Upper School Course Catalogue - 2025-26
English
English
Click on a course name below to view more information.
REQUIRED: Four years of English courses (4 credits)
EN0910 English 9 (1 credit)
Level: 9th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 8 or equivalent.
Description: This course, centered around an exploration of what it means to be human, 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 paragraphs— including use of topic sentences, transitions, and concluding sentences—into well-formulated essays which utilize various rhetorical modes. 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.
EN091H Honors English 9 (1 credit)
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, 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.
EN1010 English 10 (1 credit)
Level: 10th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 9 or equivalent.
Description: English 10 explores the origins of Western literature through works by canonical authors such as Sophocles,
Homer, and Shakespeare, while incorporating poetry and contemporary counterparts in various cultures. Throughout the course, students trace the development of human understanding of purpose and fate in Western thought and engage in discussion on a wide range of related topics. Through writing a series of papers relevant to the literature, students elevate their skills to explore and write in a variety of modes, and they expand their study of Shakespeare and the connection between language and performance by participating in the annual Shakespeare Festival. Students also encounter new vocabulary in literature and through their continued study of Membean.
EN101H Honors English 10 (1 credit)
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 expand their study of Shakespeare and the connection between language and performance by participating in the annual Shakespeare Festival. They increase their vocabulary through Membean and words encountered in the course readings.
English 11
The English 11 curriculum offers several different approaches (described below) to exploring the development of the American literary tradition from America’s colonial period into the modern era. All students study F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Zora Neale Hurston’s 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 examine the historical, philosophical, and stylistic influences of writers. In addition to honing their critical thinking skills through class discussions and written essays, students also increase their vocabulary through both their readings and Membean.
EN1130 English 11: Souls Tempered in a Fiery Furnace: Violence and the American Conscience (1 credit)
Description: Throughout American history, authors have explored the tension between violence and the “better angels of
our nature.” The intersection between ideological principles and destructive forces lies at the heart of much of the literature produced in America since English Puritans first landed in the “New World.” This conflict takes various forms in American literature: physical and psychological, personal and communal, literal and metaphorical. This course explores violence through various lenses, such as the ruthless class divisions in The Great Gatsby, the raw savagery and moral conflict inherent in the Western genre of No Country for Old Men, and the lingering impact of war in The Things They Carried.
EN1140 English 11: Stop the Machine: American Literature and Social Change (1 credit)
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 the literature that inspired and responded to significant social movements in American history, such as Abolitionism, Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights, and Environmentalism.
EN1110 English 11: This Broken House: American Gothic Literature (1 credit)
Description: American Gothic literature provides a glimpse into those familiar images that haunt us all—the 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.
EN111H Honors English 11: American Issues (1 credit)
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 presents students with a more rigorous approach to the standard junior English course material,
which focuses on the American literary tradition. Qualified students become fluent in the various short stories, novels, poetry, and dramas that comprise the American canon. Each work is 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 develop a nuanced and thorough understanding of American culture; throughout the year, they craft numerous essays that examine and define American ideals. In addition to honing their critical thinking skills through class discussions and written essays, students 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 should be prepared to complete challenging readings and frequent writing projects. Ultimately, through the study of literature, this course hopes to define “the essential American soul.”
EN112A Advanced Placement English Language & Composition (1 credit)
Level: 11th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 10, placement test performance, overall GPA, first semester exam grade
and grade of current English course, teacher recommendation, and PSAT verbal and reading scores.
Description: In this introductory, college-level course, students 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 help students develop their ability to work with both text and language while also strengthening their own composition skills. Students 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 focuses 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 – 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.
ES1211 English 12: The Book was Better (.5 credit)
Description: Students in this class will read books that have been adapted into popular movies in order to explore the process of adaptation and how stories are translated from one medium to another. We will cast our net widely, exploring both popular bestsellers as well as more niche works, alongside their filmic adaptations. As we will see, judging whether or not “the book was better” is ultimately not as fruitful as grappling with the specifics of each medium and how it allows for different ways of telling the same story.
ES1261 English 12: Creative Writing: Fiction (.5 credit)
Description: This course introduces students to the tradition of the contemporary short story and teaches them how to create their own short fiction. Students familiarize themselves with the traditional, written model of storytelling, but 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 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 are also discussed and workshopped among their peers.
ES1241 English 12: Gothic Monsters (.5 credit)
Description: This course delves into humanity’s 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 zombie, 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.
ES1281 English 12: Apocalypse Literature (.5 credit)
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 derives–apokálypsis–means an uncovering, a revelation.
When our societies crumble, do we see ourselves more clearly? In this course, students read literature that explores the apocalyptic–novels, 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.
ES1291 English 12: The Romance Novel: Origins, Tropes, and Modern Iterations (.5 credit)
Description: The romance genre requires the “Happily Ever After (HEA)” conclusion, but beyond that requirement, the definition is a bit hard to pin down. Students 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 into social class, relationship dynamics, and gender roles. In this course, students read a classic 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. Students also write their own creative fiction, experimenting with the tropes and techniques of the romance genre to deepen their understanding of its conventions. Texts will vary from one semester to the next.
ES1212 English 12: Fairy Tales, Myths, and Legends, and the Heroes and Heroines that Shaped Them (.5 credit)
Description: What do Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, Beowulf, King Arthur, Guinevere, or Don Quixote have in common other than they are characters in myths or legends? Well, most students graduating from Episcopal haven’t read anything they are in. In this course, students will be reading excerpts, ballads, poems, and an epic and studying them and other fairy tale characters like the Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and even Beauty and her love interest the Beast. Students who have seen the film versions of these characters will be shocked how they have been altered, cleaned up, and their lessons changed. Through this literature study, seniors will be exposed to the life altering conflicts they contain. Reading other pieces like “The Handless Maiden” and “The Fisher King” will also help the class explore both the hero and heroine’s psychology. The journey through this course will give individuals the opportunity to meet, follow, and learn from famous heroes and heroines and will help solidify an understanding of the hero archetype and its application to one’s future journey through life.
ES1202 English 12: Burn After Reading (.5 credit)
Description: Students in this class explores a variety of books from the last fifty years which, for one reason or another, have been banned in America. Many units explore a specific type of banned books–be it young adult novels, dystopian works from the 1950s, or graphic novels. Students 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.
ES1214 English 12: Sports Literature (.5 credit)
Description: Where do sports and literature intersect? This course examines how athletic endeavors serve as a lens to explore the human condition, revealing truths about character, conflict, perseverance, and glory. Drawing inspiration from journalist Heywood Broun’s assertion that “sports do not build character, they reveal it,” students will analyze fiction and non-fiction works that use sports as a metaphor for life. Through discussion, research, and critical thinking, the class will delve into the historical and social contexts of these texts, honing skills in literary analysis, personal writing, and interdisciplinary thinking. By considering themes such as defeat, resilience, and the pursuit of greatness, students will uncover how the world of sports reflects and shapes our understanding of humanity.
ES1215 English 12: Creative Writing: Extended Fiction Portfolio (1 credit)
Level: 12th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 11 and an application.
Description: Students in this class will explore a variety of novels and short stories that will help them grow as both readers and writers of contemporary fiction. The texts provided in this course will span multiple genres and styles as students explore their own literary taste, as well as their own style of writing. Students who enroll in this course should be excited to read, write, and rewrite extensively, as they will need to produce a robust body of work by the spring semester. Throughout the course, students will also share their own writing with their peers in a workshop setting and continue to revise a portfolio of their own work, which will be shared with the Episcopal community in the spring. This course differs from other creative writing courses in the amount of work that students are asked to produce; since students are writing and revising across multiple semesters, they should be prepared to produce a far more extensive portfolio by the end of the course.
EN127A Advanced Placement English Literature & Composition (1 credit)
Level: 12th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 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 invites motivated students into the close study and analysis of imaginative literature (mainly novels and poetry, along with critical essays). Through thoughtful, deliberate reading, students gain a deeper understanding of how writers use language to craft meaning. Close reading, purposeful discussion, and frequent writing help build both skill and confidence in analyzing and interpreting complex texts. Students also learn to recognize how writers shape purpose through elements such as figurative language, syntax, structure, and tone. Writing assignments emphasize process, voice, and the clear articulation of major themes and techniques in the works studied.
EN112A0 Advanced Placement English Language & Composition (1 credit)
Level: 12th grade
Length: Year
Prerequisite: Successful completion of 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 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 help students develop their ability to work with both text and language while also strengthening their own composition skills. Students examine narrative, expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors from a range of centuries.
AP Language and Composition (12): Please see the course description at the end of the English 11 offerings.