English

Freshman Seminar is a one-semester course designed to prepare all students for success in their freshmen year and beyond.In a workshop environment, students will learn the following concepts and skills:

• Organizing their iPads, taking effective notes, applying effective study habits
• Speaking effectively -- both interpersonally and in public speaking -- and creating high-quality PowerPoint presentations to support projects and speeches
• Conducting research using print sources, Roger Bacon's databases, and other electronic media
• Practicing appropriate email protocols and developing social media awareness

This course seeks to improve the writing skills of the students, especially incomplete compositions. It is a thorough introduction to the genres of literature, with emphasis first semester on the mythology of ancient cultures. It is an introduction to literary criticism dealing with figurative language, themes, motifs, and style. Finally, it is designed to increase the student’s vocabulary with words of moderate difficulty.

This course will enable students to improve their reading comprehension on many levels. Students will be encouraged to seek a personal engagement with a variety of literary texts. They will write about their responses to literature as well as their own experiences. The course will include a review of parts of speech, rules of grammar, and punctuation. The course is also designed to increase a student’s vocabulary with words of moderate difficulty.

This course introduces a variety of literary genres, with an emphasis on reading comprehension and an exploration of figurative language and themes. This course reinforces the elements of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure in a variety of writing assignments. Students will also develop vocabulary and spelling skills.

This is a survey course that engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose and poetry written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts. As students work to become skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes, their writing will make them more aware of the interactions among the writer’s purpose, subjects, and audience expectations. The student will conduct literary research, acquire challenging vocabulary, and refine grammar to support writing.

With the purpose to improve reading comprehension skills, the students will continue an examination of various genres of literature and informational text from many different countries. This course is designed to build on the rules of grammar and punctuation that were introduced during English 9 and examine writing conventions at a more complex and in-depth level. These skills will enhance the student’s written expression an all areas: narrative, argumentative, and expository. The course will also increase the student’s vocabulary with words of moderate difficulty.

This course introduces a variety of literary genres from many countries with an emphasis on reading comprehension and an exploration of main ideas, themes, and figurative language. Elements of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure are reinforced in a variety of writing assignments. Students will also expand vocabulary and improve spelling skills.

The AP^® Language and Composition Course is designed to help students develop skills in critical thinking, critical reading of a variety of texts, and writing for a variety of purposes. Students will study and practice the craft of writing, focusing much of their time on informational texts including letters, speeches, articles, political cartoons, and advertisements. This course will focus on American Literature 1750-present day and will dovetail with the content covered in the AP^® US History course. The course is intended to prepare students for success not only at the collegiate level but also as lifelong learners and engaged citizens in our global society. Early College Credit is available through Mount St. Joseph University.

This course presents an historical and critical approach to all forms of American literature through the study of complete and representative works by American authors found in the literature textbook. In addition to short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, students will read novels and dramas with an emphasis on expository writing, vocabulary study, and research.

A survey of various genres in American literature, the focus of this course is three-fold: to read and understand the literature as it relates to the historical period, to refine grammar and writing skills, and to increase vocabulary.

The AP^® English Literature and Composition course is designed to engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of British and world literature taken from multiple genres and covering the 16^th – 21^st centuries. Through the close reading of selected texts, students can deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. Students will be expected to analyze literature through discussion and both formal and informal writing.

This course is a survey of prose and poetry from the British Anglo-Saxon period through the twentieth-first century. The purpose of the course is to read and understand fiction and nonfiction as they relate to the historical time period in which they were written. In addition to readings, 300-500 word essays will be assigned. The course aims to refine the grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills of the students.

Using British literature as a foundation for continued genre study, this course continues to build reading comprehension skills. In addition, the course is designed to refine the grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills of the students.

This course may be taken for a semester or the entire year.Students may enroll more than once. It is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of publications. The class will work together to produce the Troubadour, the Roger Bacon yearbook. Publications skills will include the following: computer-assisted graphics design, writing, and desktop publishing.

Students will get a head start on the next stage of their academic or professional lives by learning more about technical writing. Students will learn to write effective proposals, memos, letters, instruction manuals, user guides, and other technical documents that are found in business, medical careers, engineering, and other professions. Students will learn to write in a concise style and will apply rigorous editing standards. This course is a must for those students who enjoy writing for the purpose of conveying information rather than for entertainment.

This course is devoted to developing the writing skills of the students in creative compositions and the study of both prose and poetry forms. In addition to exploring writing daily, students will engage in peer-editing, sharing, publishing, and critiquing.

This course is designed with two main objectives: to encourage students to write about their lives in poetic forms and to learn about “performance poetry,” thus also enhancing their public speaking confidence. Students will also learn to perform the writings of others. As options for venues, students will be encouraged to enter the Cincinnati competitions for “Louder than a Bomb,” “Poetry Slam,” and “Poetry Out Loud.” Students will also be encouraged to set up and perform as a class in “coffee-shop poetry readings.”

Formal speech gives us structure, and slang adds the spice. Learn why you “boot up” a computer. Why is a “lefty” called a “southpaw”? What do the clothes you wear have to do with “speaking off the cuff”? Has a bully ever “ridden roughshod” over you causing you to want to “put up your dukes”? Do you buy “ducktape or duct tape”? When you are at Skyline do you order “soda” or “pop”? Learn the answers to these questions and many more when you study American Slang.

Students will stroll the sylvan hills of historic Spring Grove Cemetery where sculpted angels, the graves of long-dead sweethearts, the beer barons, civil war heroes, leaders of industry, and founding mothers and fathers of Cincinnati rest. This one-semester elective is for naturalists, romantic poets, lovers of architecture and sculpture, history buffs, or people who love to be outside. Learners who enjoy field trips, group discussion, and self designed projects are welcome. NOT recommended for someone who is afraid of a CEMETERY or FUN.

Every culture celebrates its origin, history, famous people, monsters, and events. These short tales of lost loves, ghosts, knights, magic creatures, and creepy urban legends will take you on a trip around the world. You will put your creative writing skills and storytelling skills to work when you create your own folktale. This one-semester class is designed to inform, amaze, and entertain.

In this course, students will look at humorous texts from knock-knock jokes to limericks, stand-up to satire, anecdotes to essays, political cartoons to slap stick antics. We will examine how writers make us laugh through written word, visual texts, and performance. We will also compose our own jokes, stand-up comedy routines, and satirical essays.

Whether you are a reader at your church, speaking at your best friend’s wedding, or delivering a presentation at college, everyone can benefit from learning to speak before a group.Lose the public speaking jitters by taking this course which is designed with two main objectives:to encourage you to express your thoughts on a variety of topics and to increase the quality of your verbal expression.You will learn to defend a position, explain a process, persuade, demonstrate, and entertain.Learning to include anecdotes and humor to speeches will delight your audience and enhance your public speaking effectiveness.Use of presentation software and visual media to support the presentation will be learned and applied to the verbal aspects of the course.