Humanities

Subject Area: English
Open to: 9

In English 9, students develop a rich foundation for the study of world literature, with an emphasis on non-western literature. They encounter a range of engaging texts that cross genres and cultures, including texts from Asia and the Caribbean. These texts include the Shakespeare play The Tempest, the graphic novel Persepolis, the Korean and Japanese set multigenerational saga Pachinko, and the multi-perspective Haitian novel The Dew Breaker, among others. As they study contemporary world literature, students refine their critical reading abilities by learning to recognize textual patterns and analyze writers’ choices.  This allows students to challenge normative assumptions by engaging with non-Western experiences while learning to identify and explain the historical and cultural structures and systems that have impacted social inequality. Throughout the course, students will build their composition skills, including crafting clear arguments and using evidence effectively. Students culminate their year by participating in a mock trial where a character from The Dew Breaker is put on trial, with students arguing as the defense or the prosecution. While the emphasis will be on analytical writing, students will also have the opportunity to work on creative projects, such as visual representations of characters and themes, as well as a “choose your own adventure” project where students can create art pieces, playlists, or write their own short stories.

Subject Area: English, American Studies
Open to: 10

In this course, students will study American Literature from the Colonial period through the 20th century. Over the course of the year, students will read and analyze texts ranging from Native American literature to fugitive slave narratives by Frederick Douglass, to influential American novels like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. We also explore short fiction that thematizes women’s struggle for societal reforms at the end of the 19th century, including “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and learn to analyze poetry through close study of Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes. Students will build on their knowledge of literary genre and form, and deepen their analytical writing abilities by writing frequent argumentative essays which go through extensive drafting and revision. Several units will be taught in coordination with U.S. History and AP U.S. History, enabling students to learn about literature with a richer sense of historical context. The final project of the year brings together American Literature and US History curricula by staging a mock school board meeting. Students take on the role of a parent, student, or teacher to argue for or against the inclusion of controversial texts in the JCHS curriculum.

Subject Area: English
Open to: 11

This writing-intensive course provides juniors with the tools to become more confident, proficient, and creative academic writers. Students will work on a variety of writing assignments in a range of genres, all designed to help them cultivate their ability to make and support persuasive arguments. From deconstructing opposing arguments, to writing their own op-eds, magazine features, and book reviews, students will be able to move beyond the five-paragraph essay and engage in meaningful, real-world analytical writing formats. Readings will include essays and features about key debates in contemporary culture, Chanel Miller’s Know My Name, and the classic novel Frankenstein. In conjunction with their Biology class, students will prepare for reading Frankenstein by writing a research paper that explores the ethical ramifications of creating human life. Students will also study the elements of the personal essay in the second semester, and cultivate their own writing style as they work on crafting their college essays. Over the course of the year, students will compose a minimum of six pieces, all of which will go through an extensive drafting and revision process.

Subject Area: English
Open to: 11
Prerequisite: B+ in American Literature

The AP English Language and Composition course focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing and the rhetorical analysis of both fiction and nonfiction texts, from writers such as Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Matther Desmond, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Through frequent writing assignments, students evaluate, synthesize, and cite research to support their arguments. Additionally, they read and analyze rhetorical elements and their effects in nonfiction texts from a range of disciplines and historical periods. Students will read various non-fiction texts—from newspaper editorials to philosophy, to literary non-fiction, to memoirs, to speeches—all to discover how an author crafts an argument. In conjunction with their biology class, students will prepare to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by writing a research paper that explores the ethical ramifications of creating human life. Students will also study the elements of the personal essay in the second semester and cultivate their writing style as they craft their college essays. Advancing their mastery of all aspects of powerful composition, students will be challenged to develop a more versatile and bold writing style, learning to adapt their writing voices to meet the demands of genre, audience, and occasion. 

Subject Area: English
Open to: 12

This class will delve into one of the most relevant topics in today’s world: the environmental crisis and climate change. The central question of the course is this: what is the relationship between how we depict and represent nature and how we treat nature in “real life?” How we represent nature in art, literature, or film partly explains how we use, extract, manipulate, or preserve nature. Our course will explore, among others, the idea of nature as a cultural construct, representations of plants as vengeful entities, our complex relationship with animals, and the anxiety (and hopeful promise) of environmental disasters. Ultimately, we will understand how culture should be a fundamental part of the ecological equation and reflect on the ethical and political debates around our environmental approach. To do this, we will explore literature, film, photography, and visual art, asking how each particular medium contributes to the question of nature. Some of the readings include Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road, Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Jurassic Park, Sebastiao Salgado’s stunning and disturbing mining photographs, and Horacio Quiroga’s plant horror short stories. 

This course is integrated with Senior Seminar: Issues in Jewish Thought. In both courses, students will explore common philosophical and ethical themes such as systemic oppression, the problem of evil, and the importance of memory. To that end, students will write a complex essay that involves integrating material from both classes in order to discuss how the abuse of power and systemic oppression manifest and impact individuals and society more widely. 

Subject Area: English
Open to: 12
Prerequisite: B+ in Writing and Rhetoric or B in AP English Language and Composition

As the title character, Sula, proclaims in Toni Morrison’s 1973 novel: “I don’t want to make somebody else. I want to make myself” (91). This course will explore narratives of self-fashioning in both fiction and poetry, and will pay special attention to moments of tension between individual desires and cultural norms. Through reading novels ranging from canonical 19th century texts like Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary to modern classics like Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, students learn how to use close-reading techniques to build persuasive arguments about the ways writers use language and literary devices to create meaning. The study of poets ranging from Emily Dickinson to Terrance Hayes will equip students with an understanding of the subtle ways meaning can shift and evolve over the course of a short lyrical poem. In preparation for the Advanced Placement exam, students will become confident writing thesis-driven, tightly organized, analytical essays in a limited amount of time.

This course is integrated with Senior Seminar: Issues in Jewish Thought. In both courses, students will explore common philosophical and ethical themes such as systemic oppression,  the problem of evil, and the importance of memory. To that end, students will write a complex essay that involves integrating material from both classes in order to discuss how the abuse of power and systemic oppression manifest and impact individuals and society more widely.