College Preparatory Course (P). The 9th Grade English Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum, based on the theme of Identity & Relationships, allows students to explore their own identity as well as the different identities of those around them in their diverse communities. They will also critically examine systems of power that affect themselves and their communities. They do this while working towards mastery of the CA Common Core Standards. Every unit culminates with an opportunity for students to reflect on and then share their learning. This was designed to meet the needs of ALL students --- so that students get WHAT they need, WHEN they need it, in the WAY that they need it. This course also provides protected time for small group designated English Language Development (dELD) instruction ...

Part of the English department at University City High.

College Preparatory Course (P). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. English 3,4 is a one-period literacy course required of all grade 10 students, except those enrolled in English 3,4 Block or English 3,4 Advanced . The course content focuses on teaching student’s skills and strategies for critical, independent reading and writing of increasingly complex expository and narrative texts. Instruction in each standards-based unit of study interrelates reading, writing, oral communication, and language study. Students are provided with multiple opportunities to articulate their own ideas as well as to question, interpret, and evaluate others’ ideas. The goal of instruction is to support students in becoming independent, strategic, critical read...

AP Seminar is the first course in a series of two courses in the AP Capstone diploma program, an innovative College Board program that provides students with an opportunity to engage in rigorous scholarly practice of the core academic skills necessary for successful college completion. AP Capstone is designed to complement and enhance the in-depth, discipline-specific study provided through AP courses. It cultivates curious, independent, and collaborative scholars and prepares them to make logical, evidence-based decisions. In this first year of the program, students examine in-depth two to four real-world issues or topics. They explore these through a cross-curricular lens, consider multiple points of view to develop a deep understanding of complex issues, and connect these issues to thei...

College Preparatory Course (P). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. This course emphasizes skills and strategies for independent reading of, analyzing, and writing about works of American literature, with a focus on how that literature reflects social, political, and moral issues in the United States. Instruction in each standards-based unit of study interrelates reading, writing, oral communication, and language study. Students are provided with multiple opportunities to articulate their own ideas as well as to question, interpret, and evaluate others’ ideas. The goal of instruction is to support students who communicate effectively in various forms, for genuine purposes, and to authentic audiences.

Honors Preparatory Course (HP). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. American Literature 1,2 Honors is a college-level course of literary study designed to emphasize independence and responsibility in critical analysis of a variety of literary texts, including poetry, essays, short stories, historical documents, drama, and novels. The course is granted weighted credit by the University of California. Class content is arranged chronologically and thematically. Students examine the development of American thought, ambition, and imagination through the heritage and history of the country’s diverse peoples. Different point of view—and the ways in which the prevalent philosophical, political, ethical, and social influences of the times affected ...

Honors Preparatory Course (HP). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. This Advanced Placement English course is designed to help students become more skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts and to become skilled writers who can compose for a variety of purposes. By their writing and reading in this course, students should become aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience, expectations, and subjects, as well as the way generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effective writing. The overall purpose of the AP English Language and Composition course, then, is to enable students to read complex texts with understanding and to write prose that is rich ...

College Preparatory Course (P). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. In this course students explore issues presented by contemporary American and world writers from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Students write for various purposes including informational essays, argument essays to include literary analysis, and research-based essays. Students will read a wide variety of literature, including short stories and novels as well as a wide range of literary nonfiction. Students should work collaboratively with their peers discussing their analysis and ideas about texts and current issues. The units of study, based on the Common Core State Standards, integrate all aspects of literacy: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The goal...

Honors Preparatory Course (HP). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. This Advanced Placement English course involves students in both the study and practice of writing and the study of literature. They learn to use the characteristic modes of discourse and to recognize the assumptions underlying various rhetorical strategies. Through speaking, listening, and reading, but chiefly through the experience of their own writing, students become more aware of the resources of language. Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition 1,2 is not a survey course; it is, rather, a course to help students develop critical judgment and expressive skill. Students are encouraged to read analytically and sensitively a few carefully chosen high-qualit...

Honors Preparatory Course (HP). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. This Advanced Placement English course is designed to help students become more skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts and to become skilled writers who can compose for a variety of purposes. By their writing and reading in this course, students should become aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience, expectations, and subjects, as well as the way generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effective writing. The overall purpose of the AP English Language and Composition course, then, is to enable students to read complex texts with understanding and to write prose that is rich ...

College Preparatory Course (P). This course meets the University of California’s b (English) subject-area requirement. This course provides students with both instruction and practice in writing for different audiences and purposes. Pieces by professional writers prompt discussion and serve as models for further writing. Working independently and in groups, students refine their use of language. Students also learn to interpret and evaluate writing in the media as well as information conveyed by graphics. The standards-based units of study integrate all aspects of literacy: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students collect their work and reflections in portfolios.

Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) prepares college-bound seniors for the literacy demands of higher education. Through a sequence of eight to ten rigorous instructional modules, students in this yearlong, rhetoric-based course develop advanced proficiency in expository, analytical, and argumentative reading and writing. Students will be expected to increase their awareness of the rhetorical strategies employed by authors and to apply those strategies to their own writing. They will read closely to examine the relationship between an author’s argument or theme and his or her audience and purpose; to analyze the impact of structural and rhetorical strategies; and to examine the social, political, and philosophical assumptions that underlie the text. By the end of the course, stude...