Students have a variety of electives from which to choose; the ones listed below were chosen by students for the 2000-2001 school year.

• Creative Writing (10-12) (one trimester) (Prerequisite:  successful completion of English 9 1/2)  This course emphasizes the writing of short stories.  Plot and character development are studied, along with other short story elements such as dialogue, description, tone and setting.  Reading and writing short stories make up the framework of the course.  Also an integral part of the course is peer critique as students share their creative products.  Publishing a class literary magazine is the culmination of the course.

• Greek and Latin Derivatives (Etymology) (10-12)  This one trimester course is designed for vocabulary building and improving verbal skills.  The selection of materials is based on the belief that the most reliable method of learning word meanings is through word elements.  The roots chosen and derivatives studied have been drawn from high school and college readings and from samples found in standardized tests. This course is particularly valuable for students who are college bound.  It is also useful for those wishing to increase verbal scores on the SAT.

• Journalism 1/2 (9-12) Beginning journalism students receive instruction in all areas of journalism needed to pursue Staff positions on either yearbook or newspaper.  Among the areas covered are interviewing, beat reporting, feature writing, news stories, layout design, advertising, journalistic ethics, and professional standards. This is not a student publications course;  it does not satisfy any of the eight required credits for English.

• Newspaper Staff (The Optimist) (10-12)  (Prerequisite:  Journalism 1/2;  would-be photographers should have taken the photography class in the Fine Arts department; entrance to the class is by application to and approval by advisor) After completing Journalism 1/2, students may apply for a staff position on the school newspaper, The Optimist.  Newspaper staff plan each issue, write and edit stories, write headlines and photo captions, lay out and paste up pages, take and process photographs, sell advertising, and manage the business aspects of newspaper production.  Students must apply for these staff positions.

• Poetry (10-12) (Prerequisite:  Sophomores must have passed 9th grade English with C or better.  Juniors/Seniors must have passed 10th or 11th grade English.  This one semester course will provide a study of poetry as a literary form.  Students will explore poetic themes and devices.  They will also write various forms of poetry.

• Yearbook Staff  (Gothic) (11-12) (Prerequisite:  Journalism 1/2;  would-be photographers should have taken the photography class in the Fine Arts department; entrance to the class is by application to and approval by advisor) The Gothic staff members write and edit copy, lay out pages, take and process photographs, check page proof, sell advertising, and manage the business aspects of yearbook production.  Students must apply for these staff positions.

• Dramatic Literature (one trimester) (Prerequisite: Drama 1-2) Dramatic Literature provides a study of plays and literary art, with particular focus on dramatic conventions which differentiate drama from other literary genres.  Drama is an oral medium meant to be seen and heard but not read; the course reflects this by providing students with ample opportunities to see live and televised productions of plays and by providing opportunities for students to stage scenes from plays. Students will be asked to present (act out) scenes from plays, write about them, as well as experience and critique community and university productions.   By watching these productions and through an extensive oral component in the classroom, students see and practice how staging a drama alters interpretation from the silent text.  Several subcategories of genre are considered, especially tragedy and comedy.  The history of drama as entertainment is also considered, including: (1) representative works of important playwrights, (2) dramatic and literary movements, and (3) developments in stagecraft and acting that alter the means of stage production and hence alter the way we interpret plays.  Students are also given opportunities to express their knowledge of course content through creative, analytical, and expository writing.

• FilM Literature (10-12) (one term) (Prerequisite: Sophomores: A or B in freshman English; juniors and seniors: A, B, or C in all English classes taken). Film Literature studies the diversified ideas and concepts that interact when written literature is adapted to film or when a work of literary art is originally conceived for film presentation.  This course includes: (1) the impact of film on the ways in which people perceive the human condition, (2) the ways in which the roles of men and women and various ethnic minorities are portrayed, (3) visual interpretations of literary techniques and auditory language effects, (4) a history of film as a medium of literary interpretation, and (5) the limitations and special capacities of the two media to present the work.  In a comprehensive speech component, students are given opportunities to present and discuss their ideas as well as opportunities to role-play as movie directors to stage scenes.  Students also have frequent writing assignments in which they explore and analyze issues of interpretation, production, and cross-genre adaptation.

• American Crime Fiction (10-12) (one term) (Prerequisite: A or B in freshman English : juniors and seniors: A, B, or C in all English classes taken) Attention readers! Take a bird's eye tour of America's dark and savage underworld through the popular fiction of the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. Walk down the mean streets of Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the years between the wars with hard-boiled detectives. les femmes fatales, gangsters, and regular people that plunge heard-first into trouble, and come out on the other side...if they're lucky. These writers are the literary grandchildren of Edgar Allan Poe...