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 smaller written responses. The course is united by several Essential Question, 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.