MICDS English Department

Statement of Purpose: The four-year English program aims to create and nurture dynamic writers, independent thinkers, probing analysts, and persuasive speakers. Students are taught to comprehend the strategies and subtleties of written expression, and to respond in creative and thoughtful ways to literature and to ideas. Through the careful reading of both classic and contemporary literature, students learn to think in a mature manner about the moral issues that lie at the heart of our humanity. Students are required to take English each semester of their four years in the upper school.

In English 9, 10 and 11, students read a variety of increasingly sophisticated texts, acquire and employ an extensive vocabulary, and write essays in a variety of modes. The work on writing skills includes a competency assessment, imitation of sentence patterns, frequent journal work, and frequent expository essays. The literary works are selected to represent a range of classical, British, and American authors, in a variety of genres.
In their senior year students choose from a wide array of one-semester electives (see pull-down menu above). The program is designed to prepare students for success on either of the two Advanced Placement exams, in Literature and Composition or Language and Composition, typically taken in May of senior year.

English 9	English 10	English 11	English 12