English

Grade: 11
Prerequisites: None
Credits: 1.0 (1 for US History and 1 for English)

Striving for the American Dream: The Country’s Story of Triumph and Tragedy, Oppression and Resistance, Individualism and the Common Good 

Our current world practically begs for definitive answers. On a daily basis, we are bombarded with either/or, you’re-with-us-or-against-us, choose-a-side scenarios and situations. Even a cursory glance at United States history, however, reveals a much richer picture than these contemporary choices suggest. This interdisciplinary American Studies course aims to inspire students to explore through reading, writing, and research the tensions and complexities of U.S. history and literature, recognizing that a country and its people can be many things all at once. Taking a chronological approach beginning with indigenous cultures and continuing to the present day, the course will provide students with a core understanding of the nuanced history of the United States through literature-based units that enrich the information with human truths. 

The course will meet all year with English and history meeting every other day. Students will earn credits in both English and social studies with portions of the work counting in both classes. 

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: None
Credit: .5

This class aims to prepare you for the AP exam in the spring, but more importantly, it will hone your skills as a critical reader, an effective writer, and hopefully you will come out of it (if you are not already) as a lover of literature. We will study both pre-20th century texts as well as contemporary texts and as we do so, constantly look for patterns, deeper meanings and ask ourselves why and how – more specifically, why an author employs certain techniques and how does this add to the overall meaning of the text. The core question at the heart of this class, is what does it mean to be human? And how do these texts contribute to this question? That is what we’ll aim to discover together. 

Work for this course will mainly involve close-reading of novels, short stories, and poetry with thoughtful annotations; Socratic seminars; a discussion leader assignment; bi-weekly in-class timed AP essays; and take-home revised essays.

Grade: 10
Prerequisites: None
Credit: 1.0

The first quarter is an examination of Western literature that explores man’s search for meaning spanning from the Ancient Greeks through Post World War 1 Modernism. We will be looking at man’s quest for truth, enlightenment and power through various texts, including our summer readings by Hesse and Frankel, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” Transcendentalist essays, Romantic poetry, a graphic version of Frankenstein, Elie Wiesel’s Night, and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The second quarter is a Global Literature class including the works of Achebe, Hosseini, and Alvarez. The power of a story to transport readers across time to relay personal and cultural truths will enhance our understanding of different cultures and history.  

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: Western Literature and American Studies
Credit: .5

This class will examine how women writers write about identity, society, relationships, class, race, and gender. We will hear from a diversity of female voices starting from the beginning of the first wave feminist movement to today. The form of the texts will vary as we’ll read short stories, novels, essays and poetry. The writers we’ll read include Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Virginia Woolf, Kate Chopin, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jamaica Kincaid, Jesmyn Ward, Roxanne Gay, Diane Wilson, and Yaa Gyasi. By reading a diverse spectrum of writers, we'll enlarge our sense of what is possible, what is significant, and what really matters to us in the writing of women.

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: None
Credit: .5

In creative writing you will explore and develop your own writing abilities in the areas of fiction, personal narrative, and poetry. This workshop-centered course will create a safe space for students to share writing, to receive feedback, and to be encouraged to revise and rework ideas. We will discuss craft and technique through reading published writers as well as extensive discussion of our own work. This course covers story construction, character development, dialogue, description, world building, and the basics of clear and lively use of language.

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: None
Credits: .5 

Stories are an essential part of human culture; they help us make meaning to understand ourselves, each other, and our place in the world. The means by which these stories are told—whether they are written, spoken, or acted on stage or screen—influences the way they are approached and interpreted. Fiction and Literary Adaptation explores the complex interplay between film and literature as well as the unique ways stories can be told through the medium of film. Students read selected novels and analyze them in relation to film versions of the same works to gain an understanding of the possibilities—and problems—involved in the transposition to film. They engage with film theory and technique, challenging novels, literary criticism, film analysis, and reading and viewing from a more critical, analytical perspective that includes understanding the cultural significance and contexts of literary and cinematic forms. 

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: None
Credits: .5 

Inspired by Dacher Keltner’s book Awe, The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, this course explores those moments of awe that stop us in our tracks with the chills or inspire an audible “whoa”. This courses in grounded in what Keltner identifies as the Eight Wonders of Life including moral beauty, collective experiences, nature, music, art, spirituality, life and death, and moments of epiphany. The poetry, novels, and nonfiction that we read will wrestle with the experiences and the meaning people take away from these moments. Students will not only read, see, and hear about others’ encounters with awe, but also identify and work to find moments of wonder in their own lives. Optional field trips will be offered.

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: None
Credits: .5

For decades, science fiction authors have explored both humanity’s wildest dreams and greatest fears surrounding technology and where it might lead. This class focuses on the analysis of classic and modern science fiction texts to examine how the often-overlooked genre helps readers re-imagine their present lives, their relationship to the past, and the possibilities available in the future. The literary examination introduces students to movements and themes within the genre through its canonical authors, including Ursula K. Le Guin, Karel Capek, Isaac Asimov, Warren Ellis, Robert A. Heinlein, Neal Stephenson, and more. As students study virtual/augmented reality, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, time travel, cyborgs and robotics, biology, and utopias and dystopias, they are also be challenged to think about speculative/critical design to encourage the ethical and thoughtful creation of new technologies. 

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: Completion of American Studies or Instructor Permission
Credit: .5

This class reads short things. More specifically, it covers the history and highlights of the short story, flash fiction, the short (or "lyric") poem, and the short song. It will also cover several essays and short books about writing, especially "writing short." In other words, we'll delve into English "Plain Style," which emphasizes clear sentence structure, everyday vocabulary, and brevity. This is an analytical rather than a creative writing class. But we'll still experiment with style creatively.

Authors might include: Jorge Luis Borges, Anton Chekhov, Emily Dickinson, Marie de France, Claire Keegan, Alistair, MacLeod, W.S. Merwin, Alice Munro, Pablo Neruda, Rumi, Rabindranath Tagore, and Virginia Woolf.

Grade: 9
Prerequisites: None
Credit: 1.0

This course teaches the basics of close reading; basic literary analysis (how to formulate scholarly questions and arguments from the evidence); how to evolve your early arguments into stronger ones; some theoretical frameworks with which to approach reading; and how to do scholarly research. We read several literary genres: short stories, poetry, short novels, plays, and (if time allows) creative nonfiction. We balance analytical and creative writing. And we write two papers or projects per quarter.

Grade: 12
Prerequisites: Completion of American Literature or Instructor Permission
Credit: (.5)

Students explore the art, music, and literature of the Harlem Renaissance, including precursors to the Urban Diaspora and the Blues aesthetic. A critical look at racism and its impact on the art of the period informs how artistic expression exists under the oppression of post-Reconstruction America. We will look at how the Harlem Renaissance is both a documentation of that oppression and a celebration of a people. Discussion and critical analysis will be the product of delving into music, poetry, novels, and paintings; and as well, students will continue to harness analytical writing skills and the critical thinking necessary for academic study of this era.