Havergal's Uncalendar, 2021-22 Academic Year

GRADE 12 ENG4U – English, Grade 12, University Preparation 1 CREDIT

human life, reveals universal truths and allows us to step into other people’s shoes and see the world from another person’s perspective. Current research from the University of Toronto demonstrates that exposure to literature not only helps us to deal with uncertainty, ambiguity and the unknown in our daily lives, but it also opens our minds and improves our creativity. This course is for people who like discussing literature as well as those who prefer to reflect on it and write about it quietly. It is also suitable for those who love to read as well as those who want to improve their reading skills and knowledge of Western literature. Did you know that some police forces, law departments and medical schools give their students required literary reading lists in order to learn empathy for their clients? If you are looking for a liberal arts course that can be applied to any university program in the arts or sciences, this is the course for you. The course offers a selection of short stories, novels, poems and plays. Student input in regard to the choice of texts is welcomed. Ready to take the plunge? Prerequisite: ENG3U – English, Grade 11, University Preparation EWC4U – The Writer’s Craft, Grade 12, University Preparation 1 CREDIT Do you want to write the great Canadian novel? Have you always wanted to ink your own superhero? Do you moan every year: Why do we have to write an essay, what about creative writing? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Writer’s Craft may be the course for you. In this class, you will write microfiction pieces, short stories, poems, reviews, scripts and creative non-fiction pieces. We will also read the most recent, most applauded publications in Canada and the world. We will form a writing community together, reading each other’s pieces, laughing over our comedies and crying with our tragic characters. We will try, each one of us, to find a creative writing we love. The highlights of the course are virtual visits from working writers; an optional class chapbook publication; an opportunity to give an online reading; and a culminating assessment to write what matters most to you, in whatever form you came to Writer’s Craft hoping to work with. Past offerings have included TV pilots, memoir pieces, poetry collections, children’s books and even a few graphic novels. Prerequisite: ENG3U – English, Grade 11, University Preparation This course is also available as an e-Learning course, EWC4Ue, with the e-Learning consortium.

“There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says: ‘Morning, boys, how’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes: ‘What the [heck] is water?’”—David Foster Wallace This anecdote from David Foster Wallace captures the essence of ENG4U, a course about learning to see the invisible water in which we swim. Mostly, we’re going to ask the question: “How?” How did that ad for laundry soap leave me in tears? How did Hamlet decide to spy on Claudius? How can novels written over a hundred years ago tell us so much about our lives and challenges today? How was T.S. Eliot able to create meaning in a poem that defies logic? How has the media contributed to the impossibility of a female U.S. president? As you can see, ENG4U explores a range of student passions. Not so interested in literature? Well, our first unit focuses not on literary study, but on the art of the profile. We’ll look at articles about the people we admire and deplore today. Planning to pursue a career in business? This course will hone your boardroom skills, helping you gain confidence in making presentations and thinking on your feet. Are you a media addict? We’re going to look closely at the social impact of media representations of gender, race and class. Do you enjoy the social sciences? We’ll use the novels, drama and poetry we read to ask a range of big cultural questions. Here’s the bottom line: we know you’ll come because you have to. We hope you’ll stay because you want to. Prerequisite: ENG3U – English, Grade 11, University Preparation ETS4U – Studies In Literature, Grade 12, University Preparation 1 CREDIT “We read to know we are not alone.”—C.S. Lewis The Booker-prize winning author Julian Barnes says: “When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.” Are you looking for a course to help you plunge deeper into life whilst also improving your reading, writing and critical thinking skills that are so important for university? Look no further! Great writers and thinkers have always been even greater readers. Writer D. H. Lawrence referred to the novel as “the bright book of life.” Literature puts ideas upside down for argumentation, shows us ways of being, helps us to navigate the big emotional moments inherent in living a

12 HAVERGAL COLLEGE | Uncalendar 2021–22