English

ENGLISH
The Upper School’s English curriculum emphasizes careful, extensive reading and precise writing as the essential components for a strong education. Throughout the Upper School grades, English courses synthesize study of literature, composition, critical analysis, speech, grammar, and vocabulary.
 English - 9th Grade
This course focuses on the foundations of literature.  Students in the ninth grade begin to develop an understanding of allusions, motifs, and universal themes that pervade literature of every era and genre and build a solid basis upon which the rest of their English studies will rely.  The year is composed of several major units, including a unit on Greek and Norse mythology as an introduction to world literature; study of the Arthurian legend as the foundation for British literature; and a unit on Colonial and Revolutionary America as the framework for American literature.  Once students have been introduced to the prevalent themes in each of these literatures, they explore a variety of classic and contemporary works to analyze the expression of these ideas.  Texts studied in the ninth grade include, but are not limited to, John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Homer’s The Odyssey, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.  In addition, students work extensively with Bullfinch’s Mythology and Adventures in American Literature.
 To complement their study of literature, students acquire and practice composition skills to develop and refine their skills of written expression. Students learn the elements of a variety of writing styles and have the opportunity to advance both their expository and creative writing techniques. In this context, students also begin to cultivate their research skills, hone their grammar abilities, and expand their vocabulary.
 English – 10th Grade
Tenth grade English surveys American literature from the mid-1800’s to the present.  Through their exploration of essays, poems, short stories, plays, and novels, students will be introduced to the writers, thinkers, and texts that have helped shape American culture over the past one and a half centuries and define what it is to be an American.  The tenth grade curriculum includes, but is not limited to, texts and writers such as Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Emerson, poetry by Dickinson and Whitman, Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Twain’s  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, shorts stories by Faulkner and O’Connor, works of the Harlem Renaissance, Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire

To enhance their study of literature, sophomores engage in a variety of written activities. Tenth graders expand their written expression expertise through intensive focus on the critical and analytical essay. Students also concentrate on building their vocabularies and mastering grammar skills, both for lifelong writing and for the new SAT.
 English – 11th Grade
Students in this class study a survey of British writers from the beginnings of British literature through the present.  Using Beowulf and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as their starting point, students read, evaluate, and write about a variety of poems, essays, stories, and novels in the British tradition.  Included in the curriculum are works such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Othello, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.
 In addition to literature, students focus on critical and expository writing and on several kinds of discourse used to study and write about literature. Particular attention is paid to the argumentative and opinion/reflection essay in preparation for the new SAT. A full complement of grammar, writing mechanics and vocabulary supplements the junior curriculum.

English – 12th Grade
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition
The Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Course is designed to engage students in the experience, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works.  Through intensive encounters with a broad array of texts, students will develop reading and writing skills by exploring their pre-critical impressions and emotional responses to the literature; analyzing literature through close reading to uncover and understand the multi-layers of a text’s meaning; making and explaining judgments about a text’s style, structure, tone and art; and studying the social and cultural influences underlying a given work.  By the end of this course, students will have succeeded at reading perceptively; analyzing large scale literary elements such as theme and form; identifying and explicating small-scale elements of literature such as figurative language, imagery, symbolism, allusion, and tone; developing a precise and sophisticated personal style of writing; mastering grammar, sentence structure, and mechanics; and building a foundation for independent critical analysis.  AP readings will span centuries as well as continents, but all share the ability to compel students to think critically.  Some of the authors whose works are studied in this course include Sophocles, Ken Kesey, Henrik Ibsen, William Shakespeare, Margaret Laurence, Bernard Malamud, William Faulkner, and Tennessee Williams.
 Drama
The primary content of this course is 20^th century drama.  Students will continue their study of literature through this genre, touching on its roots in Greece and its Shakespearean tradition.  Students will continue to build on the reading, writing, and speaking skills they have developed, focusing on the writing and literary analysis necessary for a successful transition to higher education.  Readings include works by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, and Neil Simon.  Specific selections are based on interest, experience, and expertise of the students.
 History of Film
This course will trace the history of film as art and culture from its inception at the beginning of the twentieth century to the current state of the cinema as we begin the twenty first century.  We will learn about both the technical and historical aspects of film by reading in our textbooks, Flashback and Understanding Cinema, and by closely examining films in class and as homework.  Our careful film analysis will take in work from both American and World Cinema.  We will also be reading from scholarly film journals and respected cinematic reviewers.  Papers will be assigned based on class readings and viewings. 
Film highlights include:   Critical study of Citizen Kane, silent classics such as Sunrise, genre studies in the Western and the Melodrama.  Class will include a project on a directors’ ouvre.