English Course Offerings

Grade: 9

Course Credit: 1 English Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite: None

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: Students will read and study a variety of literature, which may include short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and non-fiction, to enhance comprehension and analysis skills, to make personal and global connections within and across texts, and to improve reading stamina and increase text complexity.

*Students should plan to read at least one hour outside of class per week, as supported by their individual goal-setting.

Writing Expectations: Students should expect to write and revise multiple process pieces across a variety of genres, which may include narrative, argumentative, informational, and poetry.

Freshman Literature & Composition will introduce students to the study and practice of the craft of writing and how it can enhance our academic experiences and our lives. The course is designed to move students toward the use of strategies for making sense of what we read, including some difficult texts that we will learn to unpack together. Students will also  experience the value of learning from and with one another in order to build relationships, make connections, challenge ideas, gain perspectives, and grow as readers, writers, and thinkers.

Grade: 9

Course Credit: 1 English Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite: Recommendation from middle school based on data analysis.

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: Students will read and study a variety of literature, which may include short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and non-fiction, to enhance comprehension and analysis skills, to make personal and global connections within and across texts, and to improve reading stamina and increase text complexity.

*Students should plan to read at least two hours outside of class per week, as supported by their individual goal-setting.

Writing Expectations: Students should expect to write and revise multiple process pieces across a variety of genres, which may include narrative, argumentative, informational, and poetry.

*Students will be encouraged to seek publication.

Freshman Literature & Composition Honors will introduce students to the study and practice of the craft of writing and how it can enhance our academic experiences and our lives. The course is designed to move students toward the use of strategies for making sense of what we read, including some difficult texts that we will learn to unpack together. Students will also experience the value of learning from and with one another in order to build relationships, make connections, challenge ideas, gain perspectives, and grow as readers, writers, and thinkers.

Grade: 10

Course Credit: 1 English Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite:  Freshman Literature & Composition 

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Independent Reading Expectations: Students are expected to be readers choosing texts based on individual reading goals, interest, and readiness.

Common Reading Experiences may include but are not limited to: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Orwell’s 1984, Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Jewke’s Man the Mythmaker, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Epic of Gilgamesh, Hickam’s Rocket Boys (aka October Sky), Sophocles’ Antigone, Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince

Common Writing Experiences may include but are not limited to: Two formal expository writings per quarter, persuasive essay, research project, literary response essay and short answer, note taking, workplace writing, and informal writing such as letters, narratives, journals, brochures, and poetry.

During sophomore year, students will read and experience literature that focuses on finding one’s voice in an imperfect society. Students will explore the individual’s struggle against pressure to conform in order to prevent loss of individual power and freedom. As students analyze various genres and voices of literature, they will develop their own voices in response to the concept of imperfect societies both in fiction and in modern, nonfiction reference. All students will take Missouri’s End of Course Test in the spring.

Grade: 10

Course Credit: 1 English Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite:  Freshman Literature & Composition Honors; recommendation of Freshman Literature & Composition teacher

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Independent Reading Expectations: Students are expected to be readers choosing texts based on individual reading goals, interest, and readiness.

Common Reading Experiences may include but are not limited to: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Orwell’s 1984, Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Jewke’s Man the Mythmaker, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Epic of Gilgamesh, Hickam’s Rocket Boys (aka October Sky), Sophocles’ Antigone

Common Writing Experiences may include but are not limited to: Two formal expository writings per quarter, persuasive essay, research project, literary response essay and short answer, note taking, workplace writing, and informal writing such as letters, narratives, journals, brochures, and poetry.

This course is for students who have strong literary skills and who possess a passion for intellectual curiosity. Students need to be highly self-motivated and have strong time management and organizational skills. Students will identify, discuss, and write about more complex and subtle ideas in literature as well as read additional and more difficult pieces of literature.

During sophomore year, students will read and experience literature that focuses on finding one’s voice in an imperfect society. Students will explore the individual’s struggle against pressure to conform in order to prevent loss of individual power and freedom. As students analyze various genres and voices of literature, they will develop their own voices in response to the concept of imperfect societies both in fiction and in modern, nonfiction reference. All students will take Missouri’s End of Course Test in the spring.

Junior Literature & Composition (EN300A/EN300B) 

Grade: 11 

Course Credit: 1 English Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite: Freshman Literature & Composition and Sophomore Literature & Composition

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: 6 books, homework daily, average assignment: 20 pages

Required Readings: Students will read 19th century texts, 20th century texts, 21st century texts, one drama, and one nonfiction book.

Optional Texts: Teachers will supplement the required readings with additional texts (nonfiction, poetry, fiction) to reflect the course’s essential questions.

Writing Expectations: Students will compose two formal pieces of writing per quarter; second semester students will write collegeessays as well as their independent inquiry projects.

Junior Literature & Composition builds on ninth and tenth grade coursework by centering on inquiry and synthesis. Students will build understandings through reading diverse perspectives and multiple genres, while studying and practicing multiple modes of composition for a variety of audiences and purposes. During second semester, students will conduct independent inquiry projects whereby students form a question, conduct research, and create a multimedia presentation for a public audience. Throughout the year students will practice for the ACT and work toward composing college/scholarship essays.

Grade: 11, Grade 12 with permission 

Course Credit: 1 English Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite: Freshman Literature & Composition, Sophomore Literature & Composition, Approval from Sophomore Literature &

Composition teacher

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: 8 books, daily homework, average assignment: 25 pages

Required Readings: The Norton Reader

Optional Texts: Students will select teacher-approved nonfiction texts.

Writing Expectations: 15 essays in and out of class, exceptional skills in writing the multi-paragraph essay

AP English Language and Composition cultivates the reading and writing skills that students need for college success and for intellectually responsible civic engagement. The course guides students in becoming curious, critical, and responsive readers of diverse texts (memos, letters, advertisements, political satires, etc.), and reflective writers of texts addressed to diverse audiences for diverse purposes.

*Dual Credit through SLU is offered in this course.

Grade: 12

Course Credit: .5 English Credit or Elective Credit

Course Length: Semester

Prerequisite: Freshman Literature & Composition, Sophomore Literature & Composition and Junior Literature & Composition (or AP Language & Composition)

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: 4 books, homework daily, average assignment: 25 pages

Writing Expectations: Students will compose at least three formal, developed pieces of writing per semester, as well as informal responses to classwork. Senior Research Paper will be completed during the fall semester, regardless of elective.

Cultural Collisions - What happens when “self” meets “other”? When woman meets man? When Black meets White? When young meets old? What happens when our own perceptions collide with the perceptions of others? When we read and write, we learn how we have constructed our worldview, giving us the opportunity to examine “self” and “other.” Through a mix of required and choice texts, this course will push students to examine their world and the world of “the other” through the lens of cultural collisions. The students will respond to these cultural collisions in formal and informal ways, in both expository and creative writing, in presentations and conversation.

Potential Readings: Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf), The Fire Next Time (Baldwin), The Metamorphosis (Kafka), The Orestia, The Stranger (Camus), Betsey Brown (Shange), Jane Eyre (Bronte). Students will also have the opportunity to choose literature and analyze it through the lens of cultural collisions.

*Dual Credit through SLU is offered in this course.

Grade: 12

Course Credit: .5 English or Elective Credit

Course Length: Semester

Prerequisite: Freshman Literature & Composition, Sophomore Literature & Composition and Junior Literature & Composition (or AP Language & Composition)

NCAA Approved Course Year

Description:

Reading Expectations: 4 books, homework daily, average assignment: 25 pages

Writing Expectations: Students will compose at least three formal, developed pieces of writing per semester, as well as informal responses to classwork. Senior Research Paper will be completed during the fall semester, regardless of elective.

Monsters in Literature - Reanimated corpses, flesh-eating zombies, and blood-hungry psychopaths in English class? This course will explore the role horror stories and films have played in our culture and in human civilization, and consider how monsters have become dark-side manifestations of a culture’s values, its fear of difference, and the forever-shifting understanding of the self. What does a particular culture label as “monstrous” and why? What exactly have certain authors captured and unleashed? Toward answering such questions, students will explore stories from around the world, literature, and film, and engage in both academic and creative writing.

Potential Readings: Dawn (Butler), The Strange Case of Jekyll & Hyde (Wells), The Island of Dr. Moreau (Wells), Dracula (Stoker), The Plague (Camus), Beloved (Morrison), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde). Students will also have the opportunity to choose and analyze their own “monster literature.”

*Dual Credit through SLU is offered in this course.

Grade: 12

Course Credit: .5 English or Elective Credit

Course Length: Semester

Prerequisite: Freshman Literature & Composition, Sophomore Literature & Composition and Junior Literature & Composition (or AP Language & Composition)

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: Excerpts and articles; short works of mythology, fables, and fairy tales; homework daily, average assignment: 25 pages

Writing Expectations: Students will compose at least three formal, developed pieces of writing per semester, as well as informal responses to classwork. Senior Research Paper will be completed during the fall semester, regardless of elective.

Myths, Fables, and Fairy Tales - We all know and love them - beautiful but naive young heroines, dashing princes, wicked witches, benevolent fairies - even crafty and vengeful monsters. Versions of the same stories have been passed down and reimagined for centuries in all parts of the world. But what keeps us so enthralled? And why do cultures that could never have interacted retell virtually the exact same stories? Explore the magical world of myths, fables, and fairy tales by reading a variety of examples, examining their influence on popular media, and learning how they grew out of oral tradition into honored literary heritage. Students will engage in both academic and creative writing in this course.

Potential Readings: (All are excerpts.) The Power of Myth (Campbell), Parallel Myths (Bierlein), Living Folklore: An Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions, 2nd Ed. (Sims and Stephens), Aesop’s Fables (Zipes), The Classic Fairy Tales (Norton Critical Edition), The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings (Brunvand).

*Dual Credit through SLU is offered in this course.

Grade: 12

Course Credit: .5 English or Elective Credit

Course Length: Semester

Prerequisite: Freshman Literature & Composition, Sophomore Literature & Composition and Junior Literature & Composition (or AP Language & Composition)

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: 4 books, homework daily, average assignment: 25 pages

Writing Expectations: Students will compose at least three formal, developed pieces of writing per semester, as well as informal responses to classwork. Senior Research Paper will be completed during the fall semester, regardless of elective.

Philosophy in Literature - Mirror, mirror on the wall. What is the meaning of life? What am I doing here? Who are we and where are we going? How does examining literature through philosophy help us see through the looking glass? This elective will focus on “the other“ through both modern and classical philosophies and literature. Students will research world philosophies and discuss how philosophy through literature helps us understand ourselves and others. Students will select one philosophy and study literature through that lens, developing their own philosophy to guide them when they leave KHS. Students will engage in both academic and creative writing in this course.

Potential Readings: Man’s Search for Meaning (Frankl), Tao of Pooh (Hoff), Kite Runner (Hosseini), Nervous Conditions (Dangarembga), The Little Prince (Saint-Exupéry), The Myth of Sisyphus (Camus), and pieces by Ralph Waldo Emerson, bell hooks, Derrick Bell, Catcher in the Rye, excerpts from Hamlet, Waiting for Godot, and Metamorphosis and self-selected time travel fantasy.

*Dual Credit through SLU is offered in this course.

Grade: 12

Course Credit: 1 English or Elective Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite: Freshman Literature & Composition, Sophomore Literature & Composition and Junior Literature & Composition (or AP Language & Composition) Approval from English teacher

NCAA Approved Course

Description:

Reading Expectations: 8 books, homework: 4 nights a week, average assignment: 25 pages

Required Readings: Could include, among others, Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Shakespeare’s Othello, Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Martel’s Life of Pi, Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, outside reading novels, and a variety of short stories and poems.

Teacher Option Readings: Literary criticism

Writing Expectations: Multiple in-class and out-of-class essays each quarter. Out-of-class essays are usually 3-4 pages long, though some could be longer. In-class essays are modeled on the AP Literature exam essays. Students will typically write one inclass essay and one longer out-of-class essay for each major work. Supplementary readings will often be accompanied by essays as well.

AP Literature gives students the opportunity to study canonical and established contemporary works of literary, cultural, and social merit spanning genres and time periods.

*Dual Credit through SLU is offered in this course.

Grade: 9-12 

Course Credit: 1 Elective Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite: Enrollment is determined by reading scores and teacher selection. Reading Specialist approval is required.

Description:

Reading Expectations: Daily class reading, self selected texts, and on-line reading.

The goal of this course is for students to advance toward grade level reading in addition to becoming self-motivated readers. They will learn how to effectively use before, during, and after reading strategies, build vocabulary, improve fluency, and select their own independent reading texts in order to become more informed citizens. Computer software applications will serve as tools to advance comprehension. Students will be able to independently use their learning to grapple with increasingly complex texts from a variety of genres and time periods to gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge.

Grade: 9-12

Course Credit: 1 English Credit

Course Length: Year

Prerequisite: Testing by ELL Staff (Language Assessment Scales); placement to be determined by ELL staff and counselor.

Description:

This is a class intended for the non-native or limited-English-proficient (LEP) student. Participants may be at beginning, intermediate, and advanced proficiency levels. Students will improve vocabulary and grammatical structures in English, as well as practice reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Class activities include, but are not limited to, composition structure and writing, reading short stories, grammar and listening exercises, and conversational situations in the target language.