Course Description
Students read and analyze literature that includes poetry, novels, folklore, and myth, using what they learn to enhance their own writing. The course begins with the steps of the writing process, which includes identifying parts of speech and using them correctly and effectively. A study of writing style focuses on slang, sentence variety, and transitions. Students learn how characters, setting, and plot contribute to literary fiction as they identify and explain these components and use them creatively in their own narrative essays. Reading poetry allows students to focus on figurative and descriptive language, which they apply to write descriptive essays. Students also learn about the themes and characteristics of myth and folklore. A study of nonfiction focuses on research and organization as students produce objective informational essays. Students learn active reading and research skills that enable them to recognize bias and the techniques of persuasion in different genres, including biographical writing. They then write persuasive essays based on their own beliefs or opinions.

Course Breakdown

The Call of the Wild by Jack London
“Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat: Address to Parliament” by Winston Churchill
“American Floats in Space” by Walter Sullivan
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
“Savitri” by Aaron Shepard
“Chomp! Meat-Eating Plants” by Catherine Clarke Fox
“Enigma Machine” by an anonymous author Inaugural Address from John F. Kennedy
“Space Weather 101” by NASA
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
“The California Invasive Plant Inventory” by California Invasive Plant Council
“On War” by James Boswell
“Camping Out” by Ernest Hemingway
“Albert Einstein” by an anonymous author
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
“Economy” by Henry David Thoreau

Course Goals
Read and analyze nonfiction texts.
Identify parts of speech and other elements of grammar to examine their functions in a sentence.
Write an informational essay. Read and analyze speeches and other nonfiction readings to examine persuasive techniques.
Read and analyze The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
Read and analyze Little Women.
Write a persuasive essay.