English

This course is designed to build student capacity in the Five Essential Skills, with a particular focus on inquiry, communication and creation. The course “anchors” student reading with the following texts: All American Boys, American Born Chinese, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, and The Bluest Eye. The course emphasizes the close reading of literary texts, encouraging students to ask questions about characters, their conflicts, and the thematic understanding emerging from these conflicts. Further students will reflect upon such questions as “Who am I becoming?” “How do I know?” and “What changes do you want to make in the world?” The course emphasizes writing clear and effective sentences, well-developed and polished argumentation, reflection, and poetry along with public speaking presentations. Finally, the course encourages technical precision in punctuation, diction, and syntax.

Honors Texts: Karen McManus’ novel, One of Us is Lying, and Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys.

Angels & Monsters Within — Advanced Study in Literature & Composition

This course deepens the students’ exploration of self by probing the question of “good and evil.”. Reading literary texts from ancient to Greece, and Rome, through the Renaissance and into contemporary periods, students will continue to hone their close-reading, composition and public speaking skills. Ultimately, students will develop their own understanding of living a “good” life through a year-long examination of collective and personal morality and ethics through a close study of literature’s most iconic angels and monsters.

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 broadens the student’s understanding of their place in a complex, culturally diverse world. Through the language and backgrounds found in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama from around the globe, students examine the development of universal codes and unique perspectives. Using historical contexts and an interdisciplinary approach, students develop their understanding of this material and gauge their own involvement through argument, exposition, and presentation modes of discourse. Students who choose the Honors option for this course will have additional responsibilities to convey a deeper skillset.

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.