In the 11th and 12th grades, literature and social studies are no longer integrated as they were in a students first two years. However, building on the integrated courses in the 9th and 10th grades, students are encouraged to continue connecting ideas across disciplinary lines while also pursuing greater mastery within the distinct disciplines of literature and social studies. The following curricula are taught in alternating years.
Literature
To complement perspectives experienced through social studies aspects of Division III study, students will seek to hear the voices and ideas of individuals writing in those times and places. The reading list will include a variety of styles, genres and countries of origin. Visual and musical texts will expand our readings of the written word, allowing for exploration of how one media can enhance understanding of another work, opening up new avenues for discussion and interpretation.
Skills practice will focus on reading for deeper, more detailed comprehension, taking notes in-text and writing impromptu essays as well as drafting and revising written work.
Both juniors and seniors will spend time developing personal essays to prepare for the college application process.
Sample reading programs follow, but the lists remain flexible and open to adaptation based on changing focus ideas, themes and special interests of students. Reading selected plays of Shakespeare in conjunction with themes in either program is a priority.
European Program:
In the 16th and 17th centuries, we will focus on verse in poems and songs, for example, the secular and sacred poetry of John Donne and selections from Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Social satire is a special focus of the 18th century unit, and could include Voltaire's Candide, Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, writings of Jonathan Swift, and the Mozart-Da Ponte The Marriage of Figaro.
The 19th century brings a focus on the prose and poetry of the Victorians, such as Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Some Russian literature of the “Golden Age”, short stories of Pushkin and Dostoevsky, may fill out our 19th century reading list.
Shaw's dramas bridge the century into more modern and contemporary reading. A combination of two histories, such as Shakespeare’s Henry V with Shaw’s Saint Joan could open discussion of how artists through the years have viewed war and sacrifice. Beyond this theme, the 20th century contains more and varied possibilities, such as essays of Woolf on women or Orwell on empire. Plays of Chekov and Havel bring in political change, and a world of poetry holds a limitless range of ideas for reading, investigation and inspiration.
American Program:
This course of study will examine perspectives on and narratives of the United States found in classic, contemporary and current readings from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. A specific goal will be to mix genres and eras in our readings to see how artists’ styles as well as views on and issues in American society have changed or carried on, and how they connect to our experience today.
Starting with a look at American ideals and experiences expressed in lyrics, verse, and other earlier texts from our country's history, this course of literary study turns to essayists, poets, playwrights and fiction writers who have commented on how those ideals have evolved, strengthened, been lost or challenged in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The list below represents the range of texts by Americans we could draw on. It includes but is not limited to the following authors, titles and sources:
Verse and Lyrics: Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Sherman Alexie, Emma Lazarus, Tupac Shakur, David Byrne, Bruce Springsteen
Short Fiction: Nathaniel Hawthorne, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Kate Chopin, Katherine Anne Porter, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Conner, John Updike
Novels: Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses
Drama: Thorton Wilder’s Our Town, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Film: Gentleman’s Agreement, The Best Years of our Lives, Apocalypse Now
Essays from current sources such as the New York Times and anthologies such as The Norton Reader
Social Studies
Modern Europe: 1500 to the Present
In this course we will examine the foundations of modern Europe. We will explore the major political, social, religious, economic and cultural developments in Europe from the sixteenth century through the beginning of the twenty-first century. Some of the specific topics that we will delve into include: the Renaissance, the Reformation, constitutionalism and absolutism, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the rise of capitalism, new technologies and industrialization, nationalism, imperialism, Marxism and socialism, fascism, the World Wars, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout the year we will also track and analyze European and international current events with an eye to understanding how contemporary issues have been shaped by Europe’s history.
History of the United States: 1763 to the Present
In this course we examine the broad sweep of American history from 1763 to the present. The course is divided into four sections, roughly one per marking period: The Old Order and the American Revolution: 1750-1800; The Age of Equality: 1800-1877; The Age of Gold: 1870-1939; and The Superpower Emerges: 1939-Present. In the first section, we become familiar with the creation of American values and institutions from the late Colonial period through the Revolution. Our attention focuses on the tension between regional and central authority during the independence movement, the creation of the Constitution, economic and social change, and slavery. The second section addresses the pre and post Civil War years. In particular, we will examine the increasing sectional conflict that led toward the Civil War, the war itself, and Reconstruction. In the third section of the course, we will pay particular attention to economic and social changes and the rise of the United States as a world power. Specific areas to be covered include: the rise of an urban industrial society, issues of race, the changing role of women, WWI, and the Depression. The final section of the course begins with World War II and then moves to the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the social and political turmoil of the 1960s, Watergate, the Reagan years, the end of the Cold War, and the First Gulf War. The course concludes with the 9/11 attacks, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and changing East-West relations with a particular emphasis on China, India, and the Middle East. Throughout the year we will also track and analyze domestic and international current events with an eye to understanding how contemporary issues have been shaped by America’s history.