Crescent Valley High School

AMERICAN LITERATURE1 credit Prerequisite: grade 11 CVHS Credit: English OUS Credit: EnglishThis course analyzes American Literature within its historical and cultural context. Students will examine the breadth of the Americanliterature tradition from its beginnings to the contemporary period using varied reading strategies and critical analyses. Students willread major works such as The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Catcher in the Rye, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Cannery Row, andThe Things They Carried, as well as poetry, short stories, drama, and nonfiction representative of the American tradition. The coursewill incorporate the study of grammar, vocabulary, and research skills with the study of various genres. Students will have manyopportunities to develop and practice their skills through a variety of reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities.HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE1 credit Prerequisites: grade 11; recommended for students who exceed tenth grade standards in reading and writing;teacher recommendation required or signed parent waiver; it is strongly recommendedthat students enroll in both Honors American Literature and AP US History CVHS Credit: English OUS Credit: EnglishHonors American Literature focuses on the literature, arts, and intellectual thought of our country as represented by works such as TheCrucible, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Catcherin the Rye. Students also read poetry, short stories, and essays by such notable poets and authors as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman,Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Faulkner, Kate Chopin, and Joyce Carol Oates. The course offers a rich varietyof assignments including nature writing, literary criticism, literary essays, persuasive writing, and individual and group research projectsand presentations.CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE1 credit Prerequisite: grade 12 CVHS Credit: English OUS Credit: English Extended App: Extended Application opportunity availableContemporary Literature is a literature course designed to provide students with the opportunity to read, discuss, and write responsesto high-interest, award-winning contemporary novels. Using a book club discussion format, students choose novels from an extensivelist which includes works such as The Five People You Meet in Heaven, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Lords of Discipline, TheGlass Castle, The Lovely Bones, This Boy’s Life, The Road, A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Into the Wild.The class also includes exposure to contemporary voices in poetry such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Li Young Lee, Ted Kooser, BillyCollins, and Mary Oliver. The writing focus in this class includes lessons on narrative and expository modes of writing, with anemphasis on preparing students for college writing expectations. All students in this course will participate in a culminating multi-genreproject which they present at a public reception at the end of the semester.CREATIVE WRITING1 credit Prerequisite: grade 12 CVHS Credit: English OUS Credit: English Extended App: Extended Application opportunity availableCreative Writing is a process-based writing course for people who love to write and who are willing to do what is necessary to becomebetter writers. Students explore the discipline of creative writing by reading and discussing models of good fiction and poetry, bycompleting a series of writing challenges designed to help them improve their craft, and by helping one another grow as writers as theywork in revision groups. Writing study includes short fiction, poetry, and personal narrative. Publication in some form is one goal for allwriters in this class. All students in this course will participate in a culminating multi-genre project which they present at a publicreception at the end of the semester.- 25 -