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The English curriculum of the Northern Valley Regional High School District attempts to develop the reading, writing, and researching skills of all of the district’s students through in-depth study of great literature and frequent writing practice. At each grade level, pupils are required to complete a research or critical paper to help them to gain facility in writing papers of length that integrate both primary and secondary sources. Moreover, classes at the scholastic, college preparatory, and honors/advanced placement levels meet the needs of all English students in the district.
Following each English course title is a number indicating the course’s credit value. For example, (1) equals a full-year course; (1/2) equals a semester course.
Honors and Advanced Placement classes have been instituted as integral parts of our academic program. Honors courses that have more rigorous expectations are intended to prepare the student for the Advanced Placement Program. The term “Advanced Placement” is given to a college-level course, the content of which is guided by the recommended course description of the Advanced Placement Program of the College Entrance Examination Board. Upon the completion of these courses, the student is required to take the Advanced Placement Examination.
ENGLISH I, II, III 1
The English Program is planned to provide growth in reading, composition, and language study, according to the intellectual and social maturity of each student. To varying degrees and at different grade levels, the English program encourages students to appreciate leisure reading by studying important literature which contains ideas important to them and their society; to express themselves in both writing and speaking in an efficient, well-ordered, intelligent manner; and to develop habits of accurate thinking through constant practice and incisive teacher direction.
The study of literature helps the student to develop social and personal attitudes important for the present as well as the future. He/she learns that the ideas reflected in all literature represent an individual’s concern with the world as well as the regional community, and that his/her role in life must be a responsible, intelligent, involved, and positive one. In addition to knowing and appreciating specific literary works, the student also develops a better understanding of self through acquaintance with great literary minds and ideas. A primary objective of literature study is to equip the student with the skills and attitudes necessary to make him or her a competent and independent reader and lay critic.
At each grade level, there are three basic anthologies stressing chronological, thematic, and cultural approaches to the literature. The texts, which provide a survey, give students a familiarity with and an understanding of the major movements, literary periods, and influences which shape an important body of literature. However, the intention of each course stresses not literary history but an evaluation of the universally accepted masterpieces of literature, with appropriate in-depth study of those masterpieces which critics, students, and teachers agree best illuminate our involvement with the universal and traditional problems in our society.
In all writing, students are taught to express themselves in clear, effective prose, with specific knowledge of their purpose and a thorough understanding of the skills and techniques essential to various forms of written communication. These skills and techniques include emphasis on mechanics; on the study of the word, the sentence, and the paragraph as structural writing units; and on the process of organizing ideas into themes.
ENGLISH I, II, III (H.) 1
For students of recognized ability who demonstrate exceptional talent and intellectual maturity, honors courses are given at the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade levels. These courses begin a three year sequential program culminating in a college-level Advanced Placement Course given in the twelfth grade.
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE I, II, III, IV 1
The English as a Second Language program is a multi-level program designed to meet the needs of foreign students who are unable to function independently in regular English classes. The program provides group instruction in communication skills and runs the gamut from survival skills on the beginning level to advanced grammar, and writing skills on the upper level. The sequence of attaining proficiency in a skill area follows the format of identification, discrimination, guided production, semi-guided production, and finally free production. Placement in the classes is contingent upon standardized testing and teacher and guidance personnel recommendation.
ENGLISH IV OPTIONS
In fulfillment of English IV requirements, students shall select from the following courses (one full
year or two half-year courses).
THE HUMANITIES 1
This course combines concepts from areas of literature, music, art, dance, cinema, history and philosophy. The course attempts to help students understand the quality of our contemporary life and values by inquiring into the origins of the conditions of life expressed in the arts through the ages. The course also explores the roles of technology, class struggles and other social and artistic concerns in Western and Eastern civilization.
COMPOSITION WORKSHOP 1/2
This course is offered to students who wish to strengthen their skills in composition. Although the course provides frequent opportunities for writing and teacher evaluation, it is not a remedial course. Rather, it is a course for students who wish to sharpen their writing skills, write with greater sophistication, and gain greater confidence in written expression.
TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN NOVEL 1/2
This course includes the study of novel by major American writers of the twentieth century, such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and some contemporary works of Morrison, Roth, and Ellison. The course focuses on both the aesthetics of the novel in America and the significance of the American novel as a reflection or, or a shaping influence on, American thought, values, and ideals.
CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN DRAMA 1/2
An objective of this course is to develop an appreciation for and an understanding of the creativity of contemporary American playwrights. These goals are accomplished through reading and discussing significant plays of the past five decades. Theatre trips include both on and off Broadway productions.
AP ENGLISH 1
The Advanced Placement Course, a college level program given in the twelfth grade, is open to students who have shown exceptional ability in ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade English. This course emphasizes analytical and argumentative composition; careful analysis of novels, poems, plays, and essays; and the importance of original interpretation and research which involves the intelligent use of critical commentaries, both of which demand the incisiveness and sophistication of a sensitive and responsible reader. Students enrolled in this course will be urged to take the Advanced Placement Examination, which, if satisfactorily completed, will enable students to earn college credit or advanced standing in college English courses. The course follows the Advanced Placement Program syllabus, which emphasizes to a greater degree those basic attitudes stressed in Honors English II and III. Course requirements for all AP Courses will include participation in the AP exam published by the College Board.
ELECTIVES
In addition to courses described above, students may elect one or more of the following courses. Credit will be given for these courses, but they will not satisfy graduation requirements.
JOURNALISM 1
An integral part of the continuing attempt to improve the skills of communication, Journalism includes instruction in writing journalistic articles, gathering news for publication, editing, financing and selling a school newspaper. All students participate in publishing the school newspaper.
ADVANCED JOURNALISM 1
Advanced Journalism, a one-year elective for eleventh and twelfth grade students who have completed Journalism, is a course for members of the school newspaper's editorial board. Students in this supervisory capacity will be responsible for assigning articles, designing page plans, conferring with reporters, revising copy and consulting with the faculty advisor of the school paper and with the printer. Students will be expected to fulfill all obligations required for publishing the school newspaper.
FILM PRODUCTION 1
This course emphasizes film history and video production. Students will screen and analyze films which range from silent classics to recent, popular works. Besides viewing these films each week, students will make their own videos and will use video cameras to master basic shooting and computer editing techniques.
CREATIVE WRITING 1/2
This course provides an opportunity for students to express their often suppressed inner voices through the literary media of poetry, autobiography, short story, and drama.
DRAMATICS 1/2
Dramatics is offered as an elective for those students interested in any phase of play production. The course considers a comparison of the objective and method styles of acting, various stage designs and techniques, and a general analysis of staging processes. It also studies the history of the theatre, directing, costuming, writing and those specialized skills related to television and films.
SPEECH 1/2
Speech provides an opportunity to develop poise, confidence and style in all speaking situations. The course emphasizes public speaking, group discussions (panels, symposiums, round tables), proper articulation and pronunciation, oral interpretation of literature, parliamentary procedure and the art of conversation.
PSAT/SAT VERBAL PREPARATION 1/2
Students who wish to improve their skills in reading comprehension and to develop the sophisticated level of vocabulary necessary to ensure success on college entrance examinations should take this course. An emphasis is also placed upon sound test taking strategies for the analogy, sentence completion, and reading comprehension sections of the exams.
WOMEN IN FICTION: EMERGING VOICES 1/2
This course will examine women authors and their characters, themes and styles. Each unit will consider literature of varying time periods, with emphasis on contemporary multi-cultural female voices. The focus is an exploration of society’s attitudes toward women and women’s attitudes toward themselves, their environment and their varied roles as daughters, mothers, sisters, wives, lovers and friends. This course’s multi-cultural approach yields the broadest possible perspective: though women speak in many voices, they hold their womanhood in common.
MODERN POETRY 1/2
The English elective in Modern Poetry offers students interested in both poetry and the study of literature an opportunity to explore the development of the genre from the nineteenth century to the present. While examining modernism and its impact on today’s poetry, the course will also explore the way in which selected poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries influenced modern poets and their poetry. This class is an excellent introduction to the study of literature in general and poetry in particular. In addition to the study of modern poetry, the Modern Poetry elective will give students the chance to craft their own poems.
TRADITIONS IN WORLD LITERATURE 1/2
With the world shrinking because of the development of technology, it is important for our students to have an opportunity to understand the literature of people in other parts of the world to develop an appreciation of disparate perspectives. Students will see how literatures from around the world are the result of unique cultural contexts and how texts from other cultural traditions continue and/or question aesthetic, social, and moral traditions. Students in Traditions in World Literature will continue to develop both their critical reading and expository writing skills as a core mission of the class and as a preparation for academic work at the college level.
AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 1
This course is designed for qualified eleventh and twelfth grade students who want to improve their writing skills and prepare for the Advanced Placement exam in Language and Composition, an exam many colleges require of incoming students seeking an exemption from the typical freshman composition course. Students will read a wide selection of the various modes of non-fiction (description, exposition and argumentation), examine the strategies and techniques of effective writing, and employ these strategies and techniques in their own frequent writing assignments; these assignments will include analysis of works of non-fiction and essays on a variety of topics, with particular emphasis placed on writing argumentation. The writing assignments will reflect the types of essays students are asked to write on the AP Language and Composition exam; the analysis of writing techniques and strategies will also help students prepare for the multiple-choice questions on the exam. Course requirements for all AP Courses will include participation in the AP exam published by the College Board.
