English

This course reinforces and extends students’ creative and critical thinking through texts that explore the complicated intersection of individual identity and societal systems - including dystopian worlds, family and community structures, the natural environment, and historic forms of systemic oppression. Students will hone their skills as critical readers, writers, and thinkers, and have ample opportunity to write about their own situations within societies that belong. The year culminates with a substantial personal essay, developed over the course of the spring semester and in consultation with the instructor.  In addition to longer core texts, students will read multiple short pieces by writers such as Margaret Atwood, Lucy Tan, Octavia Butler, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Adjei Brenyah, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

This course offers students opportunities to experience literature of various genres to promote their abilities as readers and writers while engaging them in deep critical thinking about ideas and social practices that shape American culture. The course is divided into thematic units that investigate the experiences and beliefs that have shaped American experiences such as immigration, the American Dream, and the struggle for freedom and equality. Students will read novels, short stories, poetry, and essays by diverse American voices both past (such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Martin Luther King, Jr.) and present (Elizabeth Acevedo, Celeste Ng, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Robin Wall Kimmerer). A daily writing practice offers students a space to think in response to reading, and frequent opportunities for composition deepen student’s capacity for close reading, self-expression, and independent thinking. NOTE: This course has a summer reading assignment due at the beginning of the year.

In this course, leadership, project management and brand development/management as they relate to writing are taught as well as media literacy with an emphasis on accurate and equitable representation of populations in the news. In addition to taking a leadership role in the management and execution of assignments, students will also serve as writers, reporters, and commentators, focusing on honing their writing skills through pieces that require more advanced nuance, style, and reflection. This will include hard news, opinion, sports, digital media, and podcasting. Students will also need to independently monitor a consistently published workload, including written assignments and editorial responsibilities for the monthly paper, as well as creating written and multimedia content for a daily updated website. Some students will take on leadership roles such as an Editor in Chief or a Managing Editor for one of the sections of the print and digital editions of the school’s newspaper, The Spectator. Students will be graded according to editorial leadership, ability to meet deadlines, and the quality and growth of their report writing. Throughout the course, students will engage in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and performing activities. 

This course will give students the opportunity to learn about journalism firsthand by producing a monthly newspaper, corresponding news website, and developing content for various social media platforms in a professional manner, just as they would in many of today’s journalism and marketing positions. Every student focuses on producing the print publication, but also gains skills and experience working on the digital publication and podcasting concurrently. Students write in a variety of genres, from straight news writing to features and opinion writing. Students will cover beats around the school and will have real input into what goes into print or onto the web each month. Due to the team and deadline driven nature of publication, students on the newspaper must be willing to communicate proactively and openly about the status of their ongoing work with their classmates and the teacher and show a real commitment to meeting deadlines consistently. The class will help students develop the following skills: effective and powerful writing for publication, multimedia journalism, time management, making ethical decisions in a real-world setting, working with others to get jobs done, effective reporting, effective interviewing, as well as giving and receiving feedback. Students will utilize their basic photography, page design, and graphic skills introduced in Journalism 1, while enhancing and building upon those skills throughout the year. The publication process will also afford opportunities to explore some concrete and theoretical topics of journalism, based upon the national trends or stories of the day.

This course focuses on the acquisition and application of the English language, with emphasis placed on diction, syntax, speaking and listening, critical reading and annotating, and advancing composition skills. Throughout the course, students will develop their higher-level thinking skills while forming and supporting opinions through various types of writing and speaking. Writing will include exposition and argumentation in addition to research. One day each cycle will be dedicated to workshopping writing assignments from other classes. The course will be reflected on the student's transcript as an English credit for the year.

The emphasis in this class is on the written preparation for an oral debate rather than the debate itself; however, the debate performance requires students to anticipate and offer rebuttals to the opponent’s argument with poise and confidence. Students will engage in sound research practices to locate credible evidence about current issues and events before writing a claim that is then developed through effective organization and reasoned arguments. This one-semester course can be taken either semester but not both.

As the old saying goes, “if it bleeds, it leads,” and it’s true: fictional mysteries have captivated hearts and minds for centuries. This first semester course will begin by analyzing classic tales of horror and suspense before moving on to contemporary “whodunits” in short stories, novels, plays, and films. A literature circle unit that allows students to choose from a list of novels written by and featuring diverse perspectives will culminate in a creative writing assignment in which students emulate detective fiction in an original story. Throughout the course students will improve their skills in critical thinking, close reading, argumentative writing, creative writing, and discussion.

In this course, students will explore Asian and Asian American literature from the 20th century into the contemporary period through a range of texts spanning from novels and films to cookbooks and the items stocked in local grocery stores. The class will build upon students’ reading, analytical, and writing skills through a diverse range of texts that center around celebrating the diversity of Asian cultures and cuisines found globally and within our community and examine how the kitchen and dining table serve as places for gathering, reflection, and growth. This course is for any foodie, those who have found themselves drooling over Studio Ghibli food, and anyone who is interested in indulging in rich and delectable texts. 

With the 24-hour news cycle and our immediate and endless access to media, true crime is at our fingertips more so than ever before, and new mediums–such as the hit podcast Serial–have proliferated. This second semester course will shift from fictional stories to true crime as students trace changing attitudes about race, gender, mental illness, and morality in relatively new genres of investigative journalism in podcasts and documentaries. After a full-class study of Truman Capote’s iconic nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, students will engage in independent reading, research, and panel discussions in order to hone skills in critical thinking, close reading, argumentative writing, and discussion. Anyone interested in this course should note that we will discuss the nature of these crimes with respect and avoid sensationalizing in order to honor victims’ stories and work to build understanding, awareness, and empathy.

In this course, students will explore Asian and Asian American literature and storytelling beginning with children’s folktales and fairy tales and ending with modern-day depictions of Asian life, literature, and culture in film and television. The class will focus on equipping students with contextual knowledge of the histories of various Asian populations, tracing these histories through to the contemporary period, and building upon students’ reading, analytical, and writing skills through a diverse range of stories told by Asian immigrants and their following generations. 

The emphasis in this class is on the written preparation for an oral debate rather than the debate itself; however, the debate performance requires students to anticipate and offer rebuttals to the opponent’s argument with poise and confidence. Students will engage in sound research practices to locate credible evidence about current issues and events before writing a claim that is then developed through effective organization and reasoned arguments. This one-semester course can be taken either semester but not both.