Academic Department Details

Department:Department of English

Subject:English

Curriculum::ICSE

Course Content

The school follows the ICSE prescribed syllabus. Through their B and A Forms the students read through William Shakespeare‟s As You Like It, 15 short stories from The Treasure Trove of Short Stories (Frank Bros. & Co.) and 15 poems from The Golden Lyre (Evergreen Publishers). Detailed description of the course may be found at

http://www.cisce.org/data/Syllabus for ICS 2011/Appendix II – List of Prescribed Books – Languages.pdf

In Language, students learn the art of essay writing, report writing, general comprehension and functional grammar.

Learning Objectives

The English Department, with its 8-member faculty team, is at the heart of all activities at The Doon School. Through the department‟s involvement in academics, publications, activities, literary tours and trips, awards, public speaking, debating and participation in various international competitions, the English department seeks to develop a well-rounded creative child. Any child, who diligently walks through all the avenues that the department offers, should be able to cultivate diligent reading habits, ability to participate in a variety of discourses and should be cognitively and linguistically capable of holding forth on a broad array of issues. Finally, the English Department is not merely a Language Department; it deals with, not merely the teaching of the language, but also the elements of Literature, Philosophy, Human Sciences and Theory of Knowledge.

Skills Acquired by Students

The department believes that by the end of A Form every child must be equipped with an appetite for reading more, an ability to undertake reference and research work on his own, an ability to comprehend and comment on a text, an understanding of a variety of literary genres and an evolved understanding of the connotation of the word “text”. The students must be equipped to take on the requirements of IB or the ISC boards with required rigour.

Examination Board

In the B and A Form the school takes the ICSE board examination. The syllabus is as prescribed by CISCE. The internal examination system followed, as of yet, is the structured middle and end of term written exam pattern of the CISCE. The school seeks to take the students to a level from which both the curricula of the CISCE and the IB are accessible to the students.

General Comments

As the foundation for any subject, English language and literature is the source to virtually all the careers. Specialization as IB HL and at graduation can lead to careers in journalism, creative writing, academics, consultancy, advertisement, copywriting, media, performance, etc.

Academic Department Details

Department:Department of English

Subject:English

Curriculum::ISC

Course Content

The school follows the ISC prescribed syllabus. Through their S and SC forms the students read through William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, 15 short stories from Hues: An Anthology of Short Stories and 15 poems from Star Light. Detailed description of the course may be found at http://www.cisce.org/data/Syllabus for ISC 2011/ISC Appendix -I-Listof Prescribed TextBooks.pdf

In Language the students learn the arts of essay writing, report writing, general comprehension and functional grammar.

In Literature in English the students study three texts of Literature from a choice of five prescribed texts, across the genres of drama, prose fiction and poetry. The texts are chosen by the teacher. The syllabus is different in S and SC forms. The department tries to provide a comprehensive understanding of literature through this course.

The School at S and Sc Forms also offers the elective subject of Literature in English. Unlike Core English this component is taught through different sets of text in S and Sc. The final Board exam taken by the boys is on the texts of the Sc form only. Like the Core component the entire year has two report card examinations and two trials. In the each term there is a report card test and a trial. Internal assessment for these involves allocation of 100% marks to a three-hour examination paper. Students take one written paper of 100 marks at both the trials and one 1 ½ hour paper of literature of 100 marks in the report card tests. The details of the syllabus and assessment can be found at http://www.cisce.org/data/Syllabus for ISC 2011/8. ISC Literature in English.pdf

Learning Objectives

The English Department, with its 8-member faculty team, is at the heart of all activities at The Doon School. Through the department’s involvement in academics, publications, activities, literary tours and trips, awards, public speaking, debating and participation in various international competitions, the English department seeks to develop a well-rounded creative child. Any child, who diligently walks through all the avenues that the department offers should be able to cultivate diligent reading habits, ability to participate in a variety of discourses and should be cognitively and linguistically capable of holding forth on a broad array of issues. Finally, the English Department is not merely a Language Department; the teachers deal with, not merely the teaching of the language, but also the elements of Literature, Philosophy, Human Sciences and Theory of Knowledge.

Skills Acquired by Students

The department believes that by the end of SC form every child must be equipped with the ability to undertake education for graduation in any subject in any university. The student must have an appetite for reading, a felicity with lateral thinking and have flair with the language that will allow him to express any opinion with clarity and confidence in any forum.

Examination Board

In the S and SC form the school takes the ISC board examination as well as the IB. The syllabus for the ISC is as prescribed by the CISCE. The internal examination system followed, as of yet, is the structured middle and end of term written exam pattern of the CISCE. The IB students follow the same time schedule but a different pattern of testing and evaluation.

General Comments

As the foundation for any subject, English language and literature is the source to virtually all the careers. Specialization as IB HL and at graduation can lead to careers in journalism, creative writing, academics, consultancy, advertisement, copywriting, media, performance, etc. Detailed description of the course may be found at http://www.cisce.org/data/Syllabus for ISC 2011/ISC Appendix – I – List of Prescribed Text Books.pdf

Academic Department Details

Department:Department of English

Subject:English

Curriculum::IB

Course Content

The IB Language A1 program is a varied and demanding programme. The Group 1 consists of three courses.

• Language A: literature
• Language A: language and literature
• Literature and performance (interdisciplinary subject)

For details please go to http://xmltwo.ibo.org/publications/DP/Group1/d_1_a1lan_gui_1102_1a/html/ibpublishing.ibo.org/testexist/rest/app/pub.xql@doc=d_1_a1lan_gui_1102_1a_e&part=1&chapter=1.html

However, at The Doon School we offer only the language A: literature course, where the focus is directed towards developing an understanding of the techniques involved in literary criticism and promoting the ability to form independent literary.

The School and the English Department endorse the IBO’s understanding of the purpose that Language A1 is to serve:

“The study of texts, both literary and non-literary, provides a focus for developing an understanding of how language works to create meanings in a culture, as well as in particular texts. All texts may be understood according to their form, content, purpose and audience, and through the social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts that produce and value them. Responding to, and producing, texts promotes an understanding of how language sustains or challenges ways of thinking and being.”

The English A: Literature programme has four parts:

Part 1: World Literature

The World Literature section requires study of works translated into English chosen from the Prescribed Literature Texts (PLT) list of the IB. It is intended to give insight into other cultures. Assessment for the section is based on two essays, at least one of which compares works by two different authors. They are scored by IB and the scores form part of the exam score for the A1 course. World Literature develops a global view, a feeling for other cultures, an ability to compare differences, develops organizational skill in writing.

Part 2: Detailed Study

The detailed study works are to be chosen from the Prescribed list of authors (PLA) of the IB. one work from each of the genres (poetry, drama, prose fiction and prose non-fiction) has to be chosen as per the grade’s requirement. Detailed Study trains students to study a work closely, develops scholarship and close careful reading, the ability to organise and to make oral presentations.

Part 3: Groups of Works

The ‘Group of Works’ also called ‗Genre Studies’ is a set of works by authors mentioned in the PLA. This part is examined by the IBO in an end-of-diploma examination. Groups of Works teaches the ability to write a long, well-organised paper on a collection of works, develops exam-taking skills, the ability to analyze difficult texts, study skills and strategies, note-taking, and discussion skills.

Part 4: School’s Free Choice

One section of the program is freely chosen by the school, with the IB requirement that the works have ‘literary merit’. Students give individual oral presentations on these works, teaching the class for a short time. The purpose of part four is to offer teachers and students a chance to pursue works of specific interest to them, with possible thematic links to parts 1 and 3, and to develop students’ skills at presenting ideas and information to groups effectively.

Course division as per Grade requirement

As per the recommendation of the IBO, every year the syllabus is structured around some key ideas. For instance, the Doon School syllabus for the year 2012-1014 is structured around the core ideas of the politics of gender and class, colonialism and displacement.

Syllabus

Part 1: World Literature

1. Ngugi wa Thiong’O (Gikuyu; Kenya) Matigari (1987)

2. Ariel Dorfman (Spanish; Chile) Death and the Maiden

3. Sophocles (Greek; Greece) Antigone

Part 2: Detailed Study

1. William Shakespeare Macbeth

2. John Keats* Selected Poetry

On First looking Into Chapman’s Homer, Last Sonnet, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Ode to Psyche, Indolence: an Ode, Ode to the Nightingale, To Autumn, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Fanny, A Draught of Sunshine, A Song About Myself, A Thing of Beauty (Endymion), Bards of Passion and of Mirth, A Draught of Sunshine

3. Robert Browning* Selected Poetry

Meeting at Night, Parting at Morning, Two in Campagna, The Last Ride Together, My Last Duchess; Porphyria’s Lover; Abt Vogler; A Woman’s Last Words; The Lost Mistress; My Star; Now!; The Pied-Piper of Hamlyn; A Toccata of Galuppi’s; Why I am a Liberal; Youth and Art; Verse-making was the Least of my Virtues

4. Margaret Atwood Penelopiad

Part 3: Genre Study

1. WH Auden: Selected Poems

Miss Gee; As I Walked Out One Evening; Dear, though the Night is Gone; Lullaby; Epitaph on a Tyrant; Refugee Blues; The Unknown Citizen; The Shield of Achilles; Funeral Blues; O What is That Sound That So Thrills the Ear; Sept 1, 1939; Nocturne II; Fleet Visit; Their Lonely Betters; Song (Deftly, admiral, cast your fly)

2. Ted Hughes: Selected Poems

The Thought-Fox; Wind; Pike; Full Moon and Little Frieda; Crow Tyrannosaurus; Ravens; Crow ; Blacker than Ever; Lovesong; Tractor; Wolfwatching; The Owl; Hawk Roosting; The Harvest Moon; Crow’s Theology; Examination at the Womb-Door

3. Seamus Heaney: from Death of a Naturalist

Digging; Death of a Naturalist; Advancement of Learning; The Early Purges; Follower; Ancestral Photograph; Mid-Term Break; At a Potato Digging; Turkeys Observed; Trout; Gravities; Twice Shy; Poem; Scaffolding; Storm on the Island; The Folk Singers

4. Carol Ann Duffy: from The World’s Wife

Queen Herod; Mrs Midas; Mrs Aesop; Mrs Darwin; Mrs Sisyphus; Mrs Faust; Anne Hathaway; Medusa; The Devil’s Wife; Mrs Icarus; Frau Freud; Eurydice; Penelope; Mrs Beast; Demeter

5. Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman

6. Oscar Wilde Importance of Being Earnest

7. G. B. Shaw Candida

Part 4: School’s Free Choice

1. Saadat Hasan Manto Toba Tek Singh and Other Stories

2. Jhumpa Lahiri The Interpreter of Maladies

3. Amitav Ghosh Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma

4. Bapsi Sidwa Ice Candy Man

Learning Objectives

The English Department, with its 8-member faculty team, is at the heart of all activities at The Doon School. Through the department’s involvement in academics, publications, activities, literary tours and trips, awards, public speaking, debating and participation in various international competitions, the English department seeks to develop a well-rounded creative child. Any child, who diligently walks through all the avenues that the department offers should be able to cultivate diligent reading habits, ability to participate in a variety of discourses and should be cognitively and linguistically capable of holding forth on a broad array of issues. Finally, the English Department is not merely a Language Department; the teachers deal with, not merely the teaching of the language, but also the elements of Literature, Philosophy, Human Sciences and Theory of Knowledge.

The department believes that by the end of SC form IB every child must be equipped with the ability to undertake education for graduation in any subject in any university.

The student develops an appetite for reading, a felicity with lateral thinking and has flair with the language that allows him to express any opinion with clarity and confidence in any forum. The student will be able to have intelligent conversation on any literary work with laypeople and literary connoisseurs alike. The rigours of the IB course equip a student with the ability to develop and sustain valid points of views and opinions about literature, politics, social issues and identity. In short, IB students walk out tall as men of the world.

Examination Board

In the S and Sc form the school also takes the IB Diploma Programme. The English A syllabus for the IBDP is structured on the guidelines set by the IBO. The internal examination system followed, as of yet, is the structured middle and end of term written exam pattern of the IB, which includes open-book examinations, oral commentaries and presentations, internal assessment based on online learning participation, blogs and written essays.

General Comments

As the foundation for any subject, English language and literature is the source to virtually all the careers. Specialization as IB HL and at graduation can lead to careers in journalism, creative writing, academics, consultancy, advertisement, copywriting, media, performance, etc. Detailed description of the course may be found at http://www.cisce.org/data/Syllabus for ISC 2011/ISC Appendix – I – List of Prescribed Text Books.pdf