Senior English is a celebration and culmination of the varied skills in English that students have developed throughout high school. The course will take students on a journey through different text types (fiction, nonfiction, and visual texts), genres of literature (memoir, novels, drama, and poetry), and traditions in storytelling from diverse cultures and time periods. The course values the habits of reading and writing, and students will continue to practice close reading and methods of effective communication to help them feel poised for professional and college-level academic writing and discourse. A central theme of the course is the students themselves as the “heroes” of their own lives, the sharing of one’s own story and voice, and the value and power of self-expression.
Students will:
- Communicate clearly and strategically in writing and orally for a variety of audiences, contexts, and purposes.
- Engage with challenging and diverse forms of text, and grapple with complex perspectives across time and place.
- Construct logical, robust, and informed arguments, assess the validity of their own thinking, and consider the merits of others’ arguments.
- Engage in the analysis of rhetorical and literary techniques and stylistic features employed by authors and speakers.
- Engage in writing and text production as process, including self-reflection, peer-assessment, and revision.