During the second semester, all Third, Fourth, and Fifth Form English students deliver a speech in English class. Teachers choose outstanding student speakers to speak in the morning school meeting. After a faculty panel judges the school meeting speeches, one student in each of the three Forms receives an award. A grand prize is also awarded.

Studying a variety of short stories, plays, novels, and poems, students look at the ways authors use literary tools to tell moving stories. Readings may include The Old Man and the Sea, The Lord of the Flies, The Penelopiad and A Raisin in the Sun. Students learn to write effective sentences and paragraphs and have the opportunity to practice writing the above-mentioned essay modes. The study of grammar includes instruction on avoiding the more common writing problems.

Honors section available.

This course helps students develop a more sophisticated understanding of the fundamentals begun in Form III English with particular instruction on how different literary works operate within the context of their distinct genres. Reading may include The House on Mango Street, Macbeth, Fahrenheit 451, and Their Eyes Were Watching God. The writing curriculum gives students the opportunity to focus on writing organized paragraphs and the extended essay while practicing the various essay modes of the English Department writing curriculum.

Honors section available.

This course surveys major trends, writers and themes of American Literature. Examples of some of the themes include “Utopia and Dystopia in American Literature” and “Self-Creation in American Literature.” As part of their participation in the Writing Program, student writing emphasizes the analytical essay. In the honors section, instruction focuses on the analytical and writing skills needed to succeed on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Students enrolled in the honors section of this course are required to take the AP Exam in English Language in May. All sections review for the SAT I in May.

Honors section available.

This course seeks to help students read, write, and think more carefully and more deliberately. As readers, they focus on the authors’ use of language to elicit responses from their readers. As writers, they strive to write consciously rather than as an afterthought, seeking to communicate ideas more effectively. By improving their reading and writing skills, the students learn to think more clearly and precisely. In addition, they have developed their vocabulary by focusing on bases, prefixes, and suffixes and combinations of those particles in words. The course prepares the student to take the AP English Literature and Composition examination in May.

The natural world has been represented, imagined, and “constructed” in numerous literary works since the first written word. Authors, essayists, and poets have portrayed nature to be, among other things, the teacher, victim, antagonist, and testing place of humankind. This course will examine a variety of works and compare some of the portrayals. The main focus of the course will be on the development of close reading and precise writing skills. The reading list, a mix of classic and contemporary writings, will include works by Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods), Ernest Hemingway (In Our Time), and Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It).

This Sixth Form elective begins with some of Shakespeare’s most famous works--The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet--paying particular attention to the supernatural element in these plays. Students will then consider contemporary works, which display a similar preoccupation with the supernatural. The class will study the political, social and cultural atmospheres from each of the time periods along with performance techniques and values. Assessments will consist of projects, presentations, essays, quizzes and tests.

In this fall semester honors elective, students will participate in a complex study of race in America by reading selections from the following authors: K.J. Williams, Richards Wright, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Barack Obama. We will round out our study in race in America by viewing two documentaries, ESPN’s The Fab Five and Spike Lee’s, When the Levees Broke. Students will be expected to write daily and our emphasis this term will be on the personal narrative and using theory to do close readings of the texts.

Designed for students interested in further development of exposition, this course focuses on three aspects of the writing process: observation, expression, and revision. Students write daily; most classes use a workshop format.

A century ago leisure time was limited, and life on the farm and in the factory was hard. Over time, the labor movement, the industrial revolution, and the technology revolution have allowed more time for our games and pastimes. As more people watched and participated in leisure time activities, a body of literature inspired by these activities emerged. Our games have given us a rich variety of real and fictional characters as well as a window into the hearts and souls of towns, regions, and nations. Students in this course read works including Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger, A Sense Of Where You Are by John McPhee, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, The Legend Of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield, Cinderella Man by Jeremy Schapp, and Hockey Sur Glace by Peter LaSalle.

This course traces the evolution and development of comedy and tragedy in drama, beginning with the Greeks, continuing through Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Kyd, and concluding with modern writers such as O’Neill, Miller, and Simon.