• Welcome to the Wolf Pack!
      
     Wolfpack!
     
     
    Required Courses:
     
    English I Pre-AP:  Mrs. Bohenick, Ms. Burley
     
    The aim of this course is to provide you with the necessary skills that will lead to success in the rigorous college-level Advanced Placement classroom during your junior and senior years at CVHS.  You will learn how to critically read and discuss a variety of texts (e.g., short stories, novellas, novels, non-fiction, newspaper articles, memoir, essays, speeches, film, music, art, poetry, and drama). You will learn how to write effectively in different modes (e.g., informative, persuasive, expository, creative, and analytical). The course also uses the Sadlier-Oxford vocabulary system to help you broaden your vocabulary and prepare for the SAT exam. As a humanities course, English I Pre-AP will also show you how to employ reading and writing to better understand and advocate for yourself, those around you, and the community you inhabit.
     
    English II Pre-AP: Mr. Wolf and Mr. Ostrovsky
    This course includes a study of advanced grammar, American literature— 1900, world literature selections, multicultural selections, and college-preparatory composition and research. Speaking, listening, and viewing skills are central to English studies.
     
    English III (AP Language & Composition):  Mr. Wolf, Ms. Okechi & Mr. Houghton 

    This course can earn you college-level credit for the Intro. to Composition course that is a mandatory prerequisite for all of your college courses. This course will focus on the skills necessary for your success on the AP© Collegeboard exam: English Language and Composition. This course will cover several major works of both British and American Literature spanning several genres and literary movements. In addition, students will further develop their own writing skills to address specific audiences and address critical thinking objectives. Writing assignments will include expository, analytical and argumentative works as well as comprehensive synthesis papers.  This course will prepare students for the analytical and writing demands of college courses. Students will further develop their own writing styles while achieving a variety of writing objectives. Critical thinking, self-motivation, and creativity will be paramount in the success of this course.  In addition, this course will prepare students to take and pass the AP English Language and Composition exam.


    English IV (AP Literature & Composition):  Ms. Okechi & Mr. Parker

    This is a rigorous course with quality standards established by the AP Program, the College Board, and Educational Testing Service (ETS). AP examination credit that often satisfies (and replaces) or represents a year’s college level work, although specifies may vary from college to college. British, American, and World literature of recognized literary writers from various periods and genres will be studied, discussed, and analyzed in written form. Students will write a literary analysis research paper. Speaking, listening, and viewing are taught with an emphasis on analysis. Writing will be precise and correct and should show signs of stylistic materialization characterized by: a wide-ranging vocabulary, a variety of sentence structures, logical and organized, and a balance of generalization with specific illustrative details. Some of the course writing and reading will involve research, perhaps negotiating different critics and schools of literature.
     
    Texas Performance Standards Project:  Mrs. Bohenick
     
    This course, based on the Exit Level Texas Performance Standards Project (TPSP) for gifted/talented (G/T) students, offers a non-traditional learning experience to those students who have the ability to create innovative products or performances. Students will develop a product proposal, compile a portfolio, conduct in-depth research, be matched with a mentor from the business or professional community, and prepare for a public presentation of their product or performance at the end of the school year to be evaluated by an audience that includes experts in the field. Students work with their mentor to create a product related to their topic; the product is required to have real-world application and tangible documentation. Students focus their study on a topic of their choice. They develop a research portfolio that has a collection of sources including interviews and observations with people who work in their chosen topic field. Students improve time management, communication, goal setting, and presentation skills. Students work with mentors on a regular basis to gain "real world" experience. Students give progressively longer speech presentations and will give a formal presentation of their product and yearlong experiences at the end of the year.
     
    AP Capstone Seminar:  Mrs. Schulz, Mr. Houghton
     
    AP Capstone: Research:  Ms. Schmidt
     
     
     
     
    Elective courses offered by demand:
     
     
    Creative Writing (Lit Genres): Mr Houghton

    The course will nurture and push your writing through the study of various established authors (mentor texts), books on craft, and a variety of writing activities that will break down important elements of storytelling. The aim of the course is to provide you with strategies that will hone your technique in order to help strengthen your writing voice, as well as create new types of writing.  This is a workshop-based course, meaning you will work with a small group throughout the year to help each other develop a sense of voice and style that creates engaging texts. By the end of each semester, each student will have a writing portfolio that exhibits a range in writing forms and genres covered, including but not limited to, flash fiction, novel writing, 10-minute play writing, screenwriting, memoir, various forms of poetry, and genre writing (sci-fi, mystery, dystopia, etc.). 

     Newspaper (Introductory & Advanced levels): Mr. Wolf
     
    Freshman Study Skills: Mr. Parker