The English curriculum has grown out of particular perceptions and beliefs about our students. L-S students are intellectually and emotionally diverse. One of the primary tenets of our philosophy is that learning is a lifelong process. We assume that each of our students has unique gifts as well as needs; respecting this range of capabilities, we have a curriculum that challenges all students' perceptions of their intellectual limits. We believe in educating students to be critical as well as creative thinkers, so that they will be able to communicate and engage actively in the world.
All courses should encourage active learning. There are many approaches to the study of literature; students should experience a number of them during their four years. Students should study literature to learn about their own cultural traditions, other cultural traditions, human attitudes, psychology, spiritual issues, values and ethics, aesthetics, and methods of criticism and analysis. Literature should also inspire thinking and writing through the education of the imagination. We believe students should have as much freedom as is possible and reasonable to develop skills and interests, to change their view of the world, and to experience a variety of opinion, expression and ability. Our commitment to an elective program is predicated upon these beliefs.
Goals
The broadest goals of the English Department include:
--development of students' familiarity with literature;
--development of the ability to think critically;
--fostering formal, informal, and creative writing skills;
--imparting enthusiasm for and pleasure in reading and writing;
--encouragement of cooperative learning;
--encouragement of independent thinking, development of individual interest, active questioning of themselves, their values, their world;
--helping students accept and respect points of view different from their own;
--helping students to see teachers as guides and resources in the educational process;
--insistence on the integration of education and experience by helping students to be responsible, active members of their community, both in school and beyond it.
Skills
The core of the curriculum at Lincoln-Sudbury is the belief in the truth of learning as recursive process. There is no prescribed sequence of courses because we believe that the acquisition and growth of important reading, writing, speaking, listening, analytical, and creative thinking skills happen throughout a student's four years of high school. The courses we teach are designed to foster literacy, fluency, and imagination. The following are areas of competence each course develops more or less specifically, depending on the nature of the course.
Speaking and Listening
--The ability to engage in discussion as both speaker and listener; interpreting, analyzing, and summarizing.
--The ability to contribute to classroom discussions in a way that is readily understood by listeners--that is, succinct and to the point.
--The ability to present a position clearly and persuasively.
--The ability to recognize important points and to take good notes in lectures and class discussions.
Reading and Literature
--The ability to read critically by asking pertinent questions, by recognizing assumptions and implications, and by evaluating ideas.
--The ability to read a text analytically, recognizing the relationship between form and content.
--Interest and curiosity about written work.
--The capacity to respond actively and imaginatively to literature.
Writing
--The recognition of writing as a way of discovering and clarifying ideas.
--The recognition that writing is a process involving a number of elements, including collecting information and formulating ideas, determining their relationships, drafting, arranging paragraphs in appropriate order and building transitions between them, and revising what has been written.
--The ability to write appropriately for different occasions, audiences, and purposes.
--Skill and assurance in using the conventions of standard written English.
Language
English operates according to various grammatical systems and patterns of usage:
--English has several different levels of usage, and consequently the language appropriate in some situations may not be appropriate in others;
--English has many dialects;
--English words have contextual, connotative, and denotative meanings.
--Students need to be aware of these various nuances of formal and informal English usage.