English Department

The Brewster English program helps students to understand the concept of humanity by encouraging and instructing students to consider the meaning and power of words, writing, and books. Brewster’s four-year, college-preparatory program of English provides students with a sequential and intentional curriculum that develops their reading and writing skills. More specifically, the English curriculum trains students to read literature insightfully and to write purposeful and engaging essays about themselves, their world, and the literature they read. Through their readings and writings, students will confront ethical dilemmas, evaluate personal and political actions, and develop their own moral compasses. In each English course, students will develop their understanding of humanity and the human condition.

“Without words, without writing, and without books ... there could be no concept of humanity.” hermann hesse (20th century author and writer)

Read, Think, and Write!

The English program facilitates students’ educational development through small classes, culturally relevant teaching practices, and a combination of groupings that create an effective and engaging learning environment. Paramount in this educational process is the effort of teachers to meet the individual needs of students.

English Courses

Genres in Literature and Writing

In this leveled 9th grade course, students read, think, and write about a variety of literary classics, including a range of poetry and prose, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Using these texts and others, students develop their abilities to read, react, and respond to literature.Students also are introduced to the personal narrative and learn how to use their own writing to understand themselves and their ideas.

Elements of Literature and Writing

In this leveled sophomore-year course, students focus on reading, thinking, and writing about fiction, poetry, and drama. To help understand the purpose and significance of literature they read, students discover and explore interdisciplinary contexts, form opinions, make connections, and ask and answer their own questions. Readings include Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, drama from Shakespeare, and poetry from various eras. Also, students conduct independent reading to build their fluency and appreciation for reading longer texts. Throughout the course, students develop and improve their skills of communication by practicing active reading strategies, employing discussion techniques, completing brief and formal compositions that are both creative and analytical, and producing multimedia projects.

Contemporary American Literature and Critical Analysis

In this leveled junior-year course, students study 20th-century and current American literature. Throughout the year, students will analyze, discuss, and respond to diverse works of American poetry, essays, narratives, drama, and fiction. As they navigate varied American perspectives, students will hone their analytical, persuasive, and creative writing skills. The course also strives to challenge students’ understanding of American society as a whole.

Contemporary World Literature and Critical Analysis

In this leveled course intended for seniors and postgraduates, students spend the first weeks writing personal essays that should culminate in an effective and engaging college essay. Then, students focus on global literature to approach the following course question: What does literature teach us about that which is universal to the human experience, and that which is shaped by culture? To synthesize an answer to this question, students will analyze essays, poems, plays, stories, novels, and films that feature a variety of global perspectives. Throughout the year, students will develop their understanding of literary genres, elements, and techniques, and they will employ a writing process that places significant emphasis on pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing.

Reading and Writing the Modern Essay

In this leveled writing-intensive course intended for seniors and postgraduates, students focus on the genre of the essay. Throughout the course, students read exemplary texts and focus on analyzing the techniques that writers use to engage and persuade the audience, and they work to employ these techniques in their own writing. Techniques that receive significant attention include structure, language, rhetoric, using outside sources, and wit. As they read, students will practice and refine their active reading strategies and focus on analyzing how and why writers design their essays and employ particular techniques. As they compose, students make consistent use of the writing process, continually practicing and refining their pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing skills. Additionally, students will frequently practice their peer review and feedback skills, which will be integrated into the writing process. As a final product for the course, students will create and collect a portfolio that includes both expository and persuasive essays that make intentional use of techniques relating to structure, language, and rhetoric.

Ways of Seeing, Ways of Showing

What are the many ways we tell our stories and convey our ideas? In this course, students will study a variety of stories in a variety of genres. Along with exploring some traditional ways of storytelling—short stories, plays, poems, and short novels—students will study visual and multimedia forms as “texts,” reading and interpreting with the same language employed when considering literary pieces. The class will consider the relationship between the written word and the visual world, in how we see and understand, and in the power of narrative and its shape. Students will discover how stories surround us, hiding in plain sight, and how to better interpret those stories. This class is also for anyone curious about how two- and three-dimensional art, multimedia forms, video, and film have a place at the table in an English classroom.

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition

This college-level course is intended to prepare students for the AP exam in English Language and Composition. Throughout the course, students will practice writing using a variety of rhetorical patterns, and they will approach writing as a process that places significant emphasis on pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing. Students will read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of texts to develop their understanding of literary and rhetorical elements and techniques. In May, they will take the AP exam.

AP Seminar: The Self and the World

The AP Capstone Seminar course presents students with opportunities to engage in an in-depth study of real-world or academic issues or problems and analyze them from multiple perspectives. The overarching theme of the course focuses on exploring the complexities of one’s multiple and evolving identities, an individual’s roles in, relationships with, and responsibilities toward their local and global communities in an effort to broaden one’s understanding of and perspectives on citizenship. Ultimately, the goal of the course is to help students answer the essential question: What Makes a Citizen? Exposure to multiple perspectives and content from different disciplines allows students to appreciate, better comprehend, and engage in conversations on civic identity formation and development, and discuss, analyze, and evaluate ideas associated with engaged citizenship in local and global contexts. Throughout the year, students practice critical reading, writing, and research skills in an effort to craft, communicate, and defend evidence-based arguments in collaboration with others or in their independent work.

AP Research

AP Research * (only for students who have completed AP Seminar)

AP Research, the second course in the AP Capstone experience, allows students to deeply explore an academic topic, problem, issue, or idea of individual interest. Students design, plan, and implement a yearlong investigation to address a research question. Through this inquiry, they further the skills they acquired in the AP Seminar course by learning research methodology, employing ethical research practices, and accessing, analyzing, and synthesizing information. Students reflect on their skill development, document their processes, and curate the artifacts of their scholarly work through a process and reflection portfolio. The course culminates in an academic paper of 4,000 to 5,000 words (accompanied by a performance, exhibit, or product where applicable) and a presentation with an oral defense. [From AP College Board]. *Can be taken for English or History/Social Science credit (requires Academic Dean approval).

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