readings Include:

• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

• Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Greely

• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

• I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai

• The Odyssey, Homer

• Excerpts from the work of Charles Dickens.

(HS100000, SCED 01001) 1 credit

Full Year

This course is fundamentally the same in its structure and purpose as English 9, but the complexity of the texts selected, tasks assigned, and the pace of the class assumes greater readiness for independent work from the students who select it.

Readings Include:

• Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

• Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

• Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Greely

• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

• I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai

• Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

• The Odyssey, Homer

(HS100005, SCED 01058) 1 credit

Full Year

English 10 (World Literature) emphasizes the thematic study and consideration of the literary, cultural, and human significance of selected great works of the Western and non-Western literary traditions, including women's, non-majority, and ethnic literature from around the world. An important goal of the class is to promote an understanding of the works in their cultural/historical contexts and of the enduring human values, which unite different literary traditions. The course's pedagogy gives special attention to critical thinking and writing within a framework of cultural diversity as well as comparative and interdisciplinary analysis.

Readings Include:

• Lord of the Flies, William Golding

• Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah

• Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

• The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare

(HS100004, SCED 01058) 1 credit

Full Year

This course is fundamentally the same in its structure and purpose as English 10, but the complexity of the texts selected, tasks assigned, and the pace of the class assumes greater readiness for independent work from the students who select it. Students who elect to enroll in this course are advised to have exhibited advanced literacy skills, which enable them to analyze complex texts and write thoughtful responses. They should possess strong vocabulary skills as well as an understanding of rhetoric.

Readings Include:

• Lord of the Flies, William Golding

• Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

• The Metamorphosis, Frank Kafka

• The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare

• Life of Pi, Yan Martel

• Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah

(HS100009, SCED 01053) 1 credit

Full Year

English 11 offers a thematic approach to American literature from Native American creation myths to the Contemporary Period. Through a careful investigation of the past and an analysis of the values of our modern society, students gain an informed awareness of our American heritage. Each student is expected to learn the techniques of literary analysis, discover themes, identify literary technique and devices, and develop an understanding of various genres. A major goal is that the students learn to express their understanding of American literature by crafting argumentative, informative, and narrative essays as articulated by the Common Core State Standards. The integration of textual support utilizing both primary and secondary sources is emphasized. In addition, students widen their breadth and usage of vocabulary, improve grammar, mechanics, and sentences structure, and develop speaking skills through a variety of oral projects and presentations.

Readings Include:

• The Crucible, Arthur Miller

• The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

• A Raisin in the Sun, Loraine Hansberry

• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

(HS100008, SCED 01053) 1 credit

Full Year

English 11 Honors is fundamentally the same in its structure and basic purposes as American literature, but the complexity of the texts selected and tasks assigned, and the rigorous pace of instruction assume greater readiness for independent work from students who select it. Students electing to enroll in this course are expected to be highly motivated, skilled writers who have displayed an advanced ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the sophisticated ideas and themes present in complex texts. Active participation in class discussion is expected. Students study literature with a historical context to explore the idea of the American Dream and to gain insight into the growth of the American voice.

Supplemental Readings Include (but are not limited to):

• The Scarlet letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Walden, Henry David Thoreau

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

• Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

• The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri

(HS100011, SCED 01056) 1 credit

Full Year

English 12 further refines students' communication skills as they study representative works of British literature. Students will explore works from the Anglo-Saxon period through the 20th century.

Readings Include:

• Beowulf, Author Unknown

• A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift

• Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt

• Macbeth, William Shakespeare

(HS100003, SCED 01001) 1 credit

Full Year

Foundations of Literacy 9 is a course designed to help students strengthen three fundamental areas: literature and reading, writing and composition, and speaking and listening skills in order to build proficiencies named in the Common Core Standards. Within this course, students read appropriate high school materials (short stories, novels, poetry, non-fiction pieces, and drama) that are challenging and engaging in order to assist in comprehension and breadth of vocabulary knowledge and usage. Throughout the year, focus is given to improving grammar, mechanics, sentence structure, and paragraph development. Students will focus on narrative, informative, and argumentative writing - some pieces of which will be assessed by completing portfolio tasks. Students will develop the skills to research and interpret information in order to develop and maintain a thesis-driven informative essay. Students practice and develop oral communication skills through group work and oral presentations.

Required Readings Include:

• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

• Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Greely

• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

• I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai

• The Odyssey, Homer

• Selected short stories

Note: This service is to be determined by a review of a variety of assessments

(HS100007, SCED 01009) 0.5 credit

Semester

Students in Literacy Lab will analyze different literary genres to improve reading comprehension. The course emphasizes reading strategies to employ across content areas. Students are taught to glean meaning by making connections, predicting, visualizing, questioning, inferencing, identifying story elements (setting, plot, and conflict) and summarizing. Critical thinking skills will be enhanced by comparing and contrasting story elements and making thematic connections.

Note: This service is to be determined by review of various assessments, with parental contact.

(HS100002, SCED 01065) 1 credit

Full Year

This full year course, designed as an intervention for Grade 9 students, will support literacy development by teaching reading and writing strategies necessary for successful exhibition of 21st Century Learning Expectations. The curriculum offers instruction in the ninth grade Common Core English Language Arts Standards and will improve a student's vocabulary, teach students how to access grade-level reading selections, employ digital literacy resources, enrich critical thinking and analytic skills, and address writing prompts from across academic disciplines.

(HS100006, SCED 01066) 1 credit

Full Year

This full year course, designed as an intervention for Grade 10 students, will support literacy development by teaching reading and writing strategies necessary for successful exhibition of 21st Century Learning Expectations. The curriculum offers instruction in the tenth grade Common Core English Language Arts Standards and will improve a student's vocabulary, teach students how to access grade-level reading selections, employ digital literacy resources, enrich critical thinking and analytic skills, and address writing prompts from across academic disciplines.

(HS100012, SCED 01005) 📚1 credit

Full Year

This full-year course, as the College Board course description points out, engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of rhetorical contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their writing and their reading make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects, as well as the way genre conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing. The primary goal of this junior year English experience, in addition to preparing students to take the AP exam, is to enable students to write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives. Although assignments emphasize the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and professional communication, students also practice personal and reflective writing that fosters the development of writing facility in any context. The course is designed around several themes and requires students to read works of nonfiction and fiction of varying lengths. Students are strongly encouraged to register for and take the Advanced Placement Literature and Composition exam in the spring.

Note: A fee is required to take the AP exam.

(HS100013, SCED 01006) 📚1 credit

Full Year

This full-year course provides a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course in literature. As such, it engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of representative works of recognized literary merit. Writing assignments focus on the critical analysis of literature. This class utilizes primary and secondary sources and a rigorous pace that correlate to the standards and expectations established by the College Board for Advanced Placement study in English literature. A direct goal of this course is to provide the opportunity to practice for the Advanced Placement exam given in May. Students are strongly encouraged to take the AP exam in the spring as success on the exam may lead to college credit

Note: A fee is required to take the AP exam.

(HS100018, SCED 01064) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course presents the student with insight into the richness of African-American literature and African-American culture. The course, created with the belief that the study of African-American literature provides the opportunity to better understand oneself, begins with an historical overview of the literary development of African-American culture in the United States. Students analyze the issues, struggles, and triumphs of African-American authors including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Jean Toomer, Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, Nikki Giovanni, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

(HS100014, SCED 01104) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course is designed to introduce students to a style of writing that is different from traditional analytical writing. Students experiment and challenge themselves to write in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students will be expected to keep a portfolio, which compiles class assignments such as journal responses; free-writing exercises; descriptive, reflective, dramatic and narrative writings; and character sketches. Students participate in collaborative writing, peer editing, and revision. Additionally, students read and analyze literature in order to apply literary devices to their own writing.

(HS100015, SCED 01104) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course is designed as an expansion of the skills acquired in Creative Writing I. The students explore and apply techniques developed in Creative Writing I to craft journals, free-writing exercises, as well as descriptive, reflective, dramatic and narrative writings. Major assignments include works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students will continue to improve skills in collaborative writing, peer editing, and revision. Additionally, students reading and analyzing model work in order to apply sophisticated literary devices to their own writing.

(HS100025, SCED 01105) 0.5 credit

Semester

In this half-year course, students will develop digital and media literacy by examining the media and its influence on our daily lives. Students will read complex grade-level texts. The course will focus primarily on the following: bias in the news; media ethics and responsibility; and what makes news. Furthermore, this course examines the growth of American mass media in the 20th and 21st centuries with special emphasis placed on the influence that communications technology has had on contemporary culture.

(HS100020, SCED 05203) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course will develop critical thinking skills through analysis of films. Students will investigate how and what ideas, values, and concepts are connected through film. In analyzing film, students will examine elements of plot, setting, style, and point of view. Film will be used as a means to enhance literacy with activities that include viewing, listening, speaking, analyzing, and writing.

(HS100016, SCED 01099) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course for juniors and seniors will provide wide and deep instruction in the skills necessary for the analysis of literature through reading and discussion of, and writing about, genres drawn from a variety of cultures and historical periods. This course fulfills URI General Education requirements for the outcomes of Humanities and Writing. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to discuss and make arguments about literary works (both orally and in writing), compose convincing interpretations of literary works, examine human differences and similarities (including language, experience, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender) across historical, social, and cultural boundaries using literature; practice and improve writing skills through frequent assignments both formal and informal, submitted to the instructor for regular feedback and/or shared with peers for critical review/response, and speak effectively through regular required participation and discussion of texts and ideas therein, whether in full-class, individual, or group settings, and whether through informal or formal assignments. Suggested texts include titles such as Things Fall Apart, The Handmaid’s Tale, Hamlet, and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

(HS100023, SCED 01151) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course is a comprehensive communication course designed to help students in grades 10-12 face the challenges of public speaking. Students will enhance their knowledge of the process: topic selection, research, organization, supporting visual aids and technology. The class is organized around creating effective presentations in various formats and the audience awareness these forums require. Students will become fluent in their rhetorical awareness of purpose, occasion, and audience.

(HS100022, SCED 01203) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year SAT prep course is designed to help juniors master the critical reading, vocabulary, and writing skills necessary for success on the SAT exam. Students will learn test-taking strategies for the question types (sentence completion, vocabulary, critical reading, and writing - finding errors/revision) as well as review grammar related to skill-building in reading and writing. Students will become more familiar with how to navigate time-constrained assessments through practice tests.

(HS100021, SCED 01099) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course offers students a chance to hone their literacy skills by engaging in high-interest novels, short stories, articles, newspaper columns and poems written by and about professional and amateur athletes. The course examines the significant role that athletics play in our society and provides a thoughtful opportunity to consider the ways in which sports help people to discover truths about themselves. Additionally, learners will investigate and reflect on the impact of Title IX. Students write informative essays, craft informal journal entries, and participate in discussions.

Suggested literature includes: In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais, “Playing to Win” by Margaret Atwood, Stotan by Chris Crutcher, “Baseball and Writing” by Marianne Moore, Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger, “To An Athlete Dying Young” By A. E. Housman, Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, Coach Carter directed by Thomas Carter, “The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt, and USA Today.

(HS100024, SCED 01065) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course introduces students to various forms of literature that address the cultural, social, political, and sexual identities of both men and women. With the goal of becoming better readers, writers and thinkers, students will be exposed to various gender-related topics through their study of both fiction and nonfiction texts. The course will focus on gender-related themes such as “Archetypal Femininity” and “The Role of Women in Society.” As students study each theme, they will read literary works that both embrace and/or reject the ideology surrounding each thematic unit. Students will be asked to engage in thoughtful analysis and spirited debate concerning the characterization of women in works of fiction and nonfiction such as: Divergent; Twilight; “The Little Prince”; " The Yellow Wallpaper”; 12 Years a Slave; and the Autobiography of Margaret Sanger. Students will explore excerpts from novels, short stories, essays, movies, and children’s books that both celebrate and criticize the stereotypes associated with the development of man and woman, hero and heroine, villain and victim. Due to the mature content of the course, it is open to 11th and 12th graders.

(HS100017, SCED 01103) ✏️ 0.5 credit

Semester

This course emphasizes the sharing of information, exploring and developing mastery of a range of expository writing strategies for differing audiences and situations. Students will produce writings in a variety of genres, including narratives, memoirs, profiles, research papers, public letters, and analysis of complex text. The course emphasizes the writing process through real-world, practical writing assignments. Students taking this course are eligible for credit in conjunction with the University of Rhode Island. The Concurrent Enrollment Program at the University of Rhode Island is designed for motivated students who seek to get a head start on college credit and who are looking to be challenged academically while in high school. HS students are expected to have a 3.0 minimum high school GPA. In order to receive a URI transcript for the HS course, students are required to follow all URI enrollment procedures and complete the enrollment process by the university registration dates. Student work will be assessed according to the university’s grading policy.

(TBD) 0.5 credit

Semester

This half-year course will assist students in the completion of their Senior Graduation Project and is to be taken in their senior year. Students will be supported in selecting an interest-based project or career experience (job shadow/internship). Students will then conduct an in-depth research paper that connects to the focus for their Senior Project experience. Students will be guided and supported through the process of writing a project proposal letter, a research paper, a reflective essay, as well as generating a successful project presentation. Additionally, students will be supported in writing a resume and a college application essay.