English
The English courses teach three major strands of English composition and literature—writing using the logic of grammar; speech using memorization selections; and the various literary genres, building students’ vocabulary and imagination. Grammar as the logic of language is the focus for Grade 9, dialectic argument is the focus for Grade 10, and rhetoric is the focus for Grade 11 and 12.
English Courses
English I – Classical Literature (H)
English II – World Literature (H)
Language & Composition – American Literature
Literature & Composition – British Literature
AP Language & Composition
AP Literature & Composition
“Here dies another day
During which I have had
Eyes, ears, hands, and the great world round me;
And tomorrow brings another.
Why am I allowed two?”
English Department
Sister Mary Brigid Burnham, O.P.
Department Chair
B.A. Hillsdale College
MATL The University of S. Mississippi
M.A. University of Notre Dame
Mrs. Pena
B.A. Arizona State University
M.A. Northern Arizona University
Mrs. Starbuck
B.A. University of Arizona
English Courses Book Lists
9th Genre / Classical Literature
Summer Reading
Swallows and Amazons, Ransome; Trumpeter of Krakow, Kelly
(Honors) The Glass Menagerie, Williams
Writing/Grammar
Classical Rhetoric through Structure and Style, Institute for Excellence in Writing
Literature/Vocab Wordly Wise 3000: Book 9; English from the Roots Up Vol I
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles; (Honors) Medea, Euripides
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare
The Place Within, St. John Paul II, selections
The Odyssey, Homer
Thomas More’s letter to his daughter Meg
“The Romantic in the Rain”, Chesterton
The Chosen, Potok
Frankenstein, Shelley
Tale of Two Cities, Dickens (Honors)
Public Speaking
Selections from The Harp and Laurel Wreath, Berquist
“St. Crispin’s Day”, Henry V, Shakespeare
“Give me liberty or give me death”, Henry
10th Quest for Excellence / World Lit
Summer Reading
The Long Walk, Rawicz; Song for Nagasaki, Nagai and Glynn; Left to Tell, Ilibagiza
(Honors) Things Fall Apart, Achebe
Writing/Grammar
The Elegant Essay, Institute for Excellence in Writing
Literature/Vocab Wordly Wise 3000: Book 10; English from the Roots Up Vol II
Song of Roland
Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, selections, Dante; trans Esolen / Sayers
Hamlet; (Honors) Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
Faust selections, Goethe
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy
Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand
Don Quixote, Cervantes
(Honors) Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton
11th American Literature / AP Language & Composition
Summer Reading:
The Story of My Life, Keller; The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway; Lilies of the Field, Barrett
(AP) Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Animal Farm Orwell
Writing/Grammar
Windows to the World: An Introduction to Literary Analysis, Institute for Excellence in Writing
Rhetoric, Aristotle
(AP) The Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay, Crider
Literature/Vocabulary
Vocabulary for the College-Bound Student, AMSCO
Macbeth, Shakespeare
(AP) Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare
Joan of Arc, Mark Twain
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
Red Badge of Courage, Crane
Mr. Blue, Myles Connelly
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
Twelve Angry Men, Rose
12th British Literature / AP Literature & Composition
Summer Reading:
Robin Hood Howard Pyle; The Shield Ring, Sutcliff; The Once and Future King T. H. White
(Honors) Jane Eyre, Bronte
(AP) The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde
Writing/Grammar
Elements of Style, Strunk and White
Poetics, Aristotle
Literature/Vocabulary
Vocabulary for the College-Bound Student, AMSCO
Beowulf
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
Othello, (AP) King Lear, Shakespeare
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. Tolkien
Le Morte d’Arthur, Malory
Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot
(AP) Paradise Lost, Milton, selections
The Hobbit, Tolkien
A Man for All Seasons, Bolt
Pride and Prejudice, Austen