Network of Sacred Heart Schools

Curriculum Detail

SHP Courses by Department

To learn more about each department's requirements and philosophy, please visit the SHP Departments page.

English

  • English 1

    English 1 Overview
    English 1 is designed to help students gain skills in thinking, writing, and speaking about literature. Students will practice skills such as paraphrasing, summarizing, interpreting, hypothesizing, and evaluating the forms and content of literature. The course will emphasize three modes of writing: reflective, creative, and argumentative. Units of study will include novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction.
    Representative Texts:
    The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
    The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
    Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
    Selected poems, short stories, and non-fiction pieces

  • US Literature

    US Literature Overview
    The U.S. Literature course explores our American story through a variety of perspectives, from the development of our nation’s literary beginnings to the present day. Students will consider a range of texts--including, novels, plays, poems, essays, and short stories--and their efforts to define the notion of an American self. Having selected texts that are consistent with the Sacred Heart Mission, students will work to define the uniqueness of the American character and the American experience. What makes us, as Americans, distinctive, and what attitudes and values join us with the global community? Students will consider their own moment and place in the world, and understand more richly what America has been, what it is now, what it might be in the future, and what it is for them. 

    There is also an Honors enrichment option. Please see the separate course description for an explanation of that program and its prerequisites.

    Representative Texts:
    Habitat Threshold by Craig Santos Perez
    Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda

  • US Literature Honors

    US Literature Honors Overview
    Unlike other honors courses at SHP, students take US Literature Honors in addition to US Literature. Students who qualify will attend a regular US Lit. class and meet with their Honors teacher, Dr. Lisa Harper, outside of class time (time TBD) to further explore concepts discussed in US Literature and to develop their discipline specific skills. Honors students will be required to do significant additional reading and writing, necessitating strong reading comprehension, writing, and time management. The additional reading will include one additional summer reading novel, at least one additional novel each semester, and supplementary essays and poetry throughout the year. Students in US Lit. Honors will write consistently, both shorter graded exercises and a major end of semester essay. 
    Prerequisite for fall semester of Honors:
    Students will take a benchmark exam that assesses the critical reading, writing, and thinking skills necessary to be successful in US Literature Honors. Those who excelled on the benchmark exam and earned an “A” in English 1 in the fall will be invited to enroll in the course. 

    Prerequisite for spring semester of Honors:
    Students will take a benchmark exam that assesses the critical reading, writing, and thinking skills necessary to be successful in US Literature Honors. Those who excelled on the benchmark exam and earned an “A” in US Literature in the fall will be invited to enroll in the course. Students enrolled in the fall Honors program must meet the prerequisite for the spring. 

  • AP English Language & Composition

    AP English Language & Composition Overview
    What does it mean to be a citizen of the world? How can we engage meaningfully and responsibly with our global community? How do writers employ language to help their audience understand and examine the notion of meaningful human coexistence? These are the questions at the heart of the AP English Language & Composition course. Students will continue the study of literature begun in the first half of their Sacred Heart English career; additionally, students will sharpen their skills of argumentation to prepare for the Advanced Placement exam. Over the course of the year, students will hone their close-reading skills as they dive into fiction and nonfiction by writers from different time periods and places. In the fall semester, they will study some classics from the celebrated British literary tradition. In the spring semester, they will turn to more contemporary work with a global focus. In addition to the core texts, complementary pieces may include poetry, essays, speeches, short stories, film, and more. Through all of these reading experiences, students will learn the art of persuasion as they identify and analyze rhetorical purpose, context, and strategies in various texts and genres. They will also try their own hand at a variety of genres in their writing assignments, from personal narrative to creative imitation to rhetorical analysis to evidence-based arguments.
     
    Representative Texts:
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
    Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
    A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
    Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
    Other representative texts include essays, memoir, and other non-fiction works.
     
     

  • AP English Literature & Composition

    AP English Literature & Composition Overview
    Teachers at the senior level guide students toward greater independence as thinkers and writers. Students initiate their own essay topics, develop complex arguments, and explore different techniques for structuring their essays.
     
    The AP English Literature & Composition course offers students an experience of college-level literary study. The program requires a year-long commitment. AP English Literature & Composition is designed to expose students to literature spanning from the classical texts of Euripides, Virgil and Sophocles all the way to the contemporary works of the 21st century. Students will take one semester of study of classical texts and one semester of study of contemporary texts. Reading will be demanding, sometimes in length, and often in language or style. Students will have numerous opportunities to write and revise analytical essays. Writing in AP Literature sections will be academic, discipline-specific writing, building the skills necessary to be successful in the college English classroom. Every student will be expected to participate actively in conversation about the reading, and all members of the class will lead discussions periodically. Impromptu essays and practice multiple-choice questions are administered to ensure familiarity with and preparation for the AP exam. All students who take this course are expected to take the AP English Literature exam with seriousness of purpose.
     
    The AP English program at the senior level meets the needs of students who want to engage in advanced literary study and can commit the time to do so.   
    Representative Texts:
    The Aeneid by Virgil
    Medea by Euripides
    Antigone by Sophocles
    Beloved by Toni Morrison
    Selections from The New Yorker magazine

    Prerequisite:
    Students who earn an A- or better in both semesters of their junior year are automatically eligible for AP English Literature. Students who wish to take AP English Literature, but earn a B+ in one or both semesters of their junior year, must petition the Department. The Department will carefully review the petition and make a determination. The Department’s decision is final. Students who earn a B or below in one or both semesters of junior English will take English 4 - Topics in Literature.

  • English 4 - Topics in Literature

    English 4 - Topics in Literature Overview
    Students enrolled in English 4 - Topics in Literature will be assigned to two dynamic offerings, one in the fall semester and one in the spring. Particular topics will vary based on the teacher, but each course will provide a similar in-depth examination of selected literary topics related to particular genres, authors, or enduring themes. All English 4 offerings will be rooted in the Goals and Criteria of a Sacred Heart Education, grounded in the development of reading and writing skills, and focused on engaging students in a social awareness that impels to action and on offering opportunities for personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom. One of the most exciting elements of English 4 classes is that they are often the passion projects of our spectacular English faculty and showcase reading and writing and approaches that may otherwise be off the beaten path of our 9th-11th English offerings. Though offerings differ, course outcomes, skills, and assessment expectations are common across all English 4 classes. 
     
    The following are representative English 4 Topics in Literature courses. Topics may vary based on teacher.
    • Food Writers
    • Literature and Cinema
    • Introduction to Shakespeare
    • Race, Class and Gender
    • Contemporary Literature
    • Creative Writing
    • Speculative Fiction
Where Scholarship and Values Matter
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, co-ed day school for students in preschool through grade 12