Holliston High School English Department Program
Please click the appropriate grade/course in the menu at the top of the page. Course descriptions, parent surveys, etc. are included for each course.
**Please note that our curricula are under constant review and may be adjusted to suit the needs of our students. These changes may take place more quickly than can be reflected on this site at a given moment in time. We will update periodically.
Program Level Enduring Understandings:
All literature deals with what it means to be human. While the specifics of setting and character differ, and the specifics of the conflicts and resolutions may be outside of our own experiences, we can always identify/empathize/sympathize with the broader universal human concerns being thematically explored/illustrated. Many common themes in art/literature are the result of a conflict between an individual’s (or group’s) rights/beliefs and the society or system in which they live. Though certain rights have been codified in writing in our constitution, it has taken many years for these rights to become practice for some Americans, based on gender identity, race/ethnicity, social class, religious beliefs, mental or physical challenges and differences, etc. In some cases, these rights are still denied or unequally accessible to certain groups of people through systemic oppression, though some individuals have broken through barriers.
In this course of studies, we will endeavor to understand people. We will encounter in our readings many people along the spectrum of human experience in this country and other countries. We will traverse time periods, regions, and cultural zones. What we hope to see in the end, is those universal human concerns, manifest in both positive and negative human traits, which bind us together rather than separate us.
Some essential questions to consider (there will be more within units):
How can literature be a vehicle for social change?
When is it necessary to question the status quo? Who decides?
What is oppression, and what are the root causes?
How are prejudice and bias created, and how can they be overcome?
What factors shape our values and beliefs?
What binds us together as human beings?
