English I Course Syllabus
Grade 9
2024-2025
“We, too, are made of wonders, of great / and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds, / of a need to call out through the dark.”
— Ada Limón, “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” (2023)
Course Overview
What are the humanities? Must I wear thick wool sweaters and glasses, drink black coffee, and use big words to say brilliant things about literature, history, and philosophy? Will studying these make me powerful and rich? If not, what are the humanities for? This course will help students understand why the humanities matter — that is, how they help us to live meaningful lives and to become the active, curious, independent, and moral thinkers needed to combat the darker forces of our world. Along the way, students will not only develop their abilities as critical thinkers, creative and analytical writers, and public speakers, but ideally cultivate a lifelong passion for reading, writing, and critical thinking.
The course will focus on these essential skills, which students need to excel in their future studies, in college, and in any profession or trade:
Oral, written, visual, and digital literacies and communication skills;
Critical reading and analysis skills;
Techniques for effective collaboration;
Habits of mind that reinforce creativity, curiosity, and innovation.
To that end, students will engage with a range of poems, short stories, plays, novels, and essays from across literary history and the world that are aimed at deepening students’ understanding of the human experience. These texts will springboard class conversation and writing assignments. At this level, it is assumed that students are proficient in the basic conventions of academic essays and English grammar, and our study of literature will be an occasion to further refine these skills.
Most homework will be reading assignments, often accompanied by directed-reading questions to help students understand the text’s central ideas, themes, and questions. Thus, most classes will consist of “close reading” seminars. Students will be expected to come to class prepared to ask and answer questions about the readings. Often, we will begin class with a reading quiz or guided writing exercise to ground our discussion.
While class discussion will be a central feature of virtually every class, I will occasionally implement alternative discursive approaches, such as debates or collaborative presentations, to keep things fresh and challenging. No matter the form, the goal of these activities is to help students become comfortable with sharing their thoughts in a public setting. For some, this is difficult, even frightening. Once a shy student myself, I know that confidence, like algebra, can be learned. If we have established a healthy, non-competitive classroom environment, students will embrace “mistakes” or logical wrong turns. The point of humanities discourse is not to dominate competing views with some final word on the subject — we will never stop talking about Macbeth or the moral implications of dropping atomic weapons on civilians. The point is that by sharing our ideas and enlarging the conversation — by encouraging each other to share good-faith and credible insights about the texts —we all learn.
Of course, reading and discussing literary texts, especially those written decades or even centuries ago, can be difficult. Rest assured, we will read slowly and carefully, and there will be ample time in class to parse difficult passages. Text analysis from online resources like SparkNotes, CliffNotes, Wikipedia, etc. should be avoided like the plague, as should generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Unauthorized use of such resources to guide your class discussions or written work will result in immediate disciplinary action — I will know. Also, these resources are generally terrible.
Again, I realize that analyzing literary texts can be intimidating, but, like all difficult and worthwhile things, the practice will be rewarding. If you don’t believe me, take the advice of one of my former students. At the end of the year, he said that he learned two lessons in my class: first, you’ll feel most proud of what you earn through effort and hard work; second, everything will be okay. So, whenever you get confused or frustrated or ready to throw a book at the wall this year, which will happen, remember his words: you will face challenges, but if you keep trying, in the end you will be okay.
Course Topics & Readings
The reading schedule for this course will be posted in each unit’s module on Canvas every Friday by 5pm. The course texts listed below are physical books that I will provide students on the first day of class. All other texts for the course, indicated by an asterisk (*) below, (e.g. short stories, poetry, films, articles, essays, videos, or podcasts) will be available on Canvas downloadable PDFs or weblinks.
Students must bring their texts to class each day in order to participate in class discussions. Some texts will be substantive and require a few weeks to read. Others will be much shorter and can thus be read in a short time frame. Please read the assigned pages before class in order to facilitate discussion.
Unit 1: Introduction to the Humanities
(*) Selected short stories, poems, and essays
Unit 2: Science & Ethics
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Unit 3: History, Memory & Survival
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Unit 4: Fate, Free Will & Human Fallibility
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Unit 5: Nature & The Human Community
Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
(*) Ada Limón, selected poems
(*) Selected short stories, poems, and essays
Content Warning: This course deals with topics such as discrimination, forms of extreme violence, racism, and genocide, which are emotionally challenging and difficult to confront. If students find the material upsetting, I encourage them to talk to me about it. However, bear in mind that a liberal arts education is designed not only to confront us with historical realities that are often discomforting or that challenge our worldviews, but also to encourage us to engage thoughtfully with difficult content.