English

Drawing from the major genres of literature--fiction, drama, and poetry--students examine the human search for truth, justice, and duty, while considering how community frames that quest. Students will write extensively in a variety of modes, from personal, reflective journaling to critical analysis. Socratic discussions both large and small, as well as group and individual projects, provide variety to the daily learning process. Along with intensive writing instruction and practice, the course demands that students demonstrate mastery in basic grammar skills, understand and identify major literary concepts, and compose questions that lead to deliberative conversations. Full year course. Grade: 9. Prerequisites: None.

Responding to Literature (Core) is an introduction to the study of literature in the Upper School at McCallie. The course is designed to prepare its students for the routine and rigor of McCallie’s World and American Literature courses through engaging in-class discussions and activities based on out-of-class reading. Students will explore multiple works of literature covering genres such as fiction, memoir, poetry, film, and drama. Students will also work toward confidence and comfort in the writing process and practice crafting essays of various types, personal narratives or journal entries, and oratory defense of written academic work. This course is intended for students who may not have much background in closer reading or analytical writing. Full year course. Grade: 9. Prerequisites: None.

Responding to Literature Honors is a foundation-focused course focused on reading great literature and responding thoughtfully in discussion, essays, and creative writing. Essential questions that we wrestle with throughout the year include What does it mean to be a man? What are the responsibilities of a good man? What are the essential characteristics of a life of Honor, Truth, and Duty? First semester, we focus more on the role of men in society as we read selections like Lord of the Flies, Night, Everything Sad is Untrue, and The Hate U Give. Second semester, we focus on the role of a boy’s circumstances on his development into a healthy man as we read texts like The Odyssey, Catcher in the Rye, Old School, and The Road. Although there are some creative writing assignments along the way, the primary objective of the writing is to teach an evidence-focused essay structure in which students learn to support a thesis by analyzing and explaining passages from the text. Along with the writing focus, there are weekly grammar assignments as well as an ongoing discussion of MLA formatting and conventions to prepare students to excel in their time at McCallie and beyond. Full-year course. Grade: 9. Prerequisites: Strong placement testing. 

With its emphasis on literature from Europe, South Africa and the East, sophomore English explores literature's universal themes of family and mentors, internal and external conflicts, and initiation and self-definition. Major writing units cover a range of rhetorical patterns, such as comparison/contrast, analysis, cause and effect, argumentation and reasoning. Study of grammar and vocabulary, as well as effective elements of oral presentation, builds upon the student's knowledge from freshman year. Full-year course. Grade: 10. Prerequisites: None

"Is anyone in class a Danish prince whose uncle murdered your father and then married your mom?" No? Nobody? Our World Literature course asks our boys to see a world larger than the one they inhabit as sophomores at McCallie. We consider texts from different times, places, cultures, and experiences, as a way to practice empathy. What are those elements of humanity that unite us all? How can we recognize those in others so that we're better equipped to enter a world that is more and more global? What is our place in this world? The course involves extensive reading and writing, both analytical and personal. Full year course. Grade: 10. Prerequisites: Excellence in 9th grade English. See AP/Honors Course Prerequisites

American Literature is a cultural study of America through its literature. Students in this course will encounter many of the ideas that shaped our country’s vision and development: freedom, individuality, nonconformity, the American Dream, etc. The course’s primary focus is to put students in a position to identify, examine, and understand the ideas that shape American culture. Students will access a wide variety of traditional American texts in concordance with contemporary works in order to reinforce genre study. Students should expect to experience the writing process regularly in a way that will advance their stylistic palette and enhance their revision skills. Students will practice alternative forms of communication of understanding; projects and presentations will offer an opportunity to expand their skill set in approaching required texts with research and creativity. Students will use McCallie’s many on-campus resources including but not limited to the Lebovitz Innovation Lab, Caldwell Writing Center, and the C.A.V.E. Full year course. Grade: 11. Prerequisites: None

AP English Literature and Composition is an introductory college-level literary analysis course. Students cultivate their understanding of literature through reading and analyzing texts as they explore concepts like character, setting, structure, perspective, figurative language, and literary analysis in the context of literary works. The course prepares students to take the AP exam, through instruction in reading and writing and goes well beyond AP rubrics and outlines. A student should expect challenging texts, deep analysis, and wide-ranging topics of conversation that will require both intellectual and personal engagement. Full year course. Grade: 11. Prerequisites: Excellence in World Literature. See AP/Honors Course Prerequisites

Poetry is almost always our first exposure to language. Dr. Seuss; the ABCs; We may not know what a tuffet is, but we know Little Miss Muffet sat on one. And then we go to school...and what began as an exercise in playful language and rhythm becomes a crash course in confusion and obscurity. This class will seek to undo that trauma. We will spend our time reading poetry (canonical masters, styles, genres, topics, etc.) and writing poetry (primarily imitation) as a way to revisit our initial love of language. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

This course will focus on major Irish works, authors, and themes from the mid-nineteenth century Irish literary renaissance, through the euphemistically titled “Troubles", to the present day. Poetry, plays, short stories, novels, and nonfiction writings from authors such as William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Flann O'Brien, Sean O’Casey, Frank O'Connor. Bernadette Devlin, and others will be used to help us explore the struggle for the construction of an Irish identity that is separate from the British and ultimately leads to the achievement of an independent (although divided) postcolonial Ireland. We will pay careful attention to the intersection of literature, culture, politics, history, and war to see how they form an interconnected web that also encompasses issues of race, gender, language and religion.  In addition to the readings we will make use of film, and music to enhance our understanding of the development of distinctively Irish literature into the 21st century. Special consideration will be given to the previously mentioned "Troubles" and An Gorta Mor ( more commonly called "The Potato Famine"). (Reno)

This course will focus on the development of the horror genre in literature. Starting with the very first example of the genre (Walpole’s Castle of Otranto) we will track the elements of and changes to this specific type of fiction from the mid 1700’s into the twenty-first century; paying particular attention to historic periods and how science, society, and culture have impacted, influenced, and made these works possible. Considerable time will also be spent exploring the nature of fear, and why we find books and movies of this type to be pleasurable. Texts may include, but are not limited to Horace Walpole: The Castle of Otranto, Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, Bram Stoker: Dracula H.P. Lovecraft: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre and Stephen King: The Shining. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

This course will attempt to define the concept of “Tragedy” as we trace its conception, development, and continuing popularity, beginning with the Greeks (works may include Aristotle’s Poetics, The Oresteia of Aeschylus, or The Three Theban Plays of Sophocles), through the Romans (Seneca: Medea, Thyestes, and Oedipus, as well as others are all possible texts), and Elizabethan and Jacobean England (texts may include The White Devil, The Spanish Tragedy, Othello, and The Duchess of Malfi). If time permits we may entertain modern examples of this genre. We will examine the various types of tragedy, how they build upon each other and change over time to accommodate popular taste and evolving conceptions of what tragedy is. We will also make use of films and filmed performances in our exploration and discussion of these texts and themes. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

At its core existentialism is a search for meaning in our existence in a world fraught with inherent difficulties—a world that can be described as increasingly “absurd”. Interestingly, this subject is not as clearly defined as might be supposed, and is not as pessimistic as some may think. Through an examination and close reading of key texts we will gain an understanding of how we may make “sense” of ourselves and the world around us, including the concept of personal responsibility for not only who we are, but how we impact others and the world around us. Texts may include: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, “The Metamorphosis”, Notes from Underground, The Third Policeman, Catch 22, and Time’s Arrow. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

This course aims to look at African American literature by artists well known throughout the literary canon. This course celebrates African-American literary arts' historical and aesthetic development in the face of (often legalized) racial oppression. Students learn techniques for deep reading to explore literary issues related to culture, race, and social history. The aim is to examine works from authors such as Ralph Ellison, Ernest Gaines, Zora Neale Hurston, and Frederick Douglass. Students can observe how these authors used their mediums through the wording, allusion, etc., to influence and comment on pivotal moments in the fight for equality. Students will then use these readings to relate to the current day and themselves. The class will be heavily discussion-based, using questions that students create as homework to help drive conversation within the class to lead towards final papers that use the books' concepts applied to life and greater society.

What does it mean to be an American? This course will seek to explore that idea by considering the voices of those who, according to Jhumpa Lahiri, "struggle and come to terms with what it means to live [in America], to be brought up [in America], to belong and not belong [in America.]" We'll consider the impacts of having unusual names, of shifting understanding of freedom, of living within a society but not as a formal citizen. We will read both fiction and nonfiction as we try to seek out those voices that have always been here but haven't always been heard. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

This class surveys an assortment of Christian literary works by authors such as John Bunyan, Hannah Hunard, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R.Tolkien, Flannery O’Connor, and Walker Percy. The survey begins by reading and discussing Pilgrim’s Progress and Hinds Feet on High Places, followed by a selection from other authors. Beginning with Christ’s use of parables, the course will examine and analyze how and why particular persons chose to express aspects of the faith through different genres, e.g. allegory, myth, apocalyptic, or the modern novel. Students are challenged to read, wrestle with, and write about great works of literature, with a focus on how Biblical messages, art, technique, and history are infused into literature inspired by the Christian faith. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

The literature of Britain from 1066 to the present day has formed a central pillar in the study of the Western World. This survey course will capture highlights of epics such as Beowulf and Grendel, the core canon like the The Canterbury Tales and Shakespearean sonnets, poetry from the Romantics like Wordsworth and Keats, a novel with the more social justice commentary like A Modest Proposal or Frankenstein, and examples from the Victorian period. Mid semester, students will write a research paper on a chosen British author. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

Since 2010, Brandon Stanton has run a blog and social media entity called Humans of New York. He approaches people he sees in the streets of New York City and asks them to tell their stories.  Much has been made about the lack of empathy on social media, but Humans of New York shows how it can be used to foster our understanding of each other. For this elective, McCallie students will hone their skills in observation, conversation, writing, and documentation by running and building a blog and social media site called Humans of McCallie. This will be a writing and photography heavy course with some reading assignments as well. If you want to learn more about the power of stories to foster understanding and bring a community together, this is the course for you. Semester course. Grade: 12. Prerequisites: None.

“‘You like to tell true stories, don’t you?’ he asked and I answered ‘Yes, I like to tell stories that are true.’”  - Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

This course will be all about “stories that are true.” We will read personal stories from writers from South Africa to Mississippi and use them as inspiration to write our own. Through reading, discussion, personal reflection, and a study of technique, students will learn how to tell true stories that bring their own voice and perspective into the world. Also, because the art of telling stories that are true extends beyond ourselves, students will find the stories around them. Using interviews and observations, students will write true stories about people, places, and events that have, perhaps, been hidden in plain sight. The Art of Creative Nonfiction is the art of bringing worlds alive by paying attention to them and writing skillfully about them. As Norman Maclean’s father puts it, “Only then will you understand what happened, and why.” (Tocknell)

"In the last 60 years, American culture has changed dramatically, from Vietnam and Nixon of the 60s and 70s to Reagan and the AIDS crisis of the 1980's; from the Beatles to disco to grunge, with a country music renaissance thrown in for good measure; from our first African American president to the political divisiveness of today. All these changes--and more-- were captured as they unfolded through a range of voices-- thinkers, sports writers, scientists, activists-- writing in a variety of media outlets: Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.  And with the digital revolution of the 2000s, the essay was transformed yet again to serve a new audience whose attention spans demanded a new iteration of written communication.
Students can look forward to frequent discussions, writing workshops, and peer review sessions as they compile a portfolio of their own work, the best of which may appear in the Argonaut. (Jamieson)

This course will embrace a diverse collection of literary genres to explore the emerging--and transforming--nature of civil rights movements of the second half of the 20th Century. We will read at least one novel and one play, adding selections of poetry, speeches, short stories, and essays to broaden our understanding of what it meant for certain groups of citizens who were only just beginning to realize fully their freedoms as Americans. The course will survey gains made by women, African Americans, Latinos, and the LGBTQ community as they began to leave behind the restrictions and prejudices of the past. This is a course for thinkers, readers, and those who relish the give and take of classroom discussions. (Jamieson)

This course will consider three very different takes, from three significantly divergent authors, on what it means to face a formidable challenge. With settings spanning the 1870s American West (True Grit--Charles Portis), 1960s South Carolina (The Lords of Discipline--Pat Conroy), and 1980s West Texas (No Country for Old Men--Cormac McCarthy), the stories and characters could not be more different. But the forces arrayed against the main characters are substantial, and success is anything but assured. This is a course for those who love to read highly engaging novels, and for those who want to truly enjoy reading for perhaps the first time. (Jamieson)

The Inklings were a literary group that met weekly to discuss the essence of literature and to share their own original ideas and writing. Members of the group included the authors C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and several other individuals. It was within the parameters of these discussions where the first pages of Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and Space Trilogy, as well as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, were shared, complemented, and critiqued. The course will mirror the structure and collaborative manner of these meetings to survey the literary theory and writings of the Inklings (primarily Lewis and Tolkien), their contemporary, Dorothy L. Sayers, and the writers who influenced them, such as G.K. Chesterton and George MacDonald, as well as to engage in the writing and creation of fictional Worlds. (Speakman)

In many ways, the story of Appalachia is a reflection of America’s larger story. Why are people so connected to their homes? How do we make sense of beauty and pain when they seem to occur so close to each other? How do people make meaning from their lives? When it comes to our communities and families, what are we willing to fight for? Reading poetry, essays, short stories, and novels by contemporary authors such as Robert Gipe, Tony Earley, Ann Pancake, Ron Rash, and Barbara Kingsolver, students will explore those questions and raise their own about this part of the world we call home. (Tocknell)