English+Curriculum

Mrs. Hoover, English 9 Mr. Tartt, English 10 Ms. Gorsuch, English 11 Mr. Alexander, AP English 11 & 12 Mr. Sharp, English 12

The diverse English curriculum at Encore aims to provide students with processes, strategies, systems, and structures for comprehending a broad range of texts preented in visual or oral form from technology, mas media, film, television, magazine, newspaper, or advertising. The curriculum hones the skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing language clearly, strategically, critically, and creatively while examining historical, cultural and modern texts. We aim to motivate students to obtain and communicate information for literary response, expression, learning, reflection, problem-solving, and application by exploring the subject, content, purpose, audience, and tone of texts.

English will form a Humanities course under four major themes lasting four years. The overall themes and their more specific concentrations are:

NATURE: The first English curriculum will concentrate on establishing the writing process and assisting the student in developing structures and systems for understanding fiction and nonfiction. Reading //The Odyssey// and works such as Robert Frost's poetry about nature offer integration with other disciplines, but will also be supplemented with nonfiction and scientific text that fit this theme. Students will begin to build a portfolio of work to be displayed at the end of the year and at the end of their high school career.

MANKIND: The second year English curriculum will concentrate on refining the student's use of the writing process. The fiction readings, such as //Brave New World// and //Lord of the Flies//, will examine the heart of man in turmoil and in love. The on fiction reading will primarily focus on integrations with the other disciplines, with the addition of literacy concentrations for graphs and two -dimensional representations in mass media, magazines, newspapers, and advertisements.

CONFLICT/RESOLUTION: The third year English curriculum will begin to focus more on the listening and speaking skills necessary for success in life. The reading will focus on the conflicts and resolutions of mankind as evidenced in fiction such as //The Scarlet Letter// and //The Tragedy of Macbeth.// Nonfiction will focus on great speeches, along with examining film, technology, and advertising as text. A research paper, co-taught with the social studies curriculum, will play a major role toward the end of the year, focusing on a great conflict or resolution or a leader responsible for a major conflict or resolution.

ART & BEAUTY: The fourth year English curriculum will examine the definition of sublime, specifically asking the questions: What is art? What is beautiful? Who decides? Additionally, students will look at what famous writers and thinkers such as Longinus and Immanuel Kant believed. Students will explore aesthetics throughout the Classical, Romantic, Modern, and Postmodern time periods, culminating in a final project or paper which defines beauty and argues the student's reasons for the definition.