English Department Course Offerings-11574

Four years (40 credits) of English are required for graduation. Our English classes emphasize reading, writing and speaking. Courses are designated as College Preparatory (C.P.), Advanced Standing (A.S.) or Advanced Placement (A.P.).

MINIMUM EXPECTATIONS FOR ALL CP ENGLISH CLASSES:

READING

• A minimum of four literary works with at least two titles from the Core Reading List
• Other works from the Extended Reading List
• At least one play
• Supplementary works to enhance the curriculum
• Reading will be geared towards students who read at grade level
• Commitment to improving as a critical reader: understanding tone, analyzing style, e.t.c.

WRITING

• At least four multiple-paragraph assignments that are the product of revision in response to a reader’s comments
• Additional assignments including quick-writes, timed writings, in-class essay examinations
• Writing modes include argumentative, narrative, informative/explanatory

ENGLISH 1

Grade: 9
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
University of California (U.C.)/California State University (C.S.U.): Yes, “b” - English

Throughout their freshman year, students will read core texts, as well as shorter fiction, nonfiction pieces, and poetry to explore topics such as identity, coming of age, love, conflict/adversity, tolerance/justice, and technology. Students learn and practice a variety of reading strategies that allow them to meaningfully access, comprehend and analyze grade-level texts. Students will learn to write a variety of formal essays and paragraphs including literary analysis, argumentative, and synthesis pieces. All of these writing types focus on establishing arguable claims, selecting appropriate evidence, and writing analysis that supports their ideas in an organized structure. Students will also write narratives with the focus on development of setting, character, conflict and theme, as well as the effective use of various literary techniques. Writing style and sentence clarity will be supported with ongoing grammar and vocabulary instruction. Throughout these units, students will develop their speaking and listening skills through class discussions, presentations, collaborative work, and structured academic discussions. Additionally, students will regularly utilize technology to build twenty-first (21st) century academic skills such as producing published writing, creating multimedia presentations, researching and reading texts, and collaborating with peers.

ENGLISH 2

Grade: 10
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes, “b” - English

During the sophomore year, students in English 2 move from learning the basic structures of reading and writing to developing their ideas, voice, and personal repertoire of strategies. Over the course of the year, students will read several anchor texts, as well as various pieces of nonfiction and shorter fiction. They will deepen their understanding of complex themes around the tension between the identity of the individual and the pressures of society, rebellion and conformity, and philosophical questions around nature and nurture. Throughout the year, students write literary analysis essays, argumentative essays, and synthesis essays based on assigned texts and/or independent research. All of these writings focus on selecting appropriate evidence and analysis that support a thought-provoking argument, as well as maintaining a clear organizational structure. Writing style and sentence fluency are supported by the instruction of grammar in context -- grammar taught in connection with student writing, sentence construction, and the clear expression of ideas. Students are also taught vocabulary in context. Students will also create narrative pieces using various descriptive writing techniques. Throughout these units, students continue to develop their speaking and listening skills through presentations, group work, and structured academic discussions (for example, Socratic seminars, recorded discussions, e.t.c.).

ENGLISH 3

Grade: 11
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes, “b” - English

English 3 is a rigorous college and career preparatory course designed to ensure college and career success. Students read novels, short stories, drama, poetry, and nonfiction with the emphasis on American literature, looking at the concept of the American Dream (and whether it exists and is available to all), race, class, gender, and historical connections. This year helps students consider their relationship to American society, as they lead into a twelfth grade curriculum focusing largely on personal identity. They analyze fiction and nonfiction texts with a critical eye, forming opinions on textual-based evidence. They produce a variety of writing: argumentative, informative and synthesis. They expand speaking, listening, research and presentation skills within the context of grade-level texts. They hone thinking and communication skills to assist in future academic and workplace endeavors.

ENGLISH 4

Grade: 12
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes, “b” - English

This Common Core Standards aligned course prepares students for success in post-high school endeavors. This rigorous preparatory course is designed to hone reading and writing skills and to provide a strong foundation for college and career. Students read novels, short stories, drama, poetry, and nonfiction. Students analyze literature and nonfiction, as well as other text types such as visuals and films, with a critical eye, forming opinions based on evidence and drawing connections to external research and personal experience. Students will produce a variety of writing: expository, informational, narrative, summary, synthesis, and response to nonfiction. Students will research, evaluate, and integrate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats. Students will expand speaking, listening, and multimedia presentation skills.

MINIMUM EXPECTATIONS FOR ADVANCED STANDING (A.S.)/ADVANCED PLACEMENT (A.P.):

READING

• A minimum of six literary works with at least two titles from the Core Reading List
• Other works from the Extended Reading List
• At least one play
• Reading will be challenging and geared towards students who read above grade level

WRITING

• At least six multiple-paragraph assignments that are the product of revision in response to a reader’s comments
• Additional assignments including quick-writes, timed writings, reflective writing responding to literature and in class essay examinations
• Writing modes include argumentative, narrative, informative/explanatory
• Writing will reflect accelerated comprehension and mature analysis

ENGLISH 1 A.S.

Grade: 9
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes, “b” - English
Prerequisite: Competence (grade A or B) in past English classes is strongly recommended

The course mirrors the English 1 course in terms of content, but it moves at a more rigorous pace and requires more from students in terms of critical thought and close reading. In addition to the core texts taught in the English 1 course, this class will read supplemental selections geared more toward students who read above grade level.

ENGLISH 2 A.S.

Grade: 10
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes, “b” - English
Prerequisite: Competence (grade A or B) in past English classes is strongly recommended, along with a positive recommendation from ninth (9th) grade English teacher, and an overall Grade Point Average (G.P.A.) of 3.0 or higher

The course diverts substantially from the English 2 curriculum in terms of content and moves at a more rigorous pace. The course further develops critical thinking and reading skills, using dense and thought-provoking texts. Readings are quite challenging and are drawn from a variety of time periods and traditions. Students will learn to apply lenses of different critical theories on literature to the core texts that they are reading. Grammatical instruction focuses on integrating sentence variety into writing assignments for more mature and vigorous prose. This course is reading and writing intensive.

A.P. ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

Grade: 11
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes, “b” - English
Prerequisite: Competence (grade A or B) in past English classes is strongly recommended, along with an overall G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher

The course follows two separate but related tracks. The first is a study of rhetoric, rhetorical devices, and non-fiction composition that will prepare students for the A.P. Language exam in May. To this end, students will learn to identify and analyze rhetorical strategies authors employ to create different effects. The course also makes a broad survey of American literature from colonial times to the middle of the twentieth (20th) century, and we will read representative examples from many periods, covering many prose genres. Though most core readings will be fiction, the vast majority of supplementary readings will be non-fiction. Reading selections will be challenging and dense in their composition, and the course is both reading and writing intensive.

A.P. ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

Grade: 12
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes, “b” - English
Prerequisite: Competence (grade A or B) in past English classes is strongly recommended, along with an overall G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher

This course prepares students for the A.P. Literature and Composition exam in May. Thus, the focus is somewhat narrower than other English classes: close reading of various genres of literature, and explication and analysis of its meaning. The literature studied in class covers the wide range of eras and genres that will appear on the A.P. exam: nineteenth (19th) century prose, classic tragedy, Shakespeare, modern fiction, e.t.c. With its particular emphasis on poetry and dense prose, A.P. Literature/Composition is a course for avid, interested readers of literature.

NINTH (9TH) GRADE CORE

Midsummer Night’s Dream
Mythology Black Boy
The Odyssey
Of Mice and Men
Nectar in a Sieve
To Kill a Mockingbird
Romeo & Juliet
When I Was Puerto Rican

9TH GRADE EXTENDED CORE

Great Expectations
House on Mango Street
In the Time of the Butterflies Night
A Separate Peace 
Things Fall Apart

9TH GRADE ADVANCED STANDING

Cry the Beloved Country* 
Frankenstein*

TENTH (10TH) GRADE CORE

Bless Me, Ultima
Catcher in the Rye
The Kitchen God’s Wife
Lord of the Flies (C.P.)*
Macbeth
Merchant of Venice
Taming of the Shrew

10TH GRADE EXTENDED CORE

1984*
All Quiet on the Western Front
Animal Farm
The Bean Trees
Brave New World
Cry the Beloved Country (C.P.)*
Frankenstein (C.P.)*
The Joy Luck Club (C.P.)*
A Raisin in the Sun
Tale of Two Cities

10TH GRADE ADVANCED STANDING

The Canterbury Tales

ELEVENTH (11TH) GRADE CORE

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Black Boy
The Crucible
The Death of a Salesman
The Great Gatsby
The Scarlet Letter
Slaughterhouse Five
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Things They Carried

11TH GRADE EXTENDED CORE

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Ceremony
The Color of Water
The Color Purple
Hiroshima

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Invisible Man
Streetcar Named Desire

Moby Dick

12TH GRADE CORE

As I Lay Dying
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Dubliners
Hamlet
King Lear
Oedipus/Antigone

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Othello
Siddartha
The Stranger

12TH GRADE EXTENDED CORE

Four Plays by Ibsen
The Heart of Darkness
Metamorphosis
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Pride and Prejudice

*You will find these books in multiple grades

STRATEGIC ENGLISH SUPPORT 1

Grade: 9
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: No U.C./C.S.U. admission requirements met by this course
Prerequisite: Placement based on Strategic Reading Inventory Assessment, Middle School Transcripts & California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (C.A.A.S.P.P.) for Grade 7 Performance

Strategic English Support (S.E.S.) 1 is a standards-aligned course designed to give students the skills and support they need to meet the Common Core Standards and be successful in their English 1 class. On a regular basis, S.E.S. 1 teachers will engage in meaningful collaboration with the English 1 teachers at their school site to guide the pre-teaching and re-teaching throughout the year. Students will be assessed on a regular basis to determine their progress in reading ability. The class will support mastery of the standards for English 1 using materials that are appropriate to the students’ abilities and experience.

STRATEGIC ENGLISH SUPPORT 2

Grade: 10
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: No U.C./C.S.U. admission requirements met by this course
Prerequisite: Placement based on San Mateo High School Transcripts & Strategic Reading Inventory Assessment; teacher recommendation

Strategic English Support (S.E.S.) 2 is a standards-aligned course designed to give students the skills and support they need to meet the Common Core Standards and be successful in their English 2 class. On a regular basis, S.E.S. 2 teachers will engage in meaningful collaboration with the English 2 teachers at their school site to guide the pre-teaching and re-teaching throughout the year. Students will be assessed on a regular basis to determine their progress in reading ability.

PUBLICATIONS

Grade: 9-12
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes; “g” - Elective
Prerequisite: Competence (grade A or B) in English or Art classes is strongly recommended, along with an overall G.P.A. of 3.0

This class produces the school yearbook, The Elm. Students participate in all phases of planning and design. Overall design, artwork, photography, layout, writing, copyediting and desktop publishing are important activities. Students are expected to meet strict deadlines, make aesthetic judgments, cooperate with other students and community representatives and practice effective leadership while learning high-level skills on professional-grade software such as Photoshop and InDesign. A career component is included.

PUBLICATIONS ADVANCED

Grade: 10-12
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: No U.C./C.S.U. admission requirements met by this course
Prerequisite: Completion of Publications

Advanced students take on leadership roles, acting as editors of the various sections of the yearbook. On campus book selling is required.

JOURNALISM

Grade: 9-12
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes; “g” - Elective
Prerequisite: Grade of C or better in English or recommendation of English teacher

Journalism students write stories, take photographs, design graphics and use professional-grade desktop publishing software such as InDesign and Photoshop to design the print edition of the school newspaper. They also have an opportunity to produce podcasts, videos, blogs, and to help update and design our journalism web page. Students learn to write, research, meet deadlines, take photographs, sell advertising, collaborate with peers and interact with the broader community while producing our top-flight award-winning newspaper, the “San Mateo Hi,” and website, www.thebearcat.net. Students leave this class with real-world job skills as well as a stronger sense of themselves and their ability to act on their world.

JOURNALISM ADVANCED

Grade: 10-12
Duration: Year
Credits: 10
U.C./C.S.U.: Yes; “g” - Elective
Prerequisite: Journalism and permission of teacher

Advanced students serve as lead writers, mentors, designers and editors.