English

The English Department at Colorado Rocky Mountain School concerns itself with the essentials of college preparation: reading comprehension, vocabulary building, and analytical writing. Courses in English offer varied experiences in reading and writing exercises, with an overall goal of the students’ complete engagement with the texts. At the same time, values are taught through literature, and students graduate with the background and skill level that colleges expect.

We want our students to graduate with sophisticated writing skills. Students begin in the 9th grade learning sentence and paragraph structures, practicing various forms of writing, and they proceed to the full development of the thesis statement and formation of the critical essay in the 10th grade. As juniors, students hone their essay-writing skills. In the senior year, students refine the skills of expository writing and ultimately achieve much more independent responses to the literature they read. Library-research skills are also emphasized in each year of English. The 9th, 10th, and 11th grade English and history teachers collaborate to teach core interdisciplinary themes.

English 9: World Literature
This course is designed to challenge students to become more dynamic readers of the texts they encounter and help them begin to master the skills and conventions necessary to fulfill a variety of academic tasks. The course addresses both expository writing and literary analysis. Revision is a critical component of each assignment, and students are asked not only to edit drafts for sentence-level clarity but also to rework holistic features of their essay, including development, organizational strategy, and focus.

The course also provides an overview of literary genres. Short fiction, drama, and the novel form are considered. Students read cross-culturally in a variety of genres and are introduced to some of the basic concepts of literary analysis (the significance of character development, the use of figurative language, etc.).

Additionally, this course is closely aligned with the thematic units from World Geography and utilizes non-Western texts to bring student focus to the global issues we all face. Texts may include: The Alchemist, Persepolis 1 and 2, A Long Way Gone, The Translator, Krik? Krak!, Palestine, and Fahrenheit 451.

ESL English Intermediate
International students focus on developing their grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills as well as their literary-analysis skills needed for mainstream study through reading several short stories and novels. Students prepare for the TOEFL examination and learn the academic habits of mind needed to excel in American classroom culture.

English 10: Literature of the Western World
This course examines the foundations and history of the British literary tradition. Students will explore texts considered to be essential reading, from Homer to Shakespeare, the Romantics through the development of the novel, and into the Modernist movement of the 20th century. Students will be expected to write expository, interpretive essays that demonstrate their understanding of the texts, the writing process, and sound argumentation. This course is closely aligned with History of the Western World through thematic units, texts, and chronologic progression and is required for all 10th graders.

Literature and Composition (International Program)
This course is designed to prepare international students for immersion in upper-level English classes. Through texts and writing techniques of increased difficulty, this course helps scaffold student development in literary analysis and prepares students for standardized tests that are essential for college admission. It is required for all juniors not in AP Englis.

English 11: American Literature
This course explores the depth and breadth of American literature. Designed to be thematically aligned with the American History curriculum, students will read texts that follow four main themes: American Native, American Ideas, American Other, and American World. In each case, the text selection reflects both the variety of American writing and its progression as a coherent body of work. Students are expected to write frequently both in class and out, in the form of short-response papers and longer essays. This course emphasizes thesis generation and support, argumentation, and an introduction to critical research.

Texts may include: Fools Crow, Walden, Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, The Sun Also Rises, Grapes of Wrath, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and supplemental short fiction and poetry.

Advanced Placement English Literature
AP English Literature engages students in careful reading and critical analysis of literature from a wide array of literary genres. Without question, the course sets and maintains a challenging pace that mirrors a college-level syllabus and is geared for both enrichment and preparation for the AP exam. In spite of the pace, students are expected to read deliberately and thoroughly, taking the time necessary to fully understand a selection’s literary complexities. The method for the approach to reading at the AP level includes the experience, interpretation, and evaluation of literature. The readings are selected from the 16th through the 20th century, and with each text, students read a variety of criticism and compose timed AP writing samples graded on the AP scale. Additional evaluations include periodic AP multiple-choice tests, reading quizzes, objective tests, and term papers. This course is taken as an alternative curriculum to the American Literature course, and thus focuses heavily on the American texts suggested by the AP board. Additional non-American texts are used to supplement. Texts may include: Hamlet, Oedipus, Walden, Leaves of Grass, The Scarlet Letter, The Wasteland, and others. This course is open only to juniors.

Senior English Electives
As seniors, students at CRMS are given the opportunity to take two semester-long electives. Each year, members of the English faculty, drawing upon their own interests and areas of expertise, refine previous offerings and/or develop new ones. In a typical year, seniors may choose from a total of eight electives. Some are intended as survey courses; others concentrate on a single author or idea; still others offer students a chance to work on their own creative writing. Common to each of the electives is an emphasis on a dynamic seminar format that, anticipating college-level literature studies, challenges students to become more rigorous in their analysis of the works put before them and more outspoken in defense of their own interpretations.

RECENT SENIOR ENGLISH ELECTIVES HAVE INCLUDED:

Creative Writing
This course seeks to unleash the creative power of thought, awareness, and circumstance through the written word. The class reads, reviews, and discusses the various tenets and elements that are intrinsic to short fiction and its craft. The goal is to take a writer’s individual thought and tap into that which is universal, human, and essential. This course demands self-discipline, self-awareness, and an inherent respect for the process of critiques and edits. Readings may include Louise Erdich’s The Shawl, Vladimir Nabokov’s The Word, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, Tobias Wolff’s A Federal Offense, and Zora Neale Hurston’s How it Feels to be Colored Me.

Mark Twain
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it. –Mark Twain
Want to laugh, go on adventures, and learn from the master of satire and social commentary? Mark Twain was a smart person who, for the most part, enjoyed putting us on. This course explores what he had to say about race, abolition, capitalism, organized labor, and imperialism. Representative texts: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Mark Twain’s Autobiography, The Mysterious Stranger, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.

Film Literature
Orson Welles began and ended his film career by offending William Randolf Hearst and shocking the young film industry by directing the notorious Citizen Kane. This course will examine American Film genres from silent films to blockbusters. We will briefly examine the beginnings of film through the lens of an operatic, orchestral, and melodramatic performance tradition. We will begin by developing film terminology as our semantic base for our discourse on film throughout the semester. Students will be responsible for writing several papers analyzing films, reading supplemental texts, and creating a film with a written screenplay. Films may include: The Birth of a Nation, City Lights, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Graduate, Punch Drunk Love, Adaptation, Amelie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento, Braveheart, Singin’ in the Rain, and others.

Journalism of Food Politics
This course examines the wide spectrum of politics that affect our food industry. In reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, we will examine the issues that industrial agriculture presents particularly with corn: obesity, HFCS, feedlots, and government subsidies. We will glance at the blossoming organic market’s negative and positive effects on the food industry. We will have the opportunity to host several guests, including local restaurant owners, local farm owners, and a cattle rancher in order to learn about the local food movement. The course will culminate with planting, harvesting, and cooking a meal from our own garden. Students will participate in one field trip, read two books, write several papers on the topic of food, plant and grow vegetables for our final meal, and write one persuasive research project that will be presented publicly. Texts required: The Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.