English

The English curriculum is a literature-based program, serving as the foundation for intensive reading, writing,
speaking, listening, and critical thinking. Students read from a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, works of
literary integrity that reflect history as well as diverse cultures. Continuing emphasis is placed on the student’s
ability to express himself or herself clearly as an essential skill. Through exposure to a wide range of literature,
students build an understanding of themselves and their world.

English Electives for 2007-2008

Advanced Composition: Memoir, Criticism, and Fiction
This course focuses on deep examination of the craft of writing within three broad genres: memoir, literary criticism, and fiction. In this course students read numerous samples of writing from authors who specialize in these genres, understand the various approaches authors take when working within these genres, and compose pieces of their own using these generic traits. Students spend about three to four weeks on each topic and compose three to four major pieces of writing by the end of the term.

During the study of memoir, students read selections from The Writer’s Presence as well as excerpts from well-
known contemporary writers (Sedaris, Burroughs, Walker, Dahl, Jimenez, Soto, Uchida, Angelou, Wiesel, and
selections from multicultural literature anthologies), and they will both distinguish differences among the
writers within memoir as well as distinguish the differences between this broad genre and the short-story genre.
Students will also read a longer memoir, James McBride’s The Color of Water, and will analyze the differences
between longer memoir and short memoir.

When studying fiction and literary criticism, students focus on understanding how literary critics discuss
significant works of literature. Through reading J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and contemporary criticism, students examine how critics choose a focus and an argument, how they support their argument using
the novel and other critics’ work, and how they construct a coherent and organized critique with a substantial
use of support. Students then read a range of short fiction by authors who specialize in this craft and one work
of long fiction of literary merit.

American Literature
This course focuses on the roots and evolution of American literature in conjunction with the thematic units taught in U.S. History. In this course, students will explore “What it means to be an American” in relation to the following questions: How did we get here? Who has power? How do we identify/define ourselves? How do others identify us? Students read accompanying works of literature that respond to these questions, examine varying literary responses over the course of U.S. history, and analyze the literary trends and movements that accompany these responses. Students will conduct independent research, practice writing college-level compositions, and will learn to complete close readings of primary documents, literary essays, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose. Major projects include a research paper, literary analysis, poetry explication, and projects based on course themes.

Dramatic Literature: Ethical Dilemmas from Ancient Greece to Modern America
This course focuses on the fundamental features of drama. Through both writing and reading, students develop an understanding of the ways in which drama differs from other forms of literature. They read plays from a variety of time periods and cultures. A number of the plays include characters who face ethical dilemmas, thereby illuminating the
human condition. Students also gain an appreciation of some of the religious roots of western drama.

Life and Times: The Biographer’s Craft
This course focuses on the literary craft of biography. Students read notable examples of three forms of biographical writing: the historical/political biography; the literary biography; and the personal profile. Students will seek to identify, analyze, and discuss the elements of style, point of view, voice, theme, and structure that produce compelling results in each form. Students will enrich their responses to the readings through class discussions, small group work, the composition of analytical and expository essays, and the creation of their own works in each form.

Literature of Forgiveness
This course focuses on fundamental features of forgiveness. Through both writing and reading, students will develop an understanding of how or why people forgive themselves and one another. They will read fiction, non-fiction, and drama to explore questions such as the following: What is forgiveness? How does it compare to mercy or reconciliation? What is the difference, if any, between forgiving oneself and forgiving another? Does forgiveness require forgetting or understanding or both? The literature presents characters who must wrestle with these same questions. Works to be studied include: The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Scarlet Letter, The Merchant of Venice, Bel Canto, and several articles and excerpts.

Native American Fiction
This course focuses on fundamental features of Native American Literature. Through both writing and reading, students will develop an understanding of how written tribal stories (short and long fiction) have various relationships to oral stories. They will read fiction from a variety of 20th century tribal perspectives. The fiction will include characters who show courage and creativity in facing ethical dilemmas caused from inside and outside their tribal worlds. Works studied include Fools Crow by James Welch, The Surrounded by D’Arcy McNickle, Dead Voices by Gerald Vizenor, Ceremony by Leslie Silko and several selected short stories and films.

Poetry: The Holy Trinity of Sound, Image and Metaphor
This course introduces and/or reinforces fundamental features of lyric poetry. Through both writing and reading poetry students will gain a sense of how poetry differs from prose. They will read poems from a variety of forms, cultures, and time periods. The cultures represented include China, Japan, Europe, British Isles, North America, and Latin America.

Prose Fiction: Novels of Redemption and Forgiveness
This course focuses on long prose fiction—i.e., the novel. Thematically, it contains stories that address redemption and forgiveness. Each of the four novels involves characters who, individually or collectively, encounter wrongdoing and work towards repair of the damage. While examining characters’ opinions and actions in these situations, the course develops an appreciation for distinctive ways in which novels encourage empathy and deepen our understanding of complex human stories. Novels studied in 2007-2008 will include: Snow Falling on Cedars, The Scarlet Letter, Beloved, and Ceremony.

Prose Fiction: Unlikely Heroes of 20th Century American Literature
Students in this course use Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey paradigm as a foundation for understanding how characters in American fiction serve as heroes and/or antiheroes within the context of each novel. This course focuses most specifically on character development, but students also examine how plot, setting, theme, and point of view impact the novels as well. Students read a range of short and long fiction as well as view films that reflect Campbell’s paradigm in visual media. Students learn how to craft a range of analytical compositions connected to each unit. Work focuses on posing arguments, supporting those arguments with sufficient textual evidence, and reflecting logical organization and a mastery of conventions. In addition, students also craft their own narratives (print
and/or visual) that reflect their understanding of these elements of prose fiction.

The Red Badge: War and Literature
This course examines, though the works of selected novelists and poets from the Western canon, the phenomenon of warfare and its impact on combatants and non-combatants alike. Through close textual analysis and explication of sophisticated works of fiction and of verse, students will deepen their understanding of the sources and complexities of organized conflict as an enduring element of the human experience. Works to be studied include: The Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet on the Western Front, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Catch 22, The Oxford Book of War Poetry, and several supplemental sources.

Shakespeare and His World
This course focuses on close, textual analysis of four plays and selected sonnets by William Shakespeare. There will be additional readings to further illuminate Shakespeare’s life and times and the Elizabethan world view. The class as a whole reads three plays (a history, a comedy, and a tragedy). In addition, each student is assigned to a smaller group which will select a fourth play from a list provided by the instructor. Each small group will work, with considerable independence, through its selected play, striving to respond to questions involving character, theme, and dramatic technique.

This San Francisco Life: Text and Radio
This course focuses on the craft of memoir and creative non-fiction. In this course students will read numerous samples of writing from authors who specialize in these genres, understand the various approaches authors take when working within these genres, and how to distinguish these genres from strict journalism. Students will compose pieces of their own using the traits inherent to memoir and creative non-fiction. They will explore the techniques of story-telling through reading, interviewing others for their stories, writing creative non-fiction, and recording their work using hand-held recording devices and digital audio editing equipment. Students will have composed three to four major pieces of writing at the end of the term and will have recorded and digitally edited at least two of their pieces, submitting at least one for publication.