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. Students also master the essentials of grammar, develop critical thinking skills, and gain competence in written and oral expression. In our goal to develop life-long readers and writers, the English department encourages students to read extensively during the school year and in the summer and to write about their reading and experiences using various genres. It is also a Marymount tradition to study one of Shakespeare’s plays in every required English course. English courses in grades X-XI are classified as either college preparatory or honors. Students in honors courses are expected to demonstrate more sophisticated writing and analytical skills, to read more extensively, and to work more independently.
CLASS VIII: LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
Students read a variety of authors in different genres and learn the basic elements of dramatic structure, imagery, character, symbol, and theme. Classes emphasize the close reading of texts through guided discussion and analysis. Students then develop their writing skills as they respond to their reading through critical and creative writing assignments and in oral presentations. They also explore the fundamentals of dramatic performance, acting and directing scenes from dramatic literature and undertake a technology project that reinforces and builds upon computer skills learned previously and those newly introduced. Texts include Romeo and Juliet, Diary of a Young Girl, The House on Mango Street, Of Mice and Men, A Raisin in the Sun, and selected poetry and short stories.
CLASS IX: INTEGRATED HUMANITIES
CLASS X: AMERICAN LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
College Preparatory and Honors
The primary emphasis of the course is American literature, although other material is included as deemed appropriate. This course covers major literary, ideological, and historical movements in the American tradition, including Colonial Literature, Transcendentalism, Realism and Twentieth-Century Literature. The instructor may choose to organize the course chronologically or to create thematic units across historical periods. Special attention is paid to literature by women, especially in short stories and poetry. Writing assignments of varying lengths aim to develop analytical, research, expository, and creative writing skills. Major texts are chosen from the following list: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, The Bluest Eye, My Antonia, and The Great Gatsby. 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). Shakespeare’s Macbeth is also studied in Class X.
CLASS XI: BRITISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
College Preparatory and Honors
British Literature and Composition is a survey course that reviews the major literary, historical, sociopolitical, and thematic trends from a British perspective. British Literature and Composition is taught as a seminar in which discussion is emphasized over lecture. The class is developed along both thematic and chronological axes. Students read a variety of texts—as a class and independently. Students analyze literature from varying genres (short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and nonfiction) and become confident readers and writers. Students develop grounding in some of the major works and literary movements that define British literature from the Anglo-Saxon era to the contemporary. Students gain an appreciation for literature’s aesthetic components, develop a sense of their own literary tastes, and recognize the universal themes of literature and their role in making sense of the world around them. Writing assignments of varying lengths form the core of evaluation for the course, and they draw upon the student’s analytic, expository, and creative skills. The class’s regular work in reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and writing mechanics will provide a sound foundation for SAT preparation. In addition to course reading, students are required to read books related to the Class XI English curriculum independently and report upon those books in a variety of formats. The goal of this reading is to supplement and complement their study of British literature, sharpen their critical reading skills, and enhance their vocabulary and writing.
Course texts are: summer reading–The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing (CP) and Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Wuthering Heightsby Emily Brontë, Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguru, Henry V by William Shakespeare, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (H). Medievalism–The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer(selections). The Renaissance–poetry by Sidney, Spenser, Marvell, Donne, Herrick, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Hamlet
Restoration and the 18th century: poetry and prose by Swift, Pope, Pepys, Milton
Romanticism: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, poetry by Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron. Victorianism–poetry by Hardy, Hopkins, Tennyson, Browning, Arnold
Modernism & Postmodernism: poetry by Sassoon, McCrae, Graves, Owen, Eliot; essays by Orwell and Woolf, as well as Mrs. Dalloway (H).
CLASS XII: SENIOR SEMINARS
College Preparatory and Advanced Placement
Senior English is a sequence of two, one-semester seminars that focus on special topics, themes, or authors. Students choose their seminars from course offerings developed by the English Department in response to students’ needs and interests. Advanced Placement English, offered to those students who have demonstrated an ability to proceed to more challenging, college-level work, is also offered. All students enrolled in this course sit for the Advanced Placement Examination in May.
Senior seminars offer students a unique opportunity for specialized study. Seminar offerings have included Shakespeare’s History Plays, Irish Literature, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Southern Writers, African American Literature, Women on the Margin, and The Self in Crisis. Current seminars include Madwomen and Marriage, New York in the 1950s, Love Conquers All?, and Contemporary American Drama.
WRITERS IN RESIDENCE XII
Designed for students who are passionate about language and serious about pushing their writing skills to new levels, this senior elective is structured and conducted as a true writing workshop. Following a focused study of specific pieces by professional authors, students create short fiction, memoirs, personal narratives, expository essays, and poetry. These manuscripts are carefully considered and critiqued by the members of the workshop. Frequent language exercises, designed to strengthen such writing concerns as diction, sound, pace, and structure, are regularly offered to the class, as are various strategies of vision and revision. William Zinsser’s On Writing Well and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones serve as basic references.