This course is closed for summer 2021. If you need credit now, check out our Flexible Credit Recovery Program which is open for registration year-round.
Do you want to improve your skills in reading, writing, and grammar?
Would you like to participate in an online course that allows you to spend more time in those areas that have been obstacles to achieving academic success?
Do you need to make up credit in 11th grade English so that you can move into the next English course with your peers?
Would you like to attend a class that introduces you to other students around the world?
If you answered yes to some or all of these questions, then this is the course for you. This course will concentrate on three areas of study: literature, language, and writing. Our study of literature will concentrate on American Literature from the Colonial to the Contemporary periods and will include short stories, poetry, nonfiction, and the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Students will develop their language skills through grammar and vocabulary practice and SAT practice problems. Students will develop their writing skills, first in the narrative genre, then by writing a personal statement, and finally in a formal literary essay. Throughout the course, students will practice written communication in weekly discussions as well as smaller written responses. The course is united by several Essential Questions, chief among them: How does American writing and literature show American values and themes? Students will return to these questions throughout the course, analyzing literature from each literary period to discover American values and to connect the literature to its historical time period.
*Students who plan to transfer credit from VHS Learning to their full-time high school should check with their school to confirm they will accept the credits before registering for a VHS Learning summer course.