Curriculum Guide

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US English

  • American Literature

    AMERICAN LITERATURE US1315
    (1 YEAR/1.0 credit) Grade 11

    This course invites students to participate in the richness and variety of American language, literature, and culture. It begins with aspects of the American character, emphasizing the development of collective habits and the persecution individuals suffer when they challenge those habits. Following our global work in Grade 10, in Grade 11 we study and listen to the work of some of America's distinctive literary authors, writing our own poetry, prose, and drama suggested by the ideas and strategies of these works. Another concern of the course is the problem of belonging in America.  We look at poetry, fiction, drama, film, and essays that explore the search for meaning, humor, and dignity in a land that makes us feel our difference.

    Works studied may include various nonfiction works (Native American speeches; articles; videos; essays by Hurston, Solnit, Kimmerer, Davis, Douglass, Baldwin, Bourne, Biss, and Thoreau); Beloved, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, Buried Child, As I Lay Dying, The Crucible, There There, Fun Home, If Beale Street Could Talk; short fiction by Cisneros, Baldwin, Kernan, and Hawthorne; and poetry by Wheatley, Harjo, Dickinson, Cullen, Whitman, McKay, Hughes, Diaz, Corressi,  Hoagland, and the Hansell visiting poet.

  • Beauty and the Body

    BEAUTY AND THE BODY US1455
    (Offered second semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    In her personal memoir, Lucy Grealy writes, “Beauty, as defined by society at large, seemed to be only about who was best at looking like everyone else.” If this is true, how does the literature that surrounds us help us to reinforce or reject this idea? What harm and damage have we inherited for decades? In this course, we will consider what images and texts have shaped our society’s narrative of what makes someone beautiful. We will approach each text with a critical, intersectional lens, asking ourselves what messages—intended or not—the text is sending. We will study mainstream images and advertisements in order to consider how we’ve internalized certain messages about beauty and masculinity.  Students will respond to our textual studies in myriad ways, including written analysis, creative responses, and other multi-genre projects.

    Some texts may include Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography Of A Face, Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s Sabrina & Corina, Carmen Maria Machado’s’s Her Body and Other Stories, Melissa Fabos’s Girlhood.  Additionally, we’ll study films and documentaries such as Straight/Curve: Redefining Body Image.  

  • Creative Non-Fiction

    CREATIVE NONFICTION US1595
    (Offered second semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    “It’s about making facts dance.”
    – Ben Yagoda

    In this course we’ll discover how nonfiction—whether the personal essay or memoir, the profile or travel piece, or any of a number of other genres rooted in fact—can be as literary, as imaginative, as significant, and as formula-defying as poetry or fiction. This workshop-centered writing course is open to all students seeking to improve their craft and explore both themselves and the world around them--and to those curious minds interested in the boundaries and possibilities (truth? post-truth?) that creative nonfiction continues to explore. We will compose long-form stories like these: “Auditioning for Clown College,” “The Life of a Staten Island Ferry Bagpiper,” and “The Pleasures of Hating.” And we will read more than we write.

    Readings and writers may include Eula Biss, Elissa Washuta, Claudia Rankine, Sedaris, Baldwin, Dillard, Nabokov, Didion, Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Richard Rodriguez, Foster Wallace, E. B. White, Hurston, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Rakoff, Orwell, Saunders.

  • Detective Fiction

    DETECTIVE FICTION US1318
    (Offered second semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    Detective Fiction, a wildly popular genre, also has literary depth, and in this course we will revel in the suspense and mystery while also examining the form of the genre.  Good detective fiction is indicative of time and place, revealing the sentiments, anxieties, and projections of the society out of which it is born.  In Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, Sherlock Holmes is certainly a brilliant sleuth, and can be read simply as that, but the stories become even more interesting when we examine the relationship between fictional characters and historic and social realities. How do the values of the detective (the hero or antihero) illuminate a society’s notions about morality? Similarly, how do the tragic flaws (and oftentimes identity status) of the perpetrator illuminate society’s notions about the accepted social order?

    Possible authors and texts include: Sophocles, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, Raymond Chandler,  Harini Nagendra, Paco Ignacio Taibo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and modern film/ television homages to different eras of detective fiction, like “Glass Onion” and BBC’s “Sherlock Holmes.”

  • Dystopian Literature

    DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE  US1350
    (Offered first semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    Dystopian literature, fiction about oppressive or decaying societies and worlds but just as often also about strength, resolve, and recovery, has been around ever since people have been unhappy with their lives, but officially, according to literary critics, the first dystopian novel was We, by the Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, written in 1921 about a utopian society within a totalitarian state. More recently, dystopian literature has experienced something of a boom, and novels and short stories have dealt with issues of race, gender, climate, and political oppression and corruption. In this class, we will look at all of these themes by exploring the current popularity of the genre, the connection between the novels and the political landscapes that they come from, and the roles that climate change, race, and gender play in various texts. Texts might include short stories such as “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin and its later “partner” story “The Ones Who Stay and Fight” by N. K. Jemisin and novels like The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower, The Trial by Franz Kafka, The Power by Naomi Alderman, and others. Students will also be asked to write an original dystopian short story.       

  • Literature & Madness

    LITERATURE AND MADNESS US1450
    (Offered first semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    “My brain hums with scraps of poetry and madness.”
    –Virginia Woolf

    Whether it’s “lunacy” or foolishness, frenzy or alienation, literature has long been keenly interested in, and insightful about, what we’ve called “madness.” Our focus will be on literature—novels, poems, plays, short stories, creative nonfiction—that explores mental illness, with periodic consultation of psychological and cultural efforts, past and present, to address the sorts of behaviors brought to life in our texts. We’ll encounter the history of representation of so-called “madness” in literature, tropes and stereotypes about mental illness, and how writers make meaning out of the seemingly unintelligible symptoms of mental illness. We’ll also ask about the roles that gender and sexuality, race and modernity, class and sexual orientation have always played. And try our hand at imitating how writers represent “madness” on the page.

    Writers include: Morrison, Peter Shaffer, Vonnegut, Nabokov, Rankine, Plath, Ginsberg, Woolf, Shakespeare, Kesey, and Kafka.

  • Poetry

    POETRY US1600
    (Offered first semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    The poet Naomi Shihab Nye has said, “Poetry [is] more necessary than ever as a fire to light our tongues.” This course will work to provide that critical space for students to find poems and poets that offer a source of comfort, recognition, and “fire.” The primary focus of this course will be devoted to students writing their own original work and workshopping one another’s poems in small groups and as a class. In order to learn and gain inspiration for our own work, we’ll read and closely study poems from a variety of writers.  Studying poetry carefully and patiently doesn’t have to smother a student’s love for a poem. Rather, when done gleefully, and with an open and curious mind, the study of poetry can—and really should—enable a student to discover, deepen, and enrich such love. What we won’t be doing, in other words is “tying the poem to a chair with rope/ and torturing a confession out of it.” What we will be doing is “taking a poem/ and holding it up to the light/ like a color slide” and “pressing an ear against its hive.” Students will write poetry in a variety of styles (in free-verse and in traditional and experimental forms). The school’s Visiting Poet Series will also feature in our course, particularly in our work with the current year’s visiting poet. We will also meet with various local poets and scholars.

    Poets studied may include Elizabeth Bishop, Seamus Heaney, Emily Dickinson, Kevin Young, Shakespeare, e.e. cummings, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mary Oliver, and Billy Collins.

  • Reading and Writing Across Genres

    READING AND WRITING ACROSS GENRES US1505
    (1 YEAR/1.0 credit) Grade 9
     
    This course asks students to explore the various forms through which writers share their passions and ideas with readers and the tools they use to achieve their desired impact. The literary genres studied include drama, poetry, fiction (novel, novella, short story), and nonfiction (autobiography, biography, personal essay, memoir, literary nonfiction). Within each genre, students will read representative works, analyze their elements and effects, and write their own pieces. The goals of the year are to gain a deeper understanding of literary genres, to evolve as readers and thinkers, and to develop their voices as writers. Students are encouraged to consistently share their ideas and writing with each other.

    Writers studied may include playwrights such as Wilson, Nottage, DeLappe, and Shakespeare; poets such as Brooks, Komunyakaa, St. Vincent Millay, Olds, Williams, Roethke, Plath, Collins, Finney, Gluck, and Young; novelists such as Chopin, Cisneros, Clemmons, Shamsie, and Steinbeck; short story writers such as Boudinot, Oates, Garcia Marquez, Mahfouz, Allende, Jackson, and Poe; and essayists such as Sedaris, Wolffe, Kingston, and Angelou.
     

  • Shakespeare

    SHAKESPEARE US1411
    (Offered first semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    Although Shakespeare lived and wrote over 400 years ago, he and his work still loom large in our cultural sphere. Why? How has he gained and maintained the impression of being “intellectual spinach?” Is he actually good for us? What resonance does his work have in the 21st century? In this course we will examine the enduring impact of Shakespeare’s poems and plays and the insights we gain from reading and watching them. Together we will unpack his language to explore its GEMS (the gents and ladies, emotions, motives/themes, and staging), ultimately determining the benefits and challenges of reading his work in the modern age. Throughout our study, be prepared to read aloud and perform scenes, analyze the text, and respond personally to his work.

    Possible works include podcasts (How Shakespeare Became an American Icon, All That Glisters Is Not Gold), selected sonnets, and plays such as As You Like It, Othello, Henry V, Hamlet, and The Tempest.

  • The Black Voice in America

    THE BLACK VOICE IN AMERICA US1445
    (1 YEAR/1.0 credit) Grades 11-12

    “And in Afro-American Literature, the question of difference, of essence, is critical. What makes a work Black?”
    – Toni Morrison

    “Unspeakable Things Unspoken: the Afro-American Presence in American Literature.”
    – Toni Morrison

    Should literature of any kind have an agenda? What makes a work “Black”? In this year-long course, students will explore various ways Black experiences in America have been, and continue to be, formally and informally documented and chronicled. Students will engage the work of Hurston, DuBois, Morrison, Naylor, Baldwin, and others to answer the aforementioned questions. Through readings, conversations with artists and scholars, community-based writing days, documentary film studies, and more, we will draw distinctions among “literatures.” By using multiple disciplines (sociological, historical, post-colonial) to examine the literature, students will be exposed to the ever-evolving ways the Black American voice serves as a unique way to reread, reframe, and rethink America and the American experience; they will respond to readings analytically, creatively, and personally. Students should plan to finish the course with an expanded knowledge of the history and legacy of Black expression.

  • The Graphic Novel

    THE GRAPHIC NOVEL US1305
    (Offered second semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    The genre of the graphic novel is in the midst of a kind of renaissance. Some of the best graphic novels in the history of the genre are being published right now. It is also a genre that contains many other genres within it, such as literary fiction, science fiction, memoir, biography, autobiography, mythology, history, and historical fiction. In this course we will explore a variety of graphic novels that span many of these genres, discussing why this format might be used instead of more “traditional” prose formats, looking at current trends and unique ways of storytelling in graphic novels, exploring how art and text work together in intriguing and effective ways, and creating graphic stories of our own.

    Texts may include Stitches, Watchmen, Y: The Last Man, Black Widow, and The Hunting Accident, as well as examples of Japanese Manga texts, such as One Punch Man.

  • The Short Story

    THE SHORT STORY US1460
    (Offered second semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    “When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you. What I want is to have the reader come out just 6 percent more awake to the world.”
    — George Saunders

    In this course, we will turn our attention to exclusively one fiction genre—the short story—in an effort to better awaken ourselves to the world. George Saunders, the American master of the short story, will be our guide, and his texts Tenth of December and A Swim in a Pond in the Rain will be our cornerstones. We’ll analyze short stories to see what makes them effective or not; read literary criticism on the short story in order to better understand the form; read stories by other writers like Flannery O’Connor, Jhumpa Lahiri, Alice Munro, ZZ Packer, and Ben Marcus; and, ultimately, learn how to write effective stories ourselves, ending the course with a final creative short story workshop. 

  • Women's Literature

    WOMEN’S LITERATURE US1616
    (Offered first semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
    – Simone de Beauvoir

    Traditionally, the literary and cultural landscape was (is?) shaped by patriarchal values in such a way as to concretize those values. This course exposes students to literature written by and about women that questions the established notions of femininity, gender identity, and gender expression within different cultures and historical moments. With the use of critical texts, essays, and novels, we will examine the meaning of gender and how that meaning has shaped the life experiences of those who identify as female. Through this, we will also investigate the ways in which gendered identity intersects with class, race, and sexuality. 

    Possible works include Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex; Edwidge Danticat’s Breathe, Eyes, Memory; Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar; plus selected short stories and poems.

  • World Literature

    WORLD LITERATURE US1405
    (1 YEAR/1.0 credit) Grade 10

    Around the world, across cultures, and throughout history, we tell stories. This course examines these stories, why we tell them, and how we craft them. Building on our genres work in Grade 9, we examine works from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Japan, France, Iran, and Greece, among other locales. We consider individual and cultural identity formation and migration, as well as cultural values, mores, norms, and transgressions. We compare and discuss the characteristics of the hero from around the world. We also examine the role of transition when reading a variety of texts. 

    Works studied may include A Small Place, The Odyssey, The Thing Around Your Neck, after the quake, Exit West, The Stories of Eva Luna, as well as a selection of poems from around the world.  Other writers may include Brian Friel, Jhumpa Lahiri, Marjane Satrapi, William Shakespeare, and Dai Sijie. 

  • Writing Seminar I

    WRITING SEMINAR I US1620
    (Offered first semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    “The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis”
    -William Zinsser

    The primary focus of this class will be to give students the opportunity to write often and to engage in the critical steps of the writing process. 

    Semester one, the focus of the class will be writing in with the audience in mind. Writing modes may include the personal narrative, the opinion-editorial, profile, review, photo-essay. What is it that you want to say and how do you capture the attention of your audience? Whether or not you see yourself as more of a journalistic, creative, or academic writer, writing in these various models will challenge your voice and how you express your thinking. 

    Regardless if you take Writing Seminar I or II or both, students will read widely and often. The texts explored in this course will serve as “mentor texts.” What can this piece teach me about the craft of writing? What techniques does this writer use that I can employ in my own work? Therefore, students in this class should expect to both read and write regularly. Students will keep writer’s notebooks for both brainstorming and for moving through the writing process. Students should be prepared to workshop their work with their peers and in full-class workshops and should plan to engage in writing conferences with their teacher. Furthermore, students will study grammar and style. Students may engage in traditional grammar lessons as well as stylistic lessons around skills tied to sentence variety, use of punctuation, rhetorical strategies, etc. Students will walk away from the course with a variety of written work to showcase their progress.

  • Writing Seminar II

    WRITING SEMINAR II US1630
    (Offered second semester) (1 SEMESTER/0.5 credit) Grades 11-12

    “The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis”
    -William Zinsser

    The primary focus of this class will be to give students the opportunity to write often and to engage in the critical steps of the writing process. 

    Second semester, the focus of the class will turn to longer-form writing, including in-depth features and perhaps even research writing. Other writing forms may include creative writing assignments, including screenplays or short stories. 

    Regardless if  you take Writing Seminar I or II or both, students will read widely and often. The texts explored in this course will serve as “mentor texts.” What can this piece teach me about the craft of writing? What techniques does this writer use that I can employ in my own work? Therefore, students in this class should expect to both read and write regularly. Students will keep writer’s notebooks for both brainstorming and for moving through the writing process. Students should be prepared to workshop their work with their peers and in full-class workshops and should plan to engage in writing conferences with their teacher. Furthermore, students will study grammar and style. Students may engage in traditional grammar lessons as well as stylistic lessons around skills tied to sentence variety, use of punctuation, rhetorical strategies, etc. Students will walk away from the course with a variety of written work to showcase their progress. 

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Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.