English
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All English courses in the Upper School are taught using the Harkness philosophy. Students are expected to arrive to class prepared and ready to engage in meaningful discussions. Close reading and marking the text are essential to this process and to student success. For this reason, unmarked paper copies of all books (i.e. novels, plays, short stories, anthologies) are required.
REQUIRED: Four years of English courses (4 credits)
Level: 9th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 8 or equivalent.
Description: This course, centered around the theme of personal journeys, is a comprehensive study of vocabulary, grammar, the writing process, and selected literary works. Grammar study and writing texts assist students in applying their grammar knowledge in order to enhance their written expression. The primary focus for writing is the effective organization of clear, cohesive paragraphsâ including use of topic sentences, transitions, and concluding sentencesâinto well-formulated essays which utilize various rhetorical modes, such as argumentative/ persuasive writing and comparison/ contrast. In their approach to literature, students apply critical-thinking skills in determining theme and analyzing style. Works discussed include poems, essays, short stories, novellas, memoir, and drama. Students also study vocabulary through Membean and words encountered in literature.
Level: 9th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 8, performance on departmental placement test, first-semester exam grade, first- semester grade of current English course, teacher recommendation, and standardized test scores.
Description: Honors English 9 is an accelerated course, centered around the theme of personal journeys, which requires students to be self-directed. Students are expected to rise to the challenge in their study of literature, grammar, vocabulary and writing. Literature discussed in this course includes but is not limited to essays, short stories, a novella, a graphic novel, an epic, and a Shakespearean comedy. Honors English 9 students are expected to have a strong background in grammar as this course emphasizes applying grammar concepts to their own writing. Students are encouraged to develop their own voice and style when they practice writing cogent, coherent essays. Students also study vocabulary through Membean and words encountered in literature.
Level: 10th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 9 or equivalent.
Description: English 10 explores the relationships, responsibilities, and tensions for individuals as they interact with the world around them. Exploring works by canonical authors such as Sophocles, Homer, and Shakespeare, as well as contemporary counterparts in various cultures, students practice critical thinking skills and write essays based on their literary study. Throughout the course, students acquire and apply the tools of research including how to read and select quality criticism, how to select and narrow a topic, and how to shape a thesis. Through writing a series of papers relevant to the literature, students elevate their skills to explore and write in a variety of modes. Students also study vocabulary through Membean and words encountered in literature.
Level: 10th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 9, performance on departmental placement test, first-semester exam grade, first-semester grade of current English course, teacher recommendation, and standardized test scores.
Description: In this rigorous course, students explore foundational works of world literature, including ancient Greek texts, Elizabethan drama, and key postcolonial writings from Africa and the Caribbean. Poetry is also a major component of the class, allowing students to deepen their study of figurative language and poetic form. Throughout the course, students also engage with the field of literary theory, learn how to select quality criticism through research, and practice incorporating theoretical and critical sources into their own writing. These fields of study help students elevate their writing skills and introduce them to different modes of analytical writing. Students increase their vocabulary through Membean and words encountered in the course readings.
Level: 10th and 11th grades
Length: Semester
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 9 or equivalent.
Description: In this semester-length elective class, students will examine the experience, significance and roles of Black people through the eyes of Black writers by exploring their contributions to the contextual fabric of America. Students will learn more about the trials and triumphs of Black Americans and expand and diversify their knowledge by exploring different concepts such as ethnic and racial identity and how it is constructed and reconstructed over time. Students will explore the various ways Black writers narrate their experience helping reshape the content of modern literature. Texts will vary from one semester to the next. As an elective, most work will be completed in class.
English 11
The English 11 curriculum offers several different approaches (described below) to exploring the development of the American literary tradition from Americaâs colonial period into the modern era. Each version of the course introduces students to some of the key foundations of the United Statesâ literary tradition. All students will study F. Scott Fitzgeraldâs The Great Gatsby and Zora Neale Hurstonâs Their Eyes Were Watching God as two very different pursuits of dreams and the way they shape the self.
English 11 Seminars
Through short stories, novels, poetry, and dramas, students will examine the historical, philosophical, and stylistic influences of writers. In addition to honing their critical thinking skills through class discussions and written essays, students will also increase their vocabulary through both their readings and Membean.
Description: Many of Americaâs great literary voices have been shaped by their personal experience of war and its accompanying forms of physical and psychological violence. Students survey a wide range of wartime authors, some from the front lines and others from the home front. Topics range from the gritty reality of the trenches to the trauma felt upon returning home. Through lenses of realism, satire, or the absurd, all wrestle with war and its aftermath.
Description: While we often think of movement for social change as a modern phenomenon that began with the Civil Rights Movement and the youth countercultures of the 1960s, change and social protest are deeply ingrained in the American literary tradition. In this course, students explore significant social movements in American history -- including Abolitionism, Womenâs Suffrage, Civil Rights, and Environmentalism -- and the literature that inspired and responded to them.
Description: American Gothic literature provides a glimpse into those familiar images that haunt us allâthe haunted house, the living dead, the monster that lives inside of us. In this course, students explore the distinctly American flavor of these tensions, which often stems from a fear of the unknown or a deeply unsettling relationship with our own past. In addition to examining traditional Gothic works from writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, this course explores the genre's roots and its evolution into contemporary works.
Level: 11th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 10, overall GPA, first semester exam grade and grade of current English course, teacher recommendation, performance on qualifying test, and PSAT verbal and reading scores.
Description: This class will present students with a more rigorous approach to the standard junior English course material, which focuses on the American literary tradition. Qualified students will become fluent in the various short stories, novels, poetry, and dramas that comprise the American canon. Each work will be studied within its historical context, but ultimately the course is interested in the fact that none of these texts truly stands alone--each one contributes to a broader conversation about American identity. As students work to understand the connections between these texts, they will also develop a nuanced and thorough understanding of American culture; throughout the year, they will craft numerous essays that examine and define American ideals. In addition to honing their critical thinking skills through class discussions and written essays, students will also increase their vocabulary through both their readings and Membean. This course requires a willingness to take risks, think critically, and ask probing questions--both in writing and in discussions. Students also should be prepared to complete challenging readings and frequent writing projects. Ultimately, through the study of literature, this course hopes to define âthe essential American soul.â
Level: 11th and 12th grades
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 10 or English 11, placement test performance, overall GPA, first semester exam grade and grade of current English course, teacher recommendation, and PSAT verbal and reading scores.
Description: Students in this introductory, college-level course will learn how to read meticulously and strategically, analyzing a broad range of challenging literature, both fiction and nonfiction, while deepening their awareness of the purpose and effectiveness of rhetoric. Close reading and frequent writing assignments will help students develop their ability to work with both text and language while also strengthening their own composition skills. Students will examine narrative, expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors from a range of centuries. Though the concepts and methodology are similar at each level, the 11th grade course will focus solely on American literature; the 12th grade course, which is predominantly non-fiction, does not limit itself to any particular genre.
English 12
The English 12 curriculum offers seniors two semester-long Senior Seminars (English 12 â Senior Seminars), AP English Language & Composition (taken senior year), or AP English Literature & Composition. Senior Seminars may also be taken as an elective semester as long as the senior English requirement is being met.
Description: James Baldwin once wrote that the story of black people in America is quite simply âthe story of America.â That is, there is no way to understand American history or literature without foregrounding the experiences of Black Americans. Taking up Baldwinâs challenge, this course explores the complexity of Black writing in this country by focusing on how these works can help us rethink dominant narratives about literary form and the relationship between art and culture. We will read a wide variety of African American writing in the course, ranging from classic works grounded in folklore and social realism to contemporary works that incorporate elements from genre fiction, hip hop, and other forms of popular culture. Texts will vary from one semester to the next.
Description: This course introduces students to the tradition of the contemporary short story, and teaches students how to create their own short fiction. Students familiarize themselves with the traditional, written model of storytelling, but will also branch into forms of storytelling that are both unconventional and strange, like podcasts and comic strips. Through participation in daily discussions about stories, students will become experts in writing. Students must be willing to write frequently, as they are expected to produce multiple drafts of multiple stories throughout the semester. These drafts will also be discussed and workshopped among their peers.
Description: This course delves into humanityâs dark side and the literature that explores it. The class begins by examining the meaning of Gothicism through music, art, and architecture before moving into the literature and the monster archetypes that dominate this dark world, including the vampire, trickster, doppelganger, and Gothic Other and how they contribute to the conflict and horror. The mystery and terror of the gothic world is examined through a survey of stories, a novel, a novella, and a drama.
Description: When the world ends, what do we do? Many of us think of the apocalypse as the destruction and termination of all things, yet the Greek word from which it derivesâapokĂĄlypsisâmeans an uncovering, a revelation. When our societies crumble, do we see ourselves more clearly? In this course, we will read literature that explores the apocalypticânovels, poems, and stories written by and about the survivors of world-altering disaster. Ultimately, we will seek to deeply understand the rawest parts of our humanity that come to light only when our worlds crumble. Texts will vary from one semester to the next.
Description: The romance genre requires the âHappily Ever After (HEA)â conclusion, but beyond that requirement, the definition is a bit hard to pin down. We will spend the semester uncovering the origins of the romance novel, the tools and tropes that authors use to enhance the novel, and the modern interpretations of an old art form. This genre is about discovering joy through the lens of romantic love ending with marriage or union. In addition to the positive conclusions in these novels, they are brimming with witty insights on social class, relationship dynamics, and gender roles. In this course we will read Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and a couple of contemporary masters of the genre in order to discover how love, joy, and struggle intertwine to produce timeless discussions on female identity, desire, and independence. Texts will vary from one semester to the next.
Description: Have you ever heard of Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, Beowulf, King Arthur, Guinevere, or Don Quixote but never had the time to read hundreds of pages? Then this course is for you because we will be reading excerpts, ballads, and poems. Have you actually read the fairy tales that Hollywood has adapted like âThe Little Mermaid,â âSleeping Beauty,â âBeauty and the Beast,â or âSnow Whiteâ? Well if you havenât, youâll be surprised at how Hollywood has cleaned up the tales and changed the lessons. This course will expose you to the life-altering conflicts they really contain. You will also read others like âThe Handless Maidenâ and âThe Fisher Kingâ that will help you explore both the hero and heroineâs psychology. Your journey through this course will give you the opportunity to meet, follow, and learn from famous heroes and heroines. The class will help solidify your understanding of the hero archetype and its application to your future journey through life.
Description: Students in this class will explore a variety of books from the last fifty years which, for one reason or another, have been banned in America. Many units will allow students to select one book from a list of a specific type of banned booksâbe it young adult novels, dystopian works from the 1950s, or graphic novels. Students will also explore the role that public resources, such as libraries and schools, play both in the arena of book bans and in our society as a whole. Students in this course should expect to have some agency over their reading list and be interested in exploring the cause and impacts of the rise of book bans both today and in the past.
Level: 12th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Application essay.
Description: AP African American Studies is an interdisciplinary course that examines the diversity of African American experiences through direct encounters with authentic and varied sources. Students explore key topics that extend from early African kingdoms to the ongoing challenges and achievements of the contemporary moment. Given the interdisciplinary character of African American studies, students in the course will develop skills across multiple fields, with an emphasis on developing historical, literary, visual, and data analysis skills. This course foregrounds a study of the diversity of Black communities in the United States within the broader context of Africa and the African diaspora.
Level: 12th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 10 or 11, performance on placement test, overall GPA, first semester exam grade and grade of current English course, teacher recommendation, and PSAT verbal and reading scores.
Description: This course is designed to engage motivated students in the careful study and analysis of imaginative literature (mainly novels and poetry). Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to convey meaning. During the reading process and through class discussions, students focus on such topics as theme, style, and diction. Students also learn to see the way writers convey purpose through such elements as figurative language, imagery, and tone. Writing assignments emphasize the exposition of major themes and techniques of the works studied in class.
AP Language and Composition (12): Please see the course description at the end of the English 11 offerings.