For the 2023-24 school year, students can choose from five new courses in the Program of Studies and a significantly changed English curriculum. Students will begin to register for these and other classes starting Feb. 17, and the course registration period will end Feb. 28 at 8 a.m.

The English department will now offer English 2 as the only second-year English class, merging English 2 Literary Analysis and English 2 Expository Writing to provide students with literature and writing instruction not based on literature. Additionally the English 3/4 electives will be split into separate classes based on grade level, cutting out Analysis and Composition and Argument. Juniors will choose from six English 3 electives, and seniors will choose from five English 4 electives. 

English department chair Mark Krewatch said this change comes from a need for diversity in assignments to better reflect students’ interests and their intentions for reading and writing. 

“We have been looking at different kinds of assignments and to get students to create connections to their own lives and their voice,” Mr. Krewatch said. “We also thought about how students came to reading and writing, be it from a stylistic lens, an intellectual lens, or a socio-political lens, because there are lots of ways to look at books and writing.” 

He said the English curriculum will continue to remain centered around literature. 

“What’s not changing is that literature is still at the core of the program,” Mr. Krewatch said. “Teaching critical literature skills is especially important now, and we really want to teach students how to slow down and look at literature.”

The history department has added three electives to its selection of Tier 2 classes. AT Modern Global History I and II will cover different case studies about global exchange, the migration of people and global connectivity. AT Modern Global Conflict I and II will examine different case studies centered around the topics of empire, warfare, revolution and genocide. One course, Environment and the Industrial Revolution, has been renamed to People and Planet I and II.

The art department will offer AT Art History I and II, which will take place in three lab periods of the new 2023-24 schedule. The first semester will include lessons of Western and non-Western art history spanning from pre-history to pre-modern, with trips to art galleries and museums. The second semester will focus on contemporary art through a museum lens. This class cannot satisfy the art graduation requirement, and completion of that credit is a prerequisite. 

Students interested in learning new instruments can sign up for Beginning Band, a one-semester course where students will explore five different instruments of their choosing for three weeks at a time. This class will not satisfy the music graduation requirement, and completion of that credit is a prerequisite. 

The world languages department will offer AT Latin Literature, which will focus on closely reading and analyzing Latin prose and poetry. To take this class, students will need a B+ or higher in Latin 4, or a teacher recommendation. The reading material of the class will be updated each year, so students may take it more than one year in a row.