English at saint Thomas academy.

This course works to establish competency with the necessary English skills that enable students to succeed in a rigorous, college-preparatory program. Students read literature from diverse perspectives and settings and develop abilities related to reading comprehension and appreciation, as well as literary analysis and critical thinking. Greek and Latin roots are learned and practiced to help students develop a strong working vocabulary. Students write a variety of types of essays with a focus on thesis construction and support, organization of paragraphs and ideas, and proper use of language. Effective speaking skills are practiced through a variety of individual and group formats. Research techniques are introduced and developed through the completion of a large project.

The literature of this class integrates and builds critical thinking and reading skills by asking students to analyze the styles and techniques of various literary genres: short stories, drama, poetry, and novels. The diversity of voices and experiences contained within these works exposes students to experiences and perspectives that differ from their own. Through persuasive thesis-driven papers and creative writing, as well as multimedia projects, students develop critical
thinking, research skills, evidence-based arguments, effective organization, and personal voice.

This course offers a survey of American literature that is organized within dominant themes. Major authors, significant literary movements, and multicultural perspectives are highlighted. Composition and speech are integrated with the reading program, and students do a variety of writing, from informal reading responses to one formal research paper as well as creative writing. Writing focuses include proofreading for grammatical and mechanical perfection, development of ideas, and revision techniques. Students will need to complete a formal research paper to pass the class.

Prerequisite: Honors Literature and Composition instructor’s approval or a grade of A- or better in Literature and Composition with the instructor's approval.
This course is designed as preparation for AP English with emphasis on reading and writing with critical awareness. Both American and world writers and a survey of texts are included. Specific analyses include textual interpretations of varied genres. Assignments center on analytical papers, including a research paper, a personal essay, and a variety of oral presentations. Focuses on writing improvement include proofreading for grammatical and mechanical perfection,
development of ideas, and revision techniques. To register for Honors English, students need instructor’s approval.

Prerequisite: Honors Critical Reading & Writing and instructor's approval.
AP English is intended to prepare seniors for the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Exam. Students may receive college credit or placement in advanced levels of college English. The primary emphasis in AP English is to provide students with the rigorous academic experiences of a college English course. Students read and discuss novels, poems, plays, and philosophical essays in order to hone their literary insight and develop higher-level writing skills. Formal papers prepare students for college writing; timed essays and multiple-choice tests provide them with extensive exposure to the types of questions encountered on the AP Exam. Students will have extensive outside reading and are expected to be able to comprehend difficult texts on their own. It is not unusual for AP English students to read 30 to 40 pages of a novel in one night, and sometimes entire novels are assigned for reading outside of class by a certain date. In addition, students will write frequently, with a long formal paper, several in-class essays, and a number of short pieces each quarter. Daily preparation for class and participation in class discussion is also required.
All AP students are expected to take the AP exam.

While these thematic courses cover a variety of subjects, each builds and consolidates the foundational skills to help students meet college-level reading and writing standards. Students will engage with literature representative of diverse perspectives and experiences. Through seminar-style discussion and writing assignments such as persuasive thesis-driven papers, organized personal responses, and independent projects, students develop critical thinking, research skills, evidence-based arguments, effective organization, and personal voice.

Missing persons, institutional corruption, that one last big score. These are the realms of the detectives, criminals, and private eyes who navigate both sides of the law. Having long fascinated popular culture, the crime novel is uniquely positioned to address many significant problems and issues of contemporary society while still offering crackerjack mysteries and sizzling drama. From the earliest examples of Poe and Conan Doyle, through the hard-boiled stylings of
Hammett and Chandler, to contemporary writers like George Pelecanos and Tana French, crime fiction perfectly marries
exciting narratives, indelible characters, psychological struggles, and social commentary.

Who says English and science can’t get along? In this course, we will take a look at how classic and contemporary authors address the environment within their writing, contemplate environmental ethics, explore questions about how nature is—or isn’t—culturally constructed, and explore literary works that expose and influence our relationship to the natural world. From aliens to climate change and Henry David Thoreau to Rachel Carson, we will take a closer look at
literature, the natural world, and our relationship to both.

From their inception to Inception, films have captivated audiences for over a century, creating a multi-medium art form that combines narrative, staged performance and cinematic imagery into a dynamic visual text open to multiple critical readings. With an emphasis on critical reading, this course pairs the critical study of novels, novellas and short stories such as Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall
of the House of Usher” with their cinematic adaptations, exploring that complex textual relationship through seminar discussions, oral presentations, and analytical essay compositions. Beyond this exploration, students learn film theory, visual analysis, essential film vocabulary, cinematography, videography and film editing, applying this knowledge to the development of adapted screenplays and to the production of their own short films. By the end of this course, students will have not only read and viewed classic literature and landmark films, but will have cultivated their own talents as story creators and cinematic directors.

A hero leaves the common world into one of unexplored supernatural wonder, encounters various opposing forces, bests them in a decisive, personal victory and returns home triumphant. This is the traditional hero’s journey, what Joseph Campbell called the monomyth, and from Tolkien to George Lucas, Homer to Han Solo, it offers a unique
window into our modern understanding of heroism, villainy, leadership, and even the concept of story itself. This course will explore Campbell’s traditional hero’s journey, applying it to novels, short stories, poems and films, opening new avenues of appreciate and understanding. Course will cover material from Ancient Greek epics to modern television episodes, allowing students to begin to see the patterns inherent in stories and thus, human experience.

Do all great works of literature have to be dreary, hopeless, and dark? Is it OK to read books and stories that are laugh-out-loud funny? In this class, the answers are, “No,” and Yes!” Students will have the privilege of reading the works of Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas King, Annie Dillard, Ken Kesey, Garrison Keillor, and John Kennedy Toole. Literary analysis will consist of delving into the substantive nature of the satire or humor, assessing whether or not it serves a larger
purpose, and arguing regarding the overall effectiveness of . . .

This course will evaluate literature through a Christian lens. Texts may include Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, various short stories written by Flannery O’Connor, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Themes such as redemption, forgiveness, and salvation will be considered and assessed. Assessments of popular culture will also be incorporated: how is Christianity portrayed and understood in mainstream American culture?

According to the great war correspondent, Chris Hedges, “War is a force that gives us meaning,” combining the broad clash of nations and cultures throughout time with the intensely personal stories of soldiers and civilians struggling to survive war and its aftermath. This course will draw from this vast story well, exploring war’s impact on the conscience and consciousness of nations, communities, families and individuals—on both sides of the conflict. Incorporating
novels, plays, poems and memoirs ranging from Ancient Greece to the modern Middle East, 19th Century Russia to 20th Century Vietnam, the Literature of War course is designed to develop, through critical reading, writing and discussion, a greater empathy and understanding of the cost and consequence of both current and historical conflicts.

Have you ever wondered why we all seem to read the same stories by the same authors in high school? We have become accustomed to reading Shakespeare, Golding, Dickens, and Hemingway. These excellent texts are established as academically relevant over and over again in classrooms across the nation, creating a recognizable list of books that we have come to call the literary canon. However, the literary landscape is changing, and marginalized voices are pushing up against the peripheries of the classical canon. In this course, we will seek out these voices by reading a variety of literary genres, including novels, plays, and creative non-fiction by writers whose voices sound a bit different than those to which we have become accustomed. Through reading and discussion of both classic and contemporary writings by and about diverse cultures, ethnicities, religions, genders, and socioeconomic groups, we will work together to critically examine great works of literature through a multicultural lens.

The movement away from omniscient, God-like narrators has been a signature in 20th and 21st century fiction that is meaningful on many levels, pertaining both to fiction and real-life. In reading and evaluating writers such as William Faulkner, Julia Alvarez, Louise Erdrich, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Saunders, and Aravind Adiga, students will generate an appreciation for the richness of texts in which skillful authors employ multiple narrators who participate in (and complicate) the storytelling--within and beyond the texts themselves.

Imagine a great ballroom where rocket pilots, child-generals, aliens and hobbits waltz together across the dance floor. In the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre, these implausible pairings in unlikely places are routinely the clay for fascinating stories set in imaginary worlds. And while traditional critics of this genre may look at this unusual and unlikely story- telling material and call it unrealistic, in this course, we will explore the galactic and the fantastic in the words and spirit of the great Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer, Ursula K. Le Guin, who referred to her colleagues as “realists of the greater real.” Incorporating a variety of short stories and novels, we will explore the “greater real” and investigate the timeless device of exploring our own world and experience through the lens of a “galaxy far, far away.”