This course places major emphasis on the mastery of fundamental verbal and study skills: sentence and paragraph construction, vocabulary development, accurate spelling, effective memorization, concise summarizing, precise reading, systematic thinking, and disciplined listening. Analytical work in grammar, the first stage of a two-year program, introduces parts of speech, the components of phrases and clauses, and the basic patterns of English sentences. Instruction in composition focuses primarily on paragraph organization and development—on precise topic sentences, relevant supporting details, and effective concluding statements—but students have opportunities, as well, to experiment with poetry and fiction. Assigned readings represent a variety of literary situations, from the realistic to the fantastic, and a variety of human behavior, from the heroic to the ridiculous. Although students do encounter important critical concepts and terms, the work in literature seeks less to introduce techniques of literary criticism than to foster precise observation, accurate recall, and simple vicarious appreciation of human behavior imaginatively recreated. The following books are studied in the course: Lee et al., Grammar for Writing; Perrin, The Art of Poetry; Guthrie and Page, Little Worlds; Dickens, A Christmas Carol; Gibson, The Miracle Worker; Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird; Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men.

This course provides continued instruction and practice in verbal and analytical skills. We first review subordinate clauses and verbal phrases, and devote the rest of time to the rules and patterns of standard formal usage and mechanics. In composition, expository and descriptive essays supplement the continuing concentration on paragraph structure. This course continues a four-year emphasis on vocabulary development and word-attack skills, promoted through the use of an on-line vocabulary study program and through a consistent concern with diction in required reading and writing. Reading assignments encompass a range of literary periods, styles, and genres, but most works explore the often confusing, often-contentious relationship between an individual and his or her social environment. Work in critical analysis concentrates most heavily on narrative structure, techniques of characterization, and the influence of setting on action and character. Works considered include the following: Lee et al., Grammar for Writing; Arp and Johnson, Perrine’s Sound and Sense (poetry); Sisko, American 24-Karat Gold (short fiction); Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men; Golding, Lord of the Flies; Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea; Lawrence and Lee, Inherit the Wind; Masters, Spoon River Anthology; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.

English 9 lays the foundation for advanced work in composition and literature. The program in writing provides a review of paragraph structure and extends those principles to the basic form of the short expository or analytical essay. Instruction in composition—and considerable practice with both literary and non-literary topics—emphasizes the selection and statement of a unifying thesis, the presentation of relevant supporting detail, and the use of active, forceful diction and syntax. Students are also introduced to speech-writing, with each composing and delivering in class an informative speech. In literature, work in poetry and short fiction continues to build the critical attitudes and approaches necessary for a mature exploration of artistic method and meaning; key concerns are narrative point-of-view, tone, imagery, symbolism, and irony. Several of the major works studied complement the materials of the Class IV history course by evoking the social, philosophical, and aesthetic concerns of some major periods in Western Civilization—Homeric Greece, the Renaissance, and World War I, in particular. In general, the reading serves to examine a number of quite distinct visions of courage, honor, and integrity. Among the works studied are the following: Boynton and Mack, Introduction to the Short Story; Arp and Johnson, Perrine’s Sound and Sense; Cisneros, The House on Mango Street; Hemingway, In Our Time; Homer, The Odyssey; Knowles, A Separate Peace; Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.

English 10 aims to consolidate and hone the logical and technical skills essential to college-level reading and writing. Composition assignments include critical, expository, and personal essays, as well as a persuasive speech, with some additional opportunity to create original poetry and fiction. Work in the essay emphasizes effective introductory and concluding paragraphs, smooth transition from idea to idea, and control of tone and style. Continued emphasis on diction and sentence structure seeks to foster more precise, direct, and forceful expression. In literature, students examine a considerable range of artistic styles and philosophical perspectives, with particular attention to the inseparable relationship of form and meaning. Assigned works serve to illustrate the tensions of structure and language that underlie great literature, as well as the tensions of human nature and human aspirations. Among the issues raised by a number of works are the nature of tragedy, the search for identity, and such opposing forces as innocence and experience, dreams and reality, idealism and cynicism, self-indulgence and self-sacrifice. Works considered include the following: Gioia and Gwynn, The Art of the Short Story; Chekhov, The Seagull; Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Frost, Selected Poems; O’Brien, The Things They Carried; Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye; Shakespeare, Macbeth; Swift, Gulliver’s Travels.

Class II English begins with an intensive review of the techniques and attitudes essential to mature critical reading and writing. Class discussions of short fiction, poetry, and drama raise questions and issues that students then set out to explore and resolve in substantial critical essays. Although the course undertakes a thorough review of usage, mechanics, sentence structure, and essay organization, the most significant progress in writing takes place individually, as an outgrowth of comments on submitted papers, private conferences, and required revisions. Aside from an intensive study of a Shakespearean tragedy, the course focuses on a year-long exploration of significant thematic currents in American literature and culture. Even without formal coordination, the literary perspectives explored in English and the political and social issues raised in U.S. History serve to illuminate each other. Through the reading and through both critical and creative writing assignments, students consider some of the abiding myths of the American experience (the Frontier Hero, the American Dream, the Melting Pot) and some of the abiding tensions (individualism and democracy, freedom and bondage, nature and civilization, simplicity and sophistication). Among the works studied are the following: Transcendentalism: Essential Essays of Emerson and Thoreau; Conarroe, Six American Poets; Gioia and Gwynn, The Art of the Short Story; Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; Morrison, Song of Solomon; Norris, Clybourne Park; Shakespeare, Hamlet; Twain, Huckleberry Finn.

English 12 investigates, in depth, a range of literary perspectives on human nature and the meaning of existence. Class discussions extend close textual analysis of a work to an exploration of the wider psychological and moral issues which it raises. In addition to the basic syllabus studied by all sections, the course provides several significant periods of time for teachers to undertake additional works or special projects. Composition assignments include formal critical essays on the assigned literature, analytical investigations of related ideas and issues, and short stories rooted in personal experience. Because this course is the culmination of a six-year program in literature and language—and for some students the last English course they will ever take—it places heavy emphasis on the development of independent critical judgment and a mature, controlled writing style. Among the works considered are the following: Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Shakespeare, King Lear; Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone; Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych.

American Literature
This course develops competence in literary analysis and in the personal essay. Literary analysis involves problem-solving 
and associative logic while personal writing involves working with narrative and descriptive techniques; both require creativity. By asking students to use both forms of writing, the course urges students to develop their reading and thinking skills and to derive satisfaction from stating their views with exactness, conciseness, and accuracy. On-going work in vocabulary helps students speak and write with increasing precision, and a speech unit encourages effective public speaking. Most of the literary selections come from American literature to complement juniors’ study of American history. These works include Matterhorn, Macbeth, The Great Gatsby, poetry, and perhaps Death of a Salesman or Catcher in the Rye. 

AP English Language and Composition
Intended for students who are passionate about the written word and have demonstrated excellence in reading and writing, this course offers elaborate examination of verbal artistry in works of fiction, essays, drama, and poetry. While the course prepares students for the Advanced Placement Examination in Language and Composition, its focus is the continued exploration of identity as presented in mostly American works. Units of study culminate in a variety of compositions: analysis, research, timed writings, narratives, and creative writing. Representative readings include Leaves of Grass, The Tales of Hawthorne, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, Macbeth, As I Lay Dying, The Shipping News, A Confederacy 
of Dunces, and The Stranger. Students also complete a public-speaking unit.

AP English Literature and Composition
Students who choose to enroll in AP English Literature should have a strong interest in literary analysis and in the exploration of ideas. They should expect to read widely and adventurously, to contribute frequently to the serious 
discussion of literature in class, and to write extensively in a variety of forms, including analytical and synthesis essays, poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Students in this class learn a broad range of techniques that help them 
to develop a unique voice and style and to convey their ideas with precision and elegance. They will also learn to 
write on a college level and will gain practice in literary research methods. One important objective of the course is to prepare students to take the Advanced Placement Examination in English Literature and Composition in the spring. Representative readings include Hamlet, Moby Dick, Heart of Darkness, The Crossing, Pride and Prejudice, and King Lear.