Skip To Main Content

English

students reading at a table
Curriculum_English_Hero2.jpg

Explore the human experience. 

In the Branson English classroom, we investigate, explore, question, analyze, and fall in love with our literary texts every day. From Homer to Shakespeare, Mary Shelley to Frederick Douglass, Jhumpa Lahiri to Zadie Smith, students immerse themselves in vibrant, diverse worlds. We aim to offer all students of all identities the pleasure and value of seeing themselves reflected in the texts they read, and to learn, with empathy and compassion, about cultures and experiences rarely explored.

In our innovative classes, you will learn through student-driven and student-lead conversations, multimedia presentations, collaborative projects, design thinking, connections to visual media, and more. You will constantly have opportunities to explore the connections between the work of the classroom and prescient issues in the world, the society, that emanates beyond the academic space.

Most importantly, you will explore the essential nature of writing, digging deeper than “thesis, evidence, analysis.” You’ll engage in a conversation between yourself, the text, and your audience. You’ll explore how writing engenders epiphany through both the strength of language and the clarity of vision.

English Requirements

12 units (4 years) 

All students take English I in the ninth grade and English II in the tenth grade. In the eleventh and twelfth grade, students choose from semester electives and must take an English class each semester.

Meet Our English Faculty

Henri de Marcellus

Henri de Marcellus

Registrar / Latin Teacher / Class Dean
Alanna  Hickey

Alanna Hickey

English Teacher
Katie Jan

Katie Jan

English Teacher
Neha Kamdar

Neha Kamdar

English Teacher
Madeline Lesser

Madeline Lesser

English Teacher
Evan Schnair

Evan Schnair

English Teacher
Giles Scott

Giles Scott

English Department Chair and English Teacher
Jeff Symonds

Jeff Symonds

Director of Studies, English Teacher

Branson Curriculum Guide

students in class

Read the Curriculum Guide to see all the courses we offer in the 2023-24 academic year.

Yearlong Courses

  • English I
  • English II

Fall Semester Courses

  • Agony to Ecstasy: Advanced Expository Writing
  • Climate Narratives: Re-imagining the Future
  • I Am a Man: Malcolm X, Toni Morrison, and Black Masculinity in Post Civil-Rights America
  • I Am Many
  • Maker/Martyr/Monster/Maid: A Contemporary Discourse on Motherhood
  • Taking the Toxic out of Toxic Masculinity

Spring Semester Courses

  • The Emperor Has No Clothes: How Satire Speaks Truth to Power
  • Encountering Beauty
  • Literary Feasts: Food, Culture, and Modern Narrative
  • A Nation United, A Nation Divided: Shakespeare and World Building
  • Not Poetry: Avant-Garde and Experimental Forms
  • The Play’s the Thing: Drama as Literature

Humanities/Cross-Referenced Courses

  • Advanced Journalism II
  • Ancient Greek Political Thought
  • History and Culture of Hip-Hop
  • Moral Philosophy in the Age of Augustus

For a complete list of English courses and their descriptions, read the 2023-24 Curriculum Guide