AP Literature and Composition:  This highly rigorous, year-long course is taught like a college-level course and designed to help seniors develop original and analytical written and oral interpretations of texts. Students will engage in the careful and precise reading of literature.  Though there are no prerequisites for this AP class, students should have a strong command of the English language, enjoy reading, and have the time to commit to learning and the desire and follow through to do well on the exam. Students are required to meet the curricular standards set forth by the College Board.  Students maintain a hearty and rigorous pace, both inside and outside the classroom, that will require them to think logically and creatively in order to analyze challenging texts.  Students attend daily in order to gain the most from the class and the conversations that occur. Students are required to read and write daily and come to all classes prepared to understand, explain, and evaluate literature from various genres spanning the 16^th to 21^st centuries.  

English IV: English IV is a challenging course focusing on the study of British Literature, from its origins to the modern writings, and on improving student writing skills. This course will prepare students to become independent writers, readers, thinkers, and lifelong learners. In order to meet these goals, students will read, think, connect with, and write about a variety of works.  These works will be drawn from several literary genres and subgenres—prose fiction and non-fiction, poetry, drama, and will include novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and plays, and all work will be driven by the English IV Standard Course of Study. Students will trace the social and historical perspectives found in British Literature through analyzing various literary works. In addition, students will relate and compare the experiences of others to their own and research the diversity of British experience while examining relationships between past and present. Students will be exposed to a combination of discussions, student-led seminars, projects, and relevant writing assignments that will accompany reading assignments. 

AP Language and Composition: AP English Language and Composition provides a college level study of American literature primarily through the exploration of fiction and more so in nonfiction pieces in current events, the literary canon, and contemporary pieces of literature.  Special emphasis is placed on critically reading and writing expository, argumentative, and analytical prose in order to prepare students for the English Language and Composition Exam. “An AP course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of rhetorical contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects, as well as the way genre conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing.” (The College Board,Course Description 2010) The AP Language and Composition course assumes that students already understand and use Standard English grammar. The intense concentration on language use in this course should enhance their ability to use grammatical conventions both appropriately and with sophistication as well as to develop stylistic maturity in their prose.

English III: Students in Honors English III analyze United States literature as it reflects social perspective and historical significance by continuing to use language for expressive, expository, argumentative, and literary purposes. The emphasis in English III is critical analysis of texts through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and using media.  The course will be framed by the following questions: How do certain writings come to represent American culture?  What role does the writer play in American society?  What does the “American Dream” mean and how has this concept evolved throughout our nation’s history?  What does our literature say about America, and what, in turn, do Americans say about our literature?  How are notions of faith, individuality, self-identity, community and citizenship reflected in American literature? Students will relate the experiences of others to their own, research the diversity of American experience, examine relationships between past and present, build increasing sophistication in defining issues and using argument effectively, create products and presentations which maintain standard conventions of written and oral language.

English II: This is a reading- and writing-intensive courses that challenge students to conduct close analyses of various texts from a variety of genres and perspectives. Both courses utilize the SpringBoard ELA curriculum which “offers core instructional materials in print and digital form that are aligned to College and Career Readiness Standards, Advanced Placement (AP) coursework, and the SAT Suite of Assessments

English I: This is a reading- and writing-intensive courses that challenge students to conduct close analyses of various texts from a variety of genres and perspectives. Both courses utilize the SpringBoard ELA curriculum which “offers core instructional materials in print and digital form that are aligned to College and Career Readiness Standards, Advanced Placement (AP) coursework, and the SAT Suite of Assessments