ER 102 Literature Reading
The course will give students an overview of literature in the form of passage reading, with an emphasis on mastering the writing styles and analyze pieces from many genres, authors, and styles of writing. Coursework includes reading many diverse passages from famous novels, analyzing portions of the text such as plot, themes, imagery, character development, and voice. Comparative analysis, discussion, and writing will be an integral part of this course — students will be exposed to a breadth of similar and different works and learn how to compare their contexts and meanings. Your child will learn interpretation and analytical skills inherent to novelists, short story authors, poets, and essayists.
This course explore a wide variety of literature through guided reading, analysis, and writing of shorter passages. Students will work in modules incorporating the following genres:
Here is an outline of common concepts taught in English courses:
Geographical Roots of English Literature
Classical European Literature
Classical European Literature consists of the famous works of authors such as Volatire, Dickens, and Austen, which this course introduces to students in a gentle and intriguing manner. Students will tackle challenging works through guided readings and small activities that help uncover underlying themes, conflicts, and broader developments and implications of each classic. Special attention will be placed on speech and language, in particular on imagery, sentence structure, and figurative language. Students will also analyze and interpret these works in historical and contemporary contexts.
American Literature
In this class, students will take a deep analytic foray into the progression and contrasting styles of famous American writers from pre-colonial times to the present, incorporating distinctly American themes such as democracy, western romanticism, and various 19th and 20th cultural movements. Character analysis and comparisons are especially prevalent in this course, as students will gain valuable understandings of topics such as person vs person conflict, character development, and friendships that manifest in these famous stories.
William Shakespeare’s Works
Students perform complete readings and analysis of Shakespeare’s most famous works, such as his tragedies, comedies and sonnets. Shakespeare’s works are widely studied in almost every high school and university-level English course, and represent the pinnacle of plot development and authorship. Students will read and learn about books such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Midsummer Night’s Dream. They will discover the beautiful complexity of each piece and Shakespeare’s influence on other writers and on English literature as a whole.
World Literature
This course will explore selected books by famous authors from diverse regions of the world, such as Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Students will gain a deeper understanding of global cultures, world history, and governments through guided reading, discussion, and analysis of these seminal works. Special attention will be given on theme and structural analysis, plot discussions, and cultural comparisons.
