English Language Arts

7th Grade English – 1st Semester

English 7 (1 of 2) explores informational texts, including biographics, personal accounts of events, presidential speeches, persuasive letters, and differences between types of musical genres. Readings include texts about historical figures such as The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, Jane Goodall, and Zora Neale Huston to demonstrate concepts such as explicit and implicit information, central ideas and key details, and claims and arguments. 

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 7   PREREQUISITES:  None

7th Grade English – 2nd Semester

English 7 (2 of 2) analyzes literary texts from novels, short stories, fairy tales, poems, and plays. Readings include Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, excerpts from Black Beauty, and poetry by Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth to demonstrate concepts such as comparing how written texts are portrayed in film or audio and ways to understand explicit and implicit information, theme, characters, plot, poetic and dramatic techniques, and figurative language. 

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 7   PREREQUISITES:  None

8th Grade English, 1ST Semester
English 8 (1 of 2) explores analysis of literary and informational texts, including novels, short stories, myths, poems, magazine articles, and autobiographies. Readings include The Call of the Wild, short stories such as “The Lottery” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and infographics and videos to demonstrate concepts such as explicit and implicit information, theme, central idea, figurative language, grammar, usage, and punctuation. Writings include the planning, creating, writing, revising, and editing of a fictional narrative.

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 8 PRE-REQUISITES: None

8th Grade ENGLISH, 2nd Semester
English 8 (2 of 2) explores literary and informational texts, including novels, short stories, poems, articles, and political speeches. Readings include excerpts from the novels Fahrenheit 451, Hatchet, and Black Beauty, informational texts about topics such as global warming, fast food, the widespread presence of corn in food, and how sleep affects learning ability, infographics and videos to demonstrate concepts such as explicit and implicit information, theme, central idea, figurative language, grammar, usage, punctuation. Writings include informational and argument essays.

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 8 PRE-REQUISITES: None

FRESHMEN ENGLISH, 1ST QUARTER
Students explore reading, writing, and analysis using both informational and literary texts, as well as comparison of texts in different mediums. Readings include The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, among others, to demonstrate understanding of textual evidence, themes, central ideas, inferences, word choice, and figurative and connotative language, and grammar and usage. Writings include a personal narrative (memoir) and literary analysis.  *Honors course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 9 PRE-REQUISITES: None

FRESHMEN ENGLISH, 2nd Quarter
Students explore reading, writing, and analysis using both information and literary texts. Readings include Anthem by Ayn Rand, among other texts of varying time periods to demonstrate concepts such as textual evidence, themes, central ideas, characters, inferences, rhetorical techniques, structure and style, and arguments and claims. Writing topics include grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling, style manuals, phrases, and clauses, culminating in an informational essay and an argument essay. *Honors course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 9 PRE-REQUISITES: None

SOPHOMORE ENGLISH, 1ST Quarter
Students examine reading, writing, and analysis of informational texts, argument texts, and videos to demonstrate understanding of explicit and inferred meaning, textual evidence, central ideas, arguments and claims, organizational structures, figurative and rhetorical language, and the effect of word choice on tone. Skill building focuses on spelling, grammar, usage, punctuation, domain-specific vocabulary, context clues, and affixes. Writing topics include an informational essay and an argument essay.  *Honors course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 10 PRE-REQUISITES: Preferably 9th Grade English

SOPHOMORE ENGLISH, 2ND Quarter
Students explore reading, writing, and analysis of literary texts from around the world and across history. Readings include Antigone by Sophocles, among others, to demonstrate understanding of textual evidence, themes, inferences, characterization, figurative language, figures of speech, and literary devices, as well as building about foundational knowledge of context clues, word nuances, affixes, phrases, clauses, and parallel construction. Writing topics include a literary analysis essay and a personal narrative essay.  *Honors course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 10 PRE-REQUISITES: Preferably 9th Grade English

JUNIOR ENGLISH, 1ST Quarter
Students examine reading, writing, and analysis using both informational and argument texts. Readings include seminal US texts such as What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? By Frederick Douglass, speeches, court documents, and scientific articles to explore textual evidence, central ideas, inferences, word choice, figurative language, spelling, hyphens, contested usage, figures of speech, and reference materials. Writing topics include a researched informational essay and a researched argument essay.   *Dual Credit course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 11 PRE-REQUISITES: Preferably 9th and 10th Grade English

JUNIOR ENGLISH, 2nd Quarter
Students explore reading, writing, and analysis using both informational and literary texts. Readings include poetry and drama, such as The Crucible by Arthur Miller to demonstrate literary elements of plot, setting, character, themes, and central ideas. Comparing works from different time periods, reviewing context and word nuances, and learning about punctuation, style manuals, phrases, clauses, and parallel structure to improve reading and writing skills. Writing topics include a functional narrative and a literary analysis.   *Dual Credit course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 11 PRE-REQUISITES: Preferably 9th and 10th Grade English

SENIOR ENGLISH, 1ST Quarter
Students explore analysis of informational and argument texts. Readings include seminal US texts such as the Declaration of Independence, presidential speeches, court documents, and articles related to innovative technology to demonstrate rhetoric, figurative language, theme, purpose, specialized vocabulary, text structure, word nuances, inferences, research, evidence, and reference sources. In addition, students learn about context clues, contested usage, and syntax errors. Writings include a researched informational essay and a researched argument essay.  *Dual Credit course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 12 PRE-REQUISITES: Preferably 9th – 11th Grade English

SENIOR ENGLISH, 2nd Quarter
Students analyze narrative texts from British literature, from the Middle Ages through modern times. Demonstrated skills include explicit and implicit meanings, figurative language, literary devices, central ideas, themes, and narrative and structural elements. Writings include a fictional narrative in the style of Gothic Romanticism and literary analysis comparing and contrasting two British literature texts of different eras.  *Dual Credit course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 12 PRE-REQUISITES: Preferably 9th – 11th Grade English

Students explore effective communication skills for success in a variety of speaking situations. Topics include: small and large group discussions, delivery speeches in front of audiences, research and organization, writing for verbal delivery, stylistic choices, visual and presentation skills, analysis and critique, and development of self-confidence.  *Dual Credit course available

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 9/10    PREREQUISITES:  None