English


Writing & Literature I • Year

Writing & Literature I introduces students to the English Department at Darrow. Expectations for discussion, writing process, critical reading, and research are introduced and practiced. Students explore sense of place and its effect on identity both personally and through the experiences of the characters in the books read. Through Freshman Experience programming, thematic and experiential content overlaps with Environmental Science and Historical Methods courses. Essential questions to be explored include: What are my approaches, practices, methods to/for reading and writing? What does it mean to have a “sense of place?” How do I begin to know a place? What is community? What communities do I belong to? What are the expectations of those communities? How do I resist or conform to those expectations? What is identity? How is identity shaped, formed, changed? How do our social and natural environments shape our identities, and how do we influence our natural surroundings and communities? Diverse whole-class novels build community through shared experiences and inspire a variety of personalized creative and analytical writing prompts. Students also engage in independent reading projects designed to allow for the pursuit of personal interest, choice, and challenge and to create a lifelong reading habit.

 

Writing & Literature II: Persuasion & Perspective • year

Writing & Literature II is a deep dive into perspective. What shapes our perspective on the world, and how can we help others understand it? How and why can we learn from those with different worldviews? How can we connect with and persuade an audience who disagrees with us? In addition to analyzing perspective in literary works including graphic novels, poems, and plays, we will build our skills in personal and persuasive writing and debate and discuss real-world issues. Throughout the year, students will also read books of their choice in an independent reading project designed to build engagement and stamina.

Prerequisite: Writing and Literature I or equivalent from another school. 

 

Writing & Literature III: Inquiry & Analysis • Year

Writing & Literature III uses literature as a window into diverse American experiences. Students read and discuss speeches, poems, plays, novels, and other texts that support, question, and critique American ideals. Focusing on the skills of critical analysis, research, and presentation, this class challenges students to take increasing ownership of discussions and assignments. Students should leave this class empowered to engage in debates about America or their home countries, with the writing and speaking skills to make their voices heard and the learning and research skills to continue deepening their understanding.

Prerequisite: Writing and Literature II or equivalent from another school. 

 

Writing & Literature IV: College Writing • Fall

Have you ever listened to an inspiring TedTalk and wished you could write that well or be that convincing? Have you tried to tell your story or convince someone of something you believe in? This course focuses on developing students’ writing skills and helping them internalize their own writing processes. Students will be encouraged to think like writers by increasing their awareness of the writing process AND to write like writers through a self-reflective daily writing practice. Students will read both fiction and non-fiction works to look at how great writers approach their craft and to break down writing into its elements to better understand the process. Who am I as a writer? What is my writing process? What is my writing style? What are my tools? Where do my ideas and/or inspiration come from? What is my story, and how do I tell it? How do I use my writing to create change? These questions will inform much of our discussion this semester. Course texts span a number of genres and will allow us to consider the writing process and the writer’s experience. 

Open to all seniors and to juniors with permission of the Department Chair.

 

Writing & Literature IV: Utopia/Dystopia • Fall

What drives humans to create perfect communities and speculate about disastrous ones? How do these imagined (and sometimes real) societies serve as responses to urgent social, political, and environmental issues? As we learn together on the site of the Shakers’ utopian community, we will discuss and analyze films, novels, podcasts, essays, and short stories that explore the blurred lines between utopia and dystopia. Texts studied may include films like Get Out (2017) and The Stepford Wives (1975); novels like Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, The Circle by Dave Eggers, or The Power by Naomi Alderman; and episodes from Nice Try!, a podcast about real-life attempted utopias from Levittown to Disneyland.

Open to all seniors and to juniors with permission of the Department Chair.

 

Writing & Literature IV: Playwriting* • Fall

Students will receive a strong foundation in the playwriting craft, theatrical tools, play and scene structures, textual analysis, and constructive peer feedback models. To that end, this course includes prompts and free writes; scene writing and monologue writing; reading aloud and performance; collaborative group writing and devising; reading and analyzing plays; class discussions; peer feedback; ensemble-building; and personal aesthetic explorations. Students will choose to focus on their favorite piece to flush our full 10 minute play “staged reading” presentation style for their final exam. Students may also submit their plays for consideration to be in Darrow on the Fringe in the winter.

*This course is cross-listed with Performing Arts. Students will need to choose which department to receive credit in.

Open to all seniors and to juniors with permission of the Department Chair.

 

Writing & Literature IV: Russian Literature A • Fall

“And strikingly different from them all is Petersburg” – Bely. This course will examine the development of the literary myth of St. Petersburg as an artificial, malevolent, and eerily fantastic place, that is also known as the “cradle of the Russian Revolution” as well as both a martyr and hero city. We will consider how the ideas, myths and enduring symbols that derive from the nature of the city itself serve to create something like an organic being that exists separately from the physical location that can be represented on a map or visited as a tourist. Selected works of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky and, if time allows, Blok and Akhmatova will serve as source texts. Major assessments in the course will include an analytical essay and a creative writing piece.

Open to all seniors and to juniors with permission of the Department Chair.

 

Writing & Literature IV: Race: Reality and Fiction* • SPRING

If race has no genetic or biological basis, why does it matter so much? How has the notion of race been created and maintained over the last 300 years of American history? What are the impacts of racial categories in society? This course will explore the development of the idea of race through anthropological and historical research, and will apply these insights to works of fiction. Students will gain valuable tools for interpreting and discussing a very thorny and problematic topic and for analyzing current events and everyday interactions. Students will choose whether to earn History or English credit through varied assignments, but all students will read the major assigned texts.

*This course is cross-listed with History. Students will need to choose which department to receive credit in.

Open to all seniors and to juniors with permission of the Department Chair.

 

Writing & Literature IV: Storytelling: The Art & Craft* • SPRING

This course is an interdisciplinary synthesis of English and the Performing Arts Department. It incorporates essential elements of writing, reading, and speaking stories. The core of the course is in the interaction between the art and craft of storytelling. In this exciting creative process text is viewed from different angles in a way that goes beyond what is characteristic of either literary or theater studies as single disciplines. The course as a whole examines literary and dramatic texts and seeks to develop intellect, imagination and creativity. It encourages intercultural awareness through a study of texts from more than one culture. Students will gain understanding and practice in public speaking while adapting curriculum developed for building the skills in writing and performing our own life story moments. We will work to develop our storytelling life lens which provides the opportunity to engage with moments, even the most benign, and view them as access points to connect with others.

*This course is cross-listed with Performing Arts. Students will need to choose which department to receive credit in.

Open to all seniors and to juniors with permission of the Department Chair.


 

Writing & Literature IV: Literature & Psychology • SPRING

How do we define madness? How do people heal from trauma? Where does bias come from, and how can we reduce it? What are the secrets to a happy life? In this course, we will investigate questions that have been explored extensively in both psychology and literature. Students will analyze literary works through the lens of psychological research and studies. Short personal and creative writing assignments will complement our primary focus on analytical writing, scholarly research, and vigorous discussion. 

Open to all seniors and to juniors with permission of the Department Chair.

 

 


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