MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH
A full reading schedule is the hallmark of a good education and Long Trail takes that to heart, including assigning a reading list during the summer. Classmates share ideas about what they have read and writing is emphasized. Students gain  valuable experience by writing essays, personal nonfiction, poetry, and prose. Students are active participants in local poetry events. English in grades six
and seven provides a strong foundation in writing skills and introduces students to a variety of literatures. Early Literature in grade 8 coordinates with World History with discussions from Homer to Shakespeare. Grade nine surveys styles of writing in Literature by Genre, followed by American Literature and British Literature with AP levels. Electives include Reading and Writing about Nature, Contemporary American Novels, Science and Technology in Literature, Eastern Literature, and Creative Writing.
ENGLISH FACULTY
ENGLISH OFFERINGS
Full year, 6th grade
EXPLORING LITERATURE & COMMUNICATION explores forms of expression and communication including journal writing, essay, interview, and speech. Literary forms include poetry, short story, drama, personal memoir, novel, and historical literature relating to Vermont history. Text: Literature and the Language Arts: Discovering Literature (EMCParadigm, 1997). Novels: Peck's A Day No Pigs Would Die, Patterson's Lyddie, Blos' A Gathering of Days, Watkins's So Far from the Bamboo Grove, Giff's Lily's Crossing. Drama: Goodrich and Hackett's The Diary of Anne Frank.
Full year, 7th grade
FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLISH focuses on the writing process with special emphasis on grammar and essay writing. This course introduces and develops the process of literary analysis. Text: Elements of Writing (Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1993). Novels: Steinbeck's The Pearl, Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Orwell's Animal Farm, Chen's China's Son, Jiang's Red Scarf Girl, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Drama: Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.
Full year, 8th grade
EARLY LITERATURE complements MS World History 1. Students study selections from early river valley civilizations, world religions and philosophical traditions, and Greek, Roman, Nordic, medieval, and Renaissance literature. This literature provides material for creative writing assignments and vocabulary study, paralleled by grammar study and writing instruction.
Texts: Literature: World Masterpieces (Prentice Hall, 1996), Documents in World History, vol. 1 (Addison, Wesley, Longman, 2000), Homer's The Odyssey, Myths and
Legends (Scholastic Literature Anthologies), Evslin, Evslin & Hooper's Heroes & Monsters of Greek Myth, D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants, Serailler's Beowulf the Warrior, O'Neal's King Arthur, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Drama: Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Antigone, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
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