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 instil 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.

English 9

In every grade, Brentwood students study a glorious mix of non-fiction prose, novels, short fiction, verse, and Shakespeare. Grade 9 students are also introduced to Homer’s Odyssey. Students’ binders and minds will be full with weekly writing assignments in a variety of different styles, vocabulary and grammar exercises, glossaries of literary terms, presentations, and independent reading. The significant forms of writing in Grade 9 are artistic description, the expository paragraph, and the “keyhole” essay. 

Grade 9 students, in addition to reviewing all Grade 8 grammatical material, pay particular attention to syntax phrases, clauses, simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, sentence combining, and varying syntax patterns, modifier problems such as the adjective good and adverb well, the active and passive voice of verbs, subject-verb agreement, and more the complex punctuation conventions (the semicolon, the colon, the apostrophe, the quotation mark, the dash). As Grade 9 is often the time when many Brentwood students are introduced to the prose of Dickens, it also marks the first occasion when the young experience unadulterated bliss.

English 10

In every grade, Brentwood students study a rich variety of non-fiction prose, novels, short fiction, verse, and Shakespeare. Grade 10 students are also introduced to Arthurian legend. Students’ binders and minds will be full with weekly writing assignments — often far longer than students are used to —- in a variety of different styles, vocabulary and grammar exercises, glossaries of literary terms, presentations, and independent reading. The significant forms of writing in Grade 10 are the expository essay, critical writing, and the personal reflective essay. A “genre” unit in the Winter term exposes students to different literary forms such as documentary, parody, advertising and screenplay.

Grade 10 students, in addition to reviewing all Grade 9 material, give particular emphasis to parallel structure, modifier errors, pronoun case errors, integrating quotations into prose, and parenthetical notation.

Students all sit the BC provincial English10 (Language Arts) examination in June.

English 11

In every grade, Brentwood students study an eclectic blend of non-fiction prose, novels, short fiction, verse, and Shakespeare. Grade 11 students are also introduced to biblical allusions through the teaching of Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Students’ binders and minds will be full with bi-weekly essays in a variety of different styles, vocabulary and grammar exercises (senior students should be able to edit their own work for correctness, but many grammatical lessons of review and minutiae remain), glossaries of literary terms, presentations, and independent reading. The significant forms of writing in Grade 11 are the expository essay, the critical research paper, and the personal reflective essay.

In both December and June, all Grade 11 students will write practice provincial examinations. The Honors set – a home for voracious readers and ambitious writers – will write the Advanced Placement Language and Composition examination in May.

By year’s end, students should have a good idea as to which path they wish to travel in Grade 12: language or literature.

English Language and Literature 12

In every grade, Brentwood students study a rich and fabulous selection of non-fiction prose, novels, short fiction, verse, and Shakespeare. All Grade 12 students examine the glorious history and development of English Literature, from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf. Students’ binders and minds will be full with biweekly essays in a variety of different styles, vocabulary and grammar exercises (senior students should be able to edit their own work for correctness, but many grammatical lessons of review and minutiae remain), glossaries of literary terms, presentations, and independent reading. The significant forms of writing in Grade 12 are the expository essay, the critical research paper, and the personal reflective essay.

Grade 12 students will sit in the provincial exam in both April and June, keeping their best mark.

Students who choose English 12 spend less time studying pure poetry than do their Literature 12 cousins, and more time honing the interpretational and language skills needed for the provincial exam. Students who opt for Literature 12 receive credit for both Language and Literature 12; the latter course and accompanying examination requires an intimate knowledge of approximately 50 of the greatest texts to ever touch paper. Literature 12 is not a course for students who do not enjoy poetry, language, or analysis; its workload is not for the faint of heart, but its rewards can be weighed in the soul.