Catholic High School requires four credits of English and places a strong emphasis on writing, reading, and thinking skills.

English 9
Ninth grade students will learn grammar, mechanics, MLA format, vocabulary, and composition usage skills. They will learn to write correct paragraphs, theses, and formal five-paragraph essays. They will practice the four modes of discourse: exposition, narration, description, and persuasion. Students will learn grammar concepts, including punctuation, syntax, and correct sentence formation. They will learn to gather and synthesize research information, culminating in a required basic library paper, aligned with their science fair projects. Students will have an opportunity to develop their creative writing skills through poetry, short stories, and other genres. In literature, students will study a variety of literary themes, forms, and genres, including short story, poetry, drama, and novel. Students will read a minimum of two reading books each summer and one outside reading book each quarter.    

English 10
Tenth graders will expand their listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar skills through regular essays and other compositions. The course places more emphasis on formal writing, although students will also learn to develop and identify voice in writing. Students will write one research paper in conjunction with the science department and will conduct or participate in additional research projects throughout the year. The literature will comprise American literature from 1650 to 1900. Students will read at least two reading books each summer and an American novel each quarter.

English 11
Eleventh grade students continue to expand their listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar skills.  All reading material will be by or about British authors, from Anglo-Saxon England to 1900. In addition to the summer reading novels and the literature in our textbooks, students will read one novel or play by a British author each quarter. Students will develop their grammar and composition usage skills through the writing of numerous essays and reports.  Writing assignments will include timed, in-class writing based on sample SAT essay topics; reports requiring outside research that explore literary or historical topics; and essays about literature.  Students will write one literary analytical research paper, due in the spring.
       
                                                                                                                                   One Credit

AP English-Language and Composition
Eleventh grade Advanced Placement students will concentrate on writing essays in various forms (narrative, exploratory, expository, and argumentative) and of increasing complexity in both style and content.  These essays will be based on class readings of prose, both fiction and nonfiction, written in a variety of periods and rhetorical contexts.  The readings and essay writing will prepare the students for the test in AP English Language and Composition, given in the spring. 

English 12
Twelfth grade students will continue to expand their listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar skills through regular essay and report writing and through oral presentations.  Assignments will include one literary analytical research paper in the fall and one computer-based research project on a literary topic in the spring.  Students will read selections from a variety of world cultures, including literature from several major religious traditions and excerpts from some of the world’s greatest epic poetry.  In addition to the summer reading novels and the selections in our textbook, students will read one novel or play per quarter.

Public Speaking
Students will learn the art of correct speaking, including articulation, pronunciation, projection, gestures, movements, and other requirements for effective speaking. The course is designed for students from grade 9 through grade 12.              

Journalism/Yearbook
Students learn to deal with budgets and deadlines while choosing and implementing a theme for the year’s publication of the yearbook. Students are expected to take photographs for the publication. Emphasis is on appropriateness and composition. In addition to the preparation and publication of the yearbook, the class surveys all aspects of modern news media while learning to view them with a critical eye. The students will discuss some of the problems of the mass media in delivering news to the world as well as other journalism topics.