Short Cut:  Graduation Requirements Humanities Academy (HA) English 1 MEC English 1 HA English 1 English 2 MEC English 2 HA English 2 English 3 Honors English 3 English 4 AP English Lit & Composition Science Fiction & Fantasy English Language Development Transitional English Special Studies in English

Introduction: High school graduation requires a minimum of 40 units (four years) of English. Throughout all courses, students work on the required English Language Arts Portfolios to demonstrate their ability to meet or exceed California state standards.

English Language Development
English Language Development--Beginning
English Language Development--Intermediate Transitional English

SOQUEL HIGH SCHOOL HUMANITIES ACADEMY
The Humanities Academy offers a unique opportunity for academically motivated students to experience many of the benefits of a small college preparatory high school while still taking advantage of all that a comprehensive public school has to offer. The Humanities Academy is a linked, enriched curriculum of English and Social Studies. For specific information on the Humanities Academy, click here.

Course Descriptions

ENGLISH 1

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: This college-preparatory course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 9th grade. Students read and analyze a wide variety of short stories, mythology, biographies, autobiographies, novels, drama, and informational materials. Texts designated for English 9 include the following: Romeo and Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird, The House on Mango Street, Night, The Bean Trees, Heroes, Gods and Monsters, The Education of Little Tree, Farewell to Manzanar, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, and the Holt and McDougal Littel anthologies. Students also have opportunities to select independent reading choices. Students will begin to develop a writing portfolio with an emphasis on autobiographical, biographical, and fictional essays; narratives; responses to informational materials; reports; and control of standard writing conventions.

MEC ENGLISH 1

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: See information in 'Academies'
Course Description: The Manufacturing, Engineering and Construction (MEC) Academy honors and encourages hands on learning, academic achievement, professional integrity and relevant vocational skills. The MEC Academy seeks to present academic and career technical education in a context that is relevant and rigorous. The MEC Academy English 1 course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 9th grade. Writing in this course will include portfolio preparation that will utilize paragraph construction, personal narrative, poetry, persuasive writing and journal writing. Students will create responses to literature that will include a thesis statement, analyses of quotes and the fund of information which assists in drawing relevant conclusions. Essay writing will involve multiple drafts, peer editing, and opportunities for revision. Students read and analyze a wide variety of short stories, mythology, biographies, autobiographies, novels, poetry, drama, workplace communications, and informational materials. Students will begin to develop a writing portfolio with an emphasis on autobiographical, biographical, and fictional essays; narratives; responses to informational materials; reports; and control of standard writing conventions. Texts designated for MEC Academy English 1 include the following: technical journals, instruction manuals, Cannery Row, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Fight In the Fields, The Adding Machine, Working, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Romeo and Juliet. Students also have opportunities to select independent reading choices.

HUMANITIES ACADEMY ENGLISH 1
(advanced composition and literature)

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: See information in 'Academies'
Course Description: This intensive college preparatory course builds skills that support the California State Standards for English/Language Arts for 9th grade. Students read and analyze a wide variety of short stories, mythology, biographies, autobiographies, novels, poetry, drama, and informational materials. Texts designated for Humanities Academy English 1 include the following: Sound of Waves, Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, Romeo and Juliet, Things Fall Apart, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Kite Runner, The Ramayana, portions of The Odyssey, and selections from The Blair Reader and the McDougal Littel Language of Literature anthology. Students also have opportunities to select independent reading choices. Students will begin to develop a writing portfolio with an emphasis on autobiographical, biographical, and fictional essays; narratives; responses to informational materials; reports; and control of standard writing conventions. In addition, students in Humanities Academy English 1 learn basic elements of persuasive writing and write a thesis-driven 4-5 page research paper. The complexity of this course best serves very highly motivated and academically prepared students who desire to work in an advanced and rigorously-paced environment that prepares for continued enrollment in the Humanities Academy.

ENGLISH 2

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: This college-preparatory course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 10th grade. Students read and analyze a wide variety of short stories, biographies, autobiographies, novels, drama, and informational materials. Texts designated for English 2 include the following: The Catcher in the Rye, The Illustrated Man, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Tempest, Cold Sassy Tree, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Julius Caesar, Animal Farm, Kindred, The Late Great Me, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Eye of the Heart, and the Holt and McDougal Littel anthologies. Students also have opportunities to select independent reading choices. Students will continue working on their writing portfolios with an emphasis on literature response and persuasive essays. A research project may be required.

MEC ENGLISH 2

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: See information in 'Academies'
Course Description: In MEC English 2, students will continue to build skills to become effective communicators. These skills will move students forward intellectually and academically, and prepare each student with a stronger and broader comprehensive base of knowledge. Writing in this course will represent a continuation of skill development from MEC English 1. Rhetorical devices such as question and anecdote, the use of active voice (replacing verbs with more concrete, colorful words) and clear and concise writing will be emphasized. Students will continue working on their writing portfolios with an emphasis on autobiographical, biographical, and fictional essays; narratives; responses to informational materials; a report; and control of standard writing conventions. Students will investigate careers, do research and work in journals. Texts used in this course include the following: The Jungle, To Kill a Mockingbird, House, The Burning Season, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Lord of the Flies. Students will continue working on their writing portfolios with an emphasis on literature response and persuasive essays.

HUMANITIES ACADEMY ENGLISH 2

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: See information in 'Academies'
Course Description: This intensive college preparatory course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 10th grade. Students read and analyze a wide variety of short stories, biographies, autobiographies, novels, poetry, drama, and informational materials. Texts include the following: Richard III, Julius Caesar, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Jungle, Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, and selections from The Blair Reader and the Language of Literature anthology. Students also have opportunities to select independent reading choices. Students will continue to develop a writing portfolio with an emphasis on autobiographical, biographical, and fictional essays; narratives; responses to informational materials; a report; and control of standard writing conventions. In addition, students continue to learn and practice persuasive writing, including a thesis-driven 5-6 page research paper. The complexity of this course best serves very highly motivated and academically prepared students who desire to work in an advanced and rigorously-paced environment that prepares for success in the Honors American Literature course in the 11th grade.

ENGLISH 3

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: This college preparatory course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 11th grade. The study of American literature in conjunction with the study of United States history in the 11th grade naturally lends itself to deepening student awareness of both time-specific and universal challenges, triumphs, and conflicts that have influenced and continue to influence what it means to be an American. To that end, students read and analyze a wide variety of American short stories, biographies, autobiographies, novels, drama, and informational materials. Texts designated for American literature include the following: Zoot Suit, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Adventures of Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Inland Whale, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Old Man and the Sea, The Crucible, The Illustrated Man, Housekeeping, The Eye of the Heart, and the Holt and McDougal Littel anthologies. Students also have opportunities to select independent reading choices. If students have not already completed their writing portfolios by the end of the 10th grade, then they work to complete and pass all six criteria of the portfolio assessment.

AP Language and Composition

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b, g
Prerequisite: Pass English 2 or Humanities Academy 2 with a C or above both semesters, successful completion of a writing assessment in the spring of 10th grade and completion of summer reading and writing.
Course Description: This intensive college preparatory course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 11th grade. The study of American literature in conjunction with the study of United States history in the 11th grade naturally lends itself to deepening student awareness of both time-specific and universal challenges, triumphs, and conflicts that have influenced and continue to influence what it means to be an American. The honors course emphasizes critical reading and analysis skills through the reading of the texts such as The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, My Ántonia, The Great Gatsby, The Piano Lesson, Death of a Salesman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Zoot Suit. Students also read from and critically annotate an extensive selection of supplementary poetry, essays, non-fiction, and primary source documents both individually selected as well as anthologized in the McDougal Littel Language of Literature: American Literature anthology. The course emphasizes academic writing skills, including writing persuasive, expository, and research-based essays; multi-text comparative literary response essays; and an 8-10 page research paper. Extensive vocabulary development accompanies all reading and writing. If students have not already completed their writing portfolios by the end of the 10th grade, then they work to complete and pass all six criteria of the portfolio assessment. The complexity of this course best serves very highly motivated and academically prepared students who desire to work in an advanced and rigorously-paced environment that prepares for success in the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition course in the 12th grade.

ENGLISH 4

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: This college preparatory course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 12th grade. Studying world literature naturally lends itself to deepening student awareness of cross-cultural themes, lifestyles, and challenges; consequently, students develop and defend theses that explore world literature's relationship to universal, historical, and cultural human themes; to that end, students read and analyze a wide variety of world and multi-cultural short stories, biographies, autobiographies, novels, drama, and informational materials. 12th grade texts include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Candide, A Christmas Carol, Frankenstein, Gilgamesh, Heart of Darkness, Hamlet, Macbeth, Brave New World, Candide, Joy Luck Club, Kafka's Metamorphosis, Ovid's Metamorphosis, The Odyssey, Siddhartha, The Stranger, Things Fall Apart, and selections from the Glencoe, McDougal Littel and/or Holt anthologies. Students also have opportunities to select independent reading choices. If students have not already completed their writing portfolios by the end of the 11th grade, then they work to complete all six criteria of the portfolio graduation requirement.

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION (Advanced Placement)

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b, g
Prerequisite: Admission for seniors upon successful completion of English 3, Honors American Literature, or an equivalent course, and completion of an application process which includes a writing assessment in Spring of the junior year. Completion of summer reading and writing due before school starts in fall.
Course Description: AP English is an intensive college-prep and college-level College Board-endorsed course for the highly academically motivated student. Students study a wide variety of literature, drama, poetry, and non-fiction expository and narrative writing, concentrating on critical analysis of structural and thematic elements of texts. Students examine texts within the cultural, social, historical, and artistic contexts of the eras in which they were written, and text selection varies from year to year. Extensive student participation is required in the form of whole-class discussions, the completion of critical analysis reading journals, and frequent student-led explication of texts. Students read critically, and advanced composition skills are taught and practiced through the frequent writing of in-class, informal and formal literary analyses and expository essays equivalent to the writing required in a first year college composition course. Students will also complete a final project. Students enrolled in AP English are expected to take the AP Exam offered by the College Board in May of their senior year; depending on individual college admissions policies, a score of 3, 4 or 5 on the exam results in elective or English college credit. The pace and complexity of this course best serves very highly motivated and academically prepared students.

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b, g
Prerequisite: None
Course Description: This college preparatory course builds skills that support the California state standards for English/Language Arts for 11th and/or 12th grade, and provides opportunities for writing portfolio entries. Core and supplementary texts may include A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, The Fellowship of the Ring, Childhood's End, Way Station, and Stranger in a Strange Land. Students will also read short fiction and non-fiction by Lovecraft, Murphy, Kress, Le Guin, Cherryh, Howard, Bradbury and others. Students of science fiction and fantasy read widely and critically, writing both analytical and personal responses and using ideas, facts and techniques gained from that reading in their own writing. The genre is further explored by film studies and in the semester group project, the creation of a planet which is formally presented both orally and as a written report and which forms the basis for story writing. This course presents unique opportunities to examine the big questions facing humans in today's world in ways that utilize a wide variety of sources and learning styles.

ELD (ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT)—BEGINNING
ELD (ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT)—INTERMEDIATE

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS
Prerequisite: Level is determined through CELDT testing and teacher recommendation
Course Description: Grammar, vocabulary and language structure are presented in all ELD class levels. Also, students are introduced to the American culture and basic communication skills. Activities may include dialogues, plays, interviews, group discussion, reading, listening and writing through textual study and conversation. Daily projects will reinforce listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The objective is to obtain fluency in English.

TRANSITIONAL ENGLISH

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b
Prerequisite: Level is determined through English tests, writing test, and teacher recommendation
Course Description: Students read and analyze short stories, poetry, news articles and other non-fiction pieces from textbooks and other sources. Students review grammar and punctuation of Standard Written English and build vocabulary. The purpose of this class is to provide the foundation needed to transition into mainstream English classes. Some tutorial help is provided.

SPECIAL STUDIES IN ENGLISH

Fulfills Requirements: English for SHS; for UC/CSU, b, g
Prerequisite: Instructor permission; approval by the Assistant Principal of Guidance and Counseling before work is started.
Course Description: Students work independently on various projects under the supervision of an English teacher. This program does not count as part of a student's full-time status.