The unit stresses writing as developmental thinking. Students are introduced to various techniques for originating, amplifying, organizing, and revising the expression of their ideas. Lyric poems and short stories chosen by each teacher provide practice in close reading. The class reviews descriptive grammar and pursues a course in functional grammar. The Odyssey, Othello, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and lyric poems chosen by their teacher.
Emphasis is placed upon expository and analytic writing.
Functional grammar and English usage are taught in considerable detail as students prepare for their last grade-wide grammar final. The first trimester is devoted to an intensive study of poetry and to instruction in writing analytic essays about poems. Using texts of their own choosing, teachers help their students to develop an appropriate vocabulary with which to respond to a variety of poets and poetic forms. In the second trimester, which is devoted to tragic drama, texts include Hamlet, Oedipus the King and Antigone. Students continue to write analytic papers and also receive instruction in the writing of research papers.