Pre-AP English I focuses on reading, writing, and language skills that are relevant to students’ current work and essential for students’ future to future high school and college coursework. Texts take center stage, preparing students for close, critical reading and analytical writing. The course trains readers to observe small details in a text to arrive at a deeper understanding of the whole. It also trains writers to create complex sentences—building this foundational skill to navigate future sophisticated, longer-form analyses. The Pre-AP English areas of focus are vertically aligned to the practices embedded in high school and college English courses, including AP. This gives students multiple opportunities to prioritize and strengthen key literacy skills throughout their course of study with reading closely, valuing experience, and noticing language choices.