English

In addition to their normal English class, all sophomores take Writing Workshop, an adjunct class that meets once per academic cycle. Writing Workshop provides instruction and practice in foundational elements of analytical writing, covering topics such as sentence-level mechanics and variety, thesis development, integration of evidence, paragraph structure, essay organization, revision, and other skills transferrable to multiple styles and genres of writing. The focus on these foundational skills gives students the opportunity to see build a base of understanding that is reinforced directly in their English class during the sophomore year and beyond. 

Since the ground-breaking publication of Art Spiegelman’s Maus in 1993, graphic novels have entered the global cultural and academic mainstream, inspiring complex interdisciplinary and multicultural analyses. In this course students will survey the current field and read works of fiction (Watchmen, Asterios Polyp, The Arrival), autobiography (Maus, Persepolis, Fun Home), and journalism (Safe Area Gorazade). In order to understand these works and the cultures that produced them, students will write essays using interpretive lenses focusing on history, gender, psychology, and class. Students will also explore the relationship between text and image in analyses as well as short sequential art sequences of their own.

How does place shape identity? Is the natural world a physical resource to be exploited or conserved, a challenge to be conquered, or a sacred space to be preserved and revered? Exploring the connections between literary texts and the history of environmental thought, this course will focus on the cultural, metaphorical, and symbolic values of the non-human world, while also investigating its ecological significance. From wilderness to the worked landscape, from suburban to urban environments, students will examine the ways that the language of literature, film, and popular media construct our awareness and appreciation of the non-human world. Potential texts include works by Henry David Thoreau, Leslie Marmon Silko, Wendell Berry, Octavia Butler, and others. In addition to analytical writing, students will write creatively about their own experiences in and with the natural world. 

Our students delve into a variety of titles in varied genres — from poetry to creative nonfiction — throughout their course of study. To get a sense of some of the works that our students are reading, take a look at our most recent English course descriptions.

Since writing clear, logical, and persuasive prose is critical to academic achievement and to successful communication, the department teaches writing throughout the program. To accustom students to expressing themselves precisely, to teach proper usage and diction, and to foster creative sentence patterns and the use of figurative language, the freshmen work on personal narratives and short interpretive compositions. With the help of the Writing Workshop program, sophomores focus on expository and analytical writing based usually on required readings. Juniors continue to develop their expository writing while experimenting with rhetoric and argumentation, and in preparation for senior electives, they devote much of the year to writing analytical and personal essays that require substantial reading and deeper literary analysis.  A hallmark of the junior year comes in the form of a synthesis essay, a form of argument that asks the writer to engage with multiple differing sources. Students in the senior year are expected to use the skills they have developed to advance into writing projects that develop larger connections to themes in class and between multiple works. Seniors also are expected to develop written assignments without being provided with a question or prompt. The expectation is that seniors can pursue a topic or idea most interesting to them on and individual level.

With departmental approval, juniors and seniors may choose respectively the CL English III Seminar or the CL senior electives. The English Department expects students to accept increasing responsibility for their education and to participate actively in creating a classroom atmosphere in which they and their classmates will develop as scholars and independent thinkers.

Small class sizes and Harkness tables invite open discussion in our English Department. As students advance through the curriculum, we expect them to accept increasing responsibility for their education and to participate actively in creating a classroom atmosphere in which they and their classmates will develop as scholars and independent thinkers.

At Loomis Chaffee, we believe summer reading is an essential and enriching part of each student's experience. All students will have three Summer Reading requirements: an all-school read, grade-level and class requirements, and a “book chat” selection. Students choose from a list of departmental recommendations and then gather to discuss together in small groups in the fall.