English

About the Class

Section 24063, Fridays from 9 am - Noon

“Did you know that trees talk? Well they do. They talk to each other, and they’ll talk to you if you listen. Trouble is, white people don’t listen. They never learned to listen to the Indians, so I don’t suppose they’ll listen to other voices in nature.”

In this class, we will take these words of Indigenous scholar George “Tink” Tinker’s (Osage Nation) as a starting point: how can we learn to listen to Native  American Literature? We will consider a wide range of indigenous voices and genres, from ancient oral storytelling to contemporary fiction, beginning with the stories of the Tongva, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Serrano peoples, on whose homelands Moreno Valley College sits. Come ready to have your understanding of literature, history, land, and ways of life transformed by the power of Native stories and knowledge—hope to see you there! No textbook purchase! All readings and materials will be provided for you.

About the Instructor

Zander Allport is a writer and a teacher who is currently completing his PhD at U.C. Riverside in multiethnic 19th-20th century American literature with a focus on how traditional understandings of literature and history can be transformed by reading it alongside radical work in queer, Black, and Indigenous studies. He is also a tutor at the MVC Writing & Reading Center and loves working with students on their writing. When he’s not teaching or reading books, he’s most likely hanging out with friends, playing with his two cats (Myth and Moss), or trying his hand at gardening.

About the Class

Section 23532, Tuesdays from 11:10 am - 12:35 pm (Hybrid)

If you are interested in learning more about the important contributions of Latinx writers from the Americas, come join us! We will start with learning about Mesoamerican oral traditions, history of codices as well as their influence on contemporary literature by Latinx authors in the US. We will also be engaging in the intersectionality of Latinx literature and cultural influence of art, popular culture, and media! Some topics for consideration include the complexities of latinidad and the intersectionality of gender, community, class, migration, nationalisms, and social and political movements. Low-cost! Only one text will be needed and all other readings and materials will be provided for you.

About the Instructor

Emma Pacheco is an Associate Professor of English and one of the MVC Puente Program's English Coordinators. She received her B.A. at UC Riverside and her M.A. at Cal Poly Pomona. After completing her undergraduate and graduate work, she returned to the Inland Empire to continue to serve the Moreno Valley Community. During her Puente training, her educational practices were influenced by a Pedagogy of Cariño, which focuses on being “culturally responsive, student-centered with a focus on equity, access, social justice, and inclusivity.” She loves her family, traveling, hiking, and her dogs.

About the Class

Section 23534, Fridays 10:35 am - Noon, Hybrid, 8-Weeks starting April 17

If you enjoy helping others and have completed ENG 1A with either an A or B, you may be interested in taking ENG 4, Writing Tutor Training. This class will provide you with the skills to work as tutors and peer writing consultants at MVC’s Writing and Reading Center (WRC). This class is highly interactive, informative, and fun—and it often leads to a PAID position working as a tutor in the WRC (starting at $16/hr!). Working in the WRC looks great on resumes and offers you flexible shifts around your class schedules. The WRC is looking to hire students from all majors and backgrounds--not just English majors! No textbook purchase! All readings and materials will be provided for you and can lead to a paid position in the Writing Center.

About the Instructor

Melanie James is an Associate Professor of English who often teaches English 1A, English 1B, English 4 (Writing Tutor Training), and English 6 (British Literature I: Anglo Saxon through Eighteenth Century). She is also the Writing and Reading Center (WRC) Coordinator. She loves dogs, teaching, tea, and the smell of old books. 

About the Class

Section 23612, Wednesdays from 6 - 8:05 pm, 8-Weeks starting February 13

Want to tutor your favorite subject? This is a fun, interactive class that often leads to a paid position tutoring your fellow students here at MVC (in subjects other than English)!  It will build your people skills and look good on your resume!  The class meets two hours/week for 8 weeks. One unit. (If you want to tutor writing, though, sign up for English 4.)

About the Instructor

Dan Clark has many years experience tutoring and teaching students. He is interested in all subjects! 

About the Class

Section 23544, Wednesdays from 6 - 9:10 pm, Online with Regular Meetings

Love watching movies? Join us for "Introduction to Film Studies"! FST1 is a three-unit synchronous online course that provides an introduction to the formal and narrative principles of film, as well as the major critical and theoretical approaches to film studies, both historical and contemporary. From It Happened One Night (1934) to Zola (2020), this course focuses primarily on the history and style of American cinema. We will consider how international cinemas, especially Russian, Italian, and French, have influenced various American filmic movements and styles. Major points of study will include genres (including noir and the musical), important directors, and learning the major film elements.

About the Instructor

Valarie Zapata is a Puente coordinator and teaches English and Film Studies at MVC. She's been at our college for the past 17 years. Her fields of interest include: Latinx literature, LGBTQ+ literature & studies, Black and Brown queer literature, and film studies.

About the Class

Section 23533, Thursdays from 8 - 9:25 am, Hybrid

“So Matilda's strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.” (Roald Dahl, Matilda).

What makes a person a lifelong reader? Are you interested in working with children or just love children’s stories! Come join us as we take a deep dive and analyze the importance of multicultural and multilingual representation in children’s literature. We will be doing hands-on activities to make children’s books, as well as examine the history of fairy tales, fables, picture books, novels, comics, visual media stories, and the rise of the graphic novel. All readings and materials will be provided for you.

About the Instructor

Emma Pacheco is an Associate Professor of English and one of the MVC Puente Program’s English Coordinators at MVC. She received her B.A. at UC Riverside and her M.A. at Cal Poly Pomona. After completing her undergraduate and graduate work, she returned to the Inland Empire to continue to serve the Moreno Valley Community. During her Puente training, her educational practices were influenced by a Pedagogy of Cariño, which focuses on being “culturally responsive, student-centered with a focus on equity, access, social justice, and inclusivity.” She loves her family, traveling, hiking, and her dogs. 

About the Class

Section 23535, Wednesdays from 2 - 5:10 pm

Travel the World without leaving Moreno Valley! Take your head to places it has never been:

• To Mexico, in the passionate poetry of Sor Juana, the rebellious nun.
• To Vietnam, for the twisted love story that is a national epic.
• To Russia, where we’ll get lost in the snow with Tolstoy’s Master and Man.
• Into the fevered, dissolute brains of the French Symbolist poets. 
• Into the nightmares of Franz Kafka.
• To the children growing up too fast in old Tokyo’s red-light district.
• To South America for an explosion of 20th century poetry.
• To fascist Europe, where your neighbor may turn into a rhinoceros at any moment.
• Back to Mexico, where violence and passion never die in a village of the dead.
• To postcolonial Africa and India, where young wives go mad.

About the Instructor

Dan Clark got his degrees in English and Comparative Literature from Colorado State University, Indiana University, and UC Davis. 

He believes reading for pleasure is like trying out a new cuisine at a fine restaurant.  You wouldn’t speed read a good book anymore than you would gulp down a fine meal just for the calorie intake! Take your time! Lots of weird new tastes on the menu, but go ahead, take a bite, savor the flavors, and order some wine, of course.   

Dr. Dan likes to spend as much time outside as possible.  Nothing better than a bike ride to a shady spot with a view, then a nap and a couple of hours reading.  Back at the house, there are family, more books, and a guitar!

About the Class

Section 23474, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:55 - 5:20 pm

English 15 is an American Literature class that explores literatures after the Civil War. You should take this class if you want to understand the country’s diverse and contentious history and the far-reaching effects of colonization, imperialism, and slavery. We will examine fictional and non-fictional works spanning movements from Reconstruction to Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights. No textbook purchase! All readings and materials will be provided for you.

About the Instructor

Kathryn Stevenson is an Associate Professor of English at Moreno Valley College and a graduate of UC Riverside’s doctoral program in Literature. Her research areas include Critical and Cultural Theory with an emphasis on Marxism and Post-Colonial Studies, 20th Century American Literature, and Sex and Gender Studies. She enjoys playing guitar, all kinds of writing (including songwriting), and road trips, especially to the ocean or river. 

About the Class

Section 23537, Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:10 am - 12:35 pm

If you enjoy reading literature that deals with themes of power, revenge, love, ambition, and betrayal—then English 9 is the course for you! English 9 is a survey course that offers an introduction to the works written by William Shakespeare. We will be reading and discussing several of his major plays and some sonnets! We will be approaching his texts through a psychological, feminist, and historical lens to gain a better understanding as to why his works are still considered relevant today. We will spend a great deal of time making critical connections to current themes and issues and have discussions about the conditions of the Early Modern world from which Shakespeare’s works emerged and the relation to our contemporary present. Just one book that has all his works for one low cost.

About the Instructor

Johnina Grozav is an English Professor at Moreno Valley College and a graduate of UC Riverside and Claremont Graduate University. Her research and area of interest is British Literature with a focus in Early Modern Studies. You can often find her tutoring in the Writing and Reading Center (WRC) if she is not teaching. She loves to read in her spare time, spend time with friends and family, and considers herself a high-key coffee addict. 

About the Class

Section 23536, Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:35 - 11 am

This course provides a survey of British literature from 1800 to the present (“British” here refers to literature written in English by authors from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and former British colonies, excluding the United States), including a comprehensive exposure to the poetry, drama, and fiction of this era as well as a basic understanding of the cultural, intellectual, and artistic trends it embodies. Beyond this, however, the course aims to give students a general familiarity with writers and texts that have contributed to–and at times disrupted– British literary culture over the past two centuries.  It's an especially good class for anyone planning to major in English, history, psychology, or philosophy, but even if your major isn't included in this list, don't despair: all that's needed is a curiosity about the literature of this period, from these cultures. Hope to see you soon!

English 1A

• English 1A is a 4-unit English Composition class that fulfills the college writing requirement.
• Every student has the right to enroll directly into English 1A without the extra units of English 91.
• Expect interactive instruction and activities related to reading and writing.
• Expect feedback from instructors.
• Expect access to additional support such as embedded tutors, office hours, the Learning Center, and the Writing and Reading Center.

English 1A+91

• English 1A+91 is English 1A (see description to left) and English 91, a 2-unit support course.
• English 1A+91 are linked together; to stay enrolled in one, you must stay enrolled in both.
• Even through English 1A+91 are two separate classes, it will feel like a single, 6-unit english 1A class taught by the same instructor for both classes.
• English 91 provides you with additional time in the classroom for even more feedback, guidance, and support.

• You will be placed directly into ENG-1A if: You have a high school GPA of 2.6 and above or earned EAP (Ready) or earned EAP (Conditionally Ready + ERWC with C- or higher).
• You will be placed into ENG-1A with the option of taking English 91 if: You have a high school GPA of 1.9 to 2.59. However, the MVC English faculty recommend that you enroll directly into English 1A without 91.
• You will be placed into ENG-1A with the requirement of taking English 91 if: You have a high school GPA under 1.9. However, you can opt out of this requirement with a simple form that is automatically approved. The form should take 2 - 3 minutes to complete.
• You will be placed directly into ENG-1B if: You earned a 3, 4, or 5 on AP Composition & Language or you earned a 3, 4, or 5 on AP Composition & Literature.
• If you earned a GED and/or it's been 10 or more years since you attended high school, we recommend that you choose between English 1A and English 1A+91. You can discuss your options with a counselor.

Every student has the right to enroll directly into English 1A without taking English 91. If you have been placed into English 1A+91 as a recommendation, you do not need to challenge your placement and opt into English 1A. Simply enroll in English 1A as you would other classes. If you have been placed into English 1A+91 as a requirement, follow the two steps below.

• Step 1: Fill out the challenge/opt in form. The form should take 2-3 minutes to complete.
• Step 2: Submit the completed form. You'll receive confirmation on your updated placement within three business days from Counseling Services.

English Placement Challenge/Opt In Form