Literature and Writing (10 credits)
Grade level: 9
College eligibility: UC and CSU approved college preparatory English, subject area B
Recommended Coursework: none

This course integrates the study of literature with instruction in the writing process. Students will explore the ideas and issues of literature while improving their writing, speaking, listening, thinking and language skills. Materials include poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction.

World Literature (10 credits)
Grade level: 10
College eligibility: UC and CSU approved college preparatory English, subject area B
Recommended Coursework: none

Using works of world literature, the student will explore themes of human experience and inquiry. The literature will include novels, plays, stories and poetry by historical and contemporary authors from around the world. This literature-based program provides instruction and experiences for students to build their listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking skills.

American Literature & Writing (10 credits)
Grade level: 11
College eligibility: UC and CSU approved college preparatory English, subject area B
Recommended Coursework: none

Recommended Coursework: None. This course provides rigorous and challenging experiences for the student in the areas of critical reading, critical thinking, effective discussion, note-taking, essay test-taking, expository writing and research. The core of the curriculum is a chronological or thematic study of American literature, its literary periods and major writings. Outside reading focuses on broader philosophical ideas, encouraging wider reading including classics by American authors.

AP Language & Composition (10 credits)*
Grade level: 11
College eligibility: UC and CSU approved college preparatory English, subject area B
Recommended Coursework: none

The AP course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. The course also shows how generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing This course uses a survey of American literature and writing from the beginning of the country to modern times with which to frame the studies of language and composition.

*Diagnostic exam provided to students in January/February prior to course selection

European Literature (10 credits)
Grade level: 12
College eligibility: Fulfills the UC and CSU approved college preparatory English, subject area B
Recommended Coursework: none

European Literature 12 is a college-preparatory course for high school seniors. Beginning with the Middle Ages, the course is organized chronologically, encompassing a wide variety of masterworks from the literary traditions of the British Isles and continental Europe. In addition to offering a rough historical survey of European literature, the course functions as a genre review that embraces epic poetry, drama, novels, lyric poetry, short stories, essays, historical accounts, philosophical works, and other informational texts. The course writing assignments will prepare students for the types of writing they are likely to encounter in college. These assignments include persuasive essays, timed responses to fictional and non-fictional readings, literary analysis essays, and formal research papers. Students will also have the opportunity to write their own poems and fictional pieces, in response to the literary examples on the course reading list.

AP English Literature (10 credits)
Grade level: 12
College eligibility: UC and CSU approved college preparatory English, subject area B
Recommended Coursework: none

This Advanced Placement English course in Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of literature.  Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers.  As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style and themes, as well as smaller-scale elements, such as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone.  The course includes intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods, concentrating on selections that do not yield all of their pleasures of thought and feeling the first time through.  Students will read deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a work’s complexity in order to absorb its richness of meaning and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form.