English 1 [Honors] (1st semester)

Course Description

The honors English track begins with English 1 [Honors], a course which introduces students to great works of literature such as Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet, Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein, and Voltaire’s satire Candide. Throughout this course, students will learn to actively read, study, and analyze both fiction and nonfiction. Additionally, students will write essays and complete projects that meet a range of purposes in order to demonstrate their understanding of the concepts taught in the course.

Course Breakdown

• "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan
• "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan
•  Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• "Home" by Anton Chekhov
• Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• "The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol
• Tartuffe by Jean-Baptiste Molière
• "The Circular Ruins" by Jorge Luis Borges
• "The True Story of Ah Q" by Lu Hsun
• Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard “Bill the Bloodhound" by P. G. Wodehouse
• "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
• "The Feather Pillow" by Horacio Quiroga
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• "The Fatalist" by Mikhail Lermontov
• "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
• "Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe
• "The Book of Sand" by Jorge Luis Borges

Course Goals

1. Read and analyze various works of satire and other short stories.
2. Examine elements of drama.
3. Write a story about a significant moment in your life.
4. Create a cartoon panel which employs elements of satire.
5. Complete a webquest on Shakespeare’s life and the culture of Elizabethan England.
6. Analyze conventions of drama in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
7. Write a persuasive essay on Romeo and Juliet.
8. Read and analyze various short stories.