English
The Upper School English program focuses on literature, writing, critical thinking, and discussion skills. Students read a variety of literary genres while learning to write critical literary analysis. The reading list may be supplemented from year to year in response to student interest. Essay writing and creative writing are incorporated into every required course. Grammar is taught in the context of written work and through direct instruction. Grade 9 and 10 English courses are yearlong and thematic. They are also offered at an Intensive level. Intensive courses follow the core curriculum but allow students the chance to explore topics more deeply and independently, and with a greater focus on critical thinking and analysis. In Grades 11 and 12, students select from an array of semester courses.
Junior-Senior Electives
In the final two years of Upper School, the English Department offers a set of electives that students select based on their individual interests and strengths. Students must take at least four semesters of English electives during their junior and senior years, two of which must be literature electives. By graduation, each student must also have completed either Essay Writing or Writers’ Workshop. Not all the following electives are offered every year.
- American Hubris: In Search of the National Identity
- American Exceptionalism: Common Ideals for All Except...
- Literature of New York City
- The Mystique of Maine: A Literature of Wilderness, Town, and Shore
- Southern Gothic: From Flannery O’Connor to Jesmyn Ward
- The Vietnam War Through Literature and Film
- Postmodern Literature: Embrace the Chaos
- Women’s Literature: Voices of Self-Expression
- Beyond Endurance: Voices of African American Writers
- Poetry and Revolution in America
- The Graphic Novel
- The American Immigrant Experience
- Literature of Native Americans
- African Literature: A Question of Power
- Authenticity and Performance in the Digital Age
- Do the Right Thing: Ethics in Literature and Film
- A Fantastic Journey: Reading and Writing in Lands Beyond
- Medieval Literature
- Myth, Folktale, and Children’s Literature
- Perpetrators and Victims: Literature of Genocide
- Russian Literature
- Self and Society: 19th-Century British Literature
- Shakespeare in Print, Production, and Film
- The Shock of the New: Modern British Literature
- Spinning the Globe: Readings from Around the World
- Short Works of the Greats: Literature in Translation
- “What’s Up with That?”: Engaging Your World Through Journalism
- Writers’ Workshop
- Essay Writing
- The Art of Poetry
- Fiction Workshop