Every year, new classes are created to meet the academic needs of students.  Some departments create courses that better prepare their students for college such as the English department’s new AP Seminar class to accompany the AP Capstone Project. As students complete their required classes and have more flexibility and optoins, they may want to consider some new classes that teachers have created in the hopes they interest students.

For the English department, three new classes will be available for students to take next school year. English department co-chair Mrs. Liz Browning said, “We are offering reading seminar, which is a class that focuses on allowing student choice in reading with direction by an instructor.” The seminar class is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors but does not take the place of any required English courses.

The school’s course guide describes the class as a “course is for self-motivated students who have the desire to expand their literary repertoire with a theme or genre-driven focus. Students will co-design their independent reading goals and benchmarks with the instructor and will culminate their reading experiences in a school community presentation of literary analysis and self-reflection at the end of the semester.”

Assignments may include reader-reflection journals, in-class essays, presentations or blogging. The reading seminar is an elective course and to be offered only during spring semester. 

“We also have Grammar 101 for those who love grammar and those who afraid of grammar,” said Browning. This course will be offered in the fall and summer semester and is an elective course that focuses on all facets of grammar.

“This is really a course designed for those students who need help with parts of speech or punctuation or inconsistent verb tense. Anyone can take this course regardless of your background to or if you just need help with your composition skills, Browning said. There are no prerequisites for this one-semester course. 

Browning rounded out the list with AP Seminar. “That course is part of the AP Capstone Project and is open to any sophomore, junior or senior at academic or honors level. Anyone who is interested in investigating a world topic for a full year can take this class.”

AP Seminar is a two-semester, two-credit class that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore real world topics and issues. “Students will practice reading and analyzing articles, research studies and foundational literary texts, listen to viewing speeches, broadcasts and personal accounts. There will be some research-based essays and orals, both individually and team based,” Browning said. This class is academic honors approved and an elective course.

Sports literature was taken off the list this year, but Browning hopes that it will be placed back on for the 2019-2020 school year. It is a class that reviews fiction and nonfiction sports literature. She said teachers also want to offer a on- semester Shakespeare class.

“I always think it’s a good idea to take English classes because we expose you to the world. And that’s not always a bad thing,” Browning said.

She recommended to students that if they had any slots open in their schedule to sign up for an English class. “You never know what you’re going to like until you try,” Browning said. Current freshmen, sophomores and juniors will meet with their counselors from now until spring break.

Browning said that if any of these classes interest students, they should talk to their counselor about signing up.