English Department

In this course, students engage in a variety of reading and writing experiences as they analyze the ways in which the traditional and contemporary texts from 20th and 21st century America represent a view or make a comment on the human condition and spirit. Key reading selections come from various genres including plays, novels, poems, and speeches. Students will write multi-page essays (expository and persuasive) and original stories and poems in a writing workshop environment. Research study includes instruction in creating a research plan, synthesizing information, and organizing ideas.

Literature:

• The Crucible--Arthur Miller 
• The Catcher in the Rye--JD Salinger
• Rhetoric Unit (Various Speeches)
• The Great Gatsby-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Prerequisite: English (2 credits)

What's Next? English IV or English IV H

This course is designed for students who wish to have a more challenging and rigorous English III experience. In addition to the emphasis areas listed above, English III Honors students will be afforded opportunities to engage in lengthier and more challenging reading and writing experience with more sophisticated levels of instruction and more advanced skill work.

Prerequisite: English (2 credits)

What's Next? English IV or English IV H or English IV AP

This course is designed for students who wish to have a more challenging and rigorous English III experience. This course instructs students in the reading of complex text and the writing of rich and complex prose. This course will emphasize the writing process by having students write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts. Students will become acquainted with a wide variety of prose styles from many disciplines and historical periods, and will gain an understanding of the connections between writing and interpretive skill in reading. The use of research materials and the ability to synthesize a variety of sources are integral parts of this course. This course prepares students to take the AP Language and Composition exam to possibly earn college credit.

Literature:

• The Great Gatsby—F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Just Mercy--Bryan Stevenson

• Prerequisite: English (2 credits)

What's Next? English IV or English IV Honors or English IV AP

 Texts

• Fall semester:
  • Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Perfume by Patrick Suskind
  • House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
• Spring semester:
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Selected poetry of Sylvia Plath
  • Selected poetry of Adrienne Rich
  • The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

*Please note that students are not required to purchase texts, but are strongly encouraged to do so. As this is a college course, we feel that it is beneficial to the students to annotate their texts. Any student needing to borrow a text need only to alert the instructor and one will be provided.

Requirements

• World Literature 1 Paper
• World Literature Assignment 2
• Individual Junior Oral Presentation
• Socratic seminars
• In-class essays
• Collegiate style tests
• Begin extended essay
• Major grades are worth 75% of the final grade; minor grades are worth 25%.

Course Objective

• IB English III is the first year of a two-year course designed to focus on the student's ability to locate, comprehend, and evaluate college-level material; logically analyze information, compare and contrast different sources of information; use documentation styles correctly; organize, synthesize, and use ideas and language according to IB standards; clearly communicate original and logical positions on various topics; support argumentative positions by effectively citing literature as evidence and by logically explaining reasoning. We examine and re-examine the literature listed on this syllabus with special emphasis on developing oral and written commentary skills. The student will also look at various films with a critical eye and explore the idea of film as a valid form of literature. Please note that IB emphasizes original thought, not regurgitation of instructor's teachings.

In this course, students will read and write on a daily basis. Text studies focus on the comparing and contrasting of universal themes in contemporary and traditional works from a variety of cultures and countries, including traditional British works. Students will analyze the effects of literary devices in literary non-fiction, expository, and persuasive texts, and will conduct an advanced study of media literacy, including the development of a visual media. The course emphasizes self-selected texts and collaborative discussions focused on studentdirected comprehension, interpretation, and analysis work. Students will develop multi-draft and multi-page essays, including an argument essay, interpretive response, and philosophy essay.

Literature:

• Beowulf excerpts 

• Grendel excerpts—John Gardner

• Macbeth--William Shakespeare

• Anthem--Ayn Rand

Prerequisite: English (3 credits)

This course is designed for students who wish to have a more challenging and rigorous English IV experience. In addition to the emphasis areas listed above, English IV Honors students will be afforded opportunities to engage in lengthier and more challenging reading and writing experience with more sophisticated levels of instruction and more advanced skill work.

Prerequisite: English (3 credits)

This course is designed to engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Students will deepen their understandings of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students will consider a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as such smallerscale elements as they use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. The course should include intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods. Writing experiences in this course may involve writing response and reaction papers along with annotation, free writing, and keeping some form of a reading journal. Writing assignments will focus on the critical analysis of literature and will include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. This course prepares students to take the AP Literature and Composition exam to possibly earn college credit.

Literature:

• Frankenstein—Mary Shelley

• East of Eden--John Steinbeck

• Hamlet—William Shakespeare

• The Picture of Dorian Gray—Oscar Wilde​​​​​​​

Prerequisite: English (3 credits)

  Literature:

• Selected poetry of John Keats

• Oleanna--David Mamet

• Hamlet--William Shakespeare

• "Piedra de Sol"—Octavio Paz

• Love Medicine--Louise Erdrich

• The Sound & the Fury--William Faulkner

Please note that students are not required to purchase texts, but are strongly encouraged to do so. As this is a college course, we feel that it is beneficial to the students to annotate their texts. Any student needing to borrow a text need only to alert the instructor and one will be provided.

Requirements

• Completion of World Literature 1 Paper
• Individual Senior Oral
• Socratic Seminars
• In-class essays
• Collegiate style tests
• Completion of Extended Essay

Major grades are worth 75% of the final grade; minor grades are worth 25%.

Course Objectives

• IB English IV expands the knowledge gained in IB English III. Specifically, this course focuses on the students' ability to locate, comprehend, and evaluate college-level material; logically analyze information; compare and contrast different sources of information; use documentation styles correctly; organize, synthesize and use ideas and language according to IB standards; clearly communicate original and logical positions on various topics; support argumentative positions by effectively citing research as evidence and by logically explaining reasoning, and demonstrate Internet research capability. We examine/re-examine the literature listed on this syllabus with special emphasis on developing oral and written commentary skills. the student will also look at various films with a critical eye and explore the idea of film as a valid form of literature.
  
   
• Please note that IB emphasizes original thought, not regurgitation of instructor's teachings.

• In these days of moral relativism, we find it helps to address the issue of plagiarism from the outset. Plagiarism, as defined by the MLS Handbook for Writer of Research Papers, consists of "us[ing] another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source...A writer who fails to give appropriate acknowledgment when repeating another's wording or particularly apt term, paraphrasing another's argument, or presenting another's line of thinking is guilty of plagiarism" (26).
• Plagiarism can be inadvertent, such as misattribution, or a brief paraphrase that is unacceptably close to the original. And if you have questions about how to quote from the primary texts, or how to incorporate and document ideas and quotations from the headnotes or other introductory material, by all means ask -- this is part of the learning process. No one will suspect you of wanting to plagiarize if you ask how to avoid it.
  
   
• Far more serious is substantially copying another's work, whether amateur or professional, and submitting it as your own. For the record, a student who knowingly plagiarizes will receive and automatic zero for the assignment and will be reported to both the IB Coordinator and the Sub-school Principal. Cheating on any assignment will be handled in the same manner.