ENGLISH
English education emphasizes the individual student’s four-year journey toward becoming a competent reader and writer. Students engage in reading and analyzing essays, poetry, plays, graphic novels and literature, both modern and classic. Our teachers have longstanding academic freedom in selecting texts and designing courses. This expertise and personal touch shows in our especially eclectic elective offerings.
At Maybeck, students take four years of English. English Composition, Intermediation Composition, and English Literature make up the first three years of programming. Our seniors round out their English requirement through a variety of semester-long English electives.
Required Courses
Core English Courses
Advanced English Electives
Sample English Activities
Our students are steeped in “writing-based classroom pedagogy”
Our English and Social Studies electives covering immigration took a cross-curricular approach to their content, including a trip to Berkeley Rep to see the play Mexodus.
In this course, students explore the basics of English composition, the writing process, and literary analysis. A special emphasis is placed on revising and rewriting, crafting and sustaining arguments, organizing one’s thoughts in coherent and concise form, and developing style and writerly “voice.” Students examine what it means to perform literary analysis through thoughtful, careful, and close interpretation of texts, investigating the inner workings of style, genre, figurative language, and literary form. Weekly writing assignments and feedback from the instructor, accompanied by opportunities for peer review, allow students to revise and refine their writing as they strive for greater clarity of thought and expression.