ENGLISH

Students will study a wide variety of literature to promote collaborative discussions and critical thinking skills.  Students will study grammar and vocabulary to enhance their writing and discussion skills. Students will also read additional choice books. Writing assignments include narratives, character analysis, summaries, and persuasive writing related to the literature studied throughout the year. Texts will include various short stories, a choice memoir, a novella, a novel and a play.

In this course, students will analyze and write about the rhetoric of significant current and historic social issues through a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts in order to establish personal and global perspectives. The goal of this course is on developing the ability to hold dualistic perspectives where communicating through meaningful discourse, reading, writing, and language skills leads to mutual respect. Students will showcase these skills through rhetorical analysis essays, reading and analyzing Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” and writing an inquiry-based research paper (graduation requirement).

Students will analyze 17th-19th century foundational US Documents of historical and literary significance. Reading American Literature from the 18th-2​1st​ centuries will provide opportunities for students to tackle more sophisticated works while gaining profound insights into the human condition. Selections help prepare students for the rigor of the ACT Reading test. Study and practice for the ACT test in English and Writing are woven through the first semester. Projects may include--but not be limited to--an analytical paper, debates, a narrative, letter of application, resume, and thank you notes. Core texts may include various selections from the McDougal, Littell Literature textbook, The Red Badge of Courage, The Great Gatsby, All Quiet on the Western Front, Night, Catcher in the Rye, and Auschwitz, a Doctor’s Eyewitness Account. Students also will have choice reading opportunities.

Creative Writing is a one-semester English elective course offered to seniors. Designed to encourage and develop students into writers, this course provides students with the opportunity to develop different and effective writing techniques and to polish their overall writing skills. Students will have the opportunity to explore and write poems, short stories, children’s books, and other types of writing that express creativity, such as art and music. Upon completion of this composition course, students will have learned about:

• journaling as a lifetime habit 

• characteristics of effective writing - planning, revising, editing, rewriting

• conquering writer’s block

• mastery of literary devices

• analysis and utilization of story elements: theme, point of view, character development, setting, plot, dialogue, and tone

• art and music as inspiration

• identifying current market niches for publication

• methods of developing fluency, flexibility, elaboration, style, structure, and originality in writing

Students will study, discuss, and write about works of fiction and related nonfiction.  Fostering a life-long appreciation of reading this semester course focuses on Modern Literature in the 21st Century. Being culturally literate and globally aware prepares students to interact and communicate in society and in the professional sphere. Core texts include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and various dystopian and coming of age novels. 

This one-semester elective course covers British poems and novels through four literary eras: Medieval, Elizabethan, Victorian, and Contemporary. Through a challenging curriculum of core texts, students will become proficient readers, effective writers, active listeners, and articulate speakers. Students learn to respect various points of view while displaying creative, collaborative, and critical thinking skills. This course enables students to participate effectively in a complex and ever-changing world. Works to be studied include selections from the following:

• Beowulf

• The Canterbury Tales by Geoffery Chaucer

• T.H. White’s The Once and Future King

• William Shakespeare’s sonnets

• Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series

Effective communication is essential in becoming an independent, reflective, life-long learner and a functioning member of the community. 

It is the aim of this course to assist you in becoming insightful, creative, analytical, and responsible communicators.

This one-semester communications course is a graduation requirement.  It covers the following units:

• intrapersonal communication

• interpersonal communication

• interpretation and expression

• career communication (includes preparation of Senior Portfolio Presentations)

• debate and civil discourse

Students who pass this class will earn three college credits through Gateway Technical College for this college-level course.  Additionally, if students pass the course, they will earn .5 credits at Whitewater High School and fulfill the "Speech" requirement for graduation.

DUAL CREDIT*