English

The Upper School English curriculum focuses on developing students as energetic readers and purposeful writers who are eager to recognize and to make precise choices in diction, syntax, and rhetorical pattern. The critical study of literature as a class fosters an ability to recognize and articulate universal themes that unite us across boundaries; independent reading choices ready students for lives as engaged and thoughtful citizens.

Upper School students read like writers, eager to recognize intentional choices in diction, syntax, and rhetorical pattern and to try those moves in their own writing. They write both formally and informally, for a range of audiences and for a variety of purposes, coming to value both the process and the product of their work. Vocabulary and grammar are studied both in the context of the students’ reading and writing and as distinct topics.

Course Descriptions

English 1 CP (1 year/1.0 unit)

English 1 offers students an introduction to the empowering endeavor of reading, writing, and thinking at the Upper School level. Students begin by establishing habits of mind and practice around vocabulary, annotation, grammar/mechanics, current events, and independent reading. Extensive study of Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451 , opens the door to discussion of themes of freedom and censorship; Henrik Ibsen’s play, An Enemy of the People (as adapted by Arthur Miller), presents further opportunity to explore the role of a free press in a democracy. Nonfiction mentor texts by writers such as Annie Dillard foster the skill of identifying both what happens in a piece of text and how and why it happens, and students learn to listen carefully to authorial choices in a collection of contemporary fiction by writers such as Doris Lessing, thereby growing the strength of their own writing voices. These fictional pieces afford students the opportunity to strengthen their analysis of figurative language and literary devices. Over the course of the year, students will write in a range of rhetorical modes--personal essay, literary analysis, narrative--and will be held accountable for thoughtful work at all stages of the writing process. As the sophistication and complexity of students’ ideas develop, particular attention is paid to sentence-combining skills in an effort to equip these writers with structures appropriate to the expression of their ideas.

Prerequisite : L.A. 8

English 1 Honors (1 year/1.0 unit)

Honors English 1 requires increased volume and a quicker pace in reading, greater depth of analysis in discussion, and a heightened awareness of stylistic sophistication in written work. The year begins with a close-study of dystopian literature and uses Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 to analyze literary devices, characterization, and the themes of censorship and freedom. Literary analysis is the primary writing focus for first semester and concludes with a comparative analysis of Fahrenheit 451 and Henrik Ibsen’s play, An Enemy of the People (as adapted by Arthur Miller). Second semester focuses on nonfiction and personal writing; Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood and Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street serve as mentor texts as students develop their voices as writers. Students compose a personal narrative and a portfolio of vignettes that explore complex sentence structures and poignant word choice. The year concludes with a thematic study of William Shakespeare’s comedy , Much Ado About Nothing . In addition to keeping up with the pace and analysis of our whole-class pieces, students enrolled in the Honors course will maintain a strong commitment to a writer’s notebook and independent (choice) reading.

Prerequisite: Recommendation from 8th grade English instructor along with a final grade of A, A-, or B+

English 2 CP - World Literature (1 year/1.0 unit)

English 2 investigates ways in which literature has sought to explore the delicate balance between the rights of an individual and the needs of a group. Whole-class reading will cover a range of diverse titles, to include An Enemy of the People , written by Henrik Ibsen and adapted by Arthur Miller; The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge , a fanciful and surprisingly thought-provoking collaboration by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin; William Golding’s canonical Lord of the Flies; Dear Martin, Nic Stone’s break-out YA novel; Sue Monk Kidd’s coming of age tale, The Secret Life of Bees ; Terry Pratchett’s Nation ; and Athol Fugard’s South African play, “Master Harold”...and the boys . Short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction essays will supplement the study of book-length texts; tenth grade students will also maintain a robust commitment to independent (choice) reading. Sophomores will write both formally and informally in a range of rhetorical modes and will be held accountable for thoughtful work at all stages of the writing process.

Prerequisite : English 1

English 2 Honors - World Literature (1 year/1.0 unit)

Honors English 2 explores the same thematic interests as English 2 CP, but requires increased volume and a quicker pace in reading, greater depth of analysis in discussion, and a heightened awareness of stylistic sophistication in written work. Additional readings may include Oedipus Rex , by Sophocles, and Antigone , by Jean Anouilh; The 57 Bus , by Dashka Slater; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein ; In the Time of the Butterflies , by Julia Alvarez; Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees; and Shakespeare’s Macbeth . Whole-class reading at the Honors level is thoroughly contextualized in historical, biographical, and thematic materials that broaden and deepen the conversation around the ideas presented by the text. Writing assignments require students to synthesize materials in a manner that encourages them to make connections across time and space, recognizing patterns that inform both past and future reading. Honors sophomores will be encouraged to maintain a robust commitment to independent (choice) reading.

Prerequisite : English 1 and departmental approval

English 3 CP - American Literature (1 year/1.0 unit)

This essentially chronological survey course examines thematic threads in American studies and makes cross-curricular connections with students’ work in American History. Essential questions driving student inquiry focus around identity, freedom and oppression, the “American Dream,” and the enduring appeal of the frontier. Units of study include Nation-Building: Puritan, Colonial, Native American Voices; Slave Narratives; Suffrage and Civil Rights; and The American Dream in the 20th Century. The writing focus for the first half of the year is on literary analysis; students will hone both research skills and personal writing voice with a multi-genre paper and narrative essay in the second semester. Primary source documents, short fiction and nonfiction essays, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible , James Mc Bride’s Song Yet Sung , and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are all included within the above units of study. Eleventh graders continue their commitment to independent (choice) reading and maintaining a writer’s notebook.

Prerequisite : English 2

English 3 Honors - American Literature (1 year/1.0 unit)

This course examines thematic threads in American studies and makes cross-curricular connections with students’ work in American History at a faster pace, with a higher volume of reading and writing than that required at the CP level. Essential questions driving student inquiry focus around identity, freedom and oppression, and the “American Dream.” In addition to the CP units of study, Honors students focus on Romanticism and Transcendentalism, Realism, and Modernism. Within the Puritan and Slave Narrative units, students learn to search for, reference, and cite primary source documents in their writing. During the study of the Romantic and Transcendental movements, students select an author to follow for the entirety of the unit, and a final multi-genre project leads the students out into nature to write their own pieces in the style of their selected author. In addition to reading the texts required at the CP level, students also read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter , Nella Larsen’s Passing , and excerpts from both Frederick Douglass’s memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle .

Prerequisite : English 2 and departmental approval

AP English Literature and Composition (1 year/1.0 unit)

AP English Literature and Composition is a skills-based college-level course in careful reading and persuasive analysis of imaginative literature. Students read both widely and deeply across four centuries of poetry, fiction and drama written in English: John Donne to Ian McEwan, Jane Austen to Toni Morrison, Shakespeare to Tom Stoppard. As readers, students revel in the complexities of rich and generous texts, hone their ability to recognize and understand author's stylistic choices, and ultimately, as writers, add their voices to the global scholarly conversation by making meaning of their own. Students enrolled in this course are required to sit for the AP® Literature and Composition exam in May.

Prerequisite : English 3 Honors or AP®English Language and departmental approval

AP Language and Composition (1 year/1.0 unit)

AP English Language and Composition is a skills-based college level course that explores the interplay among the three points on the rhetorical triangle: author, audience, and text. Reading almost exclusively nonfiction, students will study the ways in which writers from vastly different times and places make intentional choices and use all the rhetorical tools available to them in order to achieve their purpose. Writing includes evidence-based analysis, informed argument, and synthesis (evaluation, use, and citation) of a range of sources. Students enrolled in this course are required to sit for the AP® Language and Composition exam in May.

Prerequisite : English 3 Honors or AP®English Literature and departmental approval

English 4 - Senior English (1 year/1.0 unit)

Twelfth graders enrolled in Senior English will have the opportunity at the end of the junior year to participate in the creation of two semester-long courses. Students will offer input on their interests, reading histories, and future plans, and then choose from an array of offerings. Past options have included titles such as Archetypes in World Myth; Writing Vietnam; TED@TVS; Imaginary Worlds; Madness in Literature; Our Monsters, Our Selves; Creative Nonfiction; Poetry: From Sonnets to Spoken Word; Sports Writing; “The Book Was Better”: Books and the Films They Became; and Themes in YA Fiction. The primary goal of the course is to ready seniors for the reading, writing, and thinking demands of the world beyond high school, whatever that world may look like for each individual senior.

Prerequisite : English 3

Complete Upper School Course of Study

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