Description
This course is designed to expose students to a variety of fiction and nonfiction literature. Students begin by reading a selection of nonfiction texts that includes newspaper articles, speeches, and essays. As they evaluate these texts, students learn how to structure an argument, analyze rhetoric, and identify the main ideas and supporting details in a text. Students employ these skills when they write their own persuasive essays on a topic of their choice.
In the latter half of this course, students study classic works of British literature, including selections from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Hamlet. As they read these works, students study key elements of literature and drama, including plot, character, and setting, and they learn and employ a range of strategies to increase vocabulary knowledge.
Part 2 of this course teaches students to evaluate the narrative form and key elements of literature in order to practice their analytical and critical thinking skills. Throughout this course, students read and analyze both long and short works of literature, study the narrative form and elements of style, and write an original short story.
Students begin by reading a selection of poetry and short stories, including works by John Donne and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. From there, students move on to evaluating a longer work of literature as they read Charlotte Bront´’s novel Jane Eyre. As they read these works, students learn to assess the way that narrative writing is structured in both long and short works.
To demonstrate their understanding of narrative form, students write an original short story that incorporates the device of situational irony. Through this assignment, students show their understanding of literary form and work to employ the literary elements they study throughout the course.
