English Classes:  All classes may not be offered each year.  Some may be semester courses.

HS 9^th Grade Grammar, Vocabulary, Composition and Poetry.  Composition concentrates on writing great sentences, paragraphs, and short one page compositions. A long poetry block will also be covered.

English Literature Choices will all be based on great classical literature:  In place of general survey courses students will read complete works and delve deeply into a more specific genre, time period, or author of interest.  

Students may choose one general survey course.  All classes have vocabulary, composition, research, and literary analysis components and will be offered to students who have completed the 9^th grade composition course.  As a small  school individuals may be able to choose an English as an independent study, working closely with faculty to complete assignments.

Early English Literature:  A look at old English, Alliterative Poetry, Caedmon’s Hymn, Beowulf , etc.

Middle English Literature: The Life, Language, and Times of Chaucer and his contemporaries.

Arthurian Authors - from Chrétien de Troyes, Sir Thomas Malory, Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King

Renaissance Theater – Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Marlow, Philip Massinger, Francis Beaumont, etc. to include Italian Renaissance works.  Students are expected to attend first Tuesday Richmond Shakespeare Readings each month and attend addition performances through Richmond Shakespeare, Henley Street, American Shakespeare in Staunton or other Theater groups for a total of nine theater productions

Other possible Literature Topics:

Puritan Literature, Dickens, Female Authors of the 19^th Century, Gothic Literature, Tolkien

Survey of American Literature

Survey of Irish Literature

Survey of Russian and Eastern European Literature

Other:  Independent Study on an approved topic of interest

These are all high school level, not grade level.  The assignments or the grading system may vary by grade with more expected of a senior than a freshman but this allows students to take an English class they will be excited about by choosing a class about an author or genre of writing they like.