English
-
American Studies: English II/U.S. History
2 semesters, 1 credit
Prerequisite: English I and Global History
American Studies is an interdisciplinary investigation of the nation’s culture, from the earliest people on the land to contemporary society. Students read literature, historical documents, scholarly articles, and more while viewing art, photographs, and early versions of newspapers, posters, and other forms of public communication. Students write traditional academic essays but also complete inquiry-based projects aimed at independent research and share their results via discussions, debates, role-playing, and the creation of historical documents. The goal of this reading, writing, and viewing is to find connections and patterns that help define American culture.
This dual-block class meets for two blocks and fulfills the English II and United States history requirements. -
AP English Language and Composition
2 semesters, 1 credit
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio. The portfolio will include samples of the student’s work from English III. Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grade 12)
This college-level course prepares students to “write effectively and confidently in the college courses across the curriculum and their professional and personal lives.” (College Board) Students read and analyze a wide range of nonfiction texts (newspaper editorials, essays, biographies, literary criticism, travel writing, sermons) and short fiction and excerpts from longer works. Students become familiar with rhetorical strategies that make for strong, persuasive writing. Students continually revise their writing for clarity and precision. Students are required to take the Advanced Placement exam in Language and Composition. -
AP English Literature and Composition
2 semesters, 1 credit
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio with samples of the student’s work from English II. Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grade 11)This course focuses on reading, analyzing, and writing about imaginative literature (fiction, poetry, drama, criticism) from various periods. The course aligns with an introductory college-level literature and writing curriculum. Students engage in close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature written in—or translated into—English. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require students to analyze and interpret literary works. This course delineates the skills and conceptual understandings that colleges and universities typically expect students to demonstrate to receive credit for an introductory college literature course and placement into a higher-level literature course. Students are required to take the Advanced Placement exam in English Literature and Composition. -
English I
2 semesters, 1 credit
In English I, students engage in close reading, annotation, and discussion of poetry, short stories, plays, novels, and essays from across literary history to deepen students’ understanding of the human experience and to develop their critical reading and analysis skills. Over the course of the year, students improve and refine their writing skills, primarily focusing on how to build and defend an argument with textual evidence and analysis. Vocabulary and grammar lessons emerge in response to student knowledge and interests and are thus subject to change across years of instruction and individual course sections. -
English II
2 semesters, 1 creditPrerequisite: English IEnglish II studies United States literature, from Native American oral traditions to contemporary works of fiction and nonfiction. Writing at this level assumes that students have mastered the basic form and conventions of academic essays and provides practice with revisions to emphasize that point. Vocabulary and grammar lessons emerge from the reading materials and student essays, making those instructions specific to the context of the course discussions. From English II, students move on to make choices from the English elective course lists.
-
English III Seminars
2 semesters, 1 credit
Prerequisite: English II or American Studies
English III students select from a range of course offerings. Options may shift from year to year based on student interest and schedule availability.
-Classic Texts and Contemporary Retellings
This course engages students with canonical texts and related contemporary texts to practice perspective-taking and identify conversations in literature. Students will explore poems, short stories, films, and novels. The course will build on foundational reading, writing, and discussion skills and employ self-reflective and analytical writing. Students will grapple with identifying and weighing themes that recur in literature. They will create and attempt to answer essential questions about the predictive power of authors past and the choices creatives of the present make in homage or argument. Texts will include familiar and diverse contemporary discoveries. An example from the first semester includes magical realism and hauntings from Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Gilman, and Helen Oyeyemi’s White Is for Witching. Later in the year, students explore narrator perspectives with a dive into The Odyssey and Circe. We will discuss, write, and critically argue together as we study literature and ourselves.
-Pop-Culture: A Literary Exploration
Social trends in television, movies, clothing styles, and music have a tremendous influence on our daily lives. Popular literature can have an equally compelling impact. Although in academic settings we often read the “best books” of an era, we don’t always read the most popular texts. This class is a chance to look at best-selling authors through the ages and what compelled readers to gravitate toward these works.
Part of this journey includes reflecting on our own time as we explore what popular works motivate us emotionally, socially, and economically. Blockbuster films without much plot tend to fare far better at the box office than do the winners of the Cannes Film Festival; humanity is funny that way. It is important to note that as we go back in time to earlier eras, access to writing and to the education that helps to cultivate effective writers was limited by both racism and class distinctions. We will interrogate those silences through our readings and class discussion.
Students will read excerpts from Robinson Crusoe, Gone with the Wind, and Hunger Games as well as full-length texts, choosing from The Murder of Delicia, Kite Runner, Where the Crawdad Sings, Beloved, Angela’s Ashes, and On the Road. Students will watch “Mockingjay,” “Avatar,” and “Life of Pi” and keep track of top songs and best-selling novel lists throughout the year. Explorations of the works will consider their historical context and their relevance (or not) for contemporary audiences. Student assessments are based on class discussions, projects, and writing.
-Reading World Religions
Both ancient and contemporary texts are used to explore religions and spiritual philosophies from around the world. The objective is to dive into literature that sparks a curiosity to learn more about the religion that it highlights, gaining a better understanding with each layer that is peeled back and examined. Reading materials consist of selections from sacred texts such as the Koran, Bible, and Torah, in addition to the Sutras, Vedas, and Tao Te Ching. Students will examine creation myths, devotional poetry and songs, and folktales associated with pantheistic religions. Contemporary literature selections rely heavily on religion, whether philosophically or contextually. The class will explore the poetry of Rumi, Donne, and Dante, and the novels of Diamant, Mafouz, Mishima, and Hesse. Plan on hearing from guest speakers and taking field trips. Assessments will be mostly comparative literary analysis, research, and some creative writing and projects.
-Philosophy Honors
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio. The portfolio will include samples of the student’s work from English II (for rising juniors) or English III (for rising seniors). Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grades 11 & 12)
How do I live a good life? What can I know for sure? Does God, beauty, or evil exist? And really, how do I know that the earth is round and the moon is not a delicious wheel of provolone cheese? This class will engage with life’s most compelling and vexing questions by analyzing and critiquing the musings of philosophers from across the globe from antiquity to the present. Moreover, each student will interrogate, evolve, and refine their own thoughts on such questions. All the while, we will resist pat answers and conventional thinking, aware, as Slavoj Zizek reminds us, that “the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can itself be part of the problem.” The class will follow the progression of the “Western” tradition of philosophy that emerged in Ancient Greece and trace its global dissemination.
-Science, Technology, and Literature Honors
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio with samples of the student’s work from English II. Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grade 11)
In this course, students will explore the development of the sciences from the classical period to the modern day. What is “science,” and what is the purpose of scientific inquiry? How has our understanding of the known universe evolved over time? How has the relationship of science to magic and religion changed? How has our view of nature and its resources changed? Is all science “good” science? What are the potential dangers of mixing science and politics? How do science fiction and nature writing help us work through these questions? Most of all, why take a humanities-based approach to science?
The course begins with Lucretius’s On the Nature of the Universe, one of the earliest extant theories of atomism. Next is the work of Renaissance thinkers—including Francis Bacon, Margaret Cavendish, Galileo Galilei, Michel de Montaigne, and William Shakespeare—to examine the intersection of science, magic, religion, and politics during this period. The Enlightenment and the Romantic periods include reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the work of romantic poets to wrestle with ethical questions about technological advancement, industrialization, and the exploitation of nature. In the second semester, students delve into the genres of science fiction and nature writing and complete an individual research project on the ethical implications of a major scientific development in the 20th century. To end the course, students will read Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun and selections from Franny Choi’s poetry collection Soft Science—texts that reflect on the growing presence of artificial intelligence in our lives and, in doing so, reimagine what it means to be human. Along the way, the course texts will be supplemented with critical analysis of films and television series, such as Tony Gilroy’s Andor, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s Westworld, and the recent adaptations of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Frank Herbert’s Dune. As a reminder, this is an honors seminar, meaning that students are expected to complete a substantial amount of reading, writing, and research.
-Shakespeare in the Wild Honors
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio. The portfolio will include samples of the student’s work from English II (for rising juniors) or English III (for rising seniors). Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grades 11 & 12)
Students navigate the environmental landscape of early modern England, using Shakespeare’s work as their north star. While some openly embraced England’s growing power to map, transform, and dominate the natural world during this period, others decried it, raising concerns about resource extraction, land enclosure, pollution, species loss, and deforestation—concerns that still persist today. While some turned to Christian doctrine to defend humankind’s right to master the earth, others feared the cost of trafficking in this rhetoric, reminding us that Christian doctrine also urges us to steward and take care of the earth. Still, others called for more creative thinking—asking us to imagine alternative ways of inhabiting, managing, and caring for the earth. With Shakespeare at the center of this course, students deepen their understanding of his work as a record and rebuke of the modes of thinking, practices, and policies that shaped the early modern English landscape.
Through close readings of Shakespeare’s plays, students will encounter forests and trees, earth and sea, stone and sky, listening carefully to the stories we tell about them. We will brave the “blasted heath” with Macbeth and marvel at the “moving grove” that foretells his fall, weather Prospero’s storm and seek peace on the island’s shore. We will be undone by Lear’s despair for having “ta’en / Too little care of this” and remade by the Duke’s deep love for “sermons in stones, and good in everything.” Along the way, we will engage with ecocritical literary theory and sample environmental writing from across literary history to situate Shakespeare in a long, ongoing conversation about nature, ecology, and humankind’s relationship with the earth. By the end of the year, students will have a deeper, more comprehensive view of Shakespeare’s ecological thinking and, more broadly, the role stories play in shaping our perceptions and treatment of the natural world. As a reminder, this is an honors seminar, meaning that students are expected to complete a substantial amount of reading, writing, and research. -
English IV Seminars
2 semesters, 1 credit
Prerequisite: English III or AP English Literature and Composition
English IV students select from a range of course offerings. Options may shift from year to year based on student interest and schedule availability.
-Creative Writing
This is a two-teacher, portfolio-based, workshop-style seminar offering instruction in the narrative strategies and distinctive forms and techniques of various nonfiction and fiction genres: memoir, personal essay, reviews, travel and culture writing, short stories, poetry, etc. The course is designed to have two sections taught simultaneously during the same block. One section focuses on non-fiction writing genres (e.g., memoir, personal history essay), while the other section focuses on writing short stories and poetry. At the end of the first semester, the students in each respective block will switch teachers and continue the second component of the course. Typically, writing workshops are free-wheeling explorations of form, style, and content, and this one will be no different. The watchword for this course is energy—how to generate it, how to capture it, and how to use it.
-Literature of War and Conflict
This course explores the human experience in war and conflict through the lens of literature, poetry, and personal narrative. Students will engage with texts such as Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, the works of the World War I Poets, and Athol Fugard’s My Children! My Africa!, alongside other powerful selections. Through close reading, analysis, and discussion, we will examine how individuals navigate the challenges of war and conflict, exploring themes of resilience, identity, and the profound impact of violence. This course invites students to deepen their understanding of humanity, fostering critical thinking and empathy through stories that illuminate personal experiences during times of duress.
-World Beat: African and African Diaspora Literature
The African continent comprises 55 countries, each with a myriad of ethnicities, languages, and literary traditions. Students study oral traditions and read extensively from authors across the continent through short stories, music, poems, novels, films, and plays. Through a variety of characters, settings, and themes, we will break the notion of Africa as a monolith that has only one story to tell. From the outset of slavery to the modern day, the African Diaspora in the Caribbean and North and South America is a story of survival and the resiliency of cultures, religions, languages, and traditions. The literary, visual, and musical arts that arose despite efforts to exterminate and denigrate them are a testimony to their beauty and vitality and demand our attention and appreciation. The syncretic offerings of the African Diaspora are rich with traditions that thrive in modernity and ask us to consider essential questions of home, borders, and identity. We will uncover and celebrate the African roots that have found a home in our everyday lives while honing the skills students will need to thrive in a college environment. By studying the oral traditions of African ethnic groups, students will gain a new appreciation for and enhance their listening skills. Students will also face the challenge of complex literary analysis prompts asking them to examine style in addition to theme, to work on comparative analysis, and to incorporate research and supplemental materials. With creative and informal writing and projects, students will be asked to explore and express the connections between the literature and their own thoughts on race, gender, and nationality—their identity, in relation to the worlds they experience and study.
-Dystopian Fiction Honors
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio. The portfolio will include samples of the student’s work from English III. Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grade 12)
How have marvels—or disasters—of innovations like electricity and computing shaped society and artists’ reactions to the changes? What constitutes a social ideal? How do humans aim for utopia while dystopia is the inevitable result? Authors of dystopian fiction create fantastical tales of joy and horror that mirror aspects of the human condition in culture. The semester is devoted to reading and critiquing dystopian writing of the past few centuries. In addition, students will reflect on contemporary society’s social, moral, technological, and medical advancements and failures. Sample readings include a range of short stories and essays, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, George Orwell’s 1984, and Nikki Erlick’s The Measure. The texts will be coupled with post-apocalyptic films like Blade Runner and I Am Legend. Students will write in-class and formal essays, create podcasts, and give presentations based on the research and texts they examine.
-Philosophy Honors
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio. The portfolio will include samples of the student’s work from English II (for rising juniors) or English III (for rising seniors). Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grades 11 & 12)
How do I live a good life? What can I know for sure? Does God, beauty, or evil exist? And really, how do I know that the earth is round and the moon is not a delicious wheel of provolone cheese? This class will engage with life’s most compelling and vexing questions by analyzing and critiquing the musings of philosophers from across the globe from antiquity to the present. Moreover, each student will interrogate, evolve, and refine their own thoughts on such questions. All the while, we will resist pat answers and conventional thinking, aware, as Slavoj Zizek reminds us, that “the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can itself be part of the problem.” The class will follow the progression of the “Western” tradition of philosophy that emerged in Ancient Greece and trace its global dissemination.
-Shakespeare in the Wild Honors
Prerequisite: Department approval of a writing portfolio. The portfolio will include samples of the student’s work from English II (for rising juniors) or English III (for rising seniors). Admission is at the discretion of the English Department Chair and reading committee. (Grades 11 & 12)
Students navigate the environmental landscape of early modern England, using Shakespeare’s work as their north star. While some openly embraced England’s growing power to map, transform, and dominate the natural world during this period, others decried it, raising concerns about resource extraction, land enclosure, pollution, species loss, and deforestation—concerns that still persist today. While some turned to Christian doctrine to defend humankind’s right to master the earth, others feared the cost of trafficking in this rhetoric, reminding us that Christian doctrine also urges us to steward and take care of the earth. Still, others called for more creative thinking—asking us to imagine alternative ways of inhabiting, managing, and caring for the earth. With Shakespeare at the center of this course, students deepen their understanding of his work as a record and rebuke of the modes of thinking, practices, and policies that shaped the early modern English landscape.
Through close readings of Shakespeare’s plays, students will encounter forests and trees, earth and sea, stone and sky, listening carefully to the stories we tell about them. We will brave the “blasted heath” with Macbeth and marvel at the “moving grove” that foretells his fall, weather Prospero’s storm and seek peace on the island’s shore. We will be undone by Lear’s despair for having “ta’en / Too little care of this” and remade by the Duke’s deep love for “sermons in stones, and good in everything.” Along the way, we will engage with ecocritical literary theory and sample environmental writing from across literary history to situate Shakespeare in a long, ongoing conversation about nature, ecology, and humankind’s relationship with the earth. By the end of the year, we will have a deeper, more comprehensive view of Shakespeare’s ecological thinking and, more broadly, the role stories play in shaping our perceptions and treatment of the natural world. As a reminder, this is an honors seminar, meaning that students are expected to complete a substantial amount of reading, writing, and research.
