English

Our English Program offers an integrated model of literacy in which reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills are closely connected. Students comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and disciplines and adapt their communications in relation to audience, task, purpose, and discipline. Students develop the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas and to conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems.

Courses

American Literature

Through the study of informational and literary texts focused on the Vietnam War, students investigate the various effects of war on society, considering the impact on those in the military and those at home.
Students delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

AP English 11

Students engage in close reading and analysis of a variety of Native American texts and stories, considering how the characters and events communicate the world view of Native Americans and how different authors treat the same subject matter.
Students read and study early American, European authors to determine the ways that readers and authors are influenced by individual, social, and cultural contexts.

Students discover how writers use literature, poetry, prose, and narrative nonfiction as a means to share the horrific and traumatic experiences they encounter both on and off the battlefield.
Students write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization and analysis of content.

Students conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question or solve a problem, to synthesize multiple sources on the subject, and to demonstrate understanding of the subject under investigation.
Students convey a clear and distinct perspective in writing, addressing opposing perspectives and using an organization, development, and style appropriate to the audience and purpose.

AP/ECE English 12

Units

Pride and Pursuit of Education

Marginalized Groups and Menacing Media

Students evaluate the extent that stigma affects the quality of treatment, quality of care, and level of empathy for those suffering from mental illness.
Students are engaged in constructing arguments with greater complexity by developing a position on an issue, proposing a solution or compromise to the problem, identifying the most compelling or persuasive aspects of an argument, and identifying appropriate and substantial evidence for an argument.

Derisive Discrimination and Disparity

Paramount and Poignant Proposals

Students research the scope of a problem and then develop a proposal which devises an innovative solution to improve a situation, environment, or advocate for a group.
Students introduce precise, knowledgeable claims, establish the significance of claims, distinguish the claims from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claims, counterclaims, reasoning, and evidence.

Units

Evolving Education and Tracing Trends

Using the AP Capstone QUEST Framework and process, students consider and evaluate multiple points of view to develop their own perspectives on complex issues and topics through inquiry and investigation.
Students will annotate and analyze articles with each AP stimulus packet completing source analysis, evaluating lenses and key stakeholders in order to devise an original inquiry.

Students practice and prepare final projects for submission to the College Board for AP Seminar Assessment.
In a group, students identify an area of investigation and its relationship to an overall problem or issue, develop a research question and conduct research, identify perspectives through which to view the area of investigation, analyze and evaluate the claim in sources, and develop a multimedia presentation which includes a proposal and supporting argument.

Control Conscience and Caustic Leadership

English 9

Using podcast documentaries and transcripts, students develop skills in integrating multiple sources of information presented in diverse media formats and evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source. They evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric , identifying fallacious reasoning or distorted evidence.
Students write arguments to support claims, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

Units

Literature and the Self: Short Stories

Students engage in close and critical reading of complex literary texts to develop an understanding of how authors use literary structures and devices to create a unified literary work.
Students study elements of fiction and the author’s craft and demonstrate their understanding by producing their own short work of fiction using plot structure, dialogue, characterization, figurative language, and precise diction.

Students collaborate to annotate and interpret various types of poetry, focusing on the relationship between meaning and structure and the poet’s use of literary devices.
Students apply knowledge of language to their reading of poetry, understanding how language functions in different poetic contexts. Students respond in writing to poetry and analyze, memorize, and recite poems of their choosing.

English 10

Students study the structure and format of Shakespearean tragedy engaging in close reading and examining themes such as the impact of suffering on the individual, appearance vs.a reality, and self-knowledge.
Students analyze how complex characters, those with multiple or conflicting motivations, develop over the course of a text,, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Poetry

English 12

Students evaluate the extent that stigma affects the quality of treatment, quality of care, and level of empathy for those suffering from mental illness.
Students are engaged in constructing arguments with greater complexity by developing a position on an issue, proposing a solution or compromise to the problem, identifying the most compelling or persuasive aspects of an argument, and identifying appropriate and substantial evidence for an argument.

International Injustice

Shakespeare and Shakespearean Themes

Students study the structure and format of Shakespearean tragedy engaging in close reading and examining themes such as sacrifice, ambition, and jealousy.
Students determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.

Moral Temptation and Ethical Dilemmas

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