Online for the 2025-2026 School Year
Teacher: Kacie Kress
Email: bookkace@gmail.com
Note: Before submitting payment, you must complete this application and be accepted into the class: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQajW6zHBUjfmOHbFapzzjHSSIFgVC6dIXwoLFC9VqVJ_CoA/viewform?usp=sharing
You should be notified within 5 business days if you have been accepted. If I do not contact you in that time, please email me.
Course Description: Honors English Language Arts will cultivate analytical and critical reading, eloquent and skilled writing, and outside-of-the-box, creative literary thinking.
It’s no secret that the written word–from books and treatises, to songs and speeches–has changed the world. A piece of writing can spark a revolution, educate the public, or change someone’s life. We all know writing can be powerful, exciting, moving, suspenseful, enlightening, and informative (or maddening, mind-numbing, offensive, and unoriginal), but how? And why—what purpose does this work have? Why did the author write it? And how did they achieve their effect?
In our course, students will learn how to dissect, analyze, and discuss the written word… and ultimately, to craft it as well. Through literary analysis (no prior experience necessary), we’ll learn how to peel back the layers of the strategies, devices, and approaches writers take (whether they’re writing a news story, a play, or a novel) that make you laugh, cry, or throw the book across the room.
We’ll learn how to explain and analyze, with depth and complexity, an author’s goal and how to debate whether they have achieved it or failed to. And, through essay writing, discussion posts/class discussions, peer critiquing, personal narratives, persuasive writing, storytelling, and more (for example, trying your own hand at poetry or screenwriting), you’ll learn how to do it too.
Who should apply: This course is most suitable for high-schoolers who are already fairly advanced writers and readers, but want a preliminary step before tackling the AP world.
This course might be particularly enjoyable for students who love…
- To read and write!
- Storytelling and creativity (in all its forms)
- Speaking out, sharing their passions, and delving deeper into the topics that interest them
- Being opinionated and engaging in academic, respectful debate, particularly about the “big issues” that affect our world today
- Making their own schedules and driving themselves internally to improve
- Playing with and manipulating the written word (Just think… with only 26 characters we can write poetry, persuade an audience, comfort a friend, or craft a whole new world. Language is the greatest—and cheapest—weapon, medicine, and mode of transportation we have.)
If you’ve written fan-fiction, been told you talk too much (or think too much), stayed up until sunrise reading, written texts (or emails) that seem to scroll on forever, been engrossed in the storyline of a video game, or found yourself analyzing the lyrics of your favorite song, you’ll probably thrive in this course.
This course is not the best fit for students who need remedial help with writing, reading, or grammar skills. It’s also likely not the best fit for students taking any other reading or writing heavy course (such as another English course).
What to expect:
- Lots of reading! We’ll read everything from books and poems, to screenplays and video game scripts, online articles, personal essays, and more. You’ll also read a lot of content written by yours truly (me), where I’ll discuss the things we’re learning and our assignments. I promise to do my best not to bore you; there will be lots of flexibility in choosing your own reading content from lists I provide, and plenty of variety in what we read, the era it’s from, and who wrote it. I like to focus on writing that has had an impact on the world (although, what writing hasn’t?) so that we can keep in mind that language isn’t just for entertainment or for analysis—it’s also for changing ourselves, others, and the world.
- Lots of writing! You’ll respond to questions and discussion posts, reflect on your own writing and progress, and learn to write essays not only quickly and efficiently, but also with clarity, complexity, and persuasion. We’ll also write stories, poems, and narratives, with flexibility in topic (what interests you?) and room for expansive creativity–because I’m a strong believer that writing is (or at least, should be) fun.
- Editing! Through peer critiquing, editing, and commenting on each other’s work, you’ll get better at analyzing and editing your own work. We’ll learn how to plan out and implement broad revisions—e.g. restructuring an essay or tweaking the plot of a story—as well as copy edits, such as finding grammatical errors. You’ll do a lot of revising and rewriting of your own work as well; we’ll learn how to take a piece through a couple of iterations until it becomes the best version of itself.
- Challenging yourself. Our readings will explore thought-provoking topics and we’ll also consider the context of what we read. When was it written, by whom, and why? Was it edgy or innovative for its time? Did it have an effect on society? You’ll be tasked with thinking deeply and sharing your thoughts in the context of lively intellectual discussion.
- Friendly debate. We will learn persuasive writing, how to academically share our own opinions (or even craft them so that it seems like no opinions are involved!), and how to create an argument based on evidence, ethics, and empathy. To do so, we’ll also engage in class discussions—and likelihood has it, we’re going to disagree with each other! But disagreement is not only avoidable, it’s also the crux of connection. When we start with where we disagree—and approach each other with respect and an open mind—we can almost always back track to what we have in common.
- Independence. While I’ll be teaching you and we will have plenty of deadlines, you’ll be learning from (and with) each other, choosing a lot of your own readings (within course parameters), forming book clubs, analyzing materials together, making your own schedule, and diving into your unique passions.
- A solid time commitment. This course is probably best for 9th and 10th graders who intend to take AP Literature or AP Language/Composition after this course. You can expect to do about 5-10 hours of work per week. The course is asynchronous, so you’re free to make your own schedule. Students are also welcome to reach out to me if there’s scheduling issues, travel/family/extracurricular demands, illness, etc.—I am flexible and willing to modify deadlines, workload, etc. so long as students are communicative, honest, and respectful.
Summer reading:
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- A short PDF with some preliminary materials that will be sent to you upon acceptance
Required texts/materials: TK
If any student has financial difficulties and is struggling to afford the texts, please reach out to me and we can find a solution.
Registration deadline: Applications will be accepted through August 10th or until the class is full.
Tech needs: Students must have full web access and a functioning word processor app (e.g. Pages, Microsoft, Google Docs, etc.). Students will need a Gmail account (free) to access Google Meet.
Course fee: $875 Early Bird / $900 After July 1
Audit fee: $375 (No deadline; students may join at any point in the year and participate in all parts of the course except instructor feedback, grades, and credit.)
Length of course: Monday, Sept. 1, 2025 to Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Breaks: No assignments will be due on U.S. National Holidays. Students will also have one week off for fall break, a few days off for Thanksgiving, around 2.5 weeks over late December-New Years, and one week for Spring break.
Instructor:
Kacie Faith Kress graduated summa cum laude from Lesley University with a BA in Liberal Studies, focusing in Literary Arts. In 2024, she earned a Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University. Born and raised in East Tennessee, she currently lives (mostly) in Chicago and works as a freelance investigative journalist for outlets from Cosmopolitan to The Chicago Reader. She has also interned in a literary agency and is an awarded creative writer; her fiction has been recognized by Charlotte Lit, Scholastic, Writers of the Future, The Write Launch, NYT Bestselling author Brenda Drake and more.
Kacie was homeschooled from fourth grade until college; she is a proud AP Homeschoolers “alumna” who still uses the thesis statement format Ms. Inspektor taught her in high-school and remains good friends with some of her AP Homeschoolers classmates. Outside of teaching and journalism, she can be found exploring the city, writing literary fiction (novels), painting (with oils), or pestering her friends (again) to come hiking in the Smokies with her.