English

Required

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 9

Homework: Moderate

English 9 is designed to generate critical analysis about the short story, novel, drama, poetry and nonfiction, and about the student’s own writing, while investigating the theme of identity. Identity, leadership, and the development of one’s character form the basis for English 9 literary selections. Students will work to develop effective study skills, enrich their vocabulary, gain proficiency in grammar, generate probing questions, develop research skills, learn and apply literary terms, and improve their writing. Students will receive a series of in-class and process-driven writing assignments. Also, students will have the opportunity to share their ideas and perceptions through small and large group discussions and through oral presentations. The course work culminates in semester exams in which students analyze the characters and issues that they have encountered in their reading.

Texts may include: Coelho, The Alchemist; Ribay, Patron Saints of Nothing; Golding, Lord of the Flies; Gratz, Refugee; Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck; Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Card, Ender’s Game; short non-fiction narratives; a teacher-selected unit on poetry

Required

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 9

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required.

Through the study of personal essays, poetry, drama, and novels, Honors English 9 explores what it means to come of age, to have a voice, and to have agency. We ask, and attempt to answer, what it means to grow up and to read the world critically. As a foundational English course, Honors English 9 focuses on analytical writing, reading, and speaking. Close reading and passage analysis constitute the main focus for the fall semester; in the spring, students build on those skills to tackle more complex texts like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Class discussions and student-run seminars are important components of the courses. Assessments take the form of timed writing, processed essays, and creative projects, providing students with a variety of ways to demonstrate their learning. Honors English 9 requires maturity and initiative; homework load may be significant due to the difficulty of the texts assigned.

Texts may include the following: Homer/Wilson, The Odyssey; Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Cisneros, The House on Mango Street; selection of non-fiction, poetry, and short stories.

Required

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 10

Homework: Moderate

English 10 develops essential critical thinking and language skills. The course is built upon the premise that language has power, and students will analyze how language is used as an effective and powerful tool in three important areas: reading, writing, and speaking. Literature will focus on characters and narrators that are forced to face personal or sociopolitical issues. Students will express their ideas in argument-driven, analytic essays as well as class discussions.

Texts may include: Orwell, Animal Farm; Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Shakespeare, Macbeth; Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; selection of Gothic short stories and poetry.

Required

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 10

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required.

Honors English 10 is a foundational course that builds on the students’ prior skillsets while also preparing them for future upper level courses. As such, emphasis is placed on argumentation and discernment in choosing evidence not only for written assessments but also oral presentations. Critical reading literacy in a variety of genres is a major component of the course to prepare students to showcase mastery of synthesizing higher order ideas across texts and disciplines. Students should also be able to demonstrate greater independent initiative when handling texts and when expressing ideas in class discussions. Texts for the Honors English 10 course, organized by genre, explore the extent to which language can be used in powerful ways to persuade us, to move us, and to aid us in instituting social change.

Texts may include: Orwell, 1984; Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Shakespeare, Othello; Alderman, The Power; Cho, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982; Selected Poetry and Prose (provided by teacher)

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 11-12

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required.

In this course students will have the opportunity to engage in a close study of a variety of nonfiction works. Students in AP English Language will become critical readers and skilled writers who are able to identify and explicate an author’s purpose and use of rhetorical strategies. One of the many goals of this college-level course is to prepare students to write effectively and compellingly about topics across all disciplines, a practice in which they will regularly engage, in both the university and professional contexts. In May, all students will take the AP Language and Composition Exam.

Texts may include: Thoreau, Walden; Alexander, The New Jim Crow; McGhee, The Sum of Us; selected essays and speeches.

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 12

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation and successful completion of AP English Language & Composition or permission of the Department Chair.

This course is a university-level seminar that explores important themes in literature in an intertextual context. Reading, critical thinking, seminar discussion, and writing are the essential elements of the course, all of which will be rigorously assessed. The reading load, which is typically in excess of 40 pages a night, is significantly heavier than other courses with an Honors weighting, and is assessed via daily closed-book quizzes. Major assessments almost exclusively take the form of timed in-class essays. In addition to course texts, readings will also include selections from works of critical theory. The class is for mature readers with open minds who have already demonstrated excellence in writing and critical thinking and who are eager to challenge themselves further. Students should be aware that the works studied in the course will frequently engage with emotionally challenging and politically controversial topics.

Texts may include: Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Miller, Death of a Salesman; Edson, W;t; Desai, The Inheritance of Loss; Brontë, Jane Eyre; Nottage, Sweat; Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air; Hwang, M. Butterfly;

Elective

Duration: 2 years

Credit: 2

Grade: 11-12

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required.

IBHL English Literature is primarily a rigorous pre-university course in literature. It is designed for students who intend to pursue a course of studies at university that places a heavy emphasis on critical reading and analytical writing. As the International Baccalaureate Organization notes, the study of literature “enables an exploration of one of the more enduring fields of human creativity and artistic ingenuity, and provides immense opportunities for encouraging independent, original, critical and clear thinking." It also promotes a healthy respect for the imagination and a perceptive approach to the understanding and interpretation of literary works. The discussion of literature is itself an art which requires the clear expression of ideas both orally and in writing. The Language A1 program encourages students to see literary works as products of art and their authors as craftsmen whose methods of production can be analyzed in a variety of ways and on a number of levels. This is achieved through the emphasis placed on exploring the means used by different authors to convey their subjects in the works studied. It is further reinforced by the comparative framework emphasized for the study of these works in all parts of the program. The flexibility of the program allows teachers to choose challenging works from their own sources to suit the particular needs and interests of their students. During the course of two years, students will be assessed in a variety of written and oral formats.

Texts may include: Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold; O’ Neill; Long Day’s Journey into Night; Schlink, The Reader; Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk; selected poems by Emily Dickinson and other poets.

Elective

Duration: 2 years

Credit: 2Grades: 11 & 12

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisites: Teacher recommendation is required

Students will select either the IBHL or IBSL level of the course for both years.

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 11-12

Homework: Moderate

Students will apply the reading and writing skills developed in the first two years of the English program to a representative study of American literature. The course syllabus will emphasize works that have earned a place in the literary tradition of the United States, while also including more recent writers whose works are expanding and redefining the American literary tradition. Instruction will be designed to help students respond to increasingly complex and challenging literary experiences. The composition component of the curriculum will include a heavy emphasis on journaling and practice in a wide range of writing modes. Work in practical grammar, academic writing, style (MLA), and vocabulary development will continue.

Texts may include: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine; Melville, Moby Dick; Bradbury, The Illustrated Man; Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon; Coates, Between the World and Me

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1 Grade: 11-12

Homework: Moderate

World Literature explores the interplay of class, gender, and race across cultures and time. Through the study of great works of Western and non-Western literature, students will gain greater perspective on their unique place within this rapidly globalizing world. This class promotes an understanding of the works in their cultural/historical contexts as well as the enduring values that unite humanity. This course is designed to challenge students as critical readers, writers, and thinkers.

Texts may include: Euripides, Medea; Su, Raise the Red Lantern; Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate; Shakespeare, Othello; selected essays, poems and short stories.

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 11-12

Homework: Moderate

What lessons can be learned about law and justice, vengeance and mercy from great literature? How does literature depict the legal and judicial system? This course focuses on the execution of justice within literature. We will seek to discover the ways in which literature enhances our understanding of morals, ethics, and justice. Participants will analyze legal themes in literary and visual texts to better understand the tension between the laws we follow and our own code of ethics. Participants will also engage in a variety of immersive activities such as debates, mock trials, and reader’s theater. The class will be formatted around open-ended discussions, case examination, as well as reflective and analytical writing. Students will attend one-on-one writing conferences with the instructor to develop their analytical and argumentative writing skills. Course work culminates in an investigation essay where students are tasked with synthesizing a number of texts on a topic of their choice.

Texts may include: Camus, The Stranger; Erdich, The Round House; Headley, Beowulf: A New Translation; Larsen, Devil in the White City; Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying; Christie, And Then There Were None; teacher-selected cases and short stories.

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 11-12

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required.

Honors American Literature will require a rigorous study of a representative sample of American literature with an emphasis on developing students’ critical reading and analytical writing skills. Students are expected to demonstrate independent initiative when handling texts and when expressing ideas in class discussions as well as in frequent in-class and take-home writing assignments. Reading load and homework expectations in the Honors class are significantly higher. The course syllabus will reflect works that have earned a place in the literary tradition of the United States, while also including more recent writers whose works are expanding and redefining the American literary tradition. Instruction will be designed to help students respond to increasingly complex and challenging literary experiences. The composition component of the curriculum will include practice in a wide range of writing modes. Work in practical grammar, style, and vocabulary development will continue. Teacher recommendation is required.

Texts may include: King, The Truth About Stories; Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine; O’Brien, The Things They Carried; Morrison, The Bluest Eye; Coates, Between the World and Me; selections of poetry, short stories, and essays provided by the instructor.

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 11-12

Homework: Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required.

Honors World Literature requires a rigorous study of the literary, cultural, and human significance of selected great works of classical Western and non-Western literary traditions, as well as a greater mastery of critical reading, thinking, and writing. Students should demonstrate greater independent initiative when handling texts and when expressing ideas in class discussions as well as in frequent in-class and take-home writing assignments. Reading load and homework expectations in the Honors class are significantly higher. The works studied in the course will be examined through the lens of different literary theories. An important goal of the class is to promote an understanding of the works in their cultural/historical contexts and to reveal the enduring human values which unite the different literary traditions.

Texts may include: Sin-Leqi-Unninni, Gilgamesh; Virgil, Aeneid; Heaney, Beowulf (trans.); Cervantes, Don Quixote; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Euripides, Medea; Ibsen, A Doll House; Narayan, The Guide; Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold; She, Rickshaw Boy; selected essays, poems and short stories.

Duration: 1 year
Credit: 1
Grade: 11 -12
Homework: Heavy
Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required.

What does it mean to be Asian? What does it mean to be an Asian author?
In this course, we will explore polyphonic voices from across the Asian
continent and question what it means to be an Asian voice in the context of
diaspora. The course aims to explore the diversity of cultures, concerns, and
literary traditions across Asian cultures and to challenge the idea that Asian
literature is monolithic. Students will conduct rigorous study of our texts
through daily reading and writing homework assignments. Assessments will
include analytical essays, student presentations, dramatic performances,
and projects.

Texts may include: Eka Kurniawan, Man Tiger; Sayaka Murata,
Convenience Store Woman; Su Tong, Raise the Red Lantern; Yiyun
Li, A Thousand Years of Good Fortune; Min Jin lee, Pachinko; Shyam
Selvadurai, Funny Boy; Balli Kaur Jaswal, Sugarbread; Ken Liu, The
Paper Menagerie; Lysley Tenorio, Monstress; Yoko Ogawa, The Memory
Police; Shawna Yang Ryan, Green Island; Souvankham Thammavongsa,
How to Pronounce Knife; Mosin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising
Asia; Duanwad Pimwana, Bright
 

Duration: Full year

Credit: 1

Grade: 9-12

Homework: Heavy 

Prerequisite: None for Journalism 1

Subsequent courses to be taken in sequence

Elective

Duration: Full year

Credit: 1 Grade: 9-12

Homework: Light (Moderate for Honors)

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required for Honors.

Subsequent courses to be taken in sequence

Elective

Duration: 1 semester

Credit: 0.5

Grade: 9-12

Homework: Light

Prerequisite: None

This course is dual-listed under both the English and Visual Art departments and fulfills the Visual Art credit but does not fulfill the English credit. The course is designed for students to explore in greater depth the collaborative potential for visual art and literature, providing them the platform to appreciate the interconnectedness of the world of words and the world of colors. Students will express their appreciation for and understanding of literature in their artistic interpretations. They will learn and experiment with a variety of tools, mediums, and techniques such as drawing, painting, and mixed media as we read and discuss different genres of literature, with a focus on poetry and prose. We will examine the texts for themes, symbolism, imagery, characterization, narrative perspective and structure, and learn to use visual art as a tool to communicate our interpretation of these authorial choices. In the course of the semester, students will also examine works of art and interpret the story behind these artworks through individual and collaborative creative writing. Students are assigned readings for homework, and are expected to record their observations and ideas in their sketchbook so that they are prepared to come into class to share and discuss. Most assignments are completed in class, though they might need to work on their art and/or creative writing pieces beyond regular class time. At the end of the semester, students will develop a body of work and produce a final portfolio along with written reflections of their creative choices.

Elective

Duration: 1 semester

Credit: 0.5

Grade: 9-12

Homework: Light

Prerequisite: None

This course is dual-listed under both the English and Visual Art departments and fulfills the Visual Art credit but does not fulfill the English credit. Students can take this course without having taken it in the first semester. Course content, expectations, and outcomes are similar to that of the first semester. Students will explore the collaborative potential for visual art and literature, and are provided the platform to appreciate the interconnectedness of the world of words and the world of colors in their artistic interpretations. They will learn and experiment with a variety of tools, mediums, and techniques such as drawing, painting, and mixed media as we read and discuss different genres of literature, with a focus on poetry, prose and plays. We will examine the texts for themes, symbolism, imagery, characterization, narrative perspective and structure, and learn to use visual art as a tool to communicate our interpretation of these authorial choices. In the course of the semester, students will also examine works of art and interpret the story behind these artworks through creative writing. Students are assigned readings for homework, and are expected to record their observations and ideas in their sketchbook so that they are prepared to come into class to share and discuss. Most assignments are completed in class, though they might need to work on their art and/or creative writing pieces beyond regular class time. At the end of the semester, students will develop a body of work and produce a final portfolio along with written reflections of their creative choices.

Elective

Duration: 1 year

Credit: 1

Grade: 10-12

Homework: Moderate to Heavy

Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation is required

This course is dual-listed under both the English and Visual Art departments and fulfills the Visual Art credit but does not fulfill the English credit. At the Honors level, workload and expectations are higher; it is likely that students will need to work on their art/creative writing pieces beyond regular class time. Throughout the year, students develop their oral, written and visual presentations skills as they visually interpret the literature and creatively write about the art. They are exposed to a variety of tools, mediums, and techniques as we read and interpret different literary genres such as poetry, prose and plays. Students are assigned readings for homework, and are expected to record their observations and ideas in their sketchbook so that they are prepared to come into class to share and discuss. We will engage in individual and collaborative work in our conceptualization and execution of art making during class time. In the second semester, students work towards developing a personalized portfolio by focusing on a theme, medium, or literary genre of their choosing. By the end of both semesters, students are expected to have a portfolio of work that they can select from to submit to the Scholastic Art Awards and the school magazines. The course will also conclude with student exhibitions as they “read”, reflect and interpret the aesthetics of each other’s works of art.