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English

The English Department focuses on developing sensitive and critical interpretations of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama through reading, discussion, and writing.

As writers and thinkers, students learn to push past text into subtext, discern reaction from analysis, and develop a pleasure for reading literature with purpose.

  • Students in the English Department will develop into sensitive and critical readers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama through reading, writing, and discussion. The curriculum is centered around our what-how-why methodology, which focuses attention to the synthetic relationship between the thematic and formal elements of literature and composition. This design gives students the ability to verbalize pointed responses, compose cogent essays, and interpret literature with confidence.

    Students at The Academy will have the opportunity to take English classes ranging from requisite courses like American Literature and Analysis and Composition to electives like Literature and the Comedic Form and Myth and Hero. As seniors, students can be placed in AP English Literature and Composition upon the recommendation of their teachers.

YOUR ENGLISH TEACHERS

Faculty & Staff
Nicholas Roux
Nicholas Roux

Co-Chair • Humanities

Nicholas Roux is the Co-Chair of the Humanities Department and teaches upper-level courses in literature and philosophy.

Chris Hagenah
Chris Hagenah

Faculty • English Literature

Christopher Hagenah attended University of California Santa Barbara, where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in English.

Natalie Staples
Natalie Staples

Faculty • English Literature

Natalie Staples earned her Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Kenyon College and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Oregon, where she also taught Poetry and Composition before coming to the Academy.

YOUR ENGLISH CLASSES

  • Introduction to Literary Analysis

    This course introduces students to literary analysis by exploring themes, devices, and conventions such as symbolism, narrative point of view, and irony. Students develop close reading, annotating, and essay-writing skills through revision and peer workshops.

  • American Literature

    American Literature

    This course surveys seminal works of American literature across genres and historical contexts, to build on skills learned in Introduction to Literary Analysis. Students deepen their ability to analyze the form-content relationship and craft complex written arguments.

  • Women's Literature

    Using Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider as a framework, this course examines literary works by and about women to explore how gender roles and femininity are constructed historically and cross-culturally.

  • Literature and the Comedic Form

    This course investigates humor’s mechanics and its role in literature, exploring conventions such as satire, parody, and irony. Students examine the emotional and intellectual aspects of comedy through various texts and comedic structures.

  • Poetic Genre and Form

    Poetic Genre and Form delves into the many facets of poetry from traditional forms to free verse. As it does, this course equips students with the ability to read poems for pleasure and analyze them for meaning, and formulate informed interpretations.

  • AP Literature and Composition

    AP English (Literature and Composition) is a college-level course exploring literature, drama, and poetry through the theme of identity. Students develop critical thinking and writing skills while engaging in complex literary analysis to prepare them for the AP Exam and their post-graduation ambitions.

  • Film as Literature

    This course considers film from a literary perspective by using the photographic and cinematic image as a “text” to be closely studied. In doing so, students analyze and learn the relationship between form and meaning in films from various genres and historical contexts.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • For the first two years of English, class size is usually around 15 students. Junior and senior level classes tend to range from 10 to 18 students.

  • All incoming students submit writing samples during the admissions process. This allows the English faculty to become familiar with students before school begins in August. All incoming 9th graders take Introduction to Literary Analysis where they learn to use our What-How-Why structure for analytical discussion and writing. Transfer students also submit writing samples and the English faculty recommend appropriate placement into American Literature (most 10th graders) or upper level English courses (10th and 11th graders).

  • Yes. Advanced Placement Literature and Composition is available to qualifying seniors.

  • All English classes include daily discussion of the assigned texts. Students should expect nightly reading that includes annotation and preparation for daily quizzes and class discussion. Additionally, all English classes require a quarterly essay.

  • “What-How-Why” is a structural methodology used in all English classes. Using close reading, students develop higher level thinking skills including identification, interpretation, analysis and synthesis. These developing skills are expressed in quarterly essays.

  • No. However, our students score well above the state and national       averages on the ACT’s English and Language sections and the SAT’s Evidence-Based Reading and Writing sections.