English

This junior-level course increasingly emphasizes close critical reading within the context of American Literature. Students explore a variety of voices and perspectives as they consider what it means to be an American. Students' essays are longer and more complex, utilizing both primary and secondary sources. Exercises in public speaking are integral parts of the course. Readings include short fiction, novels, essays, poetry, and contemporary drama and have featured authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, Richard Wright, Tim O'Brien, and August Wilson.

This course offers juniors an intensive study of American literature in the context of American historical and cultural development. Selections range from early political and persuasive essays to contemporary poems, dramas, short stories, and novels. Students will analyze and interpret literature as well as study trends and changing perspectives. Writing assignments stress principles of unity, coherence, and full development of ideas. This course complements studies undertaken by the Advanced Placement U.S. History and Honors U.S. History courses. Texts currently include works by Hawthorne, Miller, Emerson, Thoreau, Morrison, Crane, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, O’Brien, and McCarthy. 

Enrollment in this course requires departmental approval.

AP® English Language and Composition is a college-level course that introduces students to critical writing and reading strategies used in different academic disciplines and professional fields. Students read and analyze essays, letters, speeches, images, and non-fiction books, among other texts. Through an in-depth study of the art of rhetoric, students learn to identify rhetorical strategies and devices in a text and their effects on a reader. At the same time, students refine their understanding of rhetorical contexts and the best rhetorical approaches to take in their own analytical and argumentative writing. Authors include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Tim O’Brien, and Bryan Stevenson. This course prepares students for the College Board exam’s assessment of critical reading skills and analytical writing. 

Enrollment in this course requires departmental approval.

AP® English Literature and Composition is a rigorous full-year course designed to fulfill the learning objectives determined by the College Board to demonstrate mastery of advanced skills in literary analysis and composition. The course also prepares students to take the timed AP® exam in the spring. Students are expected to perform at a college level in terms of reading comprehension, written expression, familiarity with literary elements and terms, and workload pace. Students explore primarily American and British literature in a variety of genres—drama, poetry, short stories, and novels—and from literary periods from the Renaissance through contemporary. Authors include such writers as Shakespeare, Wharton, Steinbeck, Hurston, Ellison, and Rankine.  As students read, write, and participate in this discussion-driven course, they become more attentive to the power and beauty of literature, the relevance of literature to their own lives, and the value of participating in a scholarly community.  

Enrollment in this course requires departmental approval.

The study of comparative literature means, in a broad sense, reading works by authors from different backgrounds, from different time periods, and in different genres, all while looking at themes, arguments, and literary styles that cross all of these categories. In this rigorous course, students move through the reading list of short stories, novels, and plays by examining texts that speak to each other in some way, such as fairy tales from various cultures or novels with strong female protagonists. Readings include such works as Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours, King Lear, the stories of Ray Bradbury, and Station Eleven. Throughout the year, as students write in a variety of genres, including analytical essays and creative projects, they gain a deeper appreciation for the rich and diverse world of literature. 

Enrollment in this course requires departmental approval.