Course Description: Foundations of English and English I Foundations of English is a course designed to allow students to have an extra semester to cover the basics of higher level literature comprehension and writing skills before entering English I in the second semester of their Freshman year. The course contains a critical and analytical overview of all literary genres, which include fiction (novels, short stories, folk tales, and drama), non-fiction (essays, speeches, articles, and other), and poetry. Another main focus of the course is grammar, including parts of speech, sentence structure, recognizing grammatical error, and constructing grammatically correct and effective sentences. To combine the skills of literary analysis and effective grammar, students will often be asked to express their thoughts in written form. Because the class takes place over the course of two semesters, students will be given more time to master these concepts than in a traditional Freshman English course.