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English

students reading at a table

Explore the human experience. 

In the Branson English classroom, we investigate, explore, question, analyze, and fall in love with our literary texts every day. From Homer to Shakespeare, Mary Shelley to Frederick Douglass, Jhumpa Lahiri to Zadie Smith, students immerse themselves in vibrant, diverse worlds. We aim to offer all students of all identities the pleasure and value of seeing themselves reflected in the texts they read, and to learn, with empathy and compassion, about cultures and experiences rarely explored.

In our innovative classes, you will learn through student-driven and student-led conversations, multimedia presentations, collaborative projects, design thinking, connections to visual media, and more. You will constantly have opportunities to explore the connections between the work of the classroom and prescient issues in the world, the society, that emanates beyond the academic space.

Most importantly, you will explore the essential nature of writing, digging deeper than “thesis, evidence, analysis.” You’ll engage in a conversation between yourself, the text, and your audience. You’ll explore how writing engenders epiphany through both the strength of language and the clarity of vision.

English Requirements

12 units (4 years) 

All students take English I in the ninth grade and English II in the tenth grade. In the eleventh and twelfth grade, students choose from semester electives and must take an English class each semester.

Meet Our English Faculty

Elizabeth Bejarano

Elizabeth Bejarano

English Teacher
Paul Buckley

Paul Buckley

English and Human Development Teacher, Student Support Specialist
Louisa Conte

Louisa Conte

English and Arts Fellow
Audrey Dickinson

Audrey Dickinson

English Teacher
Alanna  Hickey

Alanna Hickey

English Department Chair, English Teacher
Katie Jan

Katie Jan

English Teacher, Community Engagement Director
Neha Kamdar

Neha Kamdar

English Teacher, Class Dean
Madeline Lesser

Madeline Lesser

English Teacher
Giles Scott

Giles Scott

English Teacher
Jeff Symonds

Jeff Symonds

Assistant Head of School for Academics & Dean of Faculty, English Teacher

Branson Curriculum Guide

students in class

Read the Curriculum Guide to see all the courses we offer in the 2025-26 academic year.

Yearlong Courses

  • English I
  • English II

Semester Courses

  • "Both And": Jeffrey Eugenide's Middlesex
  • The Brontë's: No Other Introduction Necessary
  • Encountering Beauty
  • Hurricane Clarice: The Fictions of Clarice Lispector
  • In the Beginning was the World: The Bible and Literature
  • Literary Feasts: Food, Culture, and Modern Narrative 
  • Maker/Martyr/Monster/Maid: Charting the Discourse on Motherhood
  • Murder and Morality in St. Petersburg
  • The Newsfeed Isn't New: Information Overload in the 18th Century Britain
  • Not Poetry: Avant Garde and Experimental Forms
  • Sports and Literature
  • Taking the Toxic out of Toxic Masculinity
  • Tyrants, Renegades, and Castaways: Herman Melville's Moby Dick
  • Unquestionably Political and Irrevocably Beautiful: A Toni Morrison Seminar
  • The World of Haruki Murakami

Humanities/Cross-Referenced Courses

  • Ancient Greek Political Thought 
  • The End of the Innocence: American Society 1955-2001
  • History and Culture of Hip-Hop
  • Moral Philosophy in the Age of Augustus
  • Protest and Reform in History and Literature

For a complete list of English courses and their descriptions, read the Curriculum Guide 2025-26 | Guía de Estudios 2025-26