English
All English courses teach students to write clearly, cor–rectly, imaginatively, and powerfully and to read with understanding and insight toward a goal of building cultural literacy. All courses are designed to promote a love of reading and a heightened appreciation of good literature through studying selections from various genres: short story, novel, drama, and poetry. Through class discussion, courses promote clarity of expression as well as the willingness to share ideas openly. Confidence in writing is promoted through practice in crafting critical, personal, and expository essays. Students are encouraged to view writing as a process that is best learned through drafting, revising, and dis–cussing their work in conference with teachers. Every facet of an English course aims to build interpretive and critical thinking skills.
Requirements
All students must complete four years of English for the Walnut Hill diploma. International students may apply work in English as a Second Language (ESL) toward this four-year requirement.
Courses in English
English 9
English 9 explores several worldviews of cultures far removed in time and space from ours. We look at the ways in which environments affect cultures, whether a society is materialistic or antimaterialistic, and whether a society is oriented toward the individual or toward society. Students do weekly writing assignments in several genres plus other special projects. Recent texts include Shakespeare’s Macbeth, selected books from the Bible, Sophocles’ Antigone, and LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven. The curriculum is coordinated with that of World History I.
English 10
In English 10, students are exposed to classic literature from all over the world, from Greek drama, to Shakespeare, to British and American literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In order to respond to these works, students begin to develop the skills to analyze literature and to argue a thesis based on those works. Students in English 10 also have the opportunity to respond to the course readings through creative projects.
English 11
English 11 seeks to foster a sense of citizenship in the world of ideas and in the republic of letters; to foster engagement with the intellectual currents of the time; and to explore the philosophical aspects of training in an art form. In their essays, students move beyond the rudimentary level of analysis to more creative forms of expression, including creative nonfiction, which com–bines the rigorous analytical skills of a traditional research project and the creativity of fiction writing. Recent texts have included Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Ghost Writer, The Song of the Lark, A Doll’s House, The Merchant of Venice, Hiroshima, In Cold Blood, The Things They Carried, Into the Wild, and Franny and Zooey.
English 12
In English 12, students practice sharpening their literary engagement and critical expression through discussions based on close readings of texts in a range of genres—novels, short fiction, essays, poetry, drama—and through focused, formal writing. The course aims to guide students in the patient crafting of precise observations on which to build inferences and, ultimately, arguable claims for fresh, persuasive analytical prose. Integral to students’ attainment of a new sophistication and energy in their critical approaches are the enhancement of vocabulary and verbal sensitivity, refinement of articulation skills, and expanded awareness of the possibilities opened by active, thorough questioning.
Senior Seminar in Literature
The Senior Seminar in Literature strives for critical, college-level investigation of texts that have proven, in various ways, timeless. The course takes seriously the concept of the seminar—a group of advanced students performing original research and sharing their intellectual pursuits through reports and discussion. A central aim of the course is to develop an appreciation of literature through precise analytical approaches, a goal that requires students to invest in close examina–tion of how language functions. Recent works studied include Walden, The Tempest, Death of a Salesman, To the Lighthouse, As I Lay Dying, and Light in August, as well as selected poetry (Yeats, Larkin, Bishop) and short fiction (Steinbeck, O’Connor, Hemingway, Ellison, Chopin). The Seminar is open to seniors by application to the Humanities Department in the spring of the junior year. Enrollment is limited.
History
The History faculty believes that the study of the past and of human culture is essential to the creation of an educated mind. History courses are intended to give students a rich understanding of the past, an empathy for other cultures and peoples, and a civic awareness of the catalysts for—and consequences of—social, political, economic, and cultural change. Students explore and examine these ideas at the same time that they develop and refine their reading, writing, synthetic, and analytical skills.
Requirements
The Walnut Hill diploma requires two years of study in history, one of which must be United States History. Incoming 9th graders are also required to take World History I. It is strongly recommended that students enroll in additional departmental offerings.
Courses in History
World History I (required for grade 9)
World History I presents a comparison between some of the foundational systems and beliefs of the West and of China. Through the close reading of images and primary texts and through the construction of structured written and verbal arguments, students learn skills and habits basic to the humanities. World History I and English 9 are designed to be taken together.
World History II (grade 10)
In World History II, students are asked to view and understand the historical events and populations they study in the same way they view themselves and the daily events in their lives. It is important that they realize that whether looking at people in Renaissance Europe, in Southeast Asia, or in the Ottoman Empire, every action and belief in historical cultures was explainable or reasonable to those living in these societies. The influences that shaped people in the past are as simple and complex as the influences that shape the students’ own lives.
United States History (grade 11)
United States History provides students with an overview of the American experience from the colonial period through the twentieth century, oftentimes paying particular attention to “forgotten” races and classes of citizens. Throughout the course, students are given various types of assessments, including but not limited to tests, quizzes, short essays, and presentations. The major assignment of the course is a seven-to-ten-page research paper.
Prerequisite: International students must have completed ESL III and World History II.
Development, Globalism, and the Middle East (grade 12)
This course explores the challenges and promises of eco–nomic development and globalism and the specific history of and current situation in the Middle East. Central to the course will be explorations of the relationships between all three of these themes. Students in this course will read and write about daily or weekly news articles as well as primary, historical, and sacred sources. Students will com–plete a major research project.
Humanities
English 9 and World History I are required for all 9th grade students. These courses work together to create a foundation for later coursework in English and History.
Courses in Humanities
American Studies
American Studies is a year-long course that combines curricula from a United States history course and an American literature course. The course is designed to create a strong basis for international students to understand and appreciate American history and cul–ture. The course serves as a transitional experience for students who have completed or placed out of ESL III, and need additional help to prepare them for other English and History classes.
Art History (grade 12)
In a 1966 interview, Frank Stella, an American minimalist painter and sculptor, claimed that when looking at his paintings, “what you see is what you see.” This course is a historical survey of (mostly) Western art—architecture, sculpture, drawing, paint–ing, and other media. Training in visual observation and analysis is emphasized, so that students can learn to understand the ideas conveyed in a limited number of major works from key periods. Ultimately, students will learn that there is more to art than, like Stella claims, just what is seen on the surface. Students will examine major forms of artistic expression from antiq–uity to the present day, learning to look at (or “read”) works of art critically and to articulate what they see and experience with intelligence and sensitivity.
Art and Power (grade 12)
This course examines the connections between the artist, cultural criticism, social justice, and political action. Guest faculty from the arts disciplines will dis–cuss these connections in their arts areas: topics have included Shostakovich and Fascism, guerrilla theater, and recent art inspired by world events. Once a week, class members travel to the John Marshall School in Dorchester to help this elementary school’s student council work on making their school a better place, and on working collaboratively with the Marshall School students on art that will support the student council’s goals. A major part of the class is preparing for and executing this collaboration.
Introduction to Creative Writing (grade 12)
This 17-week immersion in the craft of writing features weekly experiments in prose and verse, an anonymous workshop, intense peer evaluation, and some fabulous reading, including Nims and Mason’s Western Wind, great stories from Fiction 100, and Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style. (That last text is the basis for a substantial semester project.) Students will emerge thoroughly soaked in writerly values and much more able to stay afloat in either a sea of words, a swimming pool of verbal images, or a bathtub of syntactical structures.
