English I Course Overview

English I continues to build on the sequential development and integration of communication skills in four major areas—reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It most specifically focuses on deepening and furthering students' understanding in the following ways:

• Reading–reinforces reading comprehension skills by teaching students how to understand and appreciate poetry, drama, informative nonfiction, and fiction; shows students how to analyze, evaluate, and interpret a text; reinforces awareness of the elements and structure of narrative prose; guides students through readings of drama, a novel, and selections from well-known poetry, and short stories.
• Writing–furthers students’ understanding of sentence structures; reviews parts of speech and their types, including in -depth studies on verbs (transitive, intransitive, conjugation, tense, voice, mood); develops students’ understanding of the types and functions of phrases and clauses; teaches language history and etymology to help students build on knowledge of word structures, including prefixes, roots, and suffixes; expands on students’ vocabulary skills; reviews spelling skills; gives students the opportunity to develop their abilities in writing speeches, short essays, poetry, friendly/business letters, and short stories.
• Speaking–offers students experience in delivering a speech; teaches skills that enable students to become effective speakers and communicators, weaving these skills together throughout the course.
• Listening–teaches effective listening comprehension skills, weaving these together throughout the lessons.