Upper School English

Sequence/Description/Readings

The Upper School English program is a literature based curriculum grounded in the Core Knowledge/Great Books philosophy.  It is a traditional approach to language that requires students to read classic works and to use those readings as the basis for their critical-thinking, their writing program and for their language/vocabulary development.  The characters, themes and situations will be used to identify and to discuss leadership characteristics.  Poetry is integrated into each course with the study of particular authors and literary periods.  Shakespeare is studied in each course with poets from around the world in grade 10 (world literature), American poets in grade 11 (American literature), and British poets in grade 12 (British literature).  As part of the writing program the methodology for writing research papers is incorporated into each course.  The sequence of the courses, materials and readings are as follows:

Grade 9 (Required)

Ninth grade will be a genre based course.  The students will explore and analyze outstanding novels, poetry, drama and short stories.  These works will form the basis for all of the writing, discussion and language development.  The suggested works are:

Twentieth-Century American Drama

Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

Julius Caesar

A Raisin in the Sun

Ivanhoe

Animal Farm

Sherlock Holmes Mysteries

Grade 10 (Required)

Tenth grade English will be a world literature course requiring the students to explore outstanding selections from around the world.  Composition work, critical-thinking activities, language/vocabulary activities and leadership characteristics will be extracted from the following works:

Chekov: Selected Stories

Authors in Depth: Literature From Around the World

A Tale of Two Cities

A Midsummer’s  Night’s Dream

A Separate Peace

The Scarlet Letter

Grade 11 (Required)

Eleventh grade English will be based on American literature.  The continued development of the students’ skills will be based on the reading and the discussion of the following literary works:

Authors in Depth: The American Experience

The  Adventures of Huckleberry  Finn

African-American Literature: A Collection

Macbeth   

The Red Badge of Courage

To Kill A Mockingbird

All students will also be required to take an SAT preparation course in the eleventh grade. In English this course will be designed to familiarize the students with test content, test strategies and with test format.  Appropriate material will be selected for the course.

Grade 12 (Required)

Twelfth grade English will focus on British literature and will continue the students’ language development by using the following traditional works as the foundation of the course:

Authors in Depth: The British Tradition

Beowulf

The Canterbury Tales   

Hamlet

Frankenstein

Time Machine and The Invisible Man

Twelfth grade students will also be required to complete a major research paper by the end of the spring semester building on the research skills taught each year.