The English curriculum at CWA centers on close reading, effective writing, and critical thinking. Analytical writing and creative writing anchor the curricular scope and sequence, grade by grade, through advancing skill levels in a developmentally appropriate manner. Competence in grammar, both in the context of students' own writing and by way of practicing fundamental prescriptive grammar, is one of the major goals of 9th and 10th grade.
During the four years of high school, students read literature that balances the classical canon of Western Civilization (Homer, Sophocles, Shakespeare, etc.) with women writers (Mary Shelley, Barbara Kingsolver), minority writers (Louise Erdrich, Langston Hughes), and non-Western writers (Chinua Achebe, Isabel Allende). Many juniors choose to take the AP Language and Composition Exam, and the senior AP English class prepares students to excel on the AP Literature and Composition Exam.
The required Junior English Research Project is an opportunity for students to make extended inquiries into the life and work of a particular American author of their choice. The culmination of the project is a twelve to twenty page essay (with annotated bibliography) that includes close analysis of two of the selected author's original works, placed in the context of the history, culture, and life of the author, and unified by the student's own position, or thesis, on the unique relationship between the author's life and work.
