Grades 9-12
Secondary English courses provide a structure for the development of skills that enable students to think, speak, and write effectively. Students experience the composing process--pre-writing, writing, revising, and editing--for a variety of purposes: describing, narrating, reporting, transacting, expressing, persuading, reflecting, and reasoning. The fundamentals of grammar, usage, and mechanics are taught in conjunction with writing. Through reading and responding to literature, students develop a perspective on the range of human experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural heritage. Throughout all areas of language study, students are expected to think critically and analytically about written and oral expression.
ENGLISH 9 (LA 1130)
ENGLISH 10 (LA 1140)
ENGLISH 11 (LA 1150)
ENGLISH 12 (LA 1160)
One credit per year
Grades 9-12
Prerequisite: Previous year's English
In grades 9-12 students write increasingly longer narrative forms, more abstract expository essays, and more fully documented research papers. Thematic units integrate literature study with the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. At each grade level, reading comprehension, vocabulary development, grammar, mechanics, thinking skills, and oral communication skills are emphasized.
BASIC ENGLISH 9 (LA 1131)
BASIC ENGLISH 10 (LA 1141)
BASIC ENGLISH 11 (LA 1151)
BASIC ENGLISH 12 (LA 1161)
One credit per year
Grades 9-12
Prerequisite: Previous year's English
These Basic English courses strengthen skills in writing, comprehension of literature, and the accurate and effective use of language. Writing often for practical purposes improves the students' abilities to persuade, inform, and reason in logical and standard English. At all grade levels, thematic units integrate skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, with special attention given to developing reading comprehension, enlarging vocabulary, improving spelling, and developing accuracy in usage and mechanics.
HONORS ENGLISH 9 (LA 1132)
HONORS ENGLISH 10 (LA 1142)
HONORS ENGLISH 11 (LA 1152)
HONORS ENGLISH 12 (LA 1162)
One credit per year
Grades 9-12
Prerequisite: Previous year's English
The honors program is organized into thematic and historical units through which students strengthen their critical thinking skills by extensive discussion and writing activities. The literature studied is taken from core texts and selected paperbacks and is comprised of world classics. Students write for diverse audiences and purposes. Emphasis is placed on the writing of literary analyses, fully documented research reports, and commentaries on novels, plays, and poems.
ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND COMPOSTION (LA 1197)
One Credit
One year
Grade 11
Prerequisite: Honors English 10
This is a college-level course designed in accordance with the requirements of the College Board. Through this course, the students will become skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts, and will learn to become flexible writers who can compose in a variety of modes and for a variety of purposes. The writing assignments will include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. As the students read, they will become aware of how authors from different periods and disciplines match their rhetorical choices to particular aims. . The course culminates in the Advanced Placement examination given in May of each year. Students who enroll in this course should have command of standard English grammar.
ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH: LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
(LA 1196)
One Credit
One year
Grade 12
Prerequisite: Honors English 11 or Advanced Placement Language and Composition
This is a college-level course designed in accordance with the requirements of the College Board. The course involves intensive study of numerous authors, genres, and historical periods. Extensive composition and discussion require students to demonstrate their sensitivity to the language and structure of a piece of writing as well as to develop their own power and precision in organizing and expressing thoughts. The course culminates in the Advanced Placement examination given in May of each year.
READING SKILLS FOR THE COLLEGE BOUND
(LA 1184)
One-half credit
One semester
Grade 11
This semester course is designed for students to gain the independence necessary for a successful college experience. Students learn how to establish short- and long-term goals, prepare for taking the SAT, and refine study habits appropriate for college success. In addition, students focus on using reasoning and problem-solving skills to make informed decisions, assessing and evaluating new information independently, reading and responding to a variety of forms of print media, and rereading materials when it is appropriate. Time management skills, listening skills, and determining individual learning styles are also areas of study.
PUBLIC SPEAKING I (LA 1300)
One credit
One year
Grades 9-12
A survey course in basic oral communication, public speaking helps students understand the correlation between speech techniques and speaker responsibilities. Students focus on ethics in communications, person-to-person situations, group dynamics, public speeches, and oral interpretation while emphasizing delivery strategies. They learn to gather, evaluate, organize, and articulate information in an interesting and meaningful manner. At the completion of this course, students will be able to speak effectively and confidently in formal, informal, and business communication situations.
PUBLIC SPEAKING II (LA 1302)
One credit
One year
Grades 10-12
Prerequisite: Public Speaking I
A performance course, Public Speaking II assists students in becoming proficient in advanced oral communication techniques. This course is tutorial with the teacher acting as a facilitator while students refine oral interpretation and persuasive speaking skills, deliver impromptu and special occasion speeches, and explore mass media.
PUBLIC SPEAKING III (LA 1303)
One credit
One year
Grades 11-12
Prerequisite: Public Speaking II
This course is a supervised, independent study program and offers students several options: extensive study of a specialized area of oral communications; increased communication skills for various career opportunities; or additional study of a particular area for a specific career choice.
JOURNALISM I (LA 1200)
One credit
One year
Grades 10-12
Students study the terminology they need to understand the communication process and explore and compare the different forms of mass communication: print and electronic. The studies include the American newspaper, past and present while emphasizing the rights and responsibilities of the journalist.
The heart of the course involves learning about gathering and writing news, writing in-depth news articles, feature stories, editorials, columns, reviews, and sports. Students proofread to improve writing style and editing skills.
JOURNALISM II (LA 1210)
JOURNALISM III (LA 1220)
One credit per year
One year
Grades 11-12
Prerequisite: Journalism I
Students gain practical experience in print media by applying and refining the principles learned in Journalism I to produce the school newspaper. To learn phases of production, students write and edit journalistic format; sell, design, and lay out advertising; handle business affairs; edit and lay out copy; and take, develop, and print photographs.
The students must be committed to deadlines and be willing to take initiative and responsibility. Instructional advice is available at all times to support the journalists, but each bears the personal responsibility for the understanding of and being faithful to the laws and technical issues that affect journalists.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL, GRADE 9
(LA 1190)
One-half credit
One semester
Grade 9
Students improve their academic success through study skills instruction based on relevant ninth-grade curriculum areas: Course goals include improving study skills, learning techniques to improve reading proficiency, and applying appropriate strategies to reading material. Students will read analytically and recognize the characteristics of various types of literary forms (short stories, scripts, poetry, and essays). They also develop vocabulary related to various subject areas in the ninth grade, take effective notes, interpret current world events and issues, and remain up-to-date on consumer information.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL, GRADE 10
(LA 1187)
One-half credit
One semester
Grade 10
Students improve their academic success through study skills instruction based on relevant tenth-grade curriculum areas. Course goals include improving study skills, learning techniques to improve reading proficiency, and applying appropriate strategies to reading material. Students will focus on distinguishing between fact and opinion and determining the main ideas after reading. They will gather and evaluate information from a variety of sources useful in solving problems and making decisions. Course content will focus on teaching effective reading and study strategies that the student can use in other content classes. Students will refine their skills in taking effective notes and develop specialized vocabularies while learning to organize new information and apply specialized reading strategies to improve comprehension of the tenth-grade textbooks.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL, GRADE 11
(LA 1188)
One-half credit
One semester
Grade 11
Students improve their academic success through study skills instruction based on relevant eleventh-grade curriculum areas. Course goals include improving their study skills, learning techniques to improve their reading proficiency, and applying appropriate strategies to reading material. Also, students will focus on developing their abilities to analyze the communication process as well as to read critically as they learn to synthesize information from multiple sources and gain insight into history and cultures. This course continues the emphasis on developing specialized vocabularies students need for eleventh-grade subject areas, to take effective notes, to interpret current world events and issues, and to remain up-to-date on consumer information.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL, GRADE 12
(LA 1189)
One-half credit
One semester
Grade 12
Students improve their academic success through study skills instruction based on relevant twelfth-grade curriculum areas: Course goals include improving study skills, learning techniques to improve reading proficiency, and applying appropriate strategies to reading material. Students will broaden their experiences by reading materials that are relevant to their own lives, analyzing and interpreting original documents to learn to resolve conflicts through compromise and consensus, ultimately striving to become productive members of society. During the entire semester, students will continue to develop the specialized vocabularies they need for various twelfth-grade subject areas, to take effective notes, to interpret current world events and issues, and to remain up-to-date on consumer information.
ADVANCED COMPOSITION (LA 1177)
One-half credit
One semester
Grades 11-12
This one-semester course is designed for college-bound students who are proficient writers and wish to refine their expository writing skills in several content areas. Students will write informative essays, persuasive essays, literary analyses, and brief reports. All classroom writing assignments will require in-depth development of ideas and application of techniques learned through the composing process. Students will be assigned papers to be written or completed out of class.
WORLD LITERATURE (LA 1191)
One-half credit
One semester
Grades 11-12
Students explore literary works in-depth through discussion and reading, and draw conclusions regarding the diversity and universality of literature. Students should have strong speaking, listening, and critical thinking skills, as well as an appreciation of the scope and power of literature.
VISUAL LANGUAGE (LA 1445)
One credit
One year
Grades 9-12
Students study visual communication and mass media, which emphasize nonverbal communication, graphic arts, advertising, television, and films. This course presents the development and production techniques of the various media and helps students become more discriminating consumers of visual messages through their skills of analysis and critical thinking.
DUAL ENROLLMENT ENGLISH (111-112)
One credit
One year
Grade 12
English 111 and 112 are offered each year at the following high schools: Frank W. Cox High School, First Colonial High School, Kempsville High School, and Salem High School. Please note that the credit does not automatically transfer to other colleges and universities, and the student is responsible for verifying the policies and practices of the college or university of his/her choice on this matter. The description for these courses is taken from the Tidewater Community College catalogue. College Composition I-II and English 111-112 (Three credits each). Develops writing ability for study, work, and other areas of writing based on experience, observation, research, and reading of selected literature. Guides students in learning writing as a process, understanding audience and purpose, exploring ideas of information, composing, revisions, and editing. Supports writing by integrating experience in thinking, reading, listening, and speaking.
Additional information and detailed course descriptions may be obtained from the guidance department or gifted resource teacher at your school.
If you need additional information on the English program contact Robin Hoffman at RobinL.Hoffman@vbschools.com.
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