Citizen, Scholar, Steward

English

Through careful reading, thoughtful writing, insightful discussion, and close listening, students come to a deeper understanding of themselves and their world. Acquiring knowledge, developing intellectual skills, and enlarging their understanding of ideas and values help students understand an increasingly complex environment.
The English curriculum in Upper School prepares students for coursework in English at the college level and for reading, writing, and thinking in their lives beyond college and graduate school. The 12th grade trimester Special Topics courses offer students a wide range of experiences with the written word. One Special Topics course, “Thinking About Literature,” prepares students for the AP English Literature and Composition exam.
The writing curriculum in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades allows students to explore ideas more fully in their writings. The use of a strong, controlling idea, paragraphs that are developed through examples and analysis, transitions, and more complex forms of organization prepare young writers to confront successfully the level of literary analysis and the variety of writing situations that the senior year and college demand. Impromptu and creative assignments give students the confidence to explore new options. By the end of the senior year, students will, at least, be well prepared to face the demands of college English wherever they may attend.
 

  • English 9

    The literature we read in English 9 provides an opportunity for students to explore a variety of texts and how they operate, which helps us to develop an understanding of genre. Texts include novels such as Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Poetry, short fiction, essays, and even podcasts are studied thematically in relation to longer texts. Writing and discussion are the main tools for discovery, communication, and analysis in the course. We also emphasize the craft and components of storytelling through creative writing with vocabulary and grammar study rounding out the necessary skills for success in the Upper School.

  • English 9 Advanced

    English 9 Advanced pursues the same study as the English 9 class but at a faster pace and with more demands on the student. Students focus on developing a flexible writing process that they can apply to a variety of genres (analytical, personal, informative, persuasive). In the past, works in this course have included Judith Guest's Ordinary People, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying.

  • English 10

    English 10 focuses on reading literature around themes such as “Innocence and Experience,” “Conformity and Rebellion," and "Culture and Identity." Students study novels, short stories, plays, essays, and poetry as they investigate how literature mirrors these recurring concerns of humanity. In addition to traditional literary analysis, students will complete personal, descriptive, expository, and argumentative writing. Through progressively more sophisticated reading and writing assignments, students will also continue to improve grammar, vocabulary, and rhetorical analysis skills. Recent major texts used in the course include Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, William Shakespeare’s Othello, Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger.

  • English 10 Advanced

    English 10 Advanced also involves reading literature and analyzing its representation of fundamental human characteristics. As in English 10, skills in personal response writing, analytical writing, vocabulary, and grammar are emphasized; however, the advanced class includes more demanding reading and greater skill in writing. Texts that have been used previously in this course include Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, and William Shakespeare's Othello. In addition, the class requires an independent reading project.

  • English 11: Discovering the World Through Writing

    This year-long course focuses student exploratory writing around the themes of identity, relationships, and understanding the world. Students will read from an anthology of essays, supplemented by fiction, poetry, and other non-fiction through the trimesters. Writing instruction will focus on developing voice, writing for an audience, and using various methods of argumentation and explanation. The course will include practice in finding sources and in writing a research paper.

  • AP English 11: Language and Composition

    AP Language and Composition is a college-level course engaging students in reading and writing about and in a variety of prose styles and genres. The organizing principles of this course require students to examine the nature of the essay; to read broadly among a variety of authors, rhetorical purposes, and eras; to engage in a significant study of writing as an art; and to learn to employ the fundamentals of sound argumentation. Students will read mainly non-fiction texts such as essays, speeches, political and scientific writing, autobiographies, biographies, and criticism. Students will study the rhetorical strategies and techniques found in the works of others and then apply them to their own writing. Students will primarily write narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Research writing is required as students synthesize information from various texts. 

  • AP English 12: Writing for the Stage

    What inspires playwrights to tell their stories? Considering the work of a few accomplished playwrights, students will begin to be able to write and stage their own monologues, short scenes and perhaps a One Act play. Plays by Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) and In The Heights (book by Quiara Alegria Hudes), John Cariani (Almost Maine), William Shakespeare (The Tempest), and August Wilson (Fences) may be considered.
     

  • English 12: Creative Writing

    With a writer's workshop format, this trimester course is for students who write (or aspire to write) poetry, fiction, or nonfiction and desire the skills necessary to take their work to a higher level. The writing process includes a focus on idea generation, drafting, workshop peer review, and revision. Students can choose to focus mostly on poetry, the short story, or nonfiction, as well as any combination of the three. Class readings will include exemplary pieces from these genres; however, the bulk of course work is on crafting and revising new writing.

  • English 12: Literature to Film

    What’s better: the book or the movie? How do we judge one’s adaptation of source material? Many of our favorite films begin as novels. This class examines the creative form of adaptation in literature, looking closely at notable and subtle differences of characterization, narrative structure, and tone from the page to the screen. We will track the development of the story from novel to screenplay to final film production. Possible texts include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Orchid Thief,  and A Clockwork Orange.

  • English 12: Modern American Drama

    What makes an American play a classic? We will consider a few plays that are acknowledged,  classics of the American theater. Through class readings, scene study and textual analysis students will be introduced to several great plays and playwrights of the modern American stage. Possible works include Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie or A Streetcar Named Desire,  Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Neil Simon’s Lost In Yonkers.
     

  • English 12: Monsters

    The word monster forms the root of the longer word demonstrate, the latter meaning "to show." In this sense, that which is monstrous shows us what we are not. In this course, we consider historical literary monsters from British and American literature and what they show about broader human sensibilities of self and other. We will examine how monsters magnify and reflect greater societal fears during the times in which the texts were written. Texts have included Beowulf, Dracula, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, World War Z, and The Road. 

  • English 12: Southern Gothic Literature

    Gumbo and grits, humidity and hospitality, Baptist sermons and backwoods stills: the South is known for many things. This course will look at the South and Southern-ness in critical ways. We will discuss its characteristics through the lenses of class, gender, race and religion, as well as its rich history steeped in tradition through the context of great literary works. We will trace the development of the modern Southern story from its roots in the Gothic tradition. As a centerpiece of the course, we will read Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day, a beautiful novel about a Southern community. We will also read several short stories from celebrated authors like William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, James Agee, Ernest Gaines, Truman Capote, Barry Hannah, and Flannery O’Connor.
     

  • English 12: The Origins of Science

    With technological advancement has come a relatively new genre: science fiction. How did the genre originate? This class probes potential roots in ancient mythologies and explores the writings of those widely considered "fathers" of the genre, such as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, along with more controversial originators, such as Edgar Allan Poe. Students read many short stories, including those of classic science fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury.
     

  • English 12: The Western

    Literature about the frontier and the Old American West continues to be part of our national identity. In this course, students read a novel about the romanticized West, such as Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage, and a western novel full of realistic social commentary, such as Walter Van Tilburg Clark's The Ox-Bow Incident. The class also reads stories from relatively modern western writers--for example, Larry McMurtry, Louis L'Amour, and Annie Proulx--who have attempted to blend a romantic notion of the Old West with a realistic portrait of its people.
     

  • AP English 12: American Humor

    Humor makes reading fun, and it often allows authors to discuss serious issues rather effectively. This class will investigate how American authors have used humor as a means for entertainment and for social commentary. Students will read Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and investigate a wide variety of writings by authors as diverse as Tom Wolfe, Nora Ephron, Garrison Keillor, O. Henry, Hunter S. Thompson, Dorothy Parker, and Woody Allen.
     

  • AP English 12: Gender & Identity in American Literature

    This course considers complex issues of gender identity and sexual orientation in 20th and 21st century American literature. To that end, we will read fiction, poetry, drama, and memoirs by a number of writers who explore the ways in which gender shapes, and is shaped by, historical and social trends. We will contemplate different models of femininity and masculinity in American literature and culture. We will explore how other identity factors, including race and class, intersect with gender. We will look at narrative accounts of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities in America. Finally, we will think through what these different models of gender and sexual orientation mean for the study of American literature and culture, particularly at a time when sexism and gender imbalances are at the forefront of our national consciousness. Recent major texts have included Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street and Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

  • AP English 12: Origins of Science

    With technological advancement has come a relatively new genre: science fiction. How did the genre originate? This class probes potential roots in ancient mythologies and explores the writings of those widely considered “fathers” of the genre, such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, along with more controversial originators, such as Edgar Allan Poe. Students read many short stories, including those of classic science fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury.
     

  • AP English 12: Shakespeare

    “All the world's a stage.” These words ring true more now than ever, and they demonstrate the timeless nature of William Shakespeare’s work. In this course, students study two plays—one tragedy, such as Hamlet or King Lear, and one comedy, such as Much Ado About Nothing or Twelfth Night. Several of Shakespeare’s sonnets are also examined.
     

  • AP English 12: The American Western in Literature

    Literature about the frontier and the Old American West continues to be part of our national identity. In this course, students read both traditional short stories about the romanticized West and more modern western short stories focused on social commentary. The centerpiece of the course is Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, a novel that blends a romantic notion of the Old West with a realistic portrait of its people.
     

  • AP English 12: The Art of War

    This course examines an important text from each of three periods: World War I, the interwar period, and World War II. We will analyze how the world wars affected literature. The time will be split between a more in-depth study of the two bloodiest wars in history and the novels that help understand them. From novels and short stories to graphic novels and even Picasso's Guernica, the class will cover how the wars helped shape ideas of nationalism and identity and how the new brutality of global warfare translated to the page.

  • AP English 12: The British Novel - GS

    Victorian London sets the stage for many wonderful novels. By looking at the language, characters, and settings of some of these great works, students come to appreciate some of the greatest authors of the period. Oral reading and dramatization of the work is an important part of this course. This trimester we will focus on the writing of Charles Dickens. Possible works include A Tale of Two Cities and Nicholas Nickleby.

  • AP English 12: The Dystopian Novel

    Dystopian literature is often closely aligned with science fiction, but what makes it stand out is its depiction of societies that—often in the process of striving for an ideal utopian society—have gone awry and brought themselves closer to destruction and chaos, i.e. to the point of apocalypse, and are trying to survive in what is left of order and good will. As such, dystopian lit often seems prescient after a few decades have passed and the world’s priorities and mechanisms have shifted. Much famous sci-fi, such as 1984 and Brave New World, as well as more recent examples such as The Giver or Divergent, portrays such dystopian societies. We will look at different representations of dystopias and what aspects of our own world and history they are meant to critique. Recent texts have included The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, V for Vendetta, and The Day of the Triffids, as well as essays, short stories, film, and poetry.

  • AP English 12: Historical Fiction

    In the space between history textbooks and memoir, historical fiction seeks to translate the reality of lived experience during historically significant moments into approachable stories. The fictionalization that is possible in this genre allows writers to turn facts and events into something that feels real. Students will read novels that cover the Spanish Civil War and subsequent dictatorships in Latin America, the war in Vietnam, and the experience of teenage boys in a Florida reform school during Jim Crow. Possible texts include The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien; A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende; and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
     

  • AP English 12: Literature & the Environment

    This course takes as its starting point the idea that humans shape, and are shaped by, the natural environments around them. As such, we will consider the relationship between humans and the natural world from a variety of literary, cultural, philosophical, and religious perspectives. We will read important works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from the Anglophone world and consider how major literary movements such as Romanticism, Transcendentalism, and Naturalism developed from new understandings of nature. We will explore the ethical and environmental impacts of our food choices. We will also study works that confront the ramifications of global climate change and the theory of the Anthropocene. Finally, students will learn about the emergent “cli-fi” genre of literature and devote the final weeks of class to analysis of an extended work of ecofiction. Recent choices have included Clare Vaye Watkins’s Gold Fame Citrus and T.C. Boyle’s A Friend of the Earth. In addition to traditional literary analysis, students might write personal narrative “place” papers, compile food journals, collaborate with the Science department for cross-curricular lessons or assignments, and conduct sensory observations on and off campus.

  • AP English 12: Race & Identity in American Literature

    This course takes as its starting point W.E.B. Du Bois’s famous proclamation that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.” We will begin by exploring the roots of that color-line, with particular attention to how early literary conceptions of America depended on exclusion and marginalization. We will then read a wide range of 20th and 21st century fiction, poetry, drama, and memoirs by writers of color living in the United States. Students will consider how writers of African American, Asian American, Native American, and Latinx heritages stake their own claims to American identity and give voice to the dynamism of the American experience. Further, we will study how this literature responds to and incites social change, engages with critical race theory, and articulates various models of American community and diversity. We will also examine the shifting racial dynamics of the United States today through the lens of current events, popular culture, television, film, and music.

  • Dystopian Literature

    What are the characteristics of a dystopia? How is dystopian literature both a mirror to our world and a window into another? In this class, we will study short stories, poems, films, and novels that help us examine dystopia and answer deep thinking questions about how it relates to our society.

    Grades 10-12 Trimester course

  • English 12: Liner Notes

    Using albums as texts, this course will examine the rhetorical strategies of great musicians and lyricists. Through lyrical analysis, tone, and song structure, students will not only better appreciate classic albums, but also learn to "read" the music they love. Covering several genres (rock, country, hip-hop, pop) at the rate of one album a week, we will discover the modes of storytelling central to the album form. Supplemental short stories and criticism will be provided by the instructor. Possible artists include Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire, Beyonce, and Kendrick Lamar.

  • English 12: The American Dream

    This course exposes students to a diverse range of American stories, many of which alternately reflect and challenge the dominant values of their cultural moments. As a literary form, the novel has often promoted the idea of the American Dream. Yet many great novels expose the flaws and hypocrisies within that concept. We will examine the relationship between the American novel and America itself through close reading, written analysis, and secondary research. Students will also study genre, style, and literary technique to draw meaningful connections between form and content. Texts used may include F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, Walt Witman’s I Hear America Sing, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Grade/Dept

Our Faculty

  • Photo of Michelle Salerno
    Michelle Salerno
    English Teacher and US Drama Director
    New School University - B.A.
    University of Illinois - M.A., Ph.D.
    At KCD since 2020
  • Photo of Davis Brown
    Davis Brown
    English Teacher
    Furman University - B.A.
    University of Wisconsin - M.A., Ph.D.
    At KCD since 2016
  • Photo of Sara Byron-Corne
    Sara Byron-Corne
    Fourth Grade Teacher
    Pennsylvania State University - B.A.
    City College of New York - M.A.
    At KCD since 2015
  • Photo of Ross Cohen
    Ross Cohen
    Second Grade Teacher
    University of Louisville - B.S.
    Bellarmine University - M.A.T.
    At KCD since 2009
  • Photo of Rachel Kuffner
    Rachel Kuffner
    English Teacher
    Bellarmine University - Master of Arts in Teaching
    University of Illinois - Bachelor of Arts in English
    At KCD since 2018
  • Photo of Kimberley Marek
    Kimberley Marek
    Fourth Grade Teacher
    Lock Haven University - B.A.
    NYU/Tandon School of Engineering - Polytechnic Institute - M.S.
    University of Wisconsin - Post-Baccalaureate/Ed. (grades 1-8)
    At KCD since 2005
  • Photo of Jordyn McCarthy
    Jordyn McCarthy
    MS Language Arts/Humanities Teacher
    At KCD since 2024
  • Photo of Susan Nevels
    Susan Nevels
    Third Grade Teacher
    Stephen F. Austin University - B.Ed.
    University of Houston - M.A.
    At KCD since 2001
  • Photo of Elise Parker
    Elise Parker
    English Teacher
    LSU - MA
    At KCD since 2021
  • Photo of Dee Anna Payne
    Dee Anna Payne
    Middle School English Teacher
    Stephen F. Austin State University - B.S., M.Ed.
    At KCD since 1998
  • Photo of Dary Picken
    Dary Picken
    College Counselor, English Teacher
    Centre College - B.A.
    University of Alabama - M.A.
    At KCD since 2012
  • Clark Pollitt
    English Teacher; Head Varsity Boys Soccer Coach
    University of Louisville - B.A., M.A.
    At KCD since 2001
  • Photo of Stephanie Raia
    Stephanie Raia
    11th/12th Grade Dean; English Teacher
    Bellarmine University - B.A.
    Middlebury College - M.A.
    At KCD since 2002
  • Photo of Parker Scinta
    Parker Scinta
    Director of Student Activities; Community Service Coordinator; US Teacher
    University of Louisville - B.M. Music Performance
    University of Louisville - M.M. - Music Performance, M.M. - Music Theory
    Eastman School of Music - DMA, Performance and Literature
    At KCD since 2020
  • Photo of Keri Williams
    Keri Williams
    Lower School Librarian
    Eastern Kentucky University - B.S.
    Marygrove College - M.A.T.
    University of Kentucky - MSLS
    At KCD since 2012

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4100 Springdale Road • Louisville, KY 40241 • (502) 423-0440 • Fax (502) 423-0445
Kentucky Country Day School is a private JK–12, coeducational school located on a spacious 80+ acre campus in Louisville, KY. KCD combines a rigorous academic program with a wide variety of athletic and extracurricular programs. Our outstanding faculty creates an intimate learning environment that is both challenging and supportive.