Students select courses in consultation with their English teachers, the house staffs, and parents. A few courses are remedial, and students are counseled to take them by their teachers and the special education staff; several courses are recommended for juniors and seniors. Courses are designated by degrees of difficulty from 1-5, 1 indicating the most challenging material; all courses include some range of material. Once a student's abilities have been evaluated and the student has been made aware of the demands of the course, that student has some freedom of choice. Student motivation is most important in the process. We do not, therefore, have a system of administratively mandated ability grouping; student choice is directed or limited by the constraints of scheduling requirements, self-selection of courses by students, and counseling for student needs.
There are no formal pre-requisites other than E9 for any of the course selections (with the exception of Shakespeare II, when it is offered, which presupposes Shakespeare I or Shakespeare in Production). In the counseling process, however, the English teachers together with counselors and parents help students select courses to develop abilities as part of the student's individual learning process. Graduation requirements include a writing course (which may be fulfilled by the first semester of E9), a semester of American or British literature, and a semester of World literature. (At least half of the works studied in World Literature courses should be writing from outside of the United States and England.) Teachers counsel students based on need and interest in these areas. If any questions or conflicts arise about a student's course selections, the teacher should confer with the student, the counselor, the parents, and any special education staff involved before the final course recommendations. This is a time-consuming system but one which provides for students' needs, interests, and development.