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Participation in English classes is not necessarily based on grade level. but upon student interest and competency. Individual modifications may be made within each of these courses to meet student needs. For instance, an honors track may be worked out between a student and instructor in any of these offerings. Eight English credits and One Speech credit are required for graduation. Each of these course offerings will meet or exceed State of Idaho content standards, including textual analysis, vocabulary and spelling, critical and expressive writing processes and communication. Click here for supply list

ArtsWest English Department Curriculum Overview

The objectives of the English Department at ArtsWest are to provide the thoughtful and efficient use of language, to develop the analytical skill needed for a critical appreciation of literature, and to expose students to major works of literary merit. All English courses require extensive work in reading, writing, and critical thinking. ArtsWest places emphasis on developing in students a love of reading and an ability to write clearly and persuasively. Our school provides a solid foundation in composition with particular instruction in grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, and study skills.

Grades 7-9 incorporate writing skills using accurate descriptive details to enliven writing and to develop observational skills as a base for both imaginative and analytical writing. Students learn to express an opinion about a character’s traits and to use accurate textual details and explanation to support that opinion. Students learn to use dialogue, detail, and vivid description in creative and personal writing.

Grades 10-12 build on this foundation by engaging students in the study of major literary authors, analyzing different cultural perspectives and literary styles represented in world and American literatures, exploring literary theory, and engaging in critical thinking as we explore multiple forms of text. Students will develop competence in written and oral conventions, literary response, literary analysis, and creative writing. The ultimate goal is an understanding of self, your peers, the text and the larger world around you. Students with strengthen their skills in group work and individual academic pursuits and concentrate on being aware of their metacognition.

Grade 7:

Key applications in this grade include:

1. total writing process
2. grammar/mechanics/spelling
3. descriptive/narrative paragraphs
4. one long composition/several shorter reading responses
5. novel/short story/poetry/drama

This course introduces students to literary heroes and heroines found in many cultures and genres. Thematic issues serve to focus the discussion. The course emphasizes critical reading and character analysis in novels and short stories. While analytical writing assignments require students to use specific details to support topic sentences, personal writing assignments ask students to relate their own lives to the texts. Students also analyze and write poetry and learn the basics of grammar by identifying the parts of simple sentences.

Sample works included in grade 7:

The Miracle Worker
Animal Farm
The Call of the Wild
A Christmas Carol
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Poetry

Grade 8:

Key applications in this grade include:

1. total writing process
2. grammar/mechanics/spelling
3. letter writing/creative writing
4. two longer compositions
5. short stories/non-fiction/ drama/ poetry/novel
6. oral presentations

This course seeks to deepen understanding of character by exploring two themes: 1) how characters try to live up to ideal codes and 2) how the outer does not always reflect the inner-self. Students write analytical papers in which they use direct quotations from the texts to support their main ideas. They also write poetry and personal reflections that encourage them to connect literature to their own lives. Study of grammar and building on the foundation of skills acquired in seventh grade emphasizes the functions of complex sentences and their punctuation. Students apply grammatical concepts in their compositions.

Sample works included in grade 8:

To Kill a Mockingbird
Romeo & Juliet
House on Mango Street
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Poetry by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and others
Selected Short Stories

Grade 9:

Key applications in this grade include:

1. Latin and Greek roots
2. vocabulary
3. grammar in technical and creative writing
4. research skills (library/internet)
5. textual analysis
6. identification of genre
7. various literary devices

This course introduces students to generative texts that form the foundation of Western literature, such as Homer’s Odyssey. Students read additional poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that relate thematically to these core books. Writing includes personal, imaginative, and analytical assignments. In particular, students learn to create and defend an argumentative claim with textual evidence and detailed explanation. Students build on the grammar concepts learned in the seventh and eighth grades by studying clauses, punctuation, and pronoun usage.

Sample works included in grade 9:

Bible
The Odyssey
The Iliad
Catcher in the Rye
Selected Short Stories by American and world authors
Poetry

Grade 10:

Key applications in this grade include:

1. genre/character/point of view/style/theme
2. more extensive analysis of texts
3. critical and technical writing

This course provides wide reading in world literature, organized around essential questions, themes, and literary genres. Writing includes narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive essays. Creative, critical, and research skills are developed. Students continue the sequential study of grammar and style begun in grades seven through nine.

Sample works included in grade 10:

Antigone
Othello or Macbeth
Jane Eyre
Gulliver’s Travels
Madame Bovary
The Cherry Orchard

Grade 11:

Key applications in this grade include:

1. American literature as an avenue to developing solid skills in literary analysis and primary and secondary source research
2. critical, technical, persuasive, and personal essay writing will be emphasized

Countries define themselves by the stories they tell. America is a nation of many narratives—so many that self-definition is somewhat elusive. Just as there is no single American experience or definitive American identity, there is no one story that ultimately represents this country. In this course, students will explore what it means to be American as they encounter a variety of storytellers who reveal themselves in novels, plays, essays, poems, and short stories. Readings range from the Puritans to Jefferson, the transcendentalists to Twain, and from twentieth-century masters such as Frost and Hurston to Cather and Fitzgerald. Students will aim for a high level of interpretive insight based on the careful examination of literary texts. We will explore great works of our national literature while placing a special emphasis on their historical and cultural contexts.

Sample works included in grade 11:

The Crucible
Huckleberry Finn
Harlem Renaissance Writers
The Great Gatsby
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Moby Dick
The Sound and the Fury
Beloved
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Scarlet Letter

Grade 12:

The senior seminar requires close reading, critical thinking, and clear presentation of the student’s views. The course emphasizes skills that will ensure a successful transition to the demands of college reading and writing. Emphasis will be on English and Modern Literature. Readings highlight characters who are isolated from or rejected by their societies, families, or peers for reasons such as class, race, gender, or lack of self-knowledge. Literary theory will be discussed so that students can effectively discuss the texts they read within a social and historical context. Texts may include works by writers such as Emily Bronte, Maxine Hong Kingston, Herman Melville, Toni Morrison, Phillip Roth, Franz Kafka and William Shakespeare.