English 9: Course Description

Teacher: Tom De Carlo
Classroom: Witherell Left
E-mail: tdecarlo@burkemtnacademy.org
Office: Frazier 2nd Floor
Extension: 1542

This course aims to inspire the imagination and enthusiasm of the young reader. With this in mind, the selected texts reflect a combination of adventure and coming of age themes. While sheer enjoyment is important, students are also trained in the more academic discipline of active and engaged reading. Marking up texts, writing in the margins, and asking critical thinking questions are continually practiced. Common literary terms are introduced and used to think more astutely about each text. Daily classroom discussions demand that students are prepared and learn how to think and express themselves clearly.

Frequent writing assignments help students develop clear, grammatically correct, and interesting prose. Journals, a personal narrative, an expository research paper, persuasive essays, and short creative pieces, provide a rich and varied writing curriculum.

Public speaking is the third skill practiced. Students master a recitation assignment, perform bench readings of plays, and are expected to orally articulate their thinking in daily class discussions.

Finally, using the Princeton Review’s Word Smart, a college-level vocabulary consisting of 225 words is mastered during the course of the year.

Each year freshmen will read some, but not all of the following texts: Empire of the Sun, Ballard; Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury; My Antonia, Cather; The Power of One, Courtenay; A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist, Dickens; The Odyssey, Homer; Wilderness, Kent; Mountains Beyond Mountains, Kidder; Lucy, Kincaid; Endurance, Lansing; The Call of the Wild, London; A River Runs Through It, Maclean; The Fall of the Year, Mosher; A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Twelfth Night, Shakespeare; Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbeck; Huckleberry Finn, Twain; Fences, Wilson; and This Boy’s Life, Wolff.

English 10: Course Description

Teacher: Jillian Shepard
Classroom: Witherell Right
E-mail: jshepard@burkemtnacademy.org
Office: Heib House
Extension: 1336

Sophomore English employs a thematic approach in navigating Western literature from its origins through contemporary times. Students will explore how diverse authors such as Sophocles, Achebe, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dante, Voltaire, Cisneros, Huxley, Atwood, Golding, and Wharton have dealt with the many dimensions of the human experience.  A variety of creative responses will allow students to make personal connections with the timeless themes presented by selected novels, poetry, short stories, and vignettes. 

While the main course objective is for students to identify connections between literature studies and their world, students will also hone their writing processes by drafting creative and expository pieces in writer’s notebooks. Editing skills will be addressed in classroom workshops for the development of better-organized and tailored typewritten products.   Finally, students will improve their critical thinking skills by responding to texts, and practice strong, positive communication in classroom discussion and presentations.

Students will be assessed though class participation, vocabulary and reading-check quizzes, homework completion, and written assignments.

English 11: Course Description

Teacher: Jillian Shepard
Classroom: Witherell Right
E-mail: jshepard@burkemtnacademy.org
Office: Heib House
Extension: 1336

Junior English explores the influence of age-old stories in contemporary film, art, and literature.  Students will study selections from the traditional canon of literature including Genesis, Oedipus, Faust, Hamlet, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, and Candide through a variety of creative written responses and critical thinking activities.  Modern works from authors such as McCarthy, Eliot, Vonnegut, and Alexie will provide the opportunity for comparative analysis.

The objective for this course is for students to gain a greater understanding of the origins of world literature in order to build a sustainable foundation for literary allusions.  Students will recognize the importance of stories across cultures and throughout human history, thinking and reading critically as they recognize intra- and cross-cultural interpretations of themes, literary patterns, and character types.

English 12: Course Description

Teacher: Tom De Carlo
Classroom: Witherell Left
E-mail: tdecarlo@burkemtnacademy.org
Office: Frazier 2nd Floor
Extension: 1542

English 12 exposes students to an international array of world-class novelists, playwrights, essayists, and poets. Through literature each student will come to better understand themselves and the world. Close reading, journaling, class discussions, and critical essays enhance understanding. Both “horizontal” (broad) and “vertical” (deep) thinking are emphasized. Frequent class discussions demand that each student bring something to the table. Apart from critical essays, students will also write persuasive essays, speeches, short stories and poetry. The 25 minute SAT essay is practiced in the fall. Writing assignments allow us to address correct grammar and usage and the larger concern of effective critical thinking. Public speaking skills are practiced through poetry recitations and theatrical bench readings. In all of these endeavors, risk-taking and hard work will win the day.

Each year seniors will read some, though not all of the following texts: Pride and Prejudice, Austin; Pere Goriot, Balzac; The Baron in the Trees, Calvino; Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, Conrad; Self-Reliance, Emerson; Tess of the d’Ubervilles, Hardy; Passage to India, Forster; Death in Venice, Mann; One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez; Far Tortuga, Matthiessen; Death of a Salesman, Miller; Beloved and Sula, Morrison; Dr. Zhivago, Pasternak; Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, Oe; Empire Falls, Russo; King Lear and MacBeth, Shakespeare; and The Death of Ivan Ilych and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy.