Course Description
English 1001 is a University of Minnesota course which is offered to high school students who have demonstrated exceptional skills in reading and writing. This is a course that is intended to mirror a class on campus, and prepare students to take college classes in the future. Over the semester, students will read 20th century fiction that will challenge ideas about the world and belief systems.
This course is different from other English courses offered in high school. The course will focus on multicultural literature, informal writing, and active discussion. Discussion is very important in this class, as students written response will grow out of analysis and interpretation of the literature during the class period.
Through intensive, close reading of a range of literary works, students will understand diverse experiences, languages, and forms, and genres. They will also find it necessary to understand knowledge in various fields (history, art, literature, music, politics, philosophy) and social practices (gender, sexuality, and class, and more) in order to understand the basic “facts” of literary works. These are discoveries which they will make through the guidance of the instructor, other students, and themselves. In the end they will gain an awareness of themselves, other cultures, other individuals; they will gain an ability to think critically and to express themselves orally and in writing; they will gain aesthetic sensitivity; they will acquire or further develop their intellectual curiosity, and perhaps be challenged by the remarkable range of knowledge available through literature.
Books we will read:
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Sula by Toni Morrison
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
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