English

This course integrates the study of literature with instruction in the writing process. Students will explore the ideas and issues of literature while improving their writing, speaking, listening, thinking and language skills. Materials include poetry and prose, fiction and non‐fiction.

World Studies is an integrated class, designed for sophomore students, which incorporates World History and a foundation level English course into a two‐period block class. World History from the French Revolution to the present day is the context in which the class operates. It uses appropriate literature from the major continents and civilizations of the world to integrate into the study of world history. A major emphasis is placed on writing, including essays, term papers, and short theses. A determined effort is made to insure that diverse cultural perspectives are incorporated in all units of study.

This course provides rigorous and challenging experiences for the student in the areas of critical reading, critical thinking, effective discussion, essay test‐taking, expository writing and research. The core of the curriculum is a chronological or thematic study of American literature, its literary periods and major writings. Outside reading focuses on broader philosophical ideas, encouraging wider reading including classics by American authors.

This course is designed for students who enjoy being challenged in literature and writing classes and who are prepared to accept the responsibilities of that challenge. Like the American Literature course this honors course is a chronological or thematic study of American literature, its literary periods and its major writers; however, the honors course will include more extensive reading, writing (both timed and process essays) and analytical thinking. Furthermore, students in the honors program are expected to invest significantly more academic energy into the course and to work more independently than students taking American Literature and Writing.

This course makes use of a variety of literary and language forms to explore the major ideas in modern culture including poetry, the short story, the novel, drama, film, nonfiction writing and reporting, and investigative research. The main focus of the course is understanding all texts as unique “voices” from other cultures in other places and times. The course is divided into six units: Many Selves, Many Voices, encountering the Other and Being the other, a Medley of Voices, Voices from the Past, Visible Voices, and Multiple Perspectives. Within each of these six units is an emphasis on writing instruction, literary study and oral skills.

This course includes the study of the literature of the Anglo‐Saxon period, the Medieval and Elizabethan periods, and the Jacobean and Puritan ages, a sweep that entails Britain’s dramatic literature and history from 449 to 1660. Also covered is literature written from 1660 to today, including the Restoration and Eighteenth Century, the Romantic Age, the Victorian Age and the Twentieth Century.

This Advanced Placement English course in Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style and themes, as well as smaller‐scale elements, such as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism and tone. The course includes intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods, concentrating on selections that do not yield all of their pleasures of thought and feeling the first time through. Students will read deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a work’s complexity in order to absorb its richness of meaning and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form.