This course focuses primarily on literary concepts, grammar and composition. Students study literary elements such as character, setting, plot (conflict, climax, and resolution), point of view, and theme. Students read various types of literature and analyze literary elements in order to deepen their comprehension of a story, poem, or novel. In grammar, students focus on the eight parts of speech, sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation, with a view to acquiring the tools needed to become concrete writers.

Students read short stories, a novel (To Kill a Mockingbird), American and British poetry, and one of Shakespeare's best known plays, Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare is taught in a performance-based atmosphere in which scenes are acted in class and a thorough examination of the difference between scripts and other genres of writing is conducted. Students also have independent reading assignments. There is a focus on writing: creating introduction and conclusion paragraphs, a three-paragraph essay, journaling, increasing the use of vivid vocabulary and imagery in writing, as well as improving creative writing (poetry, short stories, and figurative language).