Description

Literature 201 is designed to teach both literature and composition. Rather than separating the two skills, we use the literature to guide our topic choices in a variety of writing styles, including narrative, poetry, comparison, exposition, and research writing.

Additionally, two unit tests introduce the idea of the literary essay test, a staple in college classes.

This class starts with a unit on literary techniques, where we get to try to utilize those tools in our own writing.

Our first movement through the Renaissance is with poets like John Donne and William Cowper, and then we discuss Shakespeare's masterpiece Romeo & Juliet. Then we move into the Romantics with a novel of the student's choice from that era.

We focus next on the Gothic movement with some short stories from Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, culminating in a student's choice of a seminal Gothic work: pick from Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, or Great Expectations.

We end the year with a research project that allows students to explore one of these authors or events from this time in more detail.

This class meets honors diploma requirements in most states. Please be sure to check your state guidelines to ensure honors credit for your student.