The High School English Classes You Should Take

The High School English Classes You Should Take SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips It's no secret that colleges want you to take English class each year of high school. But what exactly are you supposed to be learning? What options do you have to exceed expectations and show off your stuff? And what if you're such a book-loving reader that in the dictionary under "bibliophile" there's a picture of you- how can you really max out your high school English experience? Read on to learn about the common core, honors and AP classes, and going beyond what the standard curriculum offers! What Do Colleges Expect? You'll be hard-pressed to find a college that doesn't expect you to have taken 4 years of English or Language Arts classes. Likewise, the vast majority of high schools require 4 years of English in order for you to graduate. These 4 years are cumulative, meaning each year builds on what you learned before, and now each year is most likely based on the common core standards. So, colleges assume that when you start freshman year, you've been learning all of this: 9th Grade is the setup year you practice basic essay-writing skills you study different literary genres you analyze narrative voice, characters, and plot 10th Grade is the building year you practice the outlining, drafting, and revising process you focus on themes and literary devices like imagery and voice 11th Grade focuses on American literature your writing gets more complex, as you do your own research and use outside sources you now start reading not just for content but also for historical context, period, setting, and point of view this is a good year to take American history as well 12th Grade looks out at the world you read British literature and sometimes world literature, depending on your high school you put all your skills together, analyzing complex literature and nonfiction you produce research papers, presentations, and maybe even multimedia projects this may be a good year to also take European or world history Common Core Reading Standards There's... a lot of choice. Having a guide helps. Want to know the type of books colleges assume you will have read by the time you get in? Here are some examples of what the common core standards want you to be reading in high school, broken down by year: Literature: Stories, Drama, Poetry Informational Texts: Literary Nonfiction and Historical, Scientific, and Technical Texts 9th - 10th Grade The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1592) "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention" by Patrick Henry (1775) "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817) "Farewell Address" by George Washington (1796) "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe (1845) "Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln (1863) "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry (1906) "State of the Union Address" by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1941) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939) "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) "Hope, Despair and Memory" by Elie Wiesel (1997) The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1975) 11th - 12th Grade "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats (1820) Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontà « (1848) Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854) "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson (1890) "Society and Solitude" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1857) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) "The Fallacy of Success" by G. K. Chesterton (1909) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) Black Boy by Richard Wright (1945) A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959) "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell (1946) The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003) "Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry" by Rudolfo Anaya (1995) If you want a very long breakdown of what the common core recommends you study, check out their year-by-year guide. How Can I Exceed Expectations? Honors Classes These will most likely be similar to the standard classes your school offers, but the works you read will be more challenging and the assignments more complex and demanding. In other words, you'll do more work and put in more effort, but you'll be better prepared for college-level writing! Pro tip: in your school, honors classes may be a prerequisite for AP classes. AP English Classes There are two AP English options: AP English Language and Composition if your school offers both AP English classes, this is the one you'll take Junior year this class and exam are all about how writers do what they do: how they use rhetoric, genre, style, and how they play with audience expectations AP English Literature and Composition if your school offers both AP English classes, this is the one you'll take senior year this class and exam have to do with critical analysis, close reading, literary structure, themes, as well as imagery IB Diploma Classes There are three IB literature options: Language A: Literature this course focuses on the analysis of literary texts Language A: Language and Literature this class takes the analysis further by looking at both literary and non literary genres, and by considering how the context of writing or reading something affects its meaning Literature and Performance this class is all about the relationship between literature and theater, focusing on close reading, critical writing and the aesthetic and symbolic elements of performance Both Language A classes are offered in a variety of languages, and Literature and Performance can be taken in French or Spanish by special request, so these may be great options for non-native speakers or bilingual students. Some IB diploma classes can be taken online, but the closest you'll come to English online is the Film SL class, which is all about the history, formal elements, technical production, and of course critical analysis of film. What If I'm an English Class Junkie? Is There More? Please, sir, may I have some more... English class? In this bowl, for some reason? Check Out Your School's Electives This is the time to think just a little bit outside the box! For example, classes in creative writing offer a great window into later being able to see how someone else did it. Electives in the humanities can often offer what is basically a modified literature class. And there are many other subjects that focus on reading, analyzing, and writing about texts- subjects like philosophy, theater studies, world religions, psychology, or anthropology. Design Your Own Course Your school is your resource, so don't be afraid to get creative. Consider asking a teacher to help you set up an independent project or independent study to explore your interests! For example, in my senior year, on top of my coursework, with the help of my favorite English teacher I designed an independent study of reading and writing poetry. It was incredibly rewarding! Take High School Classes Online For instance, Stanford University has an online high school which features 7 English courses and lets you enroll to take as many of them as you want. Brown University also offers a set of online pre-college courses. They have 4 related classes on nonfiction, travel writing, formal college writing, and a humanities seminar on evolutionary thought. Take Summer Classes on College Campuses You can check out our guide to the Summer Institute for the Gifted or all the info we have collected about Stanford's two summer programs. Take Some Online College-Level Classes Are you super confident in your abilities or interested in something specific you can't find anywhere else? Maybe the best thing for you to do is prove yourself on a whole another level! Just think, doing well on a college-level course will look great on your transcript, and you might even get college credit for it! What's Next? Need to improve your acquaintance with key literary terms? Use our articles on personification, imagery, rhetorical devices, point of view, literary elements, assonance, and iambic pentameter to aid you in your quest. Still wrestling over whether AP or IB is better? Check out our guide to deciding between them. Curious how your writing skills will apply to the SAT? Read about how to improve your SAT writing score, or better yet, how to get a perfect 800 and how to get a 12 on the SAT essay. And don't forget to read about the ACT Writing test and SAT essay. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Nobel Prize History - How the First Nobel Prizes Were Awarded

Nobel Prize History - How the First Nobel Prizes Were Awarded A pacifist at heart and an inventor by nature, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. However, the invention that he thought would end all wars was seen by many others as an extremely deadly product. In 1888, when Alfreds brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper mistakenly ran an obituary for Alfred which called him the merchant of death. Not wanting to go down in history with such a horrible epitaph, Nobel created a will that soon shocked his relatives and established the now famous Nobel Prizes. Who was Alfred Nobel? Why did Nobels will make establishing the prizes so difficult? Alfred Nobel Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1842, when Alfred was nine years old, his mother (Andrietta Ahlsell) and brothers (Robert and Ludvig) moved to St. Petersburg, Russia to join Alfreds father (Immanuel), who had moved there five years earlier. The following year, Alfreds younger brother, Emil, was born. Immanuel Nobel, an architect, builder, and inventor, opened a machine shop in St. Petersburg and was soon very successful with contracts from the Russian government to build defense weapons. Because of his fathers success, Alfred was tutored at home until the age of 16. Yet, many consider Alfred Nobel a mostly self-educated man. Besides being a trained chemist, Alfred was an avid reader of literature and was fluent in English, German, French, Swedish, and Russian. Alfred also spent two years traveling. He spent much of this time working in a laboratory in Paris but also traveled to the United States. Upon his return, Alfred worked in his fathers factory. He worked there until his father went bankrupt in 1859. Alfred soon began experimenting with nitroglycerine, creating his first explosions in early summer 1862. In only a year (October 1863), Alfred received a Swedish patent for his percussion detonator - the Nobel lighter. Having moved back to Sweden to help his father with an invention, Alfred established a small factory at Helenborg near Stockholm to manufacture nitroglycerine. Unfortunately, nitroglycerine is a very difficult and dangerous material to handle. In 1864, Alfreds factory blew up - killing several people, including Alfreds younger brother, Emil. The explosion did not slow down Alfred, and within only a month, he organized other factories to manufacture nitroglycerine. In 1867, Alfred invented a new and safer-to-handle explosive - dynamite. Though Alfred became famous for his invention of dynamite, many people did not intimately know Alfred Nobel. He was a quiet man who did not like a lot of pretense or show. He had very few friends and never married. And though he recognized the destructive power of dynamite, Alfred believed it was a harbinger of peace. Alfred told Bertha von Suttner, an advocate for world peace, My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses. The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second, all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge their troops. * Unfortunately, Alfred did not see peace in his time. Alfred Nobel, chemist and inventor, died alone on December 10, 1896, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. After several funeral services were held and Alfred Nobels body was cremated, the will was opened. Everyone was shocked. The Will Alfred Nobel had written several wills during his lifetime, but the last one was dated November 27, 1895 - a little over a year before he died. Nobels last will left approximately 94 percent of his worth to the establishment of five prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace) to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. Though Nobel had proposed a very grandiose plan for the prizes in his will, there were a great many problems with the will. Relatives of Alfred Nobel were so shocked that many wanted the will contested.The format of the will had formal defects which could have caused the will to be contested in France.It was unclear which country Alfred had his legal residence. He was a Swedish citizen until age nine, but after that he had lived in Russia, France, and Italy without becoming a citizen. Nobel had been making plans for a final home for himself in Sweden when he died. The location of residency would determine what countrys laws would govern the will and the estate. If determined to be France, the will could have been contested and French taxes would have been taken.Because Nobel had wanted the Norwegian Storting (parliament) to choose the peace prize winner, many charged Nobel with a lack of patriotism.The fund that was to implement the prizes did not yet exist and would have to be created.The organizations that Nobel named in his will to award the prizes had not been asked to take on these duties prior to No bels death. Also, there was no plan to compensate these organizations for their work on the prizes. The will did not state what should be done if no prize winners for a year were found. Because of the incompleteness and other obstacles presented by Alfreds will, it took five years of hurdles before the Nobel Foundation could be established and the first prizes awarded. The First Nobel Prizes On the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobels death, December 10, 1901, the first set of Nobel Prizes were awarded. Chemistry: Jacobus H. vant HoffPhysics: Wilhelm C. Rà ¶ntgenPhysiology or Medicine: Emil A. von BehringLiterature: Rene F. A. Sully PrudhommePeace: Jean H. Dunant and Frà ©dà ©ric Passy * As quoted in W. Odelberg (ed.), Nobel: The Man His Prizes (New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1972) 12. Bibliography Axelrod, Alan and Charles Phillips. What Everyone Should Know About the 20th Century. Holbrook, Massachusetts: Adams Media Corporation, 1998. Odelberg, W. (ed.). Nobel: The Man His Prizes. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1972. Official Website of the Nobel Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2000 from the World Wide Web: nobel.se