English Language Arts

English Language Arts 9

Course Numbers: 3342 & 3343 Grade: 9 Credit: 1.0

This class is designed to engage students in grade-level reading and writing activities as students continue to build upon the strong foundational skills in fiction, non-fiction, and drama. Students will master their comprehension of literature and develop their analytical skills using a variety of texts. This course establishes a foundation for critical thinking, analysis, argumentation, research, and writing types that will be expected of students throughout their high school years. Texts include short stories, poetry, and novels.

Course Numbers:3306 & 3307 Grade: 9 Credit: 1.0

This class is designed as an accelerated language arts course in which students will develop a deeper understanding of literary elements, academic writing, grammar, vocabulary, speaking and listening skills, and organizational skills. Texts for this course include short stories, poetry, novels and supplemental informative texts.

Course Numbers: 3366 & 3367 Grade: 10 Credit: 1.0

This class is designed to engage students in grade-level reading, writing, speaking/listening, and critical thinking skills. It builds on previous skills including: literary and rhetorical analysis, argumentation, research, and various methods of writing development. Texts for this course include student selected texts and teacher directed novels, poems, plays, and informational texts.

Course Numbers: 3368 & 3369 Grade: 10 Credit: 1.0

This college preparatory course will continue to develop foundations in all areas of English including reading, writing, speaking/listening, and critical thinking skills. It builds on previous skills including: literary and rhetorical analysis, argumentation, research, and various methods of writing development. Texts for this course include student selected texts and teacher directed novels, poems, plays, and informational text with intentional depth and complexity.

Course Numbers: 3355 & 3356 Grade: 11 Credit: 1.0

In this foundational language arts course, students will continue to master analysis of fiction and nonfiction texts, academic writing, grammar, vocabulary, speaking and listening skills, and organizational skills. Students will also learn the skills and strategies needed for the ACT.

Course Numbers: 8301 Grades: 11, 12 Credit: 1.0

Note: This is an Anoka Ramsey Community College course offered at Irondale. Students will earn 4 credits for ENGL 1121 College Writing and Critical Reading upon successful completion of the class. This course fulfills the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum Goal 1: Communications and Goal 2: Critical Thinking. Students must enroll for both college and high school credit. Students must meet concurrent enrollment eligibility standards to take this class.

Provides extended practice in critical reading, writing, and thinking. Course content includes the writing process, essential composition skills, and critical reasoning in various rhetorical situations. The course requires effectively reasoned and supported essays including an argumentative research paper.

Course Number: 8311 Grade: 11, 12 Credit: .75

Note: This is an Anoka Ramsey Community College course offered at Irondale. Students will earn 3 credits for CMST 2220 Interpersonal Communication upon successful completion of the class. This course fulfills the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum Goal 1: Communication and Goal 7: Human Diversity. Students must enroll for both college and high school credit. Students must meet concurrent enrollment eligibility standards to take this class.

A study of interpersonal communication each of us participates in every day. Designed to help students recognize and understand their communication habits, as well as those of others, in an effort to learn more effective communication skills for improving their interpersonal relationships. Primary areas of study include communication theory, language, perception, self-concept, self-disclosure, emotions, the impact of culture on communication, listening, communication climate, conflict, and nonverbal communication. An individual speech presentation is also required.

Course Number: 8315 Grades: 11, 12 Credit: .75 Note: This is an Anoka Ramsey Community College course offered at Irondale. Students will earn 3 credits for ENGL 2204 Short Stories upon successful completion of the class. This course fulfills the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum Goal 6: The Humanities & Fine Arts and Goal 7: Human Diversity. Students must enroll for both college and high school credit. Students must meet concurrent enrollment eligibility standards to take this class. Enrollment in this course may be limited.

Students will read selected short stories to explore the scope and variety of this form of literature. Point of view, characterization, language, and other elements will be emphasized; students will analyze, interpret, and evaluate the stories. The course will also deal with issues of diversity and may be organized around a particular topic.

Course Numbers: 3311 & 3312 Grades: 10, 11, 12 Credit: 1.0

Students taking AP Language will learn to sustain discussions on topics in both language and rhetoric. This class will help students develop listening and discussion skills in order to reach beyond easy answers to more complex ideas. Students will learn to read closely and critically to recognize the characteristics of the various levels of discourse operating in a given language act, examining each piece for diction, syntax, sentence style and structure, paragraph coherence and unity, and figurative language. Students will also be required to respond critically and reflectively to a range of essays and articles and express their responses in analytical, argumentative, and expository writing. At the end of the course, students will have the option of taking the AP Exam for the opportunity to earn college credit.

Course Number: 3309 & 3310 Grades: 11, 12 Credit: 1.0

Students in this course will prepare to take the AP Literature and Composition test offered in the Spring. In preparation for the exam, students will write both timed essays and literary analysis papers on canonical works such as Othello, Oedipus Rex, and A Tale of Two Cities. Students will practice close critical reading skills, examine literary elements, employ literary lenses, and explicate poetry. Course Number: 8331 Grade: 12 Credit: .1.0 Note: This is a University of Minnesota course offered at Irondale. Upon successful completion, students will earn four college credits. Students must enroll for both college and high school credit. Seniors must be in the top 20% of their class and have taken AP Language and Composition OR ARCC College Writing with a teacher recommendation.

Teaches effective communication with an audience by helping students discover their own writing process: conducting primary and secondary research, discovering ideas, drafting to explore those ideas, revising and editing those drafts. Participants will work with the instructor and one another to become more confident and competent writers of typical college-level writing assignments. They will have typical college-level lesson experiences and write a college or descriptive essay, an ethnography, trend paper, and an art review. University grading standards will be observed.

Course Number: 8321 Grade: 12 Credit: .5 Note: This is a University of Minnesota course offered at Irondale. Upon successful completion, students will earn four college credits. Students must enroll for both college and high school credit. Seniors must be in the top 20% of their class and have taken AP Literature and Composition OR Pre-AP Literature and Composition with a teacher recommendation.

Students will read a variety of texts and apply literary terms, constructs, and lenses in an effort to create meaning of the textual material as well as make new meaning of the world surrounding them. Discussion and writing about diverse modern novels, plays, and poems is central to this course. Some of the works used in this course contain mature themes. Because this class is offered for college credit, students will be expected to perform, participate, and produce work at college-level.

Course Number: 4363 Grades: 10, 11, 12 Credit: .5

Reading & Writing about Film is a class for students who wish to examine the medium of film as a literary and artistic work. The class will focus on the elements of visual communication as used in motion pictures, the art of fiction, the languages of film, the technology of film, a brief history of film, and comparison of films. Film viewing and analysis will concentrate on history, genre, and techniques to reveal both obvious and underlying film messages. Students will study films to develop habits of analysis, criticism, understanding, and appreciation of film in a disciplined and creative manner.

Course Number: 3373 Grades: 10, 11, 12 Credit: .5

This course immerses students in superhero myth and pop culture using written texts, graphic novels, comics, and film selections. Students begin by Joseph Campbell’s work on the Hero Cycle and apply their learning to analyze pop culture’s modern mythological heroes: super heroes. Students will engage in discussions, write an essay or two, analyze comic books, compare multiple versions of a single myth. Also, students in this course will have the opportunity to plan and create a “passion project” connecting their interests to the vast realm of modern superhero mythology. Students will incorporate research, interview, writing, and presentation skills to create a project to share with the class.

Course Number: 3374 Grades: 10, 11, 12 Credit: .5

This course builds on the passion project (inquiry-based/ project-based learning) framework introduced in Modern Myth I and increases in complexity and independence for students. This course will focus on developing independent research skills and real-world/ real audience presentation skills. This project-based learning course will be entirely driven and planned by student interest/passion and curiosity Course Number: 4398 Grades: 11, 12 Credit: .5

How can you, as a passionate student advocate, use your voice to create positive change in your community? This course is designed to help students develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to work towards a more just and equitable society for all. Through writing, discussions, interviews, research, and media creation, you will not only learn how to advocate for change that you believe in, but you will have the opportunity to publish your work to an authentic audience outside of our classroom walls. Coursework is personalized for the unique passions and interests of each student. No matter what you care deeply about, you will have an opportunity to use your voice to make our community, and ultimately our world, a better place for all people.

Course Number: 3376 Grades: 11, 12 Credit: .5

This semester-long course is for students who enjoy reading, are empowered by choice, and want to become better readers. This course, largely based on student choice--is designed for any type or level of reader--with the goals of: improving reading and language skills, fostering a love for reading through an exploration of a wide variety of authors, genres, and topics, and learning how to better engage in academic discussion and analysis of the written word. In this class, students will choose the majority of the texts, reading both independently and in small groups, engage in interesting discussions, and complete self-driven projects. Students will work closely with teachers to select “good-fit-books,” discuss their reading in book clubs, and share learning in a variety of ways through both creative and academic expression.

Course Number: 4316 Grades: 11, 12 Credit: .5

This course offers extensive practice in the writing process, revision skills, writing styles, research skills, and peer review. Completion of this course requires writing effectively reasoned and supported essays for an academic audience through use of sequence, organization, unity, coherence, sentence variation, vivid diction. Most essays will use primary and secondary sources of information as evidence by integrating quotes skillfully, and correctly attributing and interpreting sources. Students will also respond critically and reflectively to non-fiction pieces and scholarly articles by summarizing, interpreting, and analyzing and expressing their responses in argumentative and expository writing. Students will also learn to evaluate a source’s merit based on background, bias, purpose, medium, audience, and tone.