For their ninth grade English course, students may be placed either in the English 9: Exposition and Literature class or English 9. These classes are intended as a foundation for their study of the discipline throughout Potomac’s Upper School. These courses help students better understand the English language; master the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking; and gain self-awareness through reading and interpreting literature. Teachers emphasize expository writing, but they also provide opportunities for more personal and reflective writing. The courses develop students’ formal writing through a carefully constructed sequence of assignments that build in length and complexity throughout the year. Students learn to craft their writing through a focus on the many stages of the process, including several pre-writing methods, drafting and revision, and proofreading, and on writing to learn. In addition to these skills, students will gain experience in and familiarity with the habits of mind relevant to the study of literary texts and the craft of composition. The pace of the two courses varies slightly and Exposition and Literature will provide more individual attention in slightly smaller classes. Students will be placed in whichever class their eighth-grade teacher recommends. Texts may include Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, and Coming of Age in America: A Multicultural Anthology, non-fiction essays, and poems.

The English 10 curriculum emphasizes the development of critical thinking skills that are honed through close reading and communicated in various forms of writing. English 10 furthers the building blocks of thematic interpretation and academic argumentation that students acquired in English 9. Students leave English 10 well prepared for the longer analytical writings and greater freedom in choosing their lines of inquiry that they will encounter in English 11 and in their further studies in English language and literature. As English 10 students become more alert to nuance and complexity, they are invited to expand their self-awareness in relation to the authorial positions of the foundational texts we study. The texts stage various forms of difference to which students respond with empathy and understanding. The plan of study allows collaborative work on unit activities that may include the use of film, interviews, and debates. English 10 maintains an intensive focus on analytical writing, but allows for alternative forms of expression and assessment. Students are given the opportunity to explore personal narratives, creative writing, and interview scripts. English 10 is offered in two courses: Standard English 10, and Exposition and Literature, which supports students who would benefit from more individualized attention, smaller class sizes, and a modified pacing and emphasis. Students will be placed in the course that their ninth grade teachers recommend. Texts, which may vary from year to year, currently include a summer reading book, Macbeth, Frankenstein, Brave New World, Night, The Color Purple, and a poetry anthology.

English 11 centers thematically on the forces that shape and develop an individual’s sense of identity. We will also examine the conflicts that can result when an individual’s values come into conflict with those of their society. The course incorporates a variety of voices to broaden the perspectives of students as they consider this important theme in different contexts and theoretical frameworks. Written close analysis in the form of shorter passage examinations will allow students to develop concise and precise interpretations in their writing. Students will develop sustained critical analysis in longer essays. Class discussion is central, and students will need to participate actively and to use textual references in support of their interpretations. Discussions and group projects will also play a role in emphasizing active, multifaceted engagement with literature. Texts may include William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, August Wilson’s Fences, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, as well as short stories and poems.

AP English Literature and Composition is a course for students who enjoy the study of literature, love reading for deeper meaning, participate actively in discussion, and feel prepared to tackle challenging assignments. The AP English Literature class does cover all of the English 11 texts, but the class reads some extra works and is designed for students who want to delve more deeply into the study of literature by reading a couple of more difficult works. The pace of the class will also be somewhat quicker than in English 11. The work in class will not only sharpen students’ critical thinking, close reading, and analytical writing skills, but it will also provide some preparation for the exam in May.

The Iliad and Agamemnon present a series of portraits of ancient heroes: Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Patroclus, Paris, Hecuba, Helen, Andromache, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. This course – through analyses of the heroes, their dilemmas, and their limited choices, and through discussions of how the epic frames the heroes and invests their stories with pity and fear – will lead students to develop their own understanding of ancient Greek heroes in epic and tragedy. Students will read a slightly abridged Iliad and through short writing 7 assignments and class discussion, develop their own understanding of the heroic in epic. They will then turn to Aeschylus' Agamemnon, whose personae dramatis they've come to know in The Iliad, and through discussion, argument, and writing develop their understanding of the nature of tragic heroes and the pathos which encompasses them.
Reading: Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’s Agamemnon
Writing: A few short reflections and one longer essay

The dystopian tradition has shown itself to be an enduring and thought-provoking genre of literature. What is the appeal of imagining oppressive societies? What do dystopias show about our anxieties as humans? To what extent do these works emerge from particular historical periods and concerns? How do these works speak to larger truths about the individual, society, duty, and free will?
Reading: The Road, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Never Let Me Go
Writing: Two analytical papers, a few shorter writings

What does it mean to make the “right” decision? What constitutes a good life? How should we evaluate ethical problems? This course will introduce students to the basic ideas of moral philosophy, starting with the writings of early thinkers who meditate on the appropriate values and moral considerations for people and progressing through more modern ethical systems. The final portion of the course will explore contemporary ethical debates. All the while, we will read works of literature to offer students the opportunity to apply the competing ethical theories as they assess right and wrong actions.
Reading: Authors and works may include Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hobbes, de Waal, Aquinas, Mill, Tolstoy, Daphne du Maurier, Flannery O’Connor, The Scarlet Letter, Billy Budd, Things Fall Apart, A Christmas Carol, Lord of the Flies, and A Clockwork Orange
Writing: Two analytical papers, a few shorter writings

How are we influenced by the media we interact with? Media allow us to preserve and share ideas, but can they also restrict the range of thoughts that can be expressed? How does control of the media lead to real-world power? In this course, we will examine many different kinds of media and media bias, with the goal of better understanding how media influences our understanding of the world both personally and culturally.
Reading: Ready Player One, 1984, and The Circle
Writing: Three analytical essays and some reflective writing

This course will begin with a basic introduction to the discipline of psychology and then examine several works of literature using the lens of modern psychology. How do we understand the choices, motivations, and struggles of characters, and how do authors capture those psychological complexities on the page? Where is the border between what is considered normal cognitive variability and what is defined as mental illness?
Reading: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Crime and Punishment, No Exit, short stories, essays, and films
Writing: Two analytical essays and some short reflections

Beginning with the origins of the detective story proper in the 19th century, students in this course will look closely at one of the most enduringly popular genres of fiction through some of its most famous and striking examples. What do these stories of mystery, procedure, and moral corruption have to say about us?
Reading: A Devil in the Blue Dress, A is for Alibi
Writing: Two analytical essays and a creative project

In this course, students will use literature to examine some of the key social injustices of our time: racial profiling, police brutality, drug addiction, poverty, failing immigration policies, and violence against the LGBTQ community. Using the authors we read as models for addressing injustice, students will write and produce an original podcast examining a social justice issue in their own community. Reading: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, and The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman Writing: Two analytical papers, journal entries, culminating podcast

Speech That Matters is an elective in which students study and practice the art of public speaking, presentations and persuasion. Public speaking is an important life skill, and those who intentionally develop the skill have advantages in communications and leadership. This helps students to prepare for and understand the variety of occasions in which public speaking is appropriate and necessary. Speech That Matters provides opportunities for seniors to grow as writers, to exercise creative composition, to face personal fears, and to develop stronger voices.
Reading: Notable speeches by others
Writing: Speeches that students will present

What were the iconic images of the 1950s and 60s? What myths do we associate with these icons? How did these images circulate among the US public? In what ways did citizens challenge, uphold and reshape iconography of the time? In this interdisciplinary course, students will approach these questions by examining a range of cultural and historical texts to understand how Americans have interrogated and critiqued some of the country’s most popular icons and ideas. In particular, we will investigate the way these interrogations coalesced in the new social movements of the 1960s—the “countercultures” of that decade: student activism, the classical civil rights movement, women’s liberation, gay rights, the anti- war movement, and others.

Students will read such literary texts as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Sylvia Plath’s Ariel, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and study films such as Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde. Students will also examine newspaper articles, speeches, letters, and historical accounts of the period. Visits to Washington, DC’s Lincoln Memorial and U Street corridor will allow students to survey and reflect on important sites associated with American icons and their critics. Assignments and assessments for this course include: summer reading and writing, presentations, debates, short response papers and essays, and a final project that focuses on a theme or themes covered in classes.

In an increasingly global world, the experiences of both physical and metaphorical travel are frequent fodder for writers. This course will examine the different avenues modern writers pursue as they weave stories of memory and meaning by traipsing through unknown territories, undertaking dangerous adventures, and exploring the allure of food. With each new text, students will engage in their own adventures and culinary experiences which will provide them with the material to write, present, and creatively imagine their own narratives. As they do so, they will continually reflect on the ways that non-fiction writers convey meaningful stories that ultimately contribute to our understanding of ourselves and others.
Reading: Into Thin Air, A Walk in the Woods, and Yes, Chef
Writing: Two longer narrative essays, three shorter creative essays

In this class, we will examine the comedic as a defining element of human life to explore how it works and what its functions might be. We will also look at the social role of satire, comedy’s close cousin. We will consider texts from different media – fiction, drama, film, and TV – to investigate what makes us laugh and what that says about us.
Reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Writing: Two analytical essays, some short reflections, and a creative project

Most of us enjoy and are familiar with movies, but they are also worthy of serious study. This course will begin with a look at how to talk about and analyze film, learning the language of film and the possibilities for critical interpretation. Using literature as a lens, we will then move on to studying how films adapt the elements and conventions of novels, poems, and short stories for the screen, and how literature is subsequently changed by film’s unique abilities. We will mostly examine independent film because directors have more control to test the limits of film in their storytelling. This course will require the screening of a film in class every week and an additional film to be screened for homework (either online or during free blocks).
Reading: Writers may include Laurence Sterne, Joseph Conrad, Margaret Atwood, Philip K. Dick, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, and Agatha Christie
Films: Filmmakers may include Alfred Hitchcock, Spike Lee, Greta Gerwig, Quentin Tarantino, Karyn Kusama, Darren Aronovsky, Kathryn Bigelow, Barry Jenkins, and Paul Thomas Anderson
Writing: Weekly 2-3 page papers on the two films screened that week

This class looks at the pervasive themes that appear in the literature of our imagination from 17th century folk tales to modern fantasy stories. Beginning with early oral narratives across cultures, we trace the ways archetypal stories have continued to shape our fears of the worst and dreams of the best in the stories we design for our children.
Reading: May include classic fairy tales, Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan
Writing: One reflective essay, some reflections, and one creative project

How does literature influence and reflect our ideas about what it means to be a man? This course will use masculinity as an interpretive framework to understand the many ways in which sexuality, gender, economic status, race, and cultural identity affect one's sense of identity. Is masculinity changing in the modern world, or is it the same as it has always been? Does being a man mean the same thing to all people, or is it a social construct? And what influence do these concepts have on the lives of women? We will read novels and plays that challenge the idea that masculinity is a monolith and at the same time examine the many assumptions that undergird the broader idea of masculinity.
Reading: Othello, The Sun Also Rises, A Streetcar Named Desire, Fight Club
Writing: Two analytical papers, several short homework writings

Students in this class will compose several short stories and work closely with classmates during college-style workshops. They practice techniques for constructing character, dialogue, place, and plot. Students imagine and write a lot, but they also read a lot, examining literature from the perspective of the writer. Reading: Several great short stories
Writing: Students' own portfolio of short stories

Whether they subvert expectations or openly rebel against them, female characters written by modern women writers tend to defy expectations. This class examines works in which women break all the rules to establish a new order that is more to their choosing; we will occasionally stop to review the norms society places upon women in popular media--especially television and film.
Reading: Beloved by Toni Morrison, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, selected poems Writing: One short and one long analytical paper, one creative piece

Myths are used not only to engage and entertain the reader and listener, but also to establish standards for societal behavior, so our close study of them is critical for understanding the implicit assumptions that underpin and unify civilizations. What is the purpose of myths? What is their importance over time?
Reading: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Kafka's The Metamorphosis
Writing: One analytical essay, creative exercises, and group projects

Speech That Matters is an elective in which students study and practice the art of public speaking, presentations and persuasion. Public speaking is an important life skill, and those who intentionally develop the skill have advantages in communications and leadership. This helps students to prepare for and understand the variety of occasions in which public speaking is appropriate and necessary. Speech That Matters provides opportunities for seniors to grow as writers, to exercise creative composition, to face personal fears, and to develop stronger voices.
Reading: Notable speeches by others
Writing: Speeches that students will present

This class examines three masterpieces by women that established women’s legitimacy as authors and initiated the idea of a uniquely feminine perspective on the way the world operates. How is their writing different from that of their male contemporaries as they looked at gender roles and societal conventions and expectations? We will also critically watch some of the many modern film versions of these novels.
Reading: Works by Austen and Bronte
Writing: Two analytical essays and some reflective fun writing