Group 1: English Language Arts
Every student will become proficient in their native language. For the Utica Academy for International Studies, that language will be English. Academy English Language Arts courses will focus on the same state standards for the 9th and 10th grade years, but will do so with a definitively global focus. Students will enjoy classics of western literature, but their course work will be augmented by international works from Asia, Latin America, South America, Middle Eastern, Indian and other classics of the non-western world. A broad array of texts are studied in the Academy English Language Arts courses. Course work is designed to help students appreciate the complexities of language. A specific aim is to engender a lifelong interest in literature and a love for the elegance and richness of human expression.
The IB Examination Guide explains the following:
The Language A1 programme is primarily a pre-university course in literature. It is aimed at students who intend to pursue literature, or related studies, at university, as well as at students whose formal study of literature will not continue beyond this level. The former would normally follow the Higher
Level (HL) programme and the latter the Standard Level (SL). Literature is concerned with our conceptions, interpretations and experiences of the world. The study
of literature, therefore, can be seen as a study of all the complex pursuits, anxieties, joys and fears that human beings are exposed to in the daily business of living. It enables an exploration of one of the more enduring fields of human creativity and artistic ingenuity, and provides immense opportunities for encouraging independent, original, critical and clear thinking. It also promotes a healthy respect for the imagination and a perceptive approach to the understanding and interpretation of literary works. The discussion of literature is itself an art which requires the clear expression of
ideas both orally and in writing.
The Language A1 programme encourages students to see literary works as products of art and their authors as craftsmen whose methods of production can be analysed in a variety of ways and on a number of levels. This is achieved through the emphasis placed on exploring the means used by different authors to convey their subjects in the works studied. It is further reinforced by the comparative framework emphasized for the study of these works in all parts of the programme.
The flexibility of the programme allows teachers to choose challenging works from their own sources to suit the particular needs and interests of their students. It also allows teachers to participate significantly, through the internally assessed oral component, in the overall assessment of their students.
.One of the most effective and humanizing ways that people of different cultures can have access to each others' experiences and concerns is through works of
literary merit. ~ Salma Jayyusi, The Literature of Modern Arabia
