Language Arts Courses

Language Arts 9

Course Overview:

This is a two-semester course that focuses on a variety of text: literary, expository, and informational. Each unit in the course contains different lessons: Skills, Literary/Expository, Informational, Communication, Grammar, and Writing lessons. This course covers literary skills such as Plot – flashback and foreshadowing, Setting – time and sequence, Characterization – dialogue, Theme – universal theme, Style – figurative language, and Narrator – different types. Units include topics such as: Literary Analysis-Poetry; Autobiographies, Essays and Personal Accounts; and World Literature, theme is origin myths. Students also learn classics such as Homer’s The Odyssey and William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Informational Text reading skills are taught using consumer, workplace, technical, and public documents. Writing Lessons cover The Writing Process and also include a Research Workshop. Essay topics in the course include Business Letter, Research Paper, Literary Analysis Essay, Persuasive Essay, and Personal Narrative Essay.

Language Arts 10

Course Overview:

This is a two-semester course that focuses on preparing students for success on state exit exams. Each unit contains: Skills Lessons which prepares students to learn skills necessary for standardized testing; Informational Lessons which introduce students to real-life topics that connect to the literary text; Communication Lessons, topics include Debate, Analysis of Formal Speech, Visual Media Analysis, and Mass Media and Public Opinion; Grammar Lessons, topics include Subject-Verb Agreement, Modifiers, Active and Passive Voice, Main and Subordinate Clauses, and Sentence Structure; and Writing Lessons, essays are taught using the Writing Process, topics include Autobiographical Narrative Essay, Persuasive Essay, Descriptive Essay, Expository Essay, and Letter to the Editor. Unit topics include: Literary Analysis of Poetry; Evaluate and Clarify Expository Text; World Literature – theme Social Responsibility; Legends, Epics, and Myths – Antigone, The Sword and The Stone; Drama – Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar; and Reading Comprehension – Informational text.

Language Arts 11

Course Overview:

This two-semester course’s main emphasis is American Literature. The course is structured chronologically by time period and literary era. Each unit contains introductory lessons that set the stage for the student to understand the background and historical events that impacted American literary and expository text. Topics include: Origins 2000 BC -1620; Slave Narratives; Puritan Style and Sermon; Romanticism and Transcendentalism; Realism; The Harlem Renaissance; Modernism; and Contemporary Literature. Authors represented include, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Frederick Douglass, Chief Joseph, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Thurston, Martin Luther King Jr., Amy Tan, and Judith Ortiz Cofer. The course also contains a World Literature unit with stories from The Middle East, India, Japan, and Argentina. The course is rounded out by including Informational, Communication, Grammar, and Writing Lessons throughout each unit.

Language Arts 12

Course Overview:

This is a two-semester British Literature based course. The course is organized by chronological time period that includes: Anglo-Saxon and Old English Period: 449-1066; The Medieval Period: 1066-1485; The Renaissance 1485-1660; 17th & 18th Centuries (Restoration & Enlightenment): 1660-1798; Romantic Period 1798-1832; Victorian Period: 1832-1901; and Modern Period: 1901-1950. Each unit contains an introduction to the time period using a timeline and background lecture that discusses the philosophical, political, religious, ethical, and social influences of each time period. Authors represented include Homer, Chaucer, Boccaccio, William Shakespeare, Francesco Petrarch, Mary Wollstonecraft, Queen Elizabeth I, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Robert Browning, and Virginia Woolf. The course also contains a World Literature unit with stories from India, Europe, China, and Spain. The course also includes Informational Lessons, Communication lessons, Grammar Lessons, and Writing Lessons.

Classics Novels

Course Overview:

Includes thirteen classic novels and two author study courses. Novel titles include Red Badge of Courage, The Three Musketeers, Call of the Wild, Midsummer’ Night’s Dream, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1984, Gulliver’s Travels, Jane Eyre, Robinson Crusoe, House of the Seven Gables, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Mrs. Dalloway, and Heart of Darkness. The two author study courses are Jorge Luis Borges and Flannery O’Connor. All reading material is included in an online format for the student. Novel courses include lectures, web activities, journals, homework/ practice, quizzes, and a test.