This Freshman Bridge course is designed to bring students from middle school English Language Arts courses and better prepare them for high school level analysis and writing. Using AP style strategies for advanced analysis and writing, using source material that is more age and level appropriate, students will learn the foundations prose, poetry, and nonfiction.  Students will learn about figurative language and other literary devices through studying prose and poetry. The course will conclude with a nonfiction study, as students learn about pathos, logos, ethos, and a variety of rhetorical devices. Students will be taught how to plan, structure, and write both literary analysis and persuasive essays.

Students will begin the course with an introduction to poetry whil they begin reading the three short novels for this course. Students will read both “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass,” books that are far more than just children’s stories.  Students will learn to identify symbolism, theme, and underlying meaning as we explore the meaning of the work as a whole.  This will then be followed by reading and analyzing “Curiouser and Curiouser,” a steampunk, fractured fairy tale version of Alice in Wonderland. Through these texts, students will begin to understand the foundations of Victorian literature as well as learn to analyze novels at a higher level. Finally, the course will conclude with nonfiction analysis, as students will watch, analyze and discuss “To This Day,” (Ted Talk by Shane Koyzcan) and the Stanford Commencement Speech by Steve Jobs.

Required Texts
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” Lewis Carrol
“Through the Looking Glass” Lewis Carrol
“Curioser and Curiouser” “Melanie Karsak

Week 1
Understanding and Analyzing poetry: figurative language, symbolism, the sounds of poetry, and other literary devices.
*Writing original poetry 

Week 2
Prose and Poetry Analysis with “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through The Looking Glass”
(Introduction to Victorian literature)
*Poetry Analysis essay

Week 3
Nonfiction analysis: Rhetorical devices, pathos, logos, and ethos.
*Persuasive essay 

Week 4
Prose analysis, comparing and contrasting the original Alice with “Curiouser and Curiouser”
(Also discussed: Victorian literature and steampunk)
*Prose Analysis Essay