English
FRESHMAN YEAR
This course focuses on the composition process. In small classes, students
work through the prewriting, writing, and post-writing phases of composition.
Prewriting includes observing, making plans, examining models, limiting topics,
and developing thesis statements. All phases from prewriting to final product
emphasize the concept of "drafting." Ideas are recorded and organized at least
twice while students revise, proofread, and prepare a final draft for evaluation
or "publication." Small group work enhances the effectiveness of this program
by allowing time for many teacher-student conferences, by enabling students
to solve their own problems, and by giving students an opportunity to learn
from their peers in a cooperative setting. Types of writing include description,
narration, process, comparison/contrast, persuasion, and definition.
In addition to the formal composition curriculum, writing for their portfolios
without formal evaluation affords students the opportunity to write for personal
expression as well as for expository purposes.
An intensive review of all parts of speech (Heath Grammar and Composition,
Chapters 1-6) is conducted in the first semester. After a uniform, grade-wide
grammar test is administered, the course moves on to more advanced work in
subject/verb agreement, pronoun case, consistency of tense, and mechanics,
including a complete unit on quotations and textual citation.
Freshman English covers several novels, short stories, a selection of model
essays, and Shakespeare's Richard II. In addition to the regular curriculum,
students will read three supplementary books.
All students use Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Book C, a vocabulary
workbook that emphasizes using roots, suffixes, and prefixes to find word
meaning.
Texts:
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achabe, Doubleday (summer)
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson, Penguin (summer)
The Odyssey, Homer, Bantam Classics (Mandelbaum translation)
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri, Houghton Mifflin
Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger, Little, Brown and Co.
Richard II, William Shakespeare, Oxford
Antigone, E.A. Sophocles, Penguin Classics
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, Bantam Classic
Points of View, Ed. James Moffet, Peguin
Snow in August, Pete Hamill, Warner Publications
Sound and Sense, Ed. Lawrence Perrine, Arp, Harcourt Brace
Writing Clear Essays, Prentice Hall
Heath Grammar and Composition: Third Course, D. C. Heath
Vocabulary from Classical Roots: Book C, Fifer, Flowers, Educators
Publishing Service
SOPHOMORE YEAR
The tenth grade English course offers a survey of British Literature from
Old English to Contemporary British novelists and poets. Works are studied
and discussed as part of particular historical periods, and grouped in thematic
units. Major works are juxtaposed with thematically similar poems. Through
close textual analysis of literature, students learn aesthetic principles
while they discuss and debate the social and moral implications of the works.
Writing is emphasized in the tenth grade English class. Students maintain
a portfolio of their work, enabling both teachers and students to track the
development of writing skills. Informal pieces, produced both at home and
in class, are later developed into polished essays. A substantial amount of
class time is devoted to a discussion of the writing process as well. Grammar
and usage are taught formally, and vocabulary is taught according to a logical
system that makes use of common Greek and Latin roots.
Texts:
Tenth Man, Graham Greene, Pocket Books (summer)
Beowulf, Seamus Heany translation W. W. Norton and Co.(summer)
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte, Bantam Classic
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, Penguin
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Bedford
Great Expectations Charles Dickens, Viking Penguin
Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, Bantam Classic
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, Harper Collins
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro, Knopf
Dubliners, James Joyce, Signet Classics
Hamlet, Willam Shakespeare, Washington Square Press (Folger)
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, Signet Classic
The Oxford Book of English Short Stories, Ed. A. S. Byatt
Adventures in English Literature, Holt
Sound and Sense, Ed. Lawrence Perrine, Arp, Harcourt Brace
Heath Grammar and Composition: Fifth Course, D. C. Heath
Vocabulary from Classical Roots: Book D, Fifer, Flowers, Educators
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JUNIOR YEAR
This course provides a chronological study of American literature in conjunction
with the junior year study of American history. While the historical sweep
of the American literary heritage is outlined, there is considerable emphasis
on in-depth analysis of literature. In addition to their study of American
essays, short stories, poems, novels, and plays, junior students study Shakespeare's
The Tempest. Students also read supplementary books that broaden their
exposure to American literature in general and complement the major works
taught in the course. Clear and effective writing, as well as the development
of an individual voice, is emphasized through biweekly portfolio writing assignments
and the drafting of full-length essays. Vocabulary building is integrated
into the curriculum, and grammar is studied on a diagnostic basis.
Texts:
Empress of the Splendid Season, Oscar Hijuelos (summer)
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, (summer)
The Awakening, Kate Chopin, Bantam Books
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, Vintage
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scribner
"Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil" and other stories,
Hawthorne
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway, Scribner
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, Harper and Row
"Bartleby the Scrivener," Herman Melville
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller, Penguin (summer)
The Tempest, Willam Shakespeare, Washington Square Press (Folger)
Norton Anthology of American Literature, Ed Baym, Franklin, et al,
WW Norton
Heath Grammar and Composition: The Complete Course D. C. Heath
Sound and Sense, Ed. Lawrence Perrine, Arp, Harcourt Brace
Vocabulary from Classical Roots: Book E, Fifer, Flowers, Educators
Publishing Service
