After hard work and many long hours, our English department curriculum has been updated. Over the past two years English teachers, history teachers, some theology teachers, and many more have worked together to create new English classes along with new material for older English classes. The majority of the work was done during the pandemic, however, even teachers who had compact schedules were able to pitch in and help form this new curriculum that we use today.

One of the major changes is that the English department moved U.S. History and American literature to be sophomore classes, rather than junior year classes. The new and improved American literature course has now been changed to cover the pre-Columbian era to the present. They added texts from more contemporary writers, including more texts by women and people of color.

American literature is also now programmed to make more connections with U.S. History classes. Mrs. Kotty, English teacher, states that even with all the changes, “ it has been easy to adjust because many of the books were taught before, but now in a different light.” The English III and English III Honors course for juniors was completely built from scratch. Mrs. Trifilio, an English teacher, helped with the process of selecting this year’s English III texts. Some of the books now taught in English III are Chronicle of Death Foretold, Merchant of Venice, and The Stranger. This course tends to connect to morality in Theology courses. Mrs. Trifilio expressed, “I’ve really enjoyed teaching the new class. Each of the texts should challenge us to think differently and see the world in a new way. I hope that the experience makes us all better readers, writers, and thinkers.”

Overall it is nice to have change in our curriculum every now and then because it helps students, as well as the teachers. Students could lose motivation if they are learning the same thing over and over constantly and so can teachers.