English

The Workshop invites students who wish to create and share original works of memoir, poetry and fiction.  

1st Trimester — Memoir 

2nd Trimester — Poetry

3rd Trimester — Fiction

Students may enroll in any one or all of the trimester courses in creative writing.  

This course helps students refine their reading and writing for college success and civic engagement. As curious, critical, and responsive readers of mostly nonfiction, this course requires students to be flexible, reflective responders with audience and purpose in mind. Learning to identify and to analyze rhetorical modes and literary devices, students discover a writer’s intentions to elicit a reader’s response to a particular situation. Context is crucial, and students work to polish their own understanding of formal and informal written and spoken language.

Students who choose the AP option will have “Advanced Placement English Language and Composition” on their transcript and must take the spring AP exam.

All students will create pathways for deep, purposeful, self-directed learning, fueling lifelong discovery, creativity, and growth, unleashing the skills, passion, and courage to address the world’s most challenging problems.

This course encourages critical and responsive reading of fiction, poetry, and drama. Learning to identify and to analyze literary devices within unique genres, students discover a writer’s thematic and emotional intention and connect these intentions to contemporary politics at home and around the world. Context is crucial, and students work to polish their own understanding of cultural perspectives and of formal written and spoken language. Students who choose the AP option will have “Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition” on their transcript and must take the spring AP national exam. All students will create pathways for deep, purposeful, self-directed learning.  

This course is designed to provide students with the journalism skills and the ability to apply those skills to the actual production of the yearbook. Units of study include teamwork, responsibility, brainstorming, content, coverage, concept, reporting, writing, headlines, captions, editing, photography, typography, design, graphics, finances, yearbook campaigns, advertising and distribution. This course is an introduction to the basic elements of visual communication and the print world. Fundamental skills such as learning how to use photography to document events, reporting, and writing and design will be the foundation of this course. In partnership with Josten’s Yearbook Company, the course will cover all of the areas listed above which are in line with the Mastery Approach. 

In this introductory course, students will learn how words can influence and create connections. Students will begin to develop their ability to captivate, inspire and persuade audiences with confidence and clarity. Throughout the course fundamental principles of effective oral communication will be explored. Through compelling narratives and effective use of body language, students will learn how to engage, influence, and inspire with the spoken word.

Introduction to Debate will extend students’ skills in critical thinking and argumentation, and familiarize them with the process of deliberative decision making in a democratic society. By honing students’ skills in research, reading, writing, speaking and listening, they prepare themselves for a culminating debate performance at the end of the trimester.