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- PCHS Course Guide - 2024-2025
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- English Language Arts
Course Guide - 2024-2025
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PCHS Course Guide - 2024-2025
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Courses by Department
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Courses by Department
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057011 & 057012
English 1
Grade(s): 9
Credit: 1 English
Prerequisite: None
In this course, students will read and study a variety of genres connected by powerful themes in the world. Genres will include short story, storytelling, poetry, spoken word and other performance literature, novels, and non-fiction. Students will grow their reading stamina and comprehension and analysis skills, and make personal and global connections within and across texts. Students will approach texts as a reader and a writer. As writers, students in this course will strengthen the craft of writing, focusing on meaningful processes of topic and evidence exploration, matching organization structures or forms to audience and purpose. Students will practice effective communication skills in writing, audio composition, speaking, collaborating, and listening.
058011 & 058012
Honors English 1
Grade(s): 9
Credit: 1 English
Prerequisite: Department recommendation
In this course, students will read and study a variety of genres connected by powerful themes in the world. Genres will include short story, storytelling, poetry, spoken word and other performance literature, novels, and non-fiction. Students will grow their reading stamina and comprehension and analysis skills, and make personal and global connections within and across texts. Students will approach texts as a reader and a writer. As writers, students in this course will strengthen the craft of writing, focusing on meaningful processes of topic and evidence exploration, matching organization structures or forms to audience and purpose. Students will practice effective communication skills in writing, audio composition, speaking, collaborating, and listening. It is designed for the student who has an exceptional interest in language arts, desires an accelerated language arts program, or intends to take advanced placement courses in English. A weighted grade is given.
057021 & 057022
English 2
Grade(s): 10
Credit: 1 English
Prerequisite: Students must have passed at least one semester of English 1
In this course, students will read and study literature that represents multiple perspectives. Genres will include memoir, poetry, short story, performance literature, narrative nonfiction, and novels. Goals include broadening the student’s reading life, increasing reading stamina, deepening analysis skills across and within text, and making connections between the world and others. Composition continues to focus on improving the craft of writing, and growing each student’s independent skills as a writer with authentic writing tasks that blend writing modes to best match audience, purpose, and style in creative writing, academic writing, research, and digital composition. The Missouri English 2 End of Course (EOC) Assessment is given at the conclusion of this course.
058021 & 058022
Honors English 2
Grade(s): 10
Credit: 1 English
Prerequisite: English 1 and Department recommendation
In this course, students will read and study literature that represents multiple perspectives. Genres will include memoir, poetry, short story, performance literature, narrative nonfiction, and novels. Goals include broadening the student’s reading life, increasing reading stamina, deepening analysis skills across and within text, and making connections between the world and others. Composition continues to focus on improving the craft of writing, and growing each student’s independent skills as a writer with authentic writing tasks that blend writing modes to best match audience, purpose, and style in creative writing, academic writing, research, and digital composition. It is designed for the student who has an exceptional interest in language arts, desires an accelerated language arts program, or intends to take advanced placement courses in English. A weighted grade is given. The Missouri English 2 End of Course (EOC) Assessment is given at the conclusion of this course.
057031 & 057032
English 3
Grade(s): 11
Credit: 1 English
Prerequisite: Students must have passed at least one semester of English 2
This course focuses on the variety of ways the American dream and identity has evolved for different groups of people over time, as presented in the novels, plays, essays, poetry, and short stories of American writers. Emphasis is placed on development of the student as a critical reader and intentional writer. Students continue to develop their composition, rhetoric, research, critical thinking, vocabulary, communication, and study skills.
059201 & 059202
AP English Language and Composition
Grade(s): 11
Credit: 1 English
Prerequisite: English 2 and Department recommendation
AP English Language and Composition offers students a college-level course experience. It helps students strengthen the effectiveness of their writing through close reading and frequent practice at applying nuances of style and rhetorical strategies in a variety of modes. American Literature and a variety of non-fiction texts provide models of rhetorical strategies, opportunities for synthesis and analysis, and additional preparation for success in the senior year college-level AP English Literature and Composition course. This course prepares students for the AP English Language and Composition exam, which offers the opportunity to earn college credit through the AP examination. Students may also earn college credit through the University of Missouri – St. Louis if the student has applied, has registered, and has a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above. A weighted grade is given.
057200
College Composition
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: Senior standing, English 3 and Department recommendationThis is a college level writing course that focuses on the choices that informed writers make when discovering, developing, and revising academic papers appropriate for the given topic. Students will engage in analytical reading, critical thinking, and research. College credit may be earned through the University of Missouri at St. Louis if the student has applied, has registered, and has a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above.
057120
Introduction to Composition
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: English 3 and Department recommendation
This course prepares students for writing beyond high school. Students will continue their study of different styles of writing – argument, research-based explanatory writing, and personal narratives will all be studied.
057050
British Literature
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: English 3British Literature is a college preparatory course in which the student surveys the writings from Anglo-Saxon times to the twentieth century. Emphasis is placed on the development of English language, literature, and the historical contexts of the works. Students will analyze the values and themes of these works and will express their ideas in oral and written analyses.
057090
Contemporary World Literature
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: English 3
Contemporary World Literature examines the ways in which contemporary literature from around the world offers outstanding literary models that transcend the boundaries of nation and language. Students engage with works from a variety of genres that are either written in English or translated to English from other languages. In addition to well-known world authors, the course will also cover less-known and / or emerging authors. The comparative framework of this class will prompt students to reflect on a vast array of themes related to contemporary global culture, to expand students’ literary landscape, and to enhance their capacity for critical thinking.
057490
African-American Literature - A Survey Course
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: English 3
African-American Literature traces the history and development of the Black writer in America from the beginning of slavery to the present day. The course is recommended for students interested in becoming familiar with the origins, content, and techniques of African-American authors. The range of study stretches from the origins in ancient Africa to the transformation into the American idiom and the development and establishment of African-American literature as a distinct yet integral component of the American experience.
059041 & 059042
AP English Literature and Composition
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1 English
Prerequisite: English 3 and Department recommendation
AP English Literature and Composition offers students a college-level experience. This course covers literature that is wide-ranging (classical, contemporary, and worldwide) and is representative of all literary genres, from satire to comedy and from tragedy to the epic. The emphasis in the course is on reading and writing and analytical interpretation; it is presumed that the student is familiar with writing critical essays. This course prepares students for the AP English Literature and Composition exam, which offers the opportunity to earn college credit through the AP examination. Students may also earn college credit through the University of Missouri – St. Louis if the student has applied, has registered, and has a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above. A weighted grade is given.
057130
Creative Writing 1
Grade(s): 11 - 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: B average in English and/or Department recommendation
The goal of this course is to encourage and nurture the student's innate creativity. Students will study techniques used by professional writers and will be motivated with enticing writing activities designed to help them improve their skills while experiencing the pleasure of success. Writing may include a play, a short story, in addition to many poems and personal narratives. The exhibition of students' work produced in this class will be in the school's creative writing magazine.
057140
Creative Writing 2
Grade(s): 11 - 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: Creative Writing 1 and/or Department recommendation
A continuation of the techniques of Creative Writing I, this course is supplemented by attention to the style and interest of individual students. Special attention is paid by each student to particular literary models that will aid development.
057890
Sports Literature and Composition
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: English 3
Sports Literature is an English Language Arts class that will examine the unique relationship between sports and society through literature by contemporary authors, columnists and other media. Students will read high-interest and thought-provoking texts including informational text, poetry, biographies, and commentary. Students will write a weekly sports column and research the history of how sports and social issues connect.
057920
The Poetics of Hip Hop
Grade(s): 12
Credit: 1/2 English
Prerequisite: English 3
Professor Adam Bradley once said “every rap song is a poem waiting to be performed.” The Poetics of Hip-Hop, a semester-long English elective class, will investigate this quote. Throughout the course, students will approach rap/hip-hop music through the lens of an English scholar, exploring rhyme, meter, rhythm, storytelling, and various other tools that fuel classical literature studies. Students in this class will also read traditional texts such as essays and poetry to better fuel our understanding of contemporary lyrics. Not a class for students who simply “like rap music,” this course will continue the rigor and skills learned in previous English classes such as close reading, critical thinking, literary analysis, research, essay / digital compositions, and more. NOTE: given the nature of the course materials, students will be studying texts that have been labeled as “parental advisory” by the RIAA.