The Curriculum
English/ESL
E-100 English I
Year 1 unit
“What is the nature of the human journey?” Students in English I study a variety of texts, both ancient and modern, that concern themselves with this question. Organized by literary themes of homecoming and exile, the reward and risk in knowledge and experience, and finding one’s voice, the reading typically includes stories from Biblical literature, as well as The Odyssey, a Shakespeare play, and contemporary novels and stories. Students gain a sense of writing as a process through rigorous drafting and revising of analytical and creative work. A study of grammar and vocabulary complements the reading and writing assignments. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 9 (10)
E-200 English II
Year 1 unit
English II focuses on the study of literary genres. Through poetry, drama, the novel, and the short story, students examine how each literary form illuminates in its own way the themes and voices of human experience. Works read include an English novel, a classical drama, a Shakespearean drama, a modern comedy, and selections of lyric poetry and short fiction from a variety of periods. Students gain familiarity with the literary devices writers use and the voices they create through direct study of those devices as well as oral interpretation exercises and creative writing assignments. Students also develop competence in the short analytical paper and its necessary pre-writing steps, including individual conferencing. A study of grammar and vocabulary complements the reading and writing assignments. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 10 (11)
E-300 English III
Year 1 unit
English III explores major themes in American literature through works by authors such as Hawthorne, Twain, Dickinson, Whitman, Faulkner, Bishop, and Morrison. The course includes extensive work in close reading and composition, as well as vocabulary building and grammar review. With independent thinking as one of the goals of English III, class discussions and writing assignments promote the development of independence in oral and written interpretation. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11 (12)
E-350 Writing Skills for International Students
Fall .25 unit Fleishman
This course is designed to help international students develop and refine the skills required for the types of writing assigned in their English and history courses, including the analytical essay, research paper, and timed essay. Points of grammar and sentence structure are addressed as they arise in student writing.
Co-requisite: Concurrently enrolled in English I (E-100), English II (E-200), or English III (E-300)
Grading system: Credit/No Credit
Open to: 9/10/11/12
E-340 The Hudson (cross-listed with H-326), Service Learning Course
Fall .5 unit McClellan and Naeher
Many people travel through each day without considering whose feet have trod before them or what stories those feet have carried. In this interdisciplinary, team-taught course, students examine the historical and literary footprints of the greater Hudson valley as they appreciate the interconnections among geography, people, climate, art, architecture, and ethos. Writers studied include Russo, Millay, Irving, Wharton, and Kennedy. Historical topics addressed include the rise of the Hudson River School of painting and the creation of a national cultural identity, the Hudson as a major commercial conduit and New York City as an international trading center, the Gilded Age, world wars and the Depression, and post-WWII economic distress and revitalization. Field trips are an essential component of this course, and students are required to attend one of the three outings to be held on two Saturdays and one Wednesday. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
This course fulfills a community service requirement with its work outside class if students enroll in the corresponding community service program.
Open to: 11/12
E-352 Questers Out of Time: Medieval Heroes
Fall .5 unit Rowe
In this course, students examine a variety of medieval heroes in texts from the 8th to the 16th centuries as well as some later reworkings of hero tales by Tennyson and Browning. As students consider these texts, they evaluate the characteristics of the hero and the quest, the patterns of trial and triumph, the hero’s temptations and obligations, whether he is a man of action or a man of introspection, and what experiences he has with romantic or courtly love. The class culminates in an exploration of Don Quixote. Texts may include Beowulf and works by Chrétien des Troyes, Edmund Spenser, Lord Tennyson, and Robert Browning. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11/12
E-353 Writing Workshop: Truth to Lies
Fall .5 unit Carroll
Initially in this course students explore issues of identity through autobiographical writing by studying the works of such writers as Tobias Wolff, Annie Dillard, and Mark Doty and by writing their own autobiographical pieces. That focus evolves into a study of fiction when students are given the opportunity to stretch their personal truths and begin to lie in order to craft fictional works. Writers studied, such as Chekhov, O’Connor, and Joyce, offer students compelling models of the short story. In the study of both autobiography and fiction, students attempt to mirror in their own work the techniques that established writers have used. Through the revision process, students begin to see how their written work, like other art forms, can be crafted, shaped, and refined. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11/12
E-355 Paired Texts: Writers Under the Influence
Fall .5 unit McNamara
In this course students look at several works in which a writer clearly borrows from a literary legend which has influenced her or him. A recent example is Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours, which improvises upon Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. The texts for this course include these and other novels, as well as selected plays, poems, and films. In addition to writing analytical essays in response to the texts, students create several short improvisations of their own based upon the readings. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11/12
E-357 Shakespearean Tragedy
Fall .5 unit Matthew
Students in this course study the great tragedies of the early 1600s: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth. As students examine these plays, they pay particular attention to the issues of arrogance, jealousy, the quest for power, the desire for revenge, and the consequences of suffering. Included as well are some traditional literary criticism and film classics: Roman Polanski’s Macbeth (1972) and Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948), for example. Students also look at how the three distinguished masters of fifth-century Greek tragedy, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, contributed to the literary definition of “tragedy” that Shakespeare so successfully tailored to his English audience. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11/12
E-369 Playwriting (cross-listed with A-246)
Fall .5 unit Mr. Bradley
In this course, students explore all the elements of playwriting. They study the “well-made play” as well as dramatic forms such as theatricalism, realism, naturalism, and Theater of the Absurd. Students write and revise scenes and monologues, culminating in the creation of a one-act play. Scenes and monologues are performed in and out of class to determine if “what is on the page is on the stage.” As part of their work, student study playwrights, including Christopher Durang, David Ives, Megan Terry, August Wilson, and many others. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site. If selected for participation in this class, students may enroll in Playwrights in Production (A-344) in the spring.
Open to: 11/12
E-376 The American South: Faulkner and his Fictional World
Fall .5 unit Matthew
Few regions have managed to retain a distinct literary identity quite like the American South. William Faulkner, perhaps one of America’s greatest novelists, illuminated the prominent Southern themes of burden, relationship, courage, and brutality in his collection of novels and short stories set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. One critic noted that Faulkner’s individual works are like “wooden planks that were cut, not from a log, but from [the same] living tree.” In addition to studying Faulkner, who became the standard for many other Southern writers, students in this course look at the work of authors who admired and considered Faulkner their mentor. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11/12
E-378 Irish Literature
Fall .5 unit McNamara
In this course, students investigate the concept of “Irishness,” testing the notion that an Irish literary tradition, distinct from English literature, exists. While the focus is on 19th and 20th century writers, students also read sections of The Tain, the Irish (Gaelic) epic in translation, as well as essays on history and politics. The class also views films about and by the Irish. Writing assignments include essays and poetry. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11/12
E-389 Storytelling (cross-listed with A-247)
Fall .5 unit Carroll
In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott says, “All the good stories are out there waiting to be told in a fresh, wild way.” In this course, students engage in the act of storytelling. Beginning with stories that have shaped their lives, students use journal writing, writing exercises, and poetic and fictional works to develop tales that are attentive to the detail and the drama of significant events in their lives and the lives of others. Through the use of tape recorders and video cameras, students prepare and evaluate their story performances as they learn how to use their voices and gestures to captivate their listeners. Students should go away from this course with a written and oral collection of stories to pass on to others. This course includes summer reading, which is outlined on the school’s Web site.
Open to: 11/12
E-341 Writers in Place: Setting and Psyche
Spring .5 unit McNamara
This course explores the premise that where we live, have travelled, yearn to settle, or simply pass through powerfully shapes us into who we are and who we become. In this course we study poetry, fiction and non-fiction to understand the impact that real and imagined places have on us as readers and writers. Writing assignments include essays and personal reflections.
Open to: 11/ 12
E-342 Other Experiences, Other Voices
Spring .5 unit Rowe
Langston Hughes once wrote, “What happens to a dream deferred?” In this course students read a variety of texts representing groups that have been marginalized in the American experience: women, blacks, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and religious minorities. What happens when their dreams are deferred? How do their experiences and responses to the American experiment create the unique voices of these writers? Students also consider these pieces of literature as perhaps the first step toward a general resolution of the alienation these writers present. Texts include Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and representative works by authors such as Kate Chopin, Flannery O’Connor, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Richard Rodriguez, August Wilson, and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Open to: 11/12
E-364 Caribbean Literature
Spring .5 unit McClellan
In this course students examine the poetry, short stories, and novels of several Caribbean writers, including Claude McKay, Jean Rhys, Edwidge Danticat, and Jamaica Kincaid. By placing these writers in cultural, historical, and literary context, we consider what is unique as well as universal about each text. The role of place is a significant feature of class discussion.
Open to: 11/12
E-383 Twentieth-Century English and American Drama
Spring .5 unit Ms. Bradley
At the beginning of the 21st century it is appropriate to reflect on the drama that shaped the previous century. Since 1900 we have seen the rise of naturalism, the Theater of the Absurd, and many other genres. Playwrights studied may include Shaw, O’Neill, Wasserstein, Wilson, Kushner, Nichols, Shepard, and Pinter. Students discuss plays in terms of theme, historical perspective, and relevance. Discussions of stage conventions and the technical aspects of production are included. Whenever possible, students also see and critique plays in the local area or in New York City.
Open to: 11/12
E-396 Poetry Workshop
Spring .5 unit Carroll
This course is designed for students who wish to explore the reading and writing of poetry. By examining the work of significant poets, by studying poetic structures, by engaging in creative writing efforts, and by exploring poetry with guest artists, students become familiar with poetic language and form. Reading, analyzing, writing, and reciting poetry are the major tasks of this course.
Open to: 11/12
E-400 Advanced Placement English
Spring .75 unit McNamara
In this course, students practice close analysis of poems and prose passages and write the particular types of essays that the Advanced Placement examination in English literature demands. Reading includes novels, plays, and a wide range of poems and prose passages. To receive credit for the course, students must take the AP exam in May. As with other AP courses, additional assignments should be expected over school vacations.
Prerequisite: Permission of the English department chair
Open to: 12
E-461 Writer at Work
Spring .5 unit Carroll
This creative writing course is open to approximately six seniors, each of whom writes a novella or a collection of short stories during the semester. Weekly conferences with Mrs. Carroll, periodic meetings with a visiting artist, and monthly seminars with the class are required. Outside reading is also assigned.
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor, based on submissions.
Open to: 12
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
ESL-81 Advanced Writing
Year 1 unit
This course focuses on the organization and development of ideas in paragraphs and essays for specific purposes as well as the production of clear, accurate sentences. In addition, students learn to use and cite outside sources appropriately in their writing.
Open to: 9/10/11
ESL-82 Advanced Reading
Year 1 unit
In this course, students develop advanced reading strategies and discussion skills, expand their academic vocabulary, and gain an overview of U.S. history. They also develop an analytical approach to the study of literature through the reading and discussion of short stories, novels, and poems.
Open to: 9/10/11
