The English department at Burnaby South offers two elective options that Senior students (Grade 11 and 12) can take in addition to their core English classes. These elective courses are excellent options for students who plan to pursue post-secondary studies in the humanities, arts, business, and social sciences, because they will extend and deepen literacy, writing, and speaking skills.

 

Literary Studies 12 (formerly Literature 12)

Literary Studies 12, formerly known as English Literature 12, is a course recommended for anyone who loves literature and/or is planning on taking post-secondary English courses. Literary Studies 12 is a survey of major authors of English literature ranging from the Anglo-Saxon Period to the Twentieth Century. We will time travel back to 449 A.D. to the age of Beowulf with the aid of music, art, food and film and journey forward meeting the likes of Chaucer in the Medieval Period, Shakespeare and Donne in the early Modern Period, the wit of Pope and Swift in the Restoration Period, the Romantics Wordsworth, Keats, Byron and Shelley, the Victorian Brownings and Tennyson, and the Moderns Eliot, Yeats, and Thomas to name but a few. Students will gain an overview of the evolution of English Literature and how it intertwines and responds to historical and ideological movements through time. This course is a passport to western culture, and it is recommended to everyone who has an interest in the humanities.

 

Creative Writing 12

Creative Writing 12 is an elective course for senior students who love to write. The emphasis of the course is on further developing and honing the love you already have for writing while encouraging the development of deeply thoughtful and expressive material through the creative exploration of a variety of genres and writing styles. Through the use of ongoing personal writing portfolios, students in Creative Writing 12 will have the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of writing styles including short stories, poetry, journals, memoirs, children’s literature, one act plays, and script writing for film and television. In addition, Creative Writing 12 students are encouraged to explore adding other forms of personal creative expression to their writing through photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, music, film making and digital media.
This course is open to all interested Grade 11 and 12 students.