HS English 3/4

Monthly Tuition: $80 per month
(see registration page for registration details)

Recommended Grade Level: 11th and 12th grade students (HS English 2 is a pre-requisite for this course)

Curriculum and Required Materials:

English 3/4
1)   Writing with Clarity and Style by Robert A. Harris
   Amazon.com: Writing with Clarity and Style   OR
   AbeBooks.com: Writing with Clarity and Style
2)   Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Amazon.com: Fahrenheit 451
3)   The Bear by Andrew Krivak
Amazon.com: The Bear OR
   AbeBooks.com: The Bear
4)   Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
   Amazon.com: Great Expectations
5) Hamlet by William Shakespeare (The Annotated Shakespeare edition)
   Amazon.com: Hamlet (The Annotated Shakespeare edition)

Course Description: The English III/IV curriculum rotates each academic year to ensure students cover all curriculum and skills required to receive credit for both ENG III and ENG IV by the end of our two years together. Students will spend time focusing primarily on American and British texts. This practice will provide both knowledge and understanding of the origin and expansion of Western literature.

This class is a challenging, yet enriching course designed to engage students in careful and deliberate reading for multiple levels of meaning. This course prepares students to write well in the workforce. Also, it ensures that every student who wants to pursue collegiate studies can confidently enter the college classroom as a critical reader and masterful writer. ENG III/IV focuses on advanced annotation techniques, research, argumentation, and rhetorical analysis. Creating original work that showcases deep thinking and synthesis is a significant component of this course.

While the bulk of student writing will be critical analysis, creative writing assignments will also be given to help students practice using advanced rhetorical devices. English III/IV students will spend two years working through the book, Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Student Writers. Many students can recognize basic literary terms like metaphor and simile, but after completing this book and practicing these skills in creative and academic writing assignments, students will not only be able to identify terms like litotes, anadiplosis, and zeugma, but they will be able to use these rhetorical devices in their writing! Identifying and employing these devices will elevate their writing and prepare students for college.

One of the unique features of the BAHA high school English program is the introduction of literary theory by a Christian educator. Most public, private, and homeschool ELA programs usually only introduce students to three literary theories: reader response, biographical, and historical. Students are capable of so much more! Therefore, BAHA students will learn 13 formal approaches to analyzing a work before graduating! Each literary lens will help students understand all possible facets of a text and let that in-depth analysis lead their academic writing. Our goal is to make sure students leave BAHA excellent at literary analysis. Plus, for students pursuing higher education, practicing introductory literary theory will not only help them survive college English but set an academic example for their classmates! English III/IV literary theories will rotate yearly, covering the following theories over two years: formalist, disability, men and women in literature, social class, psychological, cultural, and post-colonial.

*This course counts as 1 of the 4 English credits needed for a high school transcript to be eligible for graduation in the state of Texas.