English

List of 12 items.

• English I: World Literature

  In English I, students experience an introduction to academic discourse; they learn to read and question critically, think and write analytically, and discuss texts and themes communally. First‑year students also study formal elements of grammar and syntax and the Latin and Greek building blocks of English vocabulary. This course functions on an interdisciplinary level with Global Studies (History), to form a Freshman Humanities curriculum that seeks to make explicit links between cultures and literature. Readings invite students to investigate communities around the globe, and the diverse locations and readings are connected through several common themes: a journey to self‑knowledge and maturity, cultural connections and conflicts, and consideration of outsiders. Through discussions about our texts and themes, students should come to a deeper understanding of their own culture in a global context.

• English II: Place and Perspective

  While reading classic and modern texts, sophomores will question and discuss how geography and natural settings help establish a sense of place. This consideration of place will lead into the sophomore experience while on WIP (Western Immersion Program). As the students examine the ways FVS and the Western setting help create perspective, they will also expand outward to consider what it means to have a global sense of place. In examining the importance of nature and setting, the students build on the critical thinking skills they learn in their freshman year by continuing to analytically read, write, and discuss various novels, short stories, poems, and essays. Students will also sharpen their vocabulary and grammar skills.

• Honors English II: Place and Perspective

  Prerequisite: Grade of A‑ or higher in English I, excellent effort grades, teacher recommendation.
  While reading classic and modern texts, sophomores will question and discuss how geography and natural settings help establish a sense of place. This consideration of place will lead into the sophomore experience while on WIP (Western Immersion Program). As the students examine the ways FVS and the Western setting help create perspective, they will also expand outward to consider what it means to have a global sense of place. In examining the importance of nature and setting, the students build on the critical thinking skills they learn in their freshman year by continuing to analytically read, write, and discuss various novels, short stories, poems, and essays. Students will also sharpen their vocabulary and grammar skills. This honors class reads more texts and writes more papers than the other English II.

• English III – American Literature: Journeys and Self-Discovery

  American Literature will seek to answer the question “What is America?” as we journey through places and themes that have formed the foundation of our nation’s narrative. Structured around a geographic exploration of the country, the course will explore themes of race, gender, class, success, the trauma of war, and religion in settings that range from New York City to rural Wyoming. Students will encounter main characters who are wealthy socialites, working‑class immigrants, war veterans, ranch girls, Native Americans, and emancipated slaves. Like Americans today, their identities are rarely simple; instead, they are defined at the intersection of the characters’ heritage, race, class, creed, and career. Students will walk away from this course with an enhanced understanding of the diversity of America as a landscape, a culture, and a national identity, complicating their view of what “America” is.

• English III: Advanced English Language and Composition

  Prerequisite: Grade of A‑ or higher in English II, demonstrated an aptitude for writing and comfortable writing under time pressure, teacher recommendation.
  Students enrolled in this course have the option of taking the corresponding AP exam in May. The objective of this writing‑based course is to meet the goals established by the College Board course “AP English Language and Composition,” a course that mirrors first‑year writing classes at the college level. To meet these goals, we will read and write various types of essays: personal pieces, argumentative writings about contemporary socio‑political issues, essays in response to literary works, and also a contemporary issues research paper. Many of our writings will involve learning how to properly incorporate outside sources and, to prepare for the AP Exam, will be in‑class, timed pieces. To coincide with FVS’s Junior‑year study of American History and Literature, nearly all of our readings will come from American authors, and our argumentative writings will be focused on contemporary American social issues, policy debates, and politics. (*FYI: What differentiates this course from the Senior‑year AP Literature course is the emphasis on writing, particularly on reading and writing argumentative, non‑fiction essays.)

• English IV: Advanced English Literature and Composition

  Prerequisite: Grade of A‑ or higher in English III or a B+ or above in Advanced English Language and Composition, demonstrated aptitude for reading, analyzing, and discussing challenging prose, demonstrated ability to write under time pressure, teacher recommendation.
  Students enrolled in this course have the option of taking the corresponding AP exam in May. Advanced English Literature is a college‑level seminar course that encourages highly motivated readers and writers to explore challenging and diverse literary offerings while preparing for the Advanced Placement exam in English Literature. Advanced English Literature begins with a review of the summer reading texts, then focuses on important authors and poets from around the world: Shakespeare, Woolf, Erdrich, Faulkner, Roy, Garcia Marquez, Chekhov, and Sophocles among others. These works are complemented and contextualized by historical study and referencing literary theory, from Aristotle to Derrida. Readings and discussions are organized around each author's contribution to the course’s essential question(s): what does it mean to tell a story – to tell our own story – and how does the manner in which stories are told indicate their content. In‑class essays complement formal out‑of‑class essays and are a significant part of students' work in composition. Additionally, students ought to expect to be leaders of the classroom environment and will do so formally through presentations and Socratic Seminars, among other activities.

• English IV: A History of Mystery: Unravelling British Detective Fiction

   “It is a Sunday afternoon, preferably before the war. . . . Roast beef and Yorkshire, or roast pork and applesauce, followed up by suet pudding and driven home, as it were, by a cup of mahogany-brown tea, have put you in just the right mood. . . . In these blissful circumstances, what is it that you want to read about? Naturally, about a murder.” (Orwell, “Decline of the English Murder). In this class we will explore the history of British detective fiction from the Victorian era to today, sleuthing around the genre to determine what makes a mystery quintessentially British and why the quaint isle of Britain generated the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (and its four queens). Expect several analytical essays, a film analysis project, student-run salons, and a final project in which you will be designing your own escape room themed around one of our texts.
  
  

  This class will have (optional) movie nights so students have access to all the materials. Tea and biscuits will, of course, be provided. Authors may include Auden, Agatha Christie, Heilbrun, James, Orwell, Sayers, Chesterton,  and Conan Doyle.

   

• English IV: MARCH (Mutants, Androids, Robots, Cyborgs, and Humans): A Sci-Fi Identity Exploration

  This class will explore what it means to be human, using science and speculative fiction to explore earthlings’ identifiers—race, sexuality, gender, etc.—through the lens and distance provided by imagined futures with vast social, environmental, and technological changes. We will be viewing several films and reading diverse texts including essays, novels, short stories and plays. Expect regular reader responses, an analytical compare and contrast essay, a film analysis project, and a creative writing assignment in which students will investigate one of their own identifiers. Authors may include Mary Shelley, Phillip Dick, and Ursula Le Guin.  Films and shows may include black Mirror, Blade Runner (1982), Wall-E (2008),  and X-Men (2000).

  This class will have (optional) movie nights.

• English IV: Creative Writing

  What do you have to say? You are a senior and full of opinions, beliefs, and reflections. What will be your voice? This class will explore various voices and modes of writing, from non‑fiction to fiction to journalism to poetry. We will read diverse books, such as The Practice of Creative Writing, I’m A Stranger Here Myself (Bill Bryson), The Solace of Open Spaces (Gretel Ehrlich), and On Writing (Stephen King) while we write in different styles. The focus, in the end, will be on your writing and discovering your own voice.

• English IV: Writing From Within

  This class focuses on crafting the college essay and other types of nonfiction writing. Students read various modes and styles—from the profile to the argumentative, from the investigative to the memoir. Students often write short pieces and read from the works of John McPhee, David Foster Wallace, Diane Ackerman, E.B. White, and Simon Rich, among others. Students receive a subscription to the New Yorker magazine. This class may take field trips to provide material for these modes of writing.

• ESL: English 2

  This two-credit course prepares the intermediate English as a Second Language student to successfully analyze written material and compose analytical and descriptive essays. The student reads several short novels and selected short stories each term, develops writing skills from the cohesive paragraph to the complete composition, and continuously increases vocabulary. The course has a balanced emphasis between expressive and receptive language. Speaking and listening skills are honed while investigating cultural similarities and differences between the United States and the student’s own country.

• ESL: English 3

  This class prepares advanced English language learners to participate in mainstream English courses. Students refine their English writing skills by practicing narrative, descriptive, and expository writing. Students will also expand their English vocabulary through verbal and written responses, and by reading and discussing works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Works studied are chosen with a view toward engaging student interest, as well as in alignment with mainstream sophomore and junior English course content in order to prepare students to fully participate in mainstream English after they successfully complete this course's requirements.