The Oxford Comma
Who are you as a reader? Who are you as a writer?
This full-year English course encourages curiosity, creativity, and metacognition (“thinking about thinking”). We want you to develop your identity as a reader, and to establish your own strong, confident voice as a writer. We believe that language and literature are tools of empowerment.
Language: What choices, or “moves,” do writers make, and why? Each week we will zero in on one aspect of language. Using a variety of short mentor texts, students will discuss and re-write passages to gain confidence in their writing. Over the course of the year we will thoroughly cover grammar and parts of speech, but we will also ask questions like:
When is slang okay in writing? In speech? How do you decide?
What is the difference between “sophisticated” and “pretentious”? How do you, as a writer, decide to use more or less “sophisticated” language, and what’s behind that word, “sophisticated”? Can you find examples to illustrate your point?
When does an author’s choice to write in dialect enrich a story, and when is it condescending to inviduals or groups who speak non-standard English?
What is “standard English” anyway? Who decides?
What is “the singular ‘they’,” and why is it controversial?
Explicate this stuffy, oppressive passage. What’s the grammar doing here? What choices are made about diction? Translate it into your own “everyday” language, and reflect on the difference.
What is the Oxford comma?
Literature: Students self-select their own books and meet once a week either in small groups or 1:1 with a facilitator. Avid readers might read a book a week; reluctant readers a book a month. This is fine! All readers will receive guidance and feedback in their reading but there is no pressure to read a particular book or to stay at the same pace as the rest of the group. Instruction is individualized.
Prerequisites: None
Instructors: Michael Mayo and Laura Fokkena
DETAILS:
Suggested age range: 13+
Outside work: Students will experiment with language during short in-class assignments. Students who elect to take the class for a grade will have a choice of longer out-of-class writing assignments in a variety of genres. There are no essays.
Materials: Please purchase Sentence Diagramming Beginning Workbook and Sentence Diagramming Level 1 Workbook, both by Angela Carter. Students should also purchase or borrow The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
When & where: Tuesdays on Zoom from 11:00-12:00 Eastern Time + 1:1 meetings at times TBA. 1st trimester: Sept. 3 - Nov. 19, 2024. 2nd trimester: Jan. 7 - Mar. 25, 2025. 3rd trimester: Apr. 8 - June 24, 2025.
Fee: $750 ungraded/$900 graded for the full year; this includes a non-refundable registration fee of $10. Payment due in three installments ($200 per term). We offer discounts for groups, siblings, and students who enroll in multiple classes. (Discount information.) Payment plans available. Fees waived for families with financial need. (Waivers and payment plan information.) Questions about how classes work? Read our course FAQ.
Photo credit: Laura Fokkena