The English Department’s primary mission is to develop writing proficiency and critical reasoning skills for all students. In addition, the program offers students the opportunity to read and analyze literary works and to develop general knowledge and an appreciation of human values, ideas, and experiences expressed in literature. The department offers courses ranging from basic skills development to electives in African-American literature and Shakespeare. For all students, the department provides a foundation in the study of British, American, and World Literature. Genres studied in the curriculum include the epic, romances, drama, the novel, film, and a wide range of poetry from the earliest ballads to free verse. In keeping with the school’s mission as a comprehensive arts and academic college-preparatory school, the English department provides the philosophical framework that shapes the entire humanities department of the school. Students study aesthetic theory, including those expressed in the works of Aristotle, Pope, Dryden, Wordsworth, Pater, DuBois, A. Locke, Hughes, and others.   

Objectives

The English Department prepares students to think creatively and critically as independent readers and writers. All students will learn to analyze the literary merits of fiction, non-fiction, prose, and poetry and will appreciate the links that connect all great literature, past to present. Equipped with strategies and knowledge of the writing process, students will write clearly and effectively. Students also will develop a foundation for public speaking. The department hopes to engender lifelong readers, writers, and communicators.

Goal For Students

Students will have the opportunity to integrate their English skills with their art discipline.

Departmental Goals

1. Provide learning experiences for students to learn and practice the formal expository essay. Emphasis will be given to structure, organization, content, style, and mechanics.
2. Provide learning experiences for students to explore and examine genres in literature and acquire a working vocabulary associated with these genres.
3. Provide learning experiences for students to use structures to discuss literature in meaningful formats: formal seminars, response journals, conferences with the instructor, symposia, and interactive notebooks.
4. Provide authentic assessments that give students the opportunities to demonstrate creative and critical thinking skills in writing and oral presentation.
5. Provide learning experiences for students that expand their functional vocabularies and knowledge of syntax with frequent study of etymology and sentence structures.

ENGLISH SEQUENCE OF COURSES