English Courses
English Department Chair
Melissa Graeber :: mgraeber@sileducation.com
English Teachers
- Casey Hollister :: chollister@sileducation.com
- Michael Kahn :: mkahn@sileducation.com
- Nathan Readey :: nreadey@sileducation.com
- Ross Halvorsen :: rhalvorsen@sileducation.com
- Will Juola :: wjuola@sileducation.com
'b' Category College Prep Courses
Literature & Composition 1 / Literature & Composition 2
Our yearlong English 9-10 and 11-12 courses, Literature & Composition 1 / Literature & Compositon 2, engage students in the close reading, annotation, critical analysis, and creation of imaginative literature. In semester one, students explore: 1. Narrative Style and Voice, 2. Plot and Setting, 3. Character, 4. Symbolism and Allegory, and 5. Irony and Ambiguity. In semester two, students study: 1. Non-Fiction, 2. Poetry, 3. Drama, 4. Genres in Literature, and 5. Comparative Literature. Students read, in two semesters, at least four full-length works; upwards of thirty short stories and essays; collected poems; and literary criticism, news articles, and new media such as websites, films, and podcasts. As they study representative works from various genres and eras, from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, students explore the concept of a 'literary canon,' and consider how a canon is shaped by--and shapes--the broader culture. Students work with teachers to select their own reading lists.
Literature & Compostion 1 Prerequisites: Grade 8 English
Literature & Compostion 2 Prerequisites: English 10
Language & Composition 1 / Language & Composition 2
Language & Composition, both 1 and 2, enables students to become skilled readers of rhetorical and oratorical texts, and to become confident writers who compose for a variety of purposes and audiences. Students read, watch, and listen to speeches, essays, and debates to study the ways by which a writer or speaker courts, engages, and wins an audience. This composition course, for students grades 9-12, teaches students that the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing they must do in college is based on reading, as well as on personal experience and observation. Students learn to read primary and secondary sources carefully, and to synthesize material from these texts in their own compositions. Teachers of this course recognize that skill in writing proceeds from students' awareness of their own analytic processes: the way they explore ideas, reconsider strategies, and revise their work.
Language & Compostion 1 Prerequisites: Grade 8 English
Language & Compostion 2 Prerequisites: English 10
Exploratory Thinking
This two-semester survey course, for students in grades 10-12, blends a traditional study of literature with a more investigatory approach. Students work with instructors to design a course of relevance and interest to them, whether it be a specific genre, author, or theme. Previous topics have included Mathematics in Literature, The Narrative of Epics and Video Games, and Science and Science Fiction. Students help pick readings and organize the semester around questions and ideas that interest them, which are explored thorugh independent research projects.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 1, or equivalent
Genres in Literature
In our two-semester survey course, Genres in Literature, students in grades 10 - 12 explore the concept of a 'literary genre' as they grapple with issues of definition and classification. Students consider how a single text may mean different things to different audiences and, through this study, evaluate the ways in which a text--or collection of texts--can help to define a culture or sub-culture. In doing so, students study the particular narrative tropes that characterize or define authors, genres, eras in literature, and societies both historical and contemporary. Students read, in two semesters, at least four full-length works; upwards of thirty short stories and essays; collected poems; and literary criticism, news articles, and new media such as websites, films, and podcasts. Students work with teachers to sleect their own reading lists.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 1, or equivalent
Social Justice / Language & Composition: MySocialJustice.org
A lso available as an AP course.
In our inter-disciplinary framework, MySocialJustice.org, students merge the theoretical (the 'academic') with the practical ('real-world'), as we seek to provide students with both the philosophical rationale and the practical frameworks and skills they need to ultimately become self-actualized individuals and active members of service-learning communities. Toward this end, our Language & Composition course gives students the 'skills' of logic, narrative, and rhetoric (argumentation), while the Social Justice component offers students the opportunity to apply these 'tools' in solving the problems they encounter in their own lives, and in the lives of others.
Students experience this three- or four-semester course as a yearlong scaffolded process, in which one unit of study directly builds upon the work of the previous unit. Learning culminates in a final portfolio and a real-world social justice project that's devised, produced, and evaluated by the student, under the guidance of peers, teachers, and industry leaders. Most of all, we wish to avoid creating a contrived or coercive environment that creates a division between the curricular and extra-curricular worlds. After all, this course is about how one ought to live.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 1, or equivalent
American Literature
Also available as an UC-approved honors course.
American Literature students survey the literary, cultural, philosophical, religious, social, and economic dimensions of the Mid‐Nineteenth, Modern, and Post‐Modern periods through a chronological or thematic study of key authors and their writings. While emphasis is placed on an understanding of major American works and their authors, a major thread in this course will address the 'conversations' that take place within literature. Not the singular experience of one author responding to another's work (though that will be noted), but rather the collaborative atmosphere and influences of other artists, authors and voices. The Modernist poets and authors of the Harlem Renaissance are two examples of such an influence.
The course is built around six units that unfold through a telling of U.S. History: 1. Enlightenment Literature & Romanticism, 2. Realism, 3. Naturalism, 4. Modernism, 5. Cold War Era Literature, and 6. Postmodernism. Students read, in two semesters, at least four full-length works; upwards of thirty short stories and essays; collected poems; and literary criticism, news articles, and new media such as websites, films, and podcasts.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 1, or equivalent
American Studies: Literature & Composition 2
The course, which integrates the study of American Literature and U.S. History, begins with the premise that the emergence of the United States of America can be understood, historically, as the actualization and authorization of Modernity, a new world view in the West. This new paradigm was essentially forward looking: it led to the differentiation of kinds of knowledge, and scientific explanations became separate from historical ones which were distinct from religious ones, etc.
The course, therefore, can be considered as an inquiry into the nature of Modernity in the West through a careful study of the literature and, in conjunction with its counterpart, the history of the United States of America. This course differs from the standard American Literature course in that the emphasis is placed less on the question, "What do these texts suggest about the power and nature of literature?" and more on the question, "what does our literature reveal about our national identity?" The course asks students to consider the role of various societal processes--political, religious, aesthetic, ethnic, economic, etc. -- and the interactions between these processes in the unfolding of our national literature. As a result, the course is taught chronologically, beginning with the study of texts emerging out of the new nation through modernity and into our postmodern world. Essentially, the course asks students most fundamentally to consider the role of historical context when considering the significance of a literary text. This approach to the study of the Literature of American society is intended to prompt students to continually redefine their understanding of the basic concepts that constitute the topics of study: The United States of America, and Literature. As a result, the course also prompts students to gain new insights into themselves as citizens, as intellectual and artistic thinkers, and as moral thinkers. Students are asked to immerse themselves into the dynamic interplay between ideas, historical events, and their own lives. Ultimately, the course is designed to induce students to ask the most basic philosophical questions: Who am I? and where am I going?
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 1, or equivalent
The American Dream
The American Dream surveys the literary, cultural, philosophical, religious, social, and economic dimensions of the Mid‐Nineteenth, Modern, and Post‐Modern periods through a chronological study of how both major and underrepresented authors apprehend the idea of the "American Dream" in their literature. While emphasis is placed on an understanding of major American works and their authors, a major thread in this course will address the "conversations" that take place within this theme in American literature. Not the singular experience of one author responding to another's work (though that will be noted), but rather the collaborative atmosphere and influences of other artists, authors and voices. Early colonialist letters and the exchanges between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are examples of this. Works are explored from: M. Scott Momaday Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Abigail and John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, W.E.B. Du Bois, Arthur Miller, and John Okada.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent
British Literature
This survey course takes students on a literary journey from epics such as Beowulf to the absurdist plays of Beckett. Canonical authors mingle with newly visible writers; English accents are heard next to Anglo-Norman, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scottish ones. Female and male voices are set in dialogue; literature from the British Isles is integrated with post-colonial writing; and major works are illuminated by clusters of shorter texts that bring literary, social, and historical issues vividly to life. While emphasis is placed on an understanding of major European works and their authors, a major thread in this course will address the "conversations" that take place within literature. Not the singular experience of one author responding to another's work (though that will be noted), but rather the collaborative atmosphere and influences of other artists, authors and voices. By the end of this course, students understand how British literature has evolved, from medieval roots to a post-modern status. Students learn to self-motivate their own learning, and feel comfortable with the subjective nature of literary study. Close reading and annotation should come easily, as should the self-directed writing and editing of analytical papers.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent.
World Literature
In this survey course, students read epic and lyric poetry, dramas, and prose narratives, as well as complete works from each region and time period. Texts are supplemented by contextual materials that help students understand the literary and historical eras from which these texts arose. World Literature includes key works from the Western literary tradition, as well as enduring literary works from China, Japan, India, the Middle East, Africa, and the native Americas. Students read significant works by literary masters, from the ancient world through the twentieth century: Homer, Sophocles, Confucius, Dante, Chaucer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Goethe, Milton, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Yeats, Woolf, Joyce, Kafka, Eliot, and Borges. By the end of this course, students understand how world literature has evolved, from ancient roots to the post-modern world. Students learn to self-motivate their own learning, and feel comfortable with the subjective nature of literary study. Close reading and annotation should come easily, as should the self-directed writing and editing of analytical papers.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent.
Poetry Analysis & Composition
The oldest expressive form of the written word is the poem. All civilizations have created some version of written or oral poetry, and the endeavor of self-expression through poetic means dates back thousands of years. In this course, we investigate the poetic form as it has existed, evolved, and expanded across the centuries and millennia. The analysis of a poem's contents, as well as its poetic means are emphasized. Major poetic forms and movements are studied. However, this course does not simply focus on the reading and analysis of poetry; the thoughtful study of poetry contributes to students' own craft in composing and revising original works of poetry.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent.
Contemporary Literature
What makes literature contemporary, other than its place in time? When and how can we decide if a work is 'representative' and of what? To what do contemporary authors respond? In what 'era' of literature are we, anyway? Contemporary Literature is a two-semester elective course that surveys the last ten years of literature from a cultural, social, and historical perspective. As literature continues to evolve in response to the world, so does this class. This class is not structured in the traditional 'survey' format, but rather is an exploratory investigation of these questions. Students explore--and write in response to--full-length works, works from recent anthologies of fiction and non-fiction, current literary quarterlies, journalistic publications, and the new forms of literature such as blogs and podcasts.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent.
Shakespeare & his Legacy
Students in this course, a one-semester Language Arts elective, take an interdisciplinary and contextual approach to the interpretation and appreciation of key plays by William Shakespeare, and examine the resounding literary and cultural influence of these dramatic works as they have persisted for five hundred years. Each work is read closely and is evaluated in the context of its genre: tragedy or comedy. Students read modern literary reinterpretations of Shakespeare's plays, to examine the major and minor themes that have retained contemporary relevancy. Students evaluate modern analytical interpretations by critics such as Northrop Frye and Harold Bloom, and examine the ways in which various modern medias have interpreted Shakespeare's works and legacy, from modern-day settings of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet," to a documentary podcast on how performing "Hamlet" changed an entire prison's social landscape, to how HBO's critically acclaimed show "The Wire" adopted Shakespeare's famous tragedic tropes.
Prerequisites: English 9.
Modernity & Post-Modernity
This course has been designed as a one semester introduction--through a literary lens--to the interdisciplinary academic approaches to the study of the humanities. In the postsecondary world of education, such academic approaches are often broadly referred to as "cultural studies." The primary goal of the course is for students to work toward a definition of modernity, a definition of post-modernity, and a conceptual framework that can--speaking historically, philosophically, sociologically, religiously and literarily--form coherence. There is certainly no agreement amongst academics as to whether postmodernity is an extension or rejection of Modernity. However, it is worth noting that this difficulty with self-definition, this awareness of historical era itself, is a feature of both modernity and postmodernity (or whichever labels we may prefer for the past six hundred years or so in the western world.) Enlightenment thinkers were astutely aware that something new was emerging out of the western consciousness and they hotly debated its significance. Though the course is classified as a Language Arts elective--and focuses primarily on literary texts--in order to achieve its primary goal, the course must span the humanities. The course unfolds chronologically, beginning around the turn of the 16th century. Students look at significant developments in the history of the west, in western literature, in western music, in western art, in western religion, and in western philosophy. Students are prompted to make conceptual connections, orally and in writing, regarding these developments in an attempt to understand the emergence of this new paradigm, or conceptual framework associated with the term modernity.
Prerequisites: English 9.
The Literature of Sport
This course, a one-semester Language Arts elective, explores the various approaches to, and genres of, sports writing. This course affords students the opportunity to consider the basic features--and the basic challenges--of the narrativization of real-world events. These narrative challenges arise from the human drama that epitomizes the world of athletics; this world abounds with tension, with character, and with conflict yet, it is also basically random. As a result, often times several competing narratives emerge to describe what is truly happening on the field, on the court, on the track, in the rink. In this way, sports, as a topic, offers readers and writers something of a blank slate. The human dramas that again and again unfold in the sporting arena allow a student to find the meaning that most reflects his or her own interests. This course prompts students to move from asking, "What is happening?" to asking, "What does it mean that such a thing is happening?" Students consider how authors use athletics as a social or cultural lens to examine our attitudes and our institutions. An author might consider our attitudes towards race, poverty, or gender by examining how these issues unfold on the sporting field. This course prompts students to explore how writers use athletics to comment on the human condition. In this vein, students read non-fiction, fiction, and poetry that discuss aspects of athletics.
Prerequisites: English 9.
The Literature of the Natural World
In this one-semester Language Arts elective, students explore one of the major themes represented throughout the history of literature: Nature. The course begins by asking students to consider some of the philosophical issues--that have faced both the modern and the pre-modern western world--surrounding questions of nature. Subsequently, the course focuses on some of the central philosophical questions that modernity, in its seeming abandonment of this traditional pre-modern religious understanding of humanity as a feature of God's creation, has called on the western mind to answer again and again: What is nature? What is the relationship between humanity and the natural world? What is the relationship between mind and body? Between science and art? What is beauty and where does aesthetic experience come from? From this grounding, students critically analyze--and write in response to--an array of works in an array of genres that explore humanity's relationship to its natural world.
Prerequisites: English 9.
Mythology: Classic & Contemporary
An introduction to the central Greek myths and the fundamental ideas about human life explored in them. The course is intended to cast light on various aspects of Classical culture, some quite alien today, many still resonant in modern times; but we shall also pay equal attention to the interesting problem of how ancient mythical narratives bear meaning and even a kind of truth not only for those who once actually believed them, but for us today.
Prerequisites: English 9.
Philosophy in Literature
In this one-semester Language Arts elective, students explore the conversation between various branches of philosophy and the literature they inform. The course begins with one of the most basic and ancient questions in philosophy: How do we know that anything outside of ourselves exists? Students investigate some of the most influential and seminal philosophical works on this issue, and go on to investigate how authors use literature to attempt to answer or apprehend these questions. Subsequently, the course focuses on the philosophical concerns that arose out of this first basic, fundamental question: the philosophical questions of language and morality. From this framework, students critically analyze--and write in response to--an array of works both literary and philosophical that explore the impact and definition of these guiding philosophies on literature.
Prerequisites: English 9.
Dramatic Literature
In this one-semester Language Arts elective, students explore a variety of dramatic works and is designed to expose students to the reading and study of great plays (both classic and modern). There will be an emphasis on reading modern plays in the first semester and then working backwards, so to speak, to figure out how classic plays influenced 20th Century playwrights. The course, however, is not just based on the reading of masterpieces. Units are designed that give a sense of dramatic genres and types, such as realism, comedy, satire, and tragedy. For each unit, students usually read two to three plays so that they can truly understand the similarities and differences of play styles. The course begins by considering how to read a play, and students will explore the three main approaches to the study of Dramatic Literature: 1. Academic Reading 2. Written Response 3. Dramatic Preparation. Students then go on within this framework to study classic and contemporary tragedy, comedy, and satire. From this texts, students critically analyze--and write in response to--an array of topics in drama that are both literary and philosophical.
Prerequisites: English 9.
Magic Realist & Fantasy Literature
In this one-semester Language Arts elective, students explore the one of the most interesting and influential genres in literature: Magical Realism. The course begins by considering the origins and historical context that contributed to the development of Magical Realism. Subsequently, the course focuses on identifying the tropes of Magical Realism that set it apart from genres such as Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well as an investigation into the themes and influences of Magical Realism today. Students also look at the ways that film and art can also be considered works of Magical Realism. From this grounding, students critically analyze--and write in response to--an array of works of Magical Realism that explore its impact on literature.
Prerequisites: English 9.
The Absurd & Existential in Literature
In this one-semester Language Arts elective, students explore an interesting and emerging trend in 20th century literature: that which is influenced by philosophy of the absurd and existential. The course begins by considering the origins and historical context that contributed to this development of influence. Subsequently, the course focuses on identifying the thematic and philosophical underpinnings of these texts, as well as an investigation into the historical context which guided and shaped these philosophical influences. From this framework, students critically analyze--and write in response to--an array of works both literary and philosophical that explore the impact and definition of the absurd and existential on literature.
Prerequisites: English 9.
The Emersonian Tradition
The renowned 19th century American poet Oliver Wendel Holmes Jr. described "The American Scholar," Ralph Waldo Emerson's seminal speech as "Our intellectual declaration of Independence." Implicit in Holmes's assertion is the suggestion that Emerson can be understood as something of a founding father of American Literature. This course, a one-semester Language Arts elective, explores the possibility of the veracity of this premise. The course asks students to consider the extent to which Emersonian values--moral, philosophical, and literary--can be accepted as central basis for subsequent American Literature. As a result, it is encouraged that students who enroll in the course either are currently enrolled in, or have previously taken the 11th grade American Literature. Through this course of study, students become adept at analyzing, and comparing and contrasting, works that share common themes across genre and historical era.
Prerequisites: English 9.
Film in Literature
In this two-semester Language Arts elective, students explore the ways in which narratives in literature can be translated into film. The course begins by considering the ways in which filmmaking can be considered a narrative in its own right. Subsequently, the course focuses on a close study and analysis of how films use literary devices and tropes, as well as how filmmakers have translated various literary works into film. Are films mere 'illustrations' of the word? First we must define what constitutes "Literature" first, and then consider the relationship between moving images and the written word. Can film and writing achieve the same 'effects?' Can they tell the same stories? Can they express the same ideas? Is there such a thing as a film canon, film expression, film form - and are these analogous to those in writing, the same, or something else entirely? Students also look at the ways their own writing can be turned into the medium of film. From this grounding, students critically analyze--and write in response to--an array of works and explore their impact on film.
Prerequisites: English 9.
'b' Category Honors & AP Courses
AP Literature & Composition
Studying literature illuminates human emotion and behavior, as well as the magical blending of logic with imagination. Line, meter, rhyme, character, plot, spectacle, dramatic monologue--these are the tools of the writer that enable ordered and intricate art forms. Literature cannot exist without order. Like music, literary expression is as much a product of disciplined rules as it is, in William Wordsworth's terms, "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling...recollected in tranquility". Phrased another way, literature is a science of words and a painting of ideas. Throughout this AP course, students discover how to read and understand literature as an art form guided by unified but sometimes competing rules, an art form at once translatable to all and subject entirely to individual interpretation. This course prepares students to master the AP Literature & Composition exam, held each year in May. To that end, it focuses student learning on the key goals expressed by the AP. Learning stems from discussions of generative topics and literary criticism, as students are encouraged to direct their own learning. Although the teacher--as guide--will assign and teach texts, students are encouraged to suggest readings, literary criticism, podcasts, and film clips. Students are encouraged to use technology to enhance and demonstrate their understanding.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent.
AP Language & Composition
Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. Course readings feature expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts. Students examine and work with essays, letters, speeches, images, and imaginative literature. Course reading and writing activities help students gain textual (and contextual) power, making them more alert to an author's purpose, the needs of an audience, the demands of the subject, and the resources of language: syntax, word choice, and tone. The critical skills that students learn to appreciate through close and continued analysis of a wide variety of nonfiction texts can serve them in their own writing as they grow increasingly aware of these skills and their pertinent uses. During the course, a wide variety of texts (prose and image-based) and writing tasks provide the focus for an energetic study of language, rhetoric, and argument. Lastly, students learn how to cite the sources used in their research using a recognized editorial style where appropriate, such as MLA, the Chicago Manual of Style, or APA. This course prepares students to master the AP Language & Composition exam, held each year in May. To that end, it focuses student learning on the key goals expressed by the AP. Learning stems from discussions of generative topics and literary criticism, as students are encouraged to direct their own learning. Although the teacher--as guide--will assign and teach texts, students are encouraged to suggest readings, literary criticism, podcasts, and film clips. Students are encouraged to use technology to enhance and demonstrate their understanding.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent.
Advanced Composition
This is a course in the craft of writing. Reading, writing, and thinking are not easy tasks, so we will experiment with various systematic ways of discovering and creating meanings. Writing can be art, and the greatest written works are among humanity's greatest achievements. Where the genius for such works derives is an eternal mystery, and one can no more teach someone to be a great novelist, dramatist, or poet than one can teach someone to be the next Joshua Bell or Michael Phelps. But the writing most of us need to perform in order to achieve success in our academic and professional careers, communicate with our colleagues, friends, and the public, and clarify and record our own thinking fortunately does not fall into that mysterious and lofty category. It is more like carpentry: one learns to build a table that will stand solidly on its own, support whatever weight it is supposed to bear, and be aesthetically pleasing. Similarly, we can all learn to write prose that helps us achieve our academic goals. That is fortunate, because few skills are as important to your overall success in your course-work and your life as your ability to take your thoughts and put them down on paper in such a way that they reach a reader's mind more or less unaltered, and that your reader then finds them persuasive. This course aims to provide you with skills that will help you convey your ideas effectively, both in future course-work and professionally in your chosen field.
Prerequisites: Literature & Composition 2, or equivalent.