(One Semester) This senior course concentrates on the values and strengths evident in the works of African Americans, focusing on themes of self and identity, national identity, gender issues, racial equality, and racial harmony through various literary texts. While reading texts such as Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Autobiography of Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson, students acquire a sense of the African American experience through a historical perspective and understand diversity and multiplicity within African American culture and write a series of critical essays on these works and topics.

(Full Year) In this full-year course, approved juniors partake in a close study of prose writing from a variety of genres, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts, which provides them with the opportunity to become skilled writers themselves who can compose cohesively and effectively. The course examines the conventions and resources of language in the successful composing process. Students explore these concepts through a study of primarily American texts including classics Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Great Gatsby. Students must apply for admission to this course, and accepted students are required to take the Advanced Placement exam.

(Full Year) In this full-year course, approved seniors closely study a select number of literary works from several genres and literary periods, including classics like Hamlet by William Shakespeare, world literature like Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and more modern texts like The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The course examines the artistry and multi-level meaning of imaginative literature and requires the regular production of essays, which develop the student’s own voice. Students must apply to take this course; students taking this course are required to take the Advanced Placement exam.

(One Semester) Seniors who take this one-semester course, read and study literary classics, including Beowulf, Homer’s The Iliad, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Shakespeare's Hamlet, with an eye to exploring the timeless questions of human existence and their relevance to contemporary life. This course strengthens and sharpens students' skills at critical reading, discussion, and written argument in order to prepare them for college.

(One Semester) Fiction Writing at Gonzaga, a senior course, primarily asks students to produce their own creative short stories. Each story will focus on a specific element of fiction writing (plot development, character development, dialogue, point of view). In addition to their written work, students will read and study authors who provide excellent examples of good fiction. Students will also engage in a peer-editing workshop for each student-produced story. They will work with their classmates to help identify areas of success and growth in each work. Students will produce ‘micro fiction’ (3-5 pages each) as part of writing exercises and attempt at one concerted, major work of short fiction (approximately 10-12 pages).

(One Semester) This senior course invites students to begin, explore, and refine their talents in writing poetry. The course hopes to deepen the student's insights, to sharpen his usage of language, and to help him discover his own voice and grow in the awareness of the beauties of our language. Students will read a selection of modern American poets and reflect on the public role of poets in American life, write poetry in their own distinctive voice, engage in the workshop process with a small group of students, and produce a portfolio of 12-15 poems addressing a variety of topics, emphases, and forms.

(One Semester) Seniors in this course analyze dystopian novels, including 1984 by George Orwell, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and evaluate facets of the dystopian worlds within the historical, political, and/or social context of the time periods in which these novels are written. Students are challenged to evaluate how language creates an alternate world and to compare that to how visual representations in film recreate the author’s vision.  Students are challenged to recognize and analyze the impact of dystopian literature in popular culture, specifically in the popular subgenre of post-apocalyptic literature.

(One Semester) All seniors not taking AP Literature and Composition take this fall course. World Literature invites students into stories, people, and places far different from the ones they have known. In World Literature, our students meet “the other.” We hope this course is a school of understanding and empathy. World Literature immerses our students in places where the language, history, religion, and assumptions differ from what they have known. This immersion helps our students “...build a hopeful and just world,” as the Jesuits’ Universal Apostolic Principles desire. While reading novels that take place in marginalized communities across the world, students will also continue to refine their critical essay writing skills with a particular focus on research, adding literary criticism to their essays.

(Full Year) This course shares the materials and objectives of English I with some supplementary materials. Honors English students can expect to read three additional major works, write essays with greater frequency, and find that their work is held to a higher standard of proficiency. Departmental approval, which judges students to be highly motivated and skilled, is required.

(Full Year) This course shares the objectives as well as many of the materials and topics of English II mentioned above. This course includes some supplementary texts, organized and explored through the lens about the British literary tradition in the fall and the tradition of global voices in literature in the spring. Compared to their peers in English II, Honors English students can expect to do more work and find that work held to a higher standard of proficiency. Departmental approval, which judges students to be highly motivated and skilled, is required.

(One Semester) In addition to his other required English classes, a senior with a "B" average or better in English may submit a proposal to the English department chair to take a one-semester, independent class under the supervision of a member of the department. Approval is given on a one-semester basis. The ITE student meets frequently with his tutor for assistance in achieving the objectives of his own program. Independent Tutorial in English (ITE) is open only to students who have shown an interest and talent in English. At the end of the semester, students present and defend findings of their ITE in an oral exam before a panel of English teachers.

(One semester, spring) This senior course focuses on traditional and modern Irish literature through an interdisciplinary survey of Irish history and culture as an avenue to literary analysis.  It covers the history of the genre and then delves into themes, rhetoric, and methods of writing. To that end, students engage in habits of mind related to contextualization of traditional and modern style literature, openness to new genres, and gathering of data related to this genre. In addition to looking at historical Irish verse and short stories, students will engage with more modern texts like Dubliners by James Joyce and Brooklyn by Colm Toíbín.

(One Semester) This spring semester senior course provides an overview of journalism principles, practices, and writing. Students identify what characteristics make something newsworthy and help create and find news to write about in the school and local community. Students practice beat reporting, feature writing, sports writing, and writing for the web and social media. Students learn to work alone and in teams to conduct interviews, find sources, and prepare news leads, news stories, and profiles. They demonstrate their ability to write and edit balanced, accurate journalistic stories on deadline. Students receive visits from a number of guest speakers in a variety of journalism fields, research journalism history, and publish their best writing on a class website shared with the school community using a Wordpress website platform.

(One Semester) The Modernist era happens in one of the most important times in the world's history. Situated between the two world wars, people were forced to deal with the ramifications of modern warfare--the fact that so many lives could be ended without a person being anywhere near the target. This mass devastation forced writers to reckon with extraordinary loss via remarkable art. By following Ezra Pound's edict to "make it new," the Modernists began to experiment with the novel form in ways that persist into our current era. In this senior course, students wrestle with structure and themes in these difficult texts, including Their Eyes Are Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Students are required to draw fine distinctions among the works while still recognizing common thematic cores and trends and evaluating how these works are uniquely influenced by their historical and cultural framework. Students are required to incorporate research into their writing.

(One Semester) In this senior course, students use J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series as a tool for looking more closely at Joseph Campbell’s theory of the monomyth, as well as the function of ancient allusions in contemporary texts. Students have the freedom to conduct their own research into ancient myths, European folklore, Christian symbolism and to consider how their areas of study add to the lore of the Wizarding World. Students write three full-length (900 words or more) essays, as well as several shorter response papers. They also participate regularly in graded discussions.

(Full Year) This elective course is not only to sharpen students’ storytelling skills, but also to show them how to present that information in a print publication and to do it all legally and ethically in a visually interesting format. Students will do every part of the process of creating a print publication monthly —creation of story ideas, interviewing, writing and editing stories, taking photos and designing artwork, and laying out the print publication.
In writing, a special emphasis will be placed on the following: mastering The Associated Press style, writing in a tighter, more concise style using active voice, using a different style for attribution of content from sources, and thinking critically about and evaluating content to fit a word count. Students in this course will also learn the arts of interviewing and research. Students will evaluate news and current events to foster a sense of curiosity and awareness of the world and to evaluate news for bias/fairness. Guest speakers will be invited to share their perspectives on journalism and to discuss the research, interviewing, and writing processes with students.

(One Semester) In this senior course, students explore William Shakespeare’s sonnets, a history, a tragedy, and comedy.  Students watch adaptations of Shakespeare in film and perform some of the bard’s works to show a deeper understanding of his characters and texts. Additionally, students write essays, incorporating research, as well as several shorter response papers. They also participate regularly in graded discussions.

(One Semester) This senior course allows students to explore the genre of the short story from an analytical perspective. Students learn to analyze a story for its form and content, attending to questions of diction, voice, tone, characterization, image, mood, and theme. Emphasis is given to the question of why an author chooses the short story form given the purpose and effect of their story. In the course of the semester, students will study both classic and contemporary examples of excellence of form, and students write both analytical and creative responses to the stories assigned. Students closely read works of three authors who are excellent short story writers: Ernest Hemingway, Junot Díaz, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

(One Semester) This spring semester senior course invites students into the stories of women written by women in order to develop their understanding of perspectives different from their own. The goal of the course is to broaden students’ consideration
and analysis of women, historically, socially, and mentally. The course investigates how a variety of women authors both respond to and reshape a tradition of literature that has typically been gendered as masculine.