The English language is the most complex, powerful, maddening, and wonderful language on the planet. Proficient English skills are fundamental, not just for satisfaction in the English classroom, but also for success in all language-based subjects; consequently, no mark is given higher scrutiny by universities than a student’s result in English 12.
The learning outcomes for any English class are varied and vast: the core essential language skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing can be quickly subdivided into a great number of categories such as critical thinking, debate, critical analysis, and persuasion. But our foremost learning goal remains constant: to instill a love of language in all our students. The joy of text is profound and lifelong. Each Brentwood student will read literature in a variety of genres and will write in a number of different styles; all our students will participate actively in classroom discussion and the learning process. To increase cultural literacy, from Grades 9-12, respectively, students will also be exposed to the Greek and Roman myths, Homer’s Odyssey, Arthurian legend, the Bible, and the development of English literature from Beowulf to the present. The greatest writer of all – Shakespeare – is studied every year in the second term.
Each Brentwood student will write in a variety of different styles, both creative and critical, and recognize the fundamental importance of speaker, occasion, and audience. The frequency of these graded assignments – one a week in the junior grades, and longer pieces every ten days for seniors – and the attention given to the writing process, will significantly improve a student’s written expression; the design of the assignments will aid examination and post-secondary success.
From a Grade 9 concrete poem to an Advanced Placement essay of rhetorical analysis, our standards are unfailingly high. Our subject and students are worth it.
