Throughout their four years in high school, students will read and analyze a range of classic and contemporary literature in their ELA classes.  Some of these texts are required texts that all students of a grade level read, and some are selected by instructors to achieve specific academic goals in their individual classrooms. Additionally, students may also be asked to read supplemental texts - fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as literature circle texts or other independently chosen titles. Please see your child's teacher for more information on the specific offerings for the course. 

Below, is a list of core texts that students may encounter in their 9-11 English courses, as of the 2021-2022 school year. Bolded texts are required reading for all students at a grade level. This list does not include texts for the AIM program, AP courses or Senior English courses. For a list of potential texts for these courses, please see the instructor or the Department Coordinator.

In English 9, students might read: 

• To Kill a Mockingbird By: Harper Lee
• Romeo and Juliet By: William Shakespeare
• Antigone By: Sophocles
• Lord of the Flies By: William Golding  
• When the Emperor Was Divine By: Julie Otsuka
• “I Have a Dream” By: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “The Lottery” By: Shirley Jackson
• "Most Dangerous Game" By: Richard Connell
• "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" By: Karen Russell

In English 10, students might read: 

• The House on Mango Street By: Sandra Cisneros
• Self-selected coming of age novels and poems
• An example of nineteenth century literature selected from among the following titles: A Tale of Two Cities By: Charles Dickens; Great Expectations By: Charles Dickens; A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde By: Robert Louis Stevenson; Jane Eyre By: Charlotte Bronte; Pride and Prejudice By: Jane Austen)
• The Tragedy of Macbeth By: William Shakespeare OR selected scenes from various Shakespearean plays (A Winter's Tale; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Othello; Twelfth Night; et al). 
• Feed By: M.T. Anderson
• "The Flight from Conversation" by Sherry Turkle

In English 11, students might read: 

• The Great Gatsby By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Little Fires Everywhere By: Celeste Ng
• A Raisin in the Sun By: Lorraine Hansberry
• Selections of Transcendentalism Essays (may include Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” and “Nature” as well as Thoreau’s “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience”)
• Various classic texts (The Scarlet Letter By: Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn   By: Mark Twain; The Grapes of Wrath By: John Steinbeck
• Various contemporary texts (The Bluest Eye    By: Toni Morrison; The Things They Carried By: Tim O’Brien; The Tortilla Curtain By: TC Boyle; A Lesson Before Dying By: Ernest Gaines)