The English Department seeks to develop in every student an appreciation for the richness and subtlety of language and a taste for the sophisticated pleasures of literary study through classes that are dynamic and student-centered. In its goal to develop life-long readers, the department requires students to read extensively during the school year and encourages additional reading through independent projects and a summer reading program. The importance of writing is reinforced at each grade level through a wide variety of assignments that help students refine their composition skills, master the essentials of grammar, advance their critical thinking abilities, and develop their creative talents. Oral expression skills are reinforced at each grade level as well through recitations, scene enactments, and discussion.
English courses are classified as either college preparatory or honors in Classes X and XI or college preparatory or Advanced Placement in Class XII. Students who have demonstrated advanced reading and writing skills, evinced a love of reading and writing, and proven to be exceptionally independent workers are offered enrollment in the honors course at their grade level.
CLASS VIII: LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
This course introduces and reinforces the essential skills required to be an active and engaged reader, an articulate and committed writer, and a competent and confident speaker. Course reading is selected for its literary merit and thematic relevance. Exploring themes of identity, alienation, and coming of age, students read a variety of authors in different genres and study the basic elements of dramatic structure, imagery, character, figurative language, and theme. Classes emphasize the close reading of texts through guided discussion and analysis. Students develop their writing skills as they respond to their reading through critical and creative writing assignments and in oral presentations. The study of grammar and vocabulary are essential components of the course. Grammar exercises are designed to assist in the development of the student’s writing and editing skill, while vocabulary study is based on words selected from the reading. Students further develop their oral interpretation skills through the recitation of poetry and the reading of scenes from dramatic texts as well through daily exchanges during classroom discussion. Texts include The House on Mango Street, Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, Night, Romeo and Juliet, A Raisin in the Sun, and Of Mice and Men, as well as a selection of traditional and contemporary poetry and a variety of short stories.
CLASS IX: INTEGRATED HUMANITIES
CLASS X: AMERICAN LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
College Preparatory and Honors
The American Literature and Composition course explores the diversity and originality of the American experience as it is reflected in its literature. The instructor may choose to organize the course chronologically or to create thematic units across historical periods. In either case, this course covers major literary, ideological, and historical movements in the American tradition, including the study of Colonial literature, Transcendentalism, Realism, and twentieth-century literature with careful attention paid to literature written by women. Writing assignments of varying lengths and types aim to develop analytical, research, expository, and creative writing skills. Major texts are 
selected from the following list: The Catcher in the Rye, Ethan Frome, March, The Great Gatsby, The Crucible, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Bluest Eye, and My Antonia. Students read selected non-fiction (e.g., Edwards, Emerson, Thoreau), nineteenth- and twentieth-century short stories (e.g., Jewett, Freeman, London, Hemingway), and the work of major American poets (e.g., Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Hughes). In keeping with the department policy to read Shakespeare at each grade level, Macbeth is also studied. Students who have demonstrated advanced reading and writing skills, an aptitude for the subject, and an ability to work independently are offered placement in the honors class.
CLASS XI: BRITISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
College Preparatory and Honors
British Literature and Composition is a survey course that addresses the major literary, historical, sociopolitical, and thematic trends from the Medieval to the postmodern period. Students read and analyze literature from various genres (short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and nonfiction) both in class and independently and become confident readers and writers. Writing assignments of varying lengths form the core of evaluation for the course, and they draw upon and refine the student’s analytic, expository, and creative skills. The class’s regular work in reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and writing mechanics also provides a sound foundation for SAT preparation. A focus on the personal narrative is also offered in anticipation of college application requirements.
For summer reading, college prep students read The Time Machine and The Fifth Child while honors students read Tess of the D’Urbervilles and choose a second book from the following list: Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Remains of the Day, Henry V, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1984. Major texts read during the year include The Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, Frankenstein, Mrs. Dalloway, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Students also read essays by Swift, Woolf, and Orwell, and a wide range of Renaissance (e.g., Shakespeare, Sidney), Metaphysical (e.g., Marvell, Donne), Restoration (e.g., Milton, Swift), Romantic (e.g. Blake, Wordsworth, Keats), Victorian (e.g., Hardy, Hopkins), and Modern (e.g., Owens, Eliot) poetry.