English: Core 1 Full Year (Two Semesters) Prerequisites: None
Advanced English: Short Story One Semester (Offered Second Semester)
how authors make reading rewarding, engaging, and thought provoking and how students can do the same in their own written work. Texts: Coursepack, The Great Gatsby, A Raisin in the Sun, The House on Mango Street Honors English: Core 2 Full Year (Two Semesters) Prerequisites: English: Core 1 or equivalent AND completion of honors prerequisites The goal of Core 2 is to build upon the life-long English skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and presenting introduced in Core I. Students explore what poems, stories, essays, speeches, plays, and novels have to say about the story of the United States and of ourselves. The class analyzes literature at a micro level, appreciating beautiful sentences and words, and at a macro level, understanding how arguments are constructed to address real-life problems and effect solutions. Overall, the focus is on examining how authors make reading rewarding, engaging, and thought provoking and how students can do the same in their own written work. As members of an honors class, students will be expected to engage consistently as close readers, spirited discussion leaders, meticulous and insightful writers, and creative thinkers. In addition, students will be expected to contribute positively and collaboratively to an intellectual community that values diverse perspectives, curiosity, and high academic standards. Texts: Coursepack, The Great Gatsby, A Raisin in the Sun, The House on Mango Street, Chevy in the Hole, and a variety of stories, poems, and speeches Electives As juniors and seniors, students select from a variety of one-semester electives in English. Enrollment in advanced electives requires students to successfully complete a series of prerequisites. Please see the department chair for more information.
students will be expected to contribute positively and collaboratively to an intellectual community that values diverse perspectives, curiosity, and high academic standards. Text: Anna Karenina Advanced English: Creative Writing: Prose One Semester: (Offered Second Semester) Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites This course invites students to explore and practice creative prose writing and is designed to serve both accomplished students —looking for the time and motivation to focus exclusively on their writing —and novices wishing to improve their level of comfort with the rudiments of reading and writing creative prose. In addition to reading a book on the craft of writing prose, students will study many shorter professional prose texts, explicating, analyzing, and mimicking as they develop a unique voice within the specific genres. At its core, the class is about observing the world, brainstorming/sharing ideas, and revising one’s written work to develop voice and style. As members of an advanced class, students will be expected to engage consistently as close readers, spirited discussion leaders, meticulous and insightful writers, and creative thinkers. In addition, students will be expected to contribute positively and collaboratively to an intellectual community that values diverse perspectives, curiosity, and high academic standards. Text: Bird by Bird Advanced English: Literary History and Movements: The Great Depression None Listed One Semester (Offered First Semester) Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites This course explores the literature of the Great Depression, a period of devastating economic hardship and political and social change. Through novels, essays, and film, we will explore how writers searched for meaning, connection, and hope through a time of despair. Texts include The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (as well as John Ford’s film adaptation) and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. As members of an advanced class, students will be expected to engage consistently as close readers, spirited discussion leaders, meticulous and insightful writers, and creative thinkers. In addition, students will be expected to contribute positively and collaboratively to an intellectual community that values diverse perspectives, curiosity, and high academic standards. Texts: The Grapes of Wrath, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter , and supplemental texts including literary criticism
Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites This class will focus exclusively on the short story, investigating a variety of literary issues, some of which are universal and some of which are unique to the genre. Due to the brevity of each text, students will have an opportunity to encounter and analyze a much wider range of authors and writing styles than in a class that reads standard-length novels and plays. A central goal of the course is to help students to discover and define personal preferences.The works for this class have been selected with an eye to serious, adult-themed literature that would serve as preparation for university study. As members of an advanced class, students will be expected to engage consistently as close readers, spirited discussion leaders, meticulous and insightful writers, and creative thinkers. In addition, students will be expected to contribute positively and collaboratively to an intellectual community that values diverse perspectives, curiosity, and high academic standards. Texts: Coursepack
Students focus on fundamental reading and writing skills to develop as sophisticated thinkers. With careful scaffolding from the teacher, students develop as close readers and annotators; broaden their understanding of literary devices and different genres; study Greek and Latin roots; practice the steps of the writing process; and internalize the essential components of analytical writing. Both the classic and contemporary reading selections explore the class’s essential questions concerning identity, community, good judgment, and living a life of purpose. Texts: Coursepack, The Catcher in the Rye, The Merchant of Venice
Honors English: Core 1 Full Year (Two Semesters) Prerequisites: Completion of honors prerequisites
Students focus on fundamental reading and writing skills to develop as sophisticated thinkers. With careful scaffolding from the teacher, students develop as close readers and annotators; broaden their understanding of literary devices and different genres; study Greek and Latin roots; practice the steps of the writing process; and internalize the essential components of analytical writing. Both the classic and contemporary reading selections explore the class’s essential questions concerning identity, community, conformity, good judgment, and living a life of purpose. As members of an honors class, students will be expected to engage consistently as close readers, spirited discussion leaders, meticulous and insightful writers, and creative thinkers. In addition, students will be expected to contribute positively and collaboratively to an intellectual community that values diverse perspectives, curiosity, and high academic standards. Texts: The Odyssey , Frankenstein , “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” selected poems, T he Catcher in the Rye , The Merchant of Venice English: Core 2 Full Year (Two Semesters) Prerequisites: English: Core 1 or equivalent The goal of Core 2 is to build upon the life-long English skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and presenting introduced in Core I. Students explore what poems, stories, essays, speeches, plays, and novels have to say about the story of the United States and of ourselves. The class analyzes literature at a micro- level, appreciating beautiful sentences and words, and at a macro-level, understanding how arguments are constructed to address real-life problems and effect solutions. Overall, the focus is on examining
English: Contemporary Authors One Semester (Offered Second Semester) Prerequisites: None
This course explores texts written mostly by living authors, especially those who have strong University Liggett School, Detroit, and/or Michigan connections. Texts will vary depending on teacher expertise, student interest, and the availability of authors to
engage with and/or visit the class. Texts: The Virgin Suicides & coursepack English: Craft of Writing One Semester (Offered First Semester) Prerequisites: None
This course focuses on developing writing habits and skills that will be useful for academic, professional, and personal pursuits. Celebrating student choice and voice, Craft of Writing allows students to select the topics of their compositions; in addition, it emphasizes how purpose, genre, and audience intertwine when creating effective writing. In sum, this course helps students understand writing as a process; offers extensive practice with and feedback on essential writing skills; and argues that writing in both academic and non-academic contexts serves as a crucial tool for thinking, discovery, and transformation—as well as for communication. Text: Coursepack
Advanced English: Anna Karenina One Semester: (Offered First Semester)
Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites In this course, we will read Tolstoy’s masterpiece from start to finish, stopping to think and write about the fundamental questions it raises: What makes a life meaningful? How can we live authentically? What do we owe to others? What do we owe to ourselves? Can we ever really know other people? Can we ever really know ourselves? As members of an advanced class, students will be expected to engage consistently as close readers, spirited discussion leaders, meticulous and insightful writers, and creative thinkers. In addition,
2026-2027 ULS Curriculum Guide
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Upper School
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