Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
339 Nacoochee Drive, Rabun Gap, GA 30568
Phone: (706) 746.7467 ext. 204 --- FAX: (706) 746. 2145 E-mail: sreimer@rabungap.org
Course Request for grade 12 2008-2009 School Year
Print this form and fill in your course preferences. Refer to the list of Course Offerings for the 08-09 school year on the second page of this document. You may find course descriptions in the online Curriculum Guide. Not all courses are offered every year, and some courses may not be scheduled because of an insufficient number of requests. Department Chair approval for AP and Honors courses may be obtained at registration or during the first week of school. Mail or fax your completed form to the registrar at the above address or fax number.
Name:		Grade level:		Year of Graduation:
ENGLISH AP English Literature (grade 12) o						Dept. Chair approval is required for Honors and AP Courses
English Electives List first and second elective choices for both semesters.	Semester 1		Semester 2				Honors	AP
	1.		1.				o	N/A
	2.		2.				o
MATH (4 units required)							o	o
HISTORY (3 units required)							o	o
SCIENCE (3 units required of a “lab” science)							o	o
WORLD LANGUAGE (3 units required)							o	o
BIBLE (1 unit required)	Semester 1 -- Old Testament Survey o Semester 2 -- New Testament Survey o (Old Testament Survey is a pre-requisite for New Testament Survey)
HEALTH (0.5 units)	Health is a one-semester independent study course Semester 1 o or Semester 2 o
PE	PE/Sports requirement may only be met by participation in 2 seasons chosen from the following: an interscholastic team, One Act play, Cirque, Outdoor Program, BFS and the Farm show team. Students can fulfill the PE requirement by receiving credit in Basic Kinesiology, a one semester course
Choose three Fine Arts and/or electives in order of preference. One may be a study hall.
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2.
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Comments:
Student’s signature					Parent's signature

1/17/08

COURSE OFFERINGS FOR 2008-2009

UPPER SCHOOL CURRICULUM

ENGLISH English I English I Honors English II English II Honors American Literature (full-year, grade 11) AP Language & Composition (grade 11) AP Literature & Composition (grade 12) (replaces Senior Semester Courses; does not fill American Literature graduation requirement.) Senior Semester-long Course Offerings Fall Semester -Contemporary Literature I -Modern World Literature I -Multi-Cultural Literature Spring Semester -British Literature -Contemporary Literature II -Modern World Literature II Electives Publications (gr. 9-12) Yearbook	HISTORY Grade 9: Ancient & Medieval World History Ancient & Medieval World History Honors Gr. 10: Modern World History Modern World History Honors Gr. 11-12: United States History AP United States History AP Modern European History AP American Government Electives: 1 semester courses Government (gr. 11-12) Economics (gr. 11-12)
	RELIGIOUS STUDIES 0.5 unit of each required for graduation. Old Testament Survey (gr. 9-12) (semester 1 only) New Testament Survey (gr. 9-12) (semester 2 only)
MATH Algebra I Algebra IB Algebra I Honors Geometry Geometry Honors Algebra II Algebra II/Trig. Algebra II /Trig. Honors Algebra III Pre Calculus Calculus AB Calculus BC Statistics	World Languages French I, II/H, III/H, IV, AP French Language Spanish I, II/H, III/H, IV/H, AP Spanish Language Latin III
	ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE ESL II ESL Reading Lab
SCIENCE Concepts of Physical Science (gr. 9) Biology (gr. 10-12) Biology Honors (gr. 10-12) AP Biology (gr. 11-12) Chemistry (gr. 10-12) Chemistry Honors (gr. 10-12) AP Chemistry (gr. 11-12) AP Environmental Science (gr. 11-12) Physics/Physics Honors/AP Physics (gr. 11-12) AP Psychology (gr. 11-12) (does not count as a lab class)	FINE ARTS Art I Art II Art III AP Studio Art AP Art History Upper School Chorus Gap Singers (by audition only) Wind Ensemble Orchestra Music Technology Midi Dance I Dance II Gap Dancers (by audition only) Performance I Performance II Gap Players (by audition only) Stagecraft Industrial Arts Technology Engineering & Architectural Drawing (CAD) General Shop (Wood and Metal)
OTHER OFFERINGS 0.5 unit of Health is required. Health is an independent study course. 0.5 unit of PE/Sports is required. PE/Sports requirement may only be met by participation in 2 seasons chosen from the following: an interscholastic team, One Act play, Cirque, Outdoor Program, BFS, or the Farm show team. Students can fulfill the PE requirement by receiving credit in Basic Kinesiology, a one semester course. Semester long courses March 2008

Department Chairs must sign for Honors and AP courses.
English: Mr. Landis Fine Arts: Mrs. Manoogian	History: Dr. Truslow Math: Mrs. Anderson	Science: Mr. Brigham World Languages: Mr. Hopkins

All courses may not be available every year.

Courses may be canceled due to scheduling conflicts, or because of low enrollment numbers.

Senior English Electives

Full Year Course

Advanced Placement Literature & Composition (gr. 12 only)

The Advanced Placement Literature and Composition course provides seniors with the opportunity to pursue college-level English while still in high school and to receive advanced placement and/or credit upon entering college. This course is designed to prepare students for the CEEB Advanced Placement Literature Examination given in May to students nationwide. This course follows a unique curriculum designed to fit the needs and interests of those students who are take the course. Writing assignments are frequent and a significant amount of literature from a wide range of literary periods is studied. Major tests and examinations in this course are designed to model the Advanced Placement Examination format. Prerequisites: American Literature I (to 1665) or American Literature II (from 1914), recommendation of second semester teacher, appropriate verbal SAT score, and an A average. Note: This course takes the place of two semester-long courses. (Full year course, 1 unit of credit)

Semester-long Courses

Semester 1

Contemporary Literature: Defining Nonfiction I

With the new millennium came the renaissance of nonfiction writing. Memoir, biography, blogging, and essays have surged upon the scene to a newly appreciative audience, eager for good writing coupled with hard facts. However, as James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces manifests, nonfiction can be more fiction than non. This course will examine the role and influence of nonfiction writing on literature, news, academia, and our lives. Students will examine the process of writing nonfiction and how it differs from writing fiction. Course texts include poetry, novels, essays, biographies, memoir, creative nonfiction, science writing, and news pieces. Students will have the opportunity to read and critique nonfiction as well as write their own, from academic essays to personal narratives to real world writing. Students in this class will contribute articles to the school newspaper and community newspaper, as well as the literary anthology. Students will also write a book review of the year’s top new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students will have a chance to research aspects of nonfiction writing, such as the surge of online writing, speech-writing and spin, the endless market for self-help books, etc. Assignments will include analytical essays, book reviews, news articles, a short memoir or biography, poetry, and a research paper.

Multicultural Literature: Issues of Race, Culture and Identity

This course will examine twentieth century multi-ethnic and cultural literature from around the world with a particular focus on North America, Latin America, and Africa. Authors will include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Alan Paton, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, N. Scott Momaday, and Alberto Alavaro Rios. Students will read and analyze a selection of novels, short stories, and poetry, with the intent of developing a better understanding of how these specific works thematically illustrate the clashing cultural, racial, and ethnic struggles of society. Students in this class will be encouraged to participate actively and to reflect thoughtfully and carefully upon their reading, as they explore questions about race, culture, and ethnicity. (One semester course, 0.5 unit of credit)

World Literature I: Discovering Magical Realism in the Twentieth Century

Although magical realism began with perspectives in art, this course will explore its development in literary treatments of reality. From doubts about cause and effect, real and unreal, normal and abnormal, many writers, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Esquivel and Franz Kafka, used ordinary plots and characters to illustrate that there is magic in reality. The course will begin by reading Kafka’s Metamorphosis, establishing boundaries between magical realism and science fiction. We will then examine texts from the literature of South America, to understand the ways in which Caribbean folklore have become joint partners with reality to form the unyielding “home” of magical realism. We will conclude our study with samples of stories from European, Asian, and Native American authors evaluating the respective themes concerning reality and observing the deconstruction of familiar norms—understanding that reality happens, sometimes playfully, sometimes unexpectedly, and often extraordinarily. (One semester course, 0.5 unit of credit)

Semester-long Courses

Semester 2

British Literature: Individualism and The New World

This survey course will focus on the rise of individualism beginning with the Renaissance, moving through the Neo-classical authors and the early Romantics to finally arrive in the Modern World. To understand the development of the language and early poetic traditions, we will examine a selection of texts including Beowulf, Shakespeare’s sonnets, Spencer’s The Faerie Queen and Milton’s Paradise Lost. We will then turn our attention to the neo-classical attitudes towards common sense and virtue, reading Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and selections from the works of Pope and Johnson. Finally, we will explore the Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. In response to these works, we will discuss modern notions of individuality paying close attention to the attitudes exhibited in their work as they relate to those of the earlier ages. The end of the course will examine one novel of choice and various texts from twentieth century British authors like Elliot, Conrad, or Woolf. (One semester course, 0.5 unit of credit)

Contemporary Literature: Defining Nonfiction II

This English class will examine the role and influence of nonfiction writing on literature, news, academia, and our lives. Students will examine the process of writing nonfiction and how it differs from writing fiction. Course texts include essays, biographies, memoir, creative nonfiction, science writing, news pieces, and poetry. Students will have the opportunity to read and critique nonfiction as well as write their own, from academic essays to personal narratives to real-world writing. Students in this class will contribute articles to the school newspaper and community newspaper, as well as the literary anthology. A particular focus of this second semester class will be the role of contemporary poetry, writing about poetry, and poetry’s place in the genre of nonfiction. Students will also write a book review issue that will focus on "books for summer fun." Students will also have a chance to research aspects of nonfiction writing, such as the surge of online writing, speech-writing and spin, the endless market for self-help books, etc. Assignments will include analytical essays, book reviews, news articles, a short memoir or biography, poetry, and a research paper.

World Literature II: Art and the Struggle for Meaning

Nineteenth century Russia produced a brilliant galaxy of notable masterpieces in the fields of literature, music, and art. It was an age both of imperial magnificence and rapid social development, motivating writers and artists to question the very nature of human existence in search of a constant moral and social truth. Consequently, there is a great deal that we can learn about ourselves from a careful examination of the works produced by authors from this period. In this course, students will be introduced to a selection of works by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and others. Their efforts will be focused on gaining a better understanding of three major themes: the complexity of moral dilemmas, the development of both a national and personal psychology, and the inevitable correlation between art and life. (One semester course, 0.5 unit of credit)

Graduation Requirements

Core Courses
*English	4 Credits (I, II, American Lit., 1 credit of Senior Electives)
*Mathematics	4 Credits
*Science	3 Credits of “lab” science (entering 9^th graders will take Concepts of Physical Science, Biology, and 1 credit from either Chemistry or Physics)
*History	3 Credits (entering 9^th graders will take Ancient & Medieval World History, Modern World History, and United States History)
*World Language	3 credits (the same language)
Physical Education	0.5 credit (see #5 below)
Health	0.5 credit (Health is a required “Pass/Fail” independent study course)
Fine Arts	1 credit
Bible	1 credit
Senior Symposium (optional)	0.5 credit

 Senior Symposium

Students are encouraged to undertake a symposium project to broaden their horizons and to enhance their college admission profile. Some successful college essays have focused upon a student’s symposium experiences. If a student completes the bulk of the project during the summer before senior year, symposium has the potential to be a shining addition to the college portfolio. The college counselor is happy to consult with any students considering this option.

*For Georgia residents, only the grades earned in the courses indicated above (*) will be counted in the calculation of the grade point average for HOPE Scholarship eligibility. Please address any questions you may have concerning the HOPE Scholarships to our College Counselor. The Hope Scholarship website is www.gsfc.org.

Qualifications for the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School Diploma

To receive a diploma from Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, students must complete the requirements listed below. The Assistant Head of School must approve any exception in conjunction with the Head of School.

1. Earn credit in core courses required for graduation.

When a student is admitted to RGNS, transfer credits will be accepted without further validation if an institution accredited by a regional or state accrediting agency has granted credit. A student who wishes to take courses during the summer must obtain prior approval from the Assistant Head of School. As a rule, core requirements must be completed at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. Credit will be awarded only if the courses are taken at an institution accredited by a regional or state agency. In some cases, a student may be required to complete successfully an equivalency examination in a particular subject. Permission to take a core subject in the summer is rarely granted.

2. Enroll in a minimum of six courses, and no more than two in a single department, per year.

A student will be allowed to participate in graduation if he/she has passed all but one class in his/her senior year. A student with failures in two courses will not be allowed to participate in graduation. If a student has broken a major school rule during the last 14 days prior to graduation, he/she will not be allowed to participate or be present for graduation.

3. Demonstrate satisfactory performance in the Intersession for each year of enrollment.

4. Demonstrate satisfactory participation in the Afternoon Activity/Work Program for each year of enrollment. See page 42

5. PE/Sports requirement may only be met by participation in 2 seasons chosen from the following: an interscholastic team, One Act play, Cirque, Outdoor Program, BFS and the Farm show team. Students can fulfill the PE requirement by receiving credit in Basic Kinesiology, a one semester course.

6. Meet all financial obligations, including the payment of Library fines.

7. A RGNS diploma will only be granted when a student’s financial obligations have been met in full.

8. Must not violate RGNS policies, rules, Honor Code, or other standards of conduct or performance.