In our Upper School, students become grammatical experts, literary geniuses, and passionate writers.
Expanding Perspectives
In Upper School, we continue to foster our students’ ability to read sensitively, think critically, and express themselves clearly and persuasively. As they work to discern patterns in their reading, they become independent critics, ready to discover and articulate important insights from the experiences they read about. We select texts carefully, both classic and contemporary, striving to represent a variety of genres, periods, authors, and perspectives that illustrate and resonate with our students. As they write and think about what they’ve read, students encounter new and unfamiliar words to add to their vocabulary. Looking across ages, continents, and cultural boundaries, they ultimately come to better understand what it means to be human.
Accordion
Introduction to Writing and Genre consolidates and expands foundations in grammar, vocabulary, writing and critical reading to prepare students for subsequent Upper School coursework. Compositions include topics on personal experience, contemporary issues, literary analysis and creative writing, with attention to sentence structure, methods of paragraph development, and unified, coherent papers.
The course also provides distinct units exploring the range of genres students will find in their further studies of literature, including the novel, poetry, drama, mythology, short stories, creative non-fiction, and advertisement. Students also enter the world of professional literary criticism by deepening their understanding of core literary terms.
Students explore works selected to represent the major writers, periods, movements and genres of British literature. This course may include works from such authors as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Swift, Johnson, the Romantic and Victorian poets, and both modern and contemporary British and Postcolonial writers, such as Joyce, Huxley, Ishiguro, Lahiri, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Instruction in rhetoric, grammar, and composition is integrated throughout both semesters.
Students analyze major works to learn the skills of close reading and formal analysis.
They write in a variety of forms and styles to help prepare them for the writing tasks they will encounter in their future here, at college and after. In the third quarter of the sophomore year, students write a major English research paper, adhering to standard scholarly guidelines for correct documentation and presentation.
British and Postcolonial Literature Honors augments the material included in the college preparatory section with additional works, such as Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” or Kincaid’s “At the Bottom of the River.” This course is a chronological British/postcolonial literature survey course that focuses on giving students a strong foundation in literary movements from the Anglo-Saxon period through 21st century postcolonial literature
Students begin their studies with Puritan literature. Focusing on major trends and themes in American literature, they study poetry and prose from the colonial period through the 21st century. They work with poetry, short fiction, novels, and non-fiction essays to further develop the skills of critical reading, interpretation and formal literary analysis.
Writing assignments include literary analysis, as well as personal narratives and creative writing.
Grammar, sentence structure, usage, punctuation and vocabulary are reviewed regularly to help students prepare for the SATs and ACTs.
This senior English course offers students the opportunity to study in the first semester a range of personal narratives and memoirs, including “Heavy,” “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning,” “Maus,” and shorter works from anthologies and collections. In the second semester, students read both fiction and nonfiction works exploring themes and topics related to the self, society, and social justice. These works have included “Othello,” “The Color Purple,” and a variety of short stories and poems. Whenever possible, students read a selection by the Books for Lunch author.
Advanced Placement English is the equivalent of an introductory English course at a selective college. Students read seminal works of literature from the 16th through the 21st centuries — from American, British and world cultures. AP course assignments have included works of Camus, Faulkner, Ibsen, Jin, Kafka, Gordimer, Morrison, O’Connor, Roy, Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Wilson, Winterton, and others. Students are expected to read closely and deliberately and employ a variety of critical approaches. This seminar style class requires that students prepare for and lead class discussions.
Students use rhetorical critical methods to discern and understand the ideas, language, characters, action, tone and imagery of the literature and are encouraged to develop critical standards that enable them to appreciate literature and to develop and hone their own writing and analytical skills.
In the second semester, AP students write an extensive independent research paper on a literary topic of their choice.
Because the pace and depth of these assignments are demanding, students must have the permission of the English Department to take the course.
Students in this course study many of the same texts as the college preparatory section but read several additional works, such as Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying,” and Rankine’s “Citizen.” Students develop their understanding of historical, philosophical, literary, and cultural contexts in America and its literature. In addition, students will prepare to take the AP Language and Composition Exam.
Students in this course will learn the basics of journalistic writing, photography, design, and layout. They will use this skill set to produce The Hive, the student newspaper, and Carpe Diem, the student yearbook. Through direct instruction and class duties, students will learn about the media’s responsibility for fairness, accuracy, and balance; the basics of the interview process and news writing; and the process of revising and copy editing. Students will learn to use professional cameras and camera equipment, Josten’s Yearbook Avenue project management software, and Adobe Creative Suite products like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator. They will learn to utilize the eight principles of design to create visually appealing and purposeful layouts. By the end of the course, students will understand the publication process and the cooperation that takes place when working toward common goals.
This course offers students the opportunity to gain skill, confidence, and fluency in public speaking through a range of public speaking activities. The course covers the fundamentals of public speaking, including appropriate topic selection and development of content, clear speech organization, and effective delivery techniques. Good listening skills are also emphasized through peer evaluation and critique. During the term, each student is required to present several formal speeches on a variety of topics, as well as to submit a formal outline for each speech.
This course, which is designed as both a seminar and a workshop, provides opportunities for original, imaginative writing; close reading from a craft perspective; practice in editing, revision, and critique; and an introduction to the writing workshop. Students will have the opportunity to read and write creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Each student will create a portfolio of selected and representative work.