English 12
(200 level)
½ credit
English 12 offers a wide range of quality texts that engage scholars in analysis of autobiographical nonfiction, speeches, poetry, drama and fiction. Through the study of a variety of text types and media, students build knowledge, analyze ideas, delineate arguments, and develop writing, collaboration, and communication skills. This semester-long course will prepare students to produce coherent, well-developed, and well-organized expository writing.
Film Study
(200/300 level)
½ credit
In this course, students will explore cinema historically, theoretically, analytically, and technically. Students will look critically at a broad spectrum of films from 1895 through present in order to discuss thematic motifs, character development, sociological implications, and production styles of films within a variety of genres. Scholars will become versed in reading and responding to critical texts, writing about all forms of media, and creating original film work. The course will include a great deal of written and verbal analysis.
Creative Nonfiction
(200 level)
½ credit
This course is designed to develop students’ writing and thinking skills, in preparation for college. Through discussion, writing exercises and formal essay writing, scholars explore writing as a creative act and thinking process. Selected memoirs, poems, nonfiction essays and editorials serve as models for writing. Students engage in writing as an explanation and self-discovery process, learning to expand and develop their thoughts and reflections while refining their writing skills.
Mystery/Horror/Science Fiction: Literature of the Human Spirit
(200/300 level)
½ credit
This class will examine the often-overlooked genres of mystery, horror/supernatural and science fiction. Novels, short stories, and film will be interwoven to create understanding that these wildly creative pieces of fiction are often the clearest windows into the human spirit. Film will not be viewed in terms of style but for content. Scholars will be expected to read the texts, watch the films, and write a series of formal essays and fictional texts, as well as create multimedia projects. Authors may include Clark, Bradbury, Asimov, Poe, King, James, Christie, Grafton, and Mosely.
Expanding the Canon of Poetry
(200/300 level)
½ credit
Through the exposure to and careful analysis of over 50 poems for structure and style, students will collect strategies for crafting their own work. Furthermore, through deep understanding and practice of the writing process, from freewriting to drafting to revision to workshopping to publication, scholars will become their own writing consultants, able to not only create but to also improve their own work. Scholars will walk away from this course having written over ten original poems, and armed with better reading, interpretation, writing, and speaking skills, as well as an appreciation for the transformative power of expression through poetry.