Intermediate Literature, Writing
(offered every year)
Taught by Andrew O'Brien
Why take intermediate lit?
Can you remember the first time you felt like "a grown up?" When you were both responsible for yourself and free to be so? In Intermediate Literature and Writing, more than half of the novels we read are beloved coming of age stories. Students have shared with me again and again how meaningful To Kill A Mockingbird or Jane Eyre were to them. Students in this course are on the upper end of middle school, nearly ready for the plunge into the academic rigor of high school, and they are perfectly situated to look deeper, think harder, and explore difficult topics. They get to do this along with the characters of the novels they read. They get to offer their own insights in the essays they write. They get to crystallize the mix of all of these inputs in the stories they write. So much of the charm and success of this course is a result of its focus on coming of age--at at time when its participants are doing the same.
Course Summary
Intermediate Literature and Writing is a reading and writing course for 8th and 9th graders that serves as a bridge between New Hope's Middle School Literature and Writing and the high school language arts programs. Students discuss works including Jane Eyre, Les Miserables, and To Kill a Mockingbird while refining their skills of critical thinking, writing, and debating. Students write in a variety of genres, and the course is designed to increase the ability of students to work as independent learners.
Major topics covered
Our major topics are tied to our readings and paper assignments, but conversations range from theories of growth and challenge, epistemology, how to spot and understand symbolism, how to empathize and why to bother, if we are products of our genes or our environment, what "othering" is and how to overcome it, and more.
Major skills developed
Students will have guidance in reading and understanding difficult passages of prose and poetry--reading between the lines and understanding the relationship of seemingly disparate ideas within a piece. They will learn to understand the value of separating the literature from their immediate impressions about it. We will write persuasive essays, literary analyses, short stories, poems, and more. Each of these written genres is a skill in its own right, demanding different processes, techniques, and goals. Students will be given guidance and structure at the beginning of the year, and as the year progresses, they will be expected to do more and more work on their own. The goal of this process is to equip students for success and allow them to enjoy the benefits of independence as the year progresses.
Book list
Short Stories, Essays and Poetry, Instructors choice [handout]
A Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter ISBN 1400077885
A Separate Peace by John Knowles ISBN 0743253973
As You Like It (No Fear Shakespeare) ISBN 1897377770
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte ISBN 0141441143
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo ISBN 141650026X Lord of the Flies by William Golding ISBN 0571056865
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Burton Raffle ed.) ISBN 9780451531193
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ISBN 0060935464
The Last Leaf
If you are new to New Hope, please download the following PDF and return it to the office along with your application.