VE – English Language Arts 9*

This freshman-year English course engages students in literary analysis and inferential evaluation of great texts both classic and contemporary. While critically reading fiction, poetry, drama, and literary nonfiction, students will master comprehension and literary-analysis strategies. Interwoven in the lessons across two semesters are activities that encourage students to strengthen their oral language skills and produce clear, coherent writing. Students will read a range of classic texts including Homer’s The Odyssey, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”. They will also study short but complex texts, including influential speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Contemporary texts by Richard Preston, Julia Alvarez, and Maya Angelou round out the course.