Methodologies: Students read literary texts that are diverse in subject matter and genre, and that preserve the intent and quality of the traditional canon. They learn to write literary analysis in standard MLA essay format and also have opportunities to write more self-directed stories, poems, journal entries, and interviews. Guest speakers and cultural events, which students may be required to attend, supplement classroom lectures and discussions.

IN ENGLISH 1, the curriculum features two distinct characteristics. One set of literary texts offers students exposure to seminal texts of the pre-Renaissance that lay the groundwork for later courses while another set takes students beyond the Western canon. In both cases, writing and discussion are central to the classroom experience. Teachers emphasize grammar and vocabulary study and introduce research skills.

THE ENGLISH 2 curriculum examines literature across time through the twentieth century. Students learn more sophisticated means of critical thought, written expression, and basic research skills. They are introduced to archetypal references and learn to build their understanding of satire, irony, and tone through their reading and discussion. In the second semester, students write a long, detailed literature-based research paper.

THE AMERICAN LITERATURE curriculum offers three approaches to American literature, from which students choose a year-long course of study. Students not only follow the development of American literature through time, but also through the experiences of the diverse population of this country. While all approaches feature the work of the canonical American novelists, poets, and essayists, the works of African-American, Native American, Mexican-American, and female writers, among others, expand the scope of students’ understanding of what makes this literature inherently American. Students complete a significant research project in all courses. Students are allowed to follow a more rigorous program of additional reading and writing to obtain honors credit.

ENGLISH 4 ELECTIVES allow seniors the chance to pursue their passions with regard to literature. These semester-long courses offer a diversity of voices from a variety of global literary texts, including poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction. Students learn to use their reading and writing skills to pursue their own interests, as well as to develop further their skills for expository, critical, and personal writing. They are encouraged to arrive at a clear understanding of their own reading, writing, and thinking processes. Students are allowed to follow a more rigorous program of additional reading and writing to obtain honors credit. The ultimate aim of these classes is two-fold: to have the students link serious introspection to the study of literature at this critical point of their lives, and to prepare students for the challenges they will face in freshman college courses.

GREAT BOOKS is a two-year sequential English honors course for students in eleventh and twelfth grades based on the University of Chicago Great Books model. Admission to this class is competitive and based on performance on a timed, in-class essay and former English teachers’ recommendations. The eleventh grade curriculum focuses on pre-World War I literature, though current texts are studied as well, with an emphasis on literary criticism and the theory and art of translation. The twelfth grade curriculum focuses on the literary modernist movement that arose after World War I to the literature of today.

OTHER OPTIONS IN ENGLISH include: Speech and Debate, a one-year arts elective; Creative Writing, a one-year arts elective that leads to the publication of the award-winning student literary journal, Dark as Day; and Newspaper Production, a one-year arts elective in which students write, design, and produce the Upper School’s award-winning student newspaper, Crossfire.