Overview

The goal of the English Department program is to help students grow in their understanding and use of the human communicative process.

• As a means of affirming the worth of the individual
• As a vehicle for learning to think independently and critically
• As a means for contributing positively to democratic institutions
• As a means for determining a system of personal and social values
• As a means of developing interest in the various media, not merely as vehicles of expression, but as art forms which provide practical and aesthetic insight into human nature
• As an avenue to the understanding of such abstract concepts as beauty, wisdom, and truth

The English Department recognizes the communicative process as three-fold: receiving, thinking, and sending. This process incorporates listening as well as reading; speaking as well as writing; and assimilating as well as receiving and sending.

2020-2021 Summer Reading Assignment

• 9th Grade Accelerated English (9X)
• 10th Grade Accelerated English (10X)
• 11th Grade IB/AP Literature & Composition
• 12th Grade IB/AP Literature & Composition

Facilities

The English Department is a full-service facility that offers students the most comprehensive opportunities.

• Internet access in every classroom for research
• Three 30-station computer labs in the Writing Center

Policies

1. Students may proceed from one course level to the next, as long as they are doing passing work in the course.
2. Students who fail both semesters of one level of English will not proceed to the next level until at least one credit is earned at the level of failure.
3. Repeater sections are not offered during the school year; therefore, students who fail a course must repeat the course during summer school or take two required courses simultaneously (as long as they maintain passing grades in both courses).
4. Students who are not maintaining passing grades when taking multiple English classes will be withdrawn with grade penalty from the failing class after the first nine weeks. If a student is failing both English classes, the student will be withdrawn from the highest level English class, or the student will be withdrawn from the class that may be repeated in summer school.
5. Students may not substitute an elective course for a required failed course.
6. Students may repeat a modified course only with a recommendation from the teacher, the department chairperson, or the counselor; otherwise, they must repeat the course in summer school or in a regular section of English. Modified English classes are not offered during summer school.
7. All seniors must take a composition course or a literature/composition combined course.
8. The department chairperson must approve all changes.