English
The English Department engages students in critical thinking, imagination, empathy and self-understanding through reading, writing and discussion.Embracing literature’s power to instruct and delight, the department values curricular complexity and inspiration. Our literature program combines a core of landmark literary texts with a complement of varied and diverse works, cultivating the analytical skills needed for close textual analysis while fostering ethical awareness and an understanding of cultural, social, racial and historical backgrounds. Our literary curriculum celebrates intellectual engagement, cultural literacy and a lifelong appreciation of literature.
Our writing curriculum develops insightful, disciplined, thorough and coherent expression in a variety of rhetorical modes. Through expository writing, creative projects, public speaking, debate and personal narrative, students master the fundamentals of written expression, developing voice, confidence and verbal fluency. All of these modes invite students to explore a range of literary texts, synthesizing complex, disparate ideas in coherent language.
Active participation plays a central role in Prep’s English classes. Engaging in full-class and small-group explorations, Socratic seminars, debates and oral presentations, students apply course readings to their own experiences, sharpening their skills in close reading and broader interpretive argumentation. This emphasis on student-centered discussion clarifies moral values and highlights the timeless relevance of literature to our lives.
Click below to browse our course descriptions
- Writing 7th Grade
- English 7th Grade
- English 8th Grade
- English 1
- English 2 American Literature
- AP English Literature
- English 4: Identity (H)
- English 4: Literature of Dissent Honors (The Cinematic History of Los Angeles)
- English 4: The City in Literature (H)
- English 4: Contemporary Fiction (H)
- English 4: Shakespeare in Performance (H)
- English 4: Ghost Stories in Film and Literature (H)
- English 4: Science Fiction (H)
- English 4: Joan Didion: Writer, Storyteller, Icon (H)
- English 4: Imitation of Genius: Creative Writing