English

ENGLISH 9

Full Year | 1 Credit | Grade 9

English 9 students develop proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening by exploring content that focuses on literacy skills. Thoughtfully aligned with the NYS Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards for 9th grade, students will encounter texts in a variety of genres, including nonfiction, novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. Writing development will focus primarily on literary analysis and argumentation, requiring students to develop and support claims with evidence and explanation.

HONORS ENGLISH 9

Full Year | 1 Credit | Grade 9

Eligibility for Honors English 9 is dependent on: teacher recommendation, ELA 8 class performance, i-Ready diagnostic scores, and NYS ELA 8 exam scores. Incoming Honors English 9 students will complete a summer book assignment before entering the course.

Honors English 9 begins an accelerated and advanced study of literature and language to develop proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Thoughtfully aligned with the NYS Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards for 9th grade, students will encounter texts in a variety of genres, including nonfiction, novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. Writing development will focus primarily on literary analysis and argumentation, requiring students to develop and support claims with evidence and explanation. Successful 9H students may take English 10 Honors in their sophomore year, followed by advanced elective classes in grades 11 and 12.

ENGLISH 10

Full Year | 1 Credit | Grade 10

Prerequisite: English 9, Honors English 9

English 10 students continue their development of proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening by exploring content that is thoughtfully aligned with the NYS Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards for 10th grade. Students will strengthen their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills through the study of short fiction, poetry, a research project, and full-length works. Writing development will focus primarily on literary analysis and argumentation, requiring students to develop and support claims with evidence and explanation.

HONORS ENGLISH 10

Full Year | 1 Credit | Grade 10

Prerequisites: English 9, Honors English 9
This is a Pre-AP/IB course.
Eligibility for Honors English 10 is dependent on: teacher recommendation, English 9 class performance, and benchmark assessments. Incoming Honors English 10 students will complete a summer book assignment before entering the course.

Honors English 10 students will continue an accelerated and advanced study of literature and language to develop proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students will encounter a rigorous study of literature, language, and composition, preparing them for advanced coursework in 11th grade. Thoughtfully aligned with the NYS Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards for 10th-11th grades, students will encounter texts in a variety of genres, including nonfiction, novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. Writing development will focus on literary analysis and argumentation, requiring students to develop and support claims with evidence and explanation. After completing this course, students will be eligible for advanced courses in English in grades 11 and 12.

ENGLISH 11

Full Year | 1 Credit | Grade 11

Prerequisite: English 10
If you successfully completed Honors English 10, you are not eligible for this course.

English 11 students continue to enhance their understanding of language while deepening their literacy skills in a course thoughtfully aligned to the NYS Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards for 11th grade. Focusing primarily on American literature, students will explore texts from a variety of genres, including nonfiction, novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. Writing development will focus on literary analysis and argumentation, requiring students to develop and support claims with evidence and explanation. The NYS English Language Arts Regents Exam will be administered to students in June. Completion of English 11 will prepare students for coursework in English electives and/or advanced English courses.

COLLEGE ENGLISH 102

FLCC ENG 102 – Introduction to Reading Literature

Half Year | .5 Credit | Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: Honors English 10, English 11
Eligible students must qualify by scoring 80% or higher on the ELA Regents Exam and having a passing average on all benchmarks from the previous year. Students who score a 3 or higher on the AP Literature and Composition Exam are NOT eligible for English 102.

College Credit: 3 college credits from FLCC, dependent on successful completion of the course.

English 102 invites students to learn, practice, and develop the critical reading skills that enable them to understand, interpret, and engage with a variety of literary, academic, and popular texts. Through the study of literature, students will explicitly develop critical reading skills that transfer across disciplines. Students will compose a variety of textual analyses that assert a central interpretive claim supported by direct textual evidence. Students will analyze prose, poetry, and a play, as well as apply critical approaches, including Formalism, Feminism, Marxism, and Mythological-Archetypal, to texts. Additionally, students will reflect on their reading, writing, thinking, and discussion experiences to better understand themselves as learners and readers.

COLLEGE ENGLISH 103

FLCC ENG 103 – Composition II

Half Year | .5 Credit | Grades 11–12

Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 101 with a grade of 70 or higher

College Credit: 3 college credits from FLCC, dependent on successful completion of the course.

English 103 is a continuation of the skills gained in English 101. The class will explore four major writing situations: research, informative, persuasive, and argumentative—all based on controversial topics chosen by students. As in English 101, students must demonstrate their writing process through four major essays and a portfolio of their written work.

AP LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION

Full Year | 1 Credit | Grades 11–12

Prerequisite: English 10 (with teacher recommendation), Honors English 10, English 11, AP Literature & Composition, or English electives
Incoming students will complete a summer book assignment before entering the course.

AP English Language & Composition Exam: Registration in October with administration in May; approximate cost—$99. The exam is encouraged but not required for high school English course credit.

College Credit: Dependent on a student’s exam results and the admitting institution’s policies. If attending FLCC, 6 credits (for English 101 and English 001) may be applied for a score of 3 or higher on the AP Language and Composition Exam.

AP English Language & Composition focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing, rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts, and the decisions writers make as they compose and revise. Students evaluate, synthesize, and cite research to support their arguments. They also read and analyze rhetorical elements and their effects in nonfiction texts—including images as forms of text—from a range of disciplines and historical periods.

Key content includes:

• Understanding how the rhetorical situation informs the creation of texts

• Evaluating claims and evidence in texts

• Formulating and supporting well-reasoned claims

• Analyzing rhetorical choices in master texts

• Developing rhetorical skills to refine their own written voice

Although the class will prepare students for the AP exam, the rhetorical and analytical skills explored throughout the year will foster a deeper appreciation of the impact of language and strengthen students' ability to communicate effectively.

AP LITERATURE & COMPOSITION

Full Year | 1 Credit | Grades 11–12

Prerequisite: English 10 (with teacher recommendation), Honors English 10, English 11, AP Language & Composition, or English electives
Incoming students will complete a summer book assignment before entering the course.

AP English Literature & Composition Exam: Registration in October with administration in May; approximate cost—$99. The exam is encouraged but not required for high school English course credit.

College Credit: Dependent on a student’s exam results and the admitting institution’s policies. If attending FLCC, 6 credits (for English 102 and English 001) may be applied for a score of 3 or higher on the AP Literature and Composition Exam.

AP English Literature and Composition focuses on close reading, critical analysis, and writing about imaginative literature—including fiction, poetry, and drama—from various periods to deepen students' understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure. Students will learn to consider a work's structure, style, and themes, as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, and symbolism. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require students to analyze and interpret college-level texts and express themselves clearly in writing.

As a culminating assessment, students will prepare a 12–15 minute analytical speech on multiple works by an author they have independently chosen and studied throughout the year.

IB ENGLISH A, HL YEAR 1–2

Two Years
2 Credits
Grades 11–12

Prerequisite: English 10 Honors, English 10 (with teacher recommendation)

IB English Language A Fees: Registration in October with administration in May and June; cost—$124

College Credit: Dependent on a student’s exam results and the admitting institution’s policies; may be eligible for up to 6 credits.

Course Description

IB English Year 1 (11th grade) and Year 2 (12th grade) is a two-year course designed to explore “the various manifestations of literature as a particularly powerful mode of writing across cultures and throughout history.” The course aims at developing an understanding of factors that contribute to the production and reception of literature—the creativity of writers and readers, the nature of their interaction with their respective contexts and with literary tradition, the ways in which language can give rise to meaning and/or effect, and the performative and transformative potential of literary creation and response.

Through close analysis of a range of literary texts in a number of literary forms and from different times and places, students will consider their own interpretations as well as the critical perspectives of others, to explore how such positions are shaped by cultural belief systems and to negotiate meanings for texts.

Course Aims

The aims of studies in language and literature courses are to enable students to:

• Engage with a range of texts, in a variety of media and forms, from different periods, styles and cultures.

• Develop skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, presenting and performing.

• Develop skills in interpretation, analysis and evaluation.

• Develop sensitivity to the formal and aesthetic qualities of texts and an appreciation of how they contribute to diverse responses and open up multiple meanings.

• Develop an understanding of relationships between texts and a variety of perspectives, cultural contexts, and local and global issues, and an appreciation of how they contribute to diverse responses and open up multiple meanings.

• Develop an understanding of the relationships between studies in language and literature and other disciplines.

• Communicate and collaborate in a confident and creative way.

• Foster a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of language and literature.

(International Baccalaureate Language A: Literature HL Subject Brief)

IB English Year 1 and 2 Assessment Timeline

Individual Oral Assessment

Grade: 11
Date: May or June
Duration: 15 minutes
Value: 20%

Description: 10-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute question-and-answer session with the teacher.

IB HL Essay

Grade: 12
Date: May
Value: 20%

Description: Each student will write a formal essay of 1,200–1,500 words that develops a particular line of inquiry of the student’s choice in connection with a literary text previously studied in class. Each student needs to construct a focused, analytical argument, examining the work from a broad literary perspective. Must use citations and references.

Guided Literary Analysis

Grade: 12
Date: May
Duration: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Value: 35%

Description: Students will analyze two passages from two different genres: fiction (novel and short story), nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Each passage is accompanied by one question. Students write two separate analyses, one for each passage.

Comparative Essay

Grade: 12
Date: May
Duration: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Value: 25%

Description: Four general questions are provided. Students choose one question to answer and write a comparative essay using any two works studied that have not been used for any other IB assessments.

ARTHURIAN LEGENDS

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

Arthurian Legends and Romances will provide students with the chance to explore the development and progression of the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Students will study a variety of texts in chronological order to see how this legend has evolved over the years. After looking at the historical texts from which the legend of King Arthur began, students will read Sword in the Stone to establish Arthur’s upbringing, as well as Queen of Air and Darkness and The Ill-Made Knight to learn about the childhood environment of several knights, as well as to apply the impact of that environment to their adult decision-making process as members of the Round Table. Students will view films, such as Merlin, Lancelot, or Camelot, to aid in knowledge of characterization, plot development, and themes. In addition, students will read and analyze how stories written in different countries augment the Arthurian Legend, noting changes through time and culture.

CREATIVE WRITING

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

Creative Writing is a writing workshop that will expand students’ appreciation for multiple genres of writing, including freewriting, narrative, creative nonfiction, mystery, ghost stories, short fiction, poetry, fairy tales, memoirs, blogs, and screenplays. Students develop writing skills through drafting, evaluation, and critique. Students should expect to write often and develop selected pieces into finished products for a portfolio. Supplemental essays, grammatical instruction, and exposure to several genres will guide the learning and production of creative texts.

HARRY POTTER I & II*

Half Year Each
.5 Credit Each
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11; HP I is required before students enter HP II.

Please note: These courses are not approved English courses through the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Harry Potter I and II are courses designed to examine the many facets of the magical world created by J.K. Rowling. As a foundational study, the courses will explore the role of mythology in the series. Although the novels lay the groundwork for the course, a study of the books from a literary standpoint will be only part of the overall coursework. Students will be required to research, analyze, and create a variety of works in both oral and written assessments. Culminating assessments in HP I include creative assignments and a persuasive research presentation. Students will read the first four books of the series if taking HP I only.

HP II consists of reading the rest of the books in the series, in addition to a number of articles on these texts. As students read the books, they will be required to apply critical perspectives, such as Feminist, Psychological, Historical/Biographical, and Marxist approaches, to their reading. Students will learn about Jung’s psychological concepts of good and evil and explore how this contributes to the allure of these novels. As the books have proven both popular and controversial, students will examine censorship issues surrounding the Harry Potter books. We will also explore allegorical readings of the series. Culminating assessments in HP II include storytelling, the creation of a fictional Hogwarts student’s journal, and a final examination essay.

IRISH LITERATURE

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

Irish Literature will take students on a tour through Ireland’s rich storytelling tradition. After looking closely at Irish mythology and traditional poetry, students will study the short stories and poems that have evolved from the country’s long struggle to maintain and celebrate its unique and colorful culture. Authors studied include James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, Oscar Wilde, Maurice O’Sullivan, Peig Sayers, Roddy Doyle, Brendan Behan, and Frank McCourt.

MYTHOLOGY & ALLUSION

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

Mythology and Allusion will trace the journey of the classic hero and other mythic archetypes in ancient texts to which modern works of Western literature allude. The study of these ancient texts will focus on a literary analysis of mythic patterns in sacred stories. Students will read excerpts from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and become familiar with the concepts in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Biblical selections will include chapters from Genesis, Exodus, and the Book of Job. Students will then trace these archetypal patterns in Greek Mythology, with particular focus on Homer, and later apply them to other shorter works that employ Biblical and Greek allusions.

POSITIVITY IN PROSE: EXPLORING THE MINDSET OF A CHAMPION

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

Positivity in Prose: Exploring the Champion Mindset is designed to explore the connection between developing mental fortitude and finding success, as exemplified in literary works. Through close reading, analysis, and discussion of texts, students will examine the role of mindset in fictional and real-life figures while making powerful connections to their own lives. The course is organized into an exploration of character traits that impact mindset: effective habits, grit, resilience, leadership, overcoming adversity, support systems, and positivity. Learning is evaluated through a variety of assessments, including essays, presentations, participation, and various media forms. Students will apply and share knowledge gained throughout the course through the creation of a final podcast. By the end of this course, they will have a deeper understanding of the role of mindset in achieving lifelong success, as well as a greater appreciation for the power of literature to illuminate important themes and ideas.

SCIENCE FICTION AND THE SHAPING OF AMERICAN POP CULTURE I & II

Half Year Each
.5 Credit Each
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

Science Fiction and the Shaping of American Pop Culture will take a look at literature, film, art, television, music, dance, sports, and other pop culture pieces as a reflection of the time period they came out of. Part I of this course will specifically look at the 1920s–1950s, while Part II will look at the 1960s–2000. Students will complete reading of two main texts, along with a myriad of accompanying articles. They will also watch films and complete a minimum of two projects/presentations to demonstrate their understanding of the connection between social and historical events and the pop culture of the era they came from.

SHAKESPEARE

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

In this 20-week elective, students will gain a better understanding of why the works of William Shakespeare continue to be relevant in the modern day. Students will delve into a close study of some of Shakespeare’s most enduring works. Students will read, analyze, perform, and discuss a sampling of Shakespeare’s histories, tragedies, and comedies. The course will examine the characters and themes in the context of the era in which they were written, while also discussing their application to our contemporary world.

SHORT STORIES

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

This course focuses on reading and studying the genre of classic and contemporary short stories from around the world. Integrated into the course will be the analysis of the short story form, wherein a variety of critical approaches to reading literature will be explored. Students will compare these critical approaches, as well as the authors’ various literary styles. As a part of the course assessment, students will participate in group discussions as well as complete creative written and oral projects, including short story talks, performances, short story pieces, and oral interpretation.

SPEECH, DEBATE, & THE ORAL TRADITION

Half Year
.5 Credit
Grades 11–12

Prerequisites: English 10 Honors, English 11

From “I Have a Dream” to JFK’s Inaugural Address—from informative speech topics such as The Loch Ness Monster to the History of Canandaigua—students will learn how to write and deliver effective informative and persuasive speeches, participate in formal and informal debates, critique and analyze published speeches and speeches of their peers, and become more aware of their voice and body language to communicate more effectively. We will frequently use improv as a method to develop students’ comfort in front of a group. Students will finish the semester with an impromptu speech; the skills involved in such are wide-reaching, setting students up for success in a variety of future fields, situations, and circumstances.