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Senior
Year Courses
Note: In the senior year, students may select English 12 as a year-long
course OR a combination of one of two composition electives and
one of two literature electives based on consultation and approval
of their junior year instructors.
ENGLISH
12 (3405-3406)
Elective – 12
Credit 2 – Year
*AHD – English
PREREQUISITE: A junior English course
Grade 12 continues to refine students’ ability and desire
to learn and communicate about language and literature. While students
developed judgments informed by keen literary analysis in Grades
9-11, in Grade 12 they practice explaining and defending their readings
to others. In addition, the emphasis on different cultural contexts
is intensified in a focus on world literature. To negotiate these
texts, students learn to identify and communicate about the broad
themes, trends, and cultural issues present in world literature.
Literature instruction focuses on opportunities to:
Apply appropriate reading skills and strategies to
make and defend judgments about written quality and content of literary
works, written and technologically generated material, literary
genres, conventions, and story structure;
Respond critically, reflectively, and imaginatively to the literature
of outstanding world writers; become acquainted with cultures of
other countries; study themes that relate to mankind and outstanding
world writers; and analyze literature as it reflects a divergent
point of view in all literary periods; and
Develop vocabulary through: (1) decoding, (2) the use of Greek and
Latin roots, (3) literary terms and the use of glossaries, (4) contextual
clues, (5) recognizing analogies, and (6) independent reading.
The Composition component of English 12 continues
to provide students with opportunities to hone their writing. Writing
at this stage has: (1) a clearly identified audience, (2) a well
articulated purpose and thesis, and (3) a structured body that fulfills
its stated purpose and supports its thesis in a way accessible to
its audience. Writing at this stage is also well informed by careful
research and intelligent analysis.
Using technology, students are able to produce polished
final documents. Polished writing requires following through with
all phases of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising,
editing, and publishing), at which all students should be proficient.
All writing should meet the four criteria outlined above and have
been through all stages of the process just described, including
persuasive writing, synthesis and analysis of information from a
variety of sources, and reflective essays.
Students are also able to complete complex forms,
describe procedures, give directions, and use graphic forms to support
a thesis. The formal study of grammar, usage, spelling, and language
mechanics is integrated into the study of writing. Students are
encouraged to use one of the manuals of style such as Modern Language
Association [MLA].
Oral Communication (speech) continues to emphasize
the organization of ideas, awareness of audience, and sensitivity
to context in carefully researched and well organized speeches.
Student expectations include: (1) presenting facts and arguments
effectively; (2) analyzing speeches in terms of socio-cultural values,
attitudes, and assumptions; (3) recognizing when another does not
understand the message being delivered; (4) utilizing Aristotle’s
three modes of proof; (5) utilizing elementary logic such as deductive,
inductive, causal, and analogical forms of reasoning; and (6) expressing
and defending, with evidence, one’s thesis.
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EXPOSITORY
WRITING (3917)
Elective – 12
Credit 1 – Semester
*AHD – English
PREREQUISITE: A junior English course
Expository Writing is instruction and practice in a variety of types
of informative writing intended for different audiences. Expository
Writing includes: (1) essays, (2) analysis, (3) reports, (4) research
projects, and (5) consumer and business letters. This course uses
strategies for: (1) audience analysis; (2) prewriting, including
defining a problem; (3) drafting; (4) peer sharing; (5) revising
for content; (6) editing for style, punctuation, grammar, spelling,
and other mechanics; and (7) the publishing of a final draft. Research
skills, including collecting and transforming data from both primary
and secondary sources for use in writing, are taught. Related reading
skills are addressed through the study of a variety of nonfiction
writings. Editing and proofreading skills are developed so that
students become peer and self-editors, who are capable of preparing
final drafts that follow accepted conventions of language, style,
mechanics, and format. Extensive peer discussion is also emphasized,
for which students receive specific training in providing constructive,
substantive feedback, while role-playing as likely readers of each
work. It is recommended that word processing be used to support
the writing instruction in this course.
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ENGLISH
LITERATURE (3310)
Elective – 12
Credit 1 – Semester
*AHD – English
PREREQUISITE: A junior English course
English Literature provides a survey of representative literature
produced by English speaking authors, including those in the British
Isles as well as those in the former British colonies. This course
includes the study of major British authors from the Anglo-Saxon
period to the present, literary movements and intellectual trends.
These authors and their works include many of the following: (1)
Beowulf, (2) Chaucer, (3) Shakespeare, (4) Donne, (5) Milton, (6)
Pope, (7) Swift, (8) Austen, (9) Wordsworth, (10) Keats, (11) Mary
and Percy Shelley, (12) Tennyson, (13) the Bronte sisters, (14)
Joyce, (15) Yeats, and (16) Woolf. It also provides an examination
of the contributions of British authors to specific literary genres,
such as poetry, drama, the essay and the novel. Writing and classroom
discussion activities include opportunities for students to respond
to the literature both analytically and reflectively.
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ENGLISH
LITERATURE & COMPOSTION-ADVANCED PLACEMENT (3950-3951)
Elective – 12
Credit 2 – Year
*AHD – English
PREREQUISITE: English 9, English 10, and English 11 or equivalent
courses
English Literature and Composition-Advanced Placement is a course
which follows College Board Entrance Examination guidelines for
advanced placement English. Students will be expected to read challenging
texts, for example, novelists such as Joyce and Dostoevsky, at home
as well as in the classroom. Writing assignments will be frequent,
including weekly in-class essays and periodic research papers. Students
will be expected to participate fully in class discussions and make
presentations. Students should make use of technological resources
both in researching and in producing their papers.
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Last updated
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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