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Grammar & Composition is a course dedicated to helping you develop your writing, reading and critical thinking skills. The focus will be on composition. The study of grammar components, texts, vocabulary, and learning skills will be organized to maximize your written and verbal communication. You will have regular opportunities to write, revise, and edit your work. Periodically, you will be required to conduct a thoughtful self-assessment of your progress as a writer, reader, and thinker.

In the fall term of this course, World Literature, we will read novels, plays, poems, and short stories from all over the world.  We will examine how literature can reveal both the similarities and differences between our culture and others and hope to expand our own worldview as well. Students will work on their college application essay, write a research paper, and produce comparative literary essays.  In the spring, we will shift into Film as Literature, and students will explore an overview of American film history from the birth of film in the 19^th century through the Golden Age of Hollywood, from the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s through our current digital revolution. Students will write a research paper, but also engage in various creative projects, including a short screenplay and short silent film.

Fiorello H. LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts
Joshua Bar-Lev