Twice Told Tales CP (English #160) or Honors (English #161)

FALL SEMESTER For students in grade 11

Students may earn CP (English #160) or Honors (English #161) credit for the English portion of the course. The Social Studies portion of the course is unleveled.

Prerequisites: 10 credits in English and successful completion of World Cultures and U.S. History; students must also sign up for Social Studies Course #260

Like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous book of short stories, which inspires the title of the course, Twice-Told Tales endeavors to re-conceive, to reconsider, through history, psychology and literature, the human condition. Students will employ literature as a case study by using literature to analyze transcendent dilemmas within the human condition and specific obstacles due to cultural circumstances. Students will also examine and excavate literary, historical, and psychological theory centered on the desire to reconcile the outside world with internal reality.  Texts include “Epic of Gilgamesh,” The Bacchae by Euripides, The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino, “The Ballad of Mulan,” Drown by Junot Díaz, Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes,” and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore.

The course integrates two teachers and forty-five students in the same classroom and takes place in two consecutive blocks. The course is an elective for juniors only. The class is co-taught by an English and Social Studies teacher and students receive a total of 5 credits: English (2.5) and Social Studies (2.5).

Evaluation will be based on preparation for class, written reports, unit tests, individual projects, and a semester exam.