Honors English 10 - American Studies (Literature)

Students who choose Honors English 10 are confident enough in their writing and analytical skills to pursue the course work at a more complex level. This complexity will be evident in the nature of the questions posed in formative and summative assessments and in the expectation of independent engagement in inquiry and research about multiple aspects of literature (e.g., literary criticism, intertextual analysis, historical context). Honors students will find it necessary to read supplemental texts and perform more extensive tasks in order to be successful. Honors assignments and assessments will be evaluated using Honors-specific criteria that articulate expectations for greater conceptual and technical complexity and abstraction

Prerequisite: English 9 Credit: ENG Semester: Full Year

*In consultation with their advisor and the course faculty, students can also elect to take English 10 at the Honors Level. Students have until the Fall Semester Add/Drop deadline to change their Honors status in a course.

In their 11th and 12th grade years, students can enroll in semester and year-long electives in English. Course offerings span periods, styles, regions, and cultures. From creative writing to literary non-fiction and playwriting, these courses represent challenging opportunities for our students to explore different methods and fields of literary study and to take greater agency in their engagement with advanced disciplinary skills and content, interdisciplinary thinking, and project design. These courses represent a high level of rigor and are designed to prepare students to take advantage of the most ambitious academic options in college and university study.

*Starting in Grade 10, students may double up on English courses, taking a second full English course in place of an elective (for example, a 10th-grade student could register for both American Studies - Literature and an 11/12 English elective course). Using this form, students must secure the permission of their Advisor and the Academic Dean.

Interdisciplinary Research

While the 11th and 12th grade program is designed to support students' exploration of specific fields and high levels of research, the faculty also work closely to ensure consistent skill development across classes. In addition, the 11th and 12th grade faculty will develop projects, events, and opportunities for dialogue that link all of the elective courses and prioritize interdisciplinary learning and analysis. The Junior Thesis and Senior Internship programs also serve as core experiences within the upper-level curriculum. These programs guide students to apply their full range of learning to a specific problem or research question.

Honors: English (Grades 11 and 12)

Students who wish to demonstrate specialization within specific fields can elect Honors in 11th and 12th grade courses. Students who elect Honors in 11th and 12th grade courses are making a commitment to:

• Exploring additional resources, challenges, and texts

• Engaging with and producing more nuanced research and additional forms of analysis

• Taking on leadership roles in project and course design, and heightening their focus on the development of a collaborative skill set

• Managing significant independent work and research

• Participating in additional honors seminar meetings

• Participating in a feedback process, including iterative self reflection, that includes higher standards of assessment (to be defined by their instructor)

Process & Policy:

1. Students should elect Honors during the registration process, consulting both with their advisor and with the course instructor or Academic Dean.

2. Students should complete a 1-page Honors Statement while registering for the Honors option.

3. During the Add/Drop period, the instructor will work with the student to provide feedback that indicates whether remaining in Honors is in the student’s best interest.

4. Students have until the Add/Drop deadline to shift out of the Honors designation in their course. Students who wish to opt into Honors during this time will need to secure the permission of their instructor.

Add/Drop Semester I: Sept 30, 2021

Add/Drop Semester II: February 23, 2022

Contemporary Global Literature: Reading the Novel

This year-long course will seek to understand the most pressing issues and greatest challenges we face according to contemporary authors. In an effort to capture a truly global perspective, we will read a plethora of authors, focusing on culture, historical context, and theme. While we will treat each novel as a standalone text, we will also seek to make connections across texts as we consider the growing interconnectedness of our world. Through substantial writing assignments (informal and formal), projects, and opportunities for interdisciplinary study and collaboration, students will sharpen their skills as readers, writers, and thinkers. Texts for this course may include: Shuggie Bain, Half a Yellow Sun, Never Let Me Go, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones, Waiting for the Barbarians, Exit West, and others.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Full Year

African American Literature

This course will explore the classic novels, short stories, and poetry of the African American 20th Century literary traditions with voices of the 21st century. Together, these texts will highlight how black history and culture were essential to the transformation of American identity, focusing on African Americans’ relationships to culture, language, and land. Ultimately, this course will interrogate the ways in which African Americans' definitions of self are often challenged in literature and contemporary media with regard to the relationships between Black people and the land on which they toiled. Thus, we will be exploring an undeniable connection to the Earth that ensures black peoples’ identity, belonging, and home. The Earth both softens some of our hardest falls and absorbs our brightest energies. For African Americans, the desire to reclaim land and place is one of survival, opportunity, and hope. The course will explore the ways in which Black people's access to the land has shaped their identities, communities, and their narratives. This course will strengthen the skills of analytical writing, narrative writing, critical thinking and discussion, project work with multimedia, and exercise student choice in projects.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Full Year

Imagined Worlds

What do science fiction and fantasy have to say about our fears as a society? How can we look to science fiction and fantasy texts as inspiration to create the worlds we long for? This course will explore quixotic searches and tales of heroes and mock-heroes who undertake epic quests for the betterment of their worlds. Students will have the opportunity to hone their writing and analytical skills by developing multimedia projects examining and furthering the fantastical worlds we’ll explore. By exploring other worlds, students will bring new perspectives to their own. Sample texts may include: The Hobbit, Stranger in a Strange Land, Parable of the Sower, Ender’s Game.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Full Year

Caribbean Fiction

In the language and rhythm of the Caribbean, this course will explore the wonderful diversity of people rich in knowledge of the earth, resistance, and national identity. The Caribbean as we know it has changed drastically through the effects of colonization, and has been met with many natural catastrophes that have often left their histories disjointed with regard to the country's independence, cultural memory, and tradition. In one semester, we will consider the magical essence of the Caribbean and investigate the ways in which identities have been preserved through slavery, revolutions, and celebrations of cultural pride and tradition. More specifically, we will study topics like Vodou, Rastafarianism, political musicians, art & artists, and delicious cuisine. Like roots and sugar, the course will look to discover the elements of living life to the fullest, grounded alongside the silver linings that make life so sweet and irie. This course will focus on the diasporic English and French Creole-speaking countries such as: Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, and many more. This course will emphasize the skills of critical thinking, descriptive writing, analytical writing, global citizenship, music analysis, and exercise student choice in projects.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Fall

British Literature: An Introduction

British literature has played an infinitely seminal role in creating our societal consciousness. The source of so much of our serious and playful thought, the “British Invasion” took place long before and after the Beatles, from the foundation of the United States to the latest subversive piquing by Banksy. This survey course explores some of the iconic voices in British literature, from Beowulf and Chaucer through Shakespeare and Henry Fielding, Dickens and Orwell, to Graham Greene and Zadie Smith. Texts include: Beowulf; excerpts from Chaucer and Mallory; Macbeth; Tom Jones; Oliver Twist; Orwell essays; Saki short story; Brighton Rock; White Teeth.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Fall

Russian Literature: The Golden Age

From the mid-1800s through the early twentieth century, Russia produced authors who became foundational icons in literature read across the world. In this course, we will discover the voices that have played such a formational role in our understanding of what writing can aspire to do, from Gogol to Dostoevsky, to Tolstoy, to Chekhov. At the same time as we recognize the degree to which they are impacted by their socio-cultural context, we will discover works that timelessly speak in the deepest way to the human condition. Texts include: The Nose and Other Stories; Great Russian Short Stories; Crime and Punishment; The Seagull.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Fall

Creative Writing: The Short Story

In this introductory course, we will study and practice one of the oldest forms of storytelling. Beginning with the foundational elements of fiction (character, plot, point of view, setting, theme, and voice), we will explore how writers use craft to build narrative and create what John Gardner calls the “fictional dream.” Students will also be introduced to the writing process, the techniques of reading as a writer, and the writing workshop. Through reading and writing craft essays, short writing exercises, and collaborative group work, students will begin mastering the necessary tools for writing fiction. Using the workshop model – in which small groups and the whole class offer constructive critiques of peer manuscripts – students will write and revise several drafts of their own original stories, leading to the creation of a portfolio of creative writing due at the end of the semester. Authors read in this course may include: Carmen Machado, Weike Wang, Edward P. Jones, Junot Diaz, Jhumpa Lahiri, Tobias Wolff, and others.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Fall

Critical Approaches to Literature

At its core this class asks critical questions: How do we create meaning out of our lives? Is a work of art ever innocent? What is the relationship between language and power? In what ways does literature both reflect and critique society? Philosophers and scholars have tried to answer these questions since the time of Plato and Aristotle. This course attempts to answer them too. And in answering these questions, students will be asked to step outside themselves to consider other visions of the world. To this end, students approach texts employing a variety of critical theories, including (but not limited to) reader-response theory, New Criticism, psychoanalytic theory, Marxist theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. Students should expect to think deeply, write frequently, and engage with each other vigorously as they gain an introductory knowledge of critical theory and immerse themselves in classic and modern texts—both literary and cinematic. The semester culminates with a project that invites both creative and analytical writing.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Fall

Borders and Walls: A Literary and Social Analysis

How has the expansion of commerce, media, and migration paradoxically resulted in the increase of borders and walls around the globe? What enables or limits one’s mobility in a globalized world? Where do autonomous zones fit into the discourse of borders? We will consider how borders are invisible yet enforceable structures with real, lived impacts on cultures, people, and environments and how walls are actual, physical structures with just as much impact. By reading texts from geography, anthropology, ethnic studies, and political theory, we will gain a nuanced understanding of the varied approaches and responses to borders and walls. Students will build upon their written, creative, and data analysis skills to complete both individual and group projects including a podcast and a museum exhibition. Regions of study may include: US-Mexico border and wall; the Berlin Wall; the Kashmir border dispute/conflict; colonial, postcolonial, and post-partition South Asia; Kurdistan; the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle; and Guantanamo Bay. For students interested in both qualitative and quantitative study of this topic, it is recommended that students take this course with Math of Sustainability and/or Math of Social Policy. In consultation with the instructor and diploma program coordinator, this course can support students who are pursuing a diploma program.

Prerequisite: History 10 Credit: ENG or HIST/SOC Semester: Fall

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

This course takes its title from the book by the critic Harold Bloom, whose thesis – that Shakespeare in a sense has created our understanding of who we are – might seem preposterous in its claim, but may be true in a way that is matched only by the Ancient Greeks. This semester elective will invite students into the brilliance and passion of what is arguably some of the most extraordinary work ever written; the course will be informed by a belief that Shakespeare belongs in the deepest sense to all of us, and should be simultaneously wholly accessible, and filled with joy and discovery. Texts include: Sonnets; Romeo and Juliet; Othello; Hamlet; Measure for Measure.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Spring

Contemporary Plays and Playwriting

This is a workshop course that invites students to explore dramatic literature from a variety of perspectives—as reader, as audience, as critic, and as writer. Students will study the work of some of our most influential and innovative contemporary American playwrights to discover the most effective ways to tell stories in dramatic form. Writing critiques of celebrated plays will help students understand and appreciate methods of developing character, dialogue, and narrative structure. Students will attend live theatre and have opportunities to speak with successful playwrights. As beginning playwrights, students will be encouraged to write swiftly, fluidly, and fearlessly. With constructive feedback from their instructor and their peers, students will revise their work frequently. The final project of the semester will be a public reading of completed works.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG or ART Semester: Spring

Irish Literature in its Context: The Celtic Renaissance and Beyond

For a small island on the Western fringe of Europe, Ireland has had a completely disproportionate influence on modern literature. Her troubled history and complex cultural currents have produced writers that remain icons to this day, from Swift, to Synge, to Yeats to Joyce and Beckett. This course will look at some of their most remarkable works in their context, and explore why, and how, the texts speak to the world at large in a way that far transcends their time and place. Texts include: A Short History of Ireland; Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama; Modern Irish Short Stories; Everyman Irish Poems.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Spring

Nature Writing & Environmental Literature

Beginning with Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, this course will examine the complex and ever-evolving relationship between humans and the environment. We will ask big questions about how we define nature and what role humans play in the preservation and destruction of it. We will also seek to define our own personal philosophy towards nature and our environment. The key topics of this course will include naturalism, wilderness, place-based-writing, and farming and agrarianism. Students will encounter and engage with these subjects through a multitude of literary texts including essays, poems, non-fiction books, and novels. In addition to substantial readings and writings (informal and formal), there will be immense opportunity in this course for interdisciplinary projects and collaboration. Students should also expect to spend numerous class periods outdoors (weather permitting), where we will observe, think critically, and write. Authors read in this course may include: Henry David Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Aldo Leopold, Willa Cather, Leslie Marmon Silko, Richard Powers, and Jon Krakauer.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Semester: Spring Diploma Credit: Sustainability

Gods, Heroes, and Monsters

This course offers a comprehensive survey of classical mythology. It investigates the legends, myths, and stories which the Greeks and Romans used in explaining their own cultures and historical/religious beliefs. The class will analyze both the art and literature of the ancients, asking students to draw parallels to modern culture/society in the hopes of better understanding the influence that this mythology has had on our own times.

Prerequisite: None Credit: WL or HIST/SOC or ENG Semester: Spring Diploma Credit: Classics

The "Advanced Studies in Literature" course represents the highest level of challenge, rigor, independent research, and student responsibility. Students should consult with their advisor and course faculty when considering advanced courses.

Advanced Studies in Literature

Advanced Studies in Literature explores a single theme through texts drawn from a range of genres (drama, epic and lyric poetry, novel, short story, graphic novel, narrative nonfiction), regions, and historical contexts. This course will operate as a college-level seminar, involving intensive reading, frequent discussion, interdisciplinary projects, oral presentations, quizzes, and significant writing assignments. Students should expect to focus on written composition and critical theory as part of a rigorous introduction to reading, writing, thinking, and speaking about literary texts. This course is open to juniors and seniors only.

Prerequisite: Honors English 10, Instructor Permission Credit: ENG Semester: Full Year