The Tilton School English Department understands that we all acquire and hone language skills at different rates, and in different ways. We are motivated to developing critical thinking and communication skills at each student’s pace. Through reading a variety of texts, and by participating in different expressive projects, students cultivate improved skills in English necessary for future endeavors.
The English Department invites students to engage in a range of experiences in close and sustained reading, and a wide array of writing and performance projects to help them develop essential skills. In addition, at every level, students can opt to engage in more advanced and/or additional projects to earn “honors distinction.”
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.
European literature and writing is an English course that will cover several aspects of the literary world. Through novels, short stories, poetry, graphic novels, articles and more, we will explore the ins and outs of European literature. This course will include themes of ‘Good VS Evil,’ ‘Then VS Now,’ and ‘Monsters and Men.’ Throughout the year we will read several classic texts, like Mary Shelly’s masterpiece, Frankenstein. We will also be investigating and analyzing other monsters of this realm, like Dracula. This course will include a variety of assignments and assessments to deepen your understanding of the literary works we are tackling. You will develop essential skills in analyzing texts, public speaking, writing progression and more. Conversation will be a big component of this course, so be ready to share your thoughts. Together we will investigate, discuss and analyze diverse pieces of literature and open our minds to different perspectives from the past to present day, and realms beyond our own.
Together, we will have conversations with writers from the Americas through their works; we will have conversations with each other through our own creative and critical expression; most centrally, through reading, writing, speaking, and listening we will have conversations about American experiences and identities, deepening our own understanding of the complex identities of the Americas.
This course dives into canonical and contemporary texts and provides opportunities for students to develop their skills with language, both written and spoken, through various modes that range from exploratory and reflective, to expository and argumentative.
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.
AP Seminar is a foundational course that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore the complexities of academic and real-world topics and issues by analyzing divergent perspectives. Students learn to investigate a problem or issue, analyze arguments, compare different perspectives, synthesize information from multiple sources, and work alone and in a group to communicate their ideas. The course includes three assessments that are required to complete in order to receive the AP credit. These assessments include Performance Assessment 1, Performance Assessment 2, and the AP Seminar Exam. Together, these assessments will determine a student’s overall AP Seminar score.
Creative Writing opens an opportunity for students who wish to create and share original works of memoir, poetry and fiction. We offer a hybrid Advanced Creative Writing option too for more advanced writers.
AP English Language and Composition is an introductory college-level composition course. Students cultivate their understanding of writing and rhetorical arguments through reading, analyzing, and writing texts as they explore topics like rhetorical situations, claims and evidence, reasoning and organization, and style. 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. 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.
