“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” ― René Descartes

Reading excellent literature is critical if we want to be influential in the world.  We, as Descartes suggests, have an opportunity to listen to the voices of the ancients, and not-so-ancients, as they explain the answer to the questions “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”  As Christians, we know that Scripture answers those questions.  So, if we know the answer, why read the works?  Literature – novels, short stories, and poetry – is man’s way of exploring those questions in the light of reigning contemporary philosophies.  In order to understand the world and those in it, in order to be aware of our culture, in order to winsomely win the lost to Christ, we must be familiar with what men have discovered about themselves and those around them.  As we read great works of literature this year, we will explore those ideas and philosophies in the light of Christ and Truth, so that we may then go into the world and be the salt and light that brings the good news of Christ to the nations.

Students will read and discuss a survey of American literature beginning with 17^th century explorers and Puritan works and ending with 20^th century Modernism, comparing the underlying philosophical model in each work to the Christian worldview.  Students will also evaluate passages of literature with close reading analysis and hone writing through exercises on sentence building.

The goal of rhetoric is wisdom and eloquence.  Coram Deo Academy is committed to equipping their students to enter society with the ethics and the ability to persuade and influence, so that they can take be effective citizens and ambassadors for Christ. At Coram Deo students study three strands of Rhetoric: Speech 7, Logic 9, and Rhetoric 11. In Rhetoric 11 students learn to think thoroughly and clearly about topics, presenting their arguments in written and oral form using classical rhetoric as well as modern rhetorical criticism.  Reading classical authors of antiquity (e.g. Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Quintilian), students learn to evaluate the work of others in the light of Scripture. Students also study different genre in combination with their writing and speaking preparation. At the end of Rhetoric, students are prepared through writing, presentation, discussion, and AP exam prep to take the AP English Language and Composition exam.

Eleventh grade English at Coram Deo Academy contemplates the characteristics of the good man and the good life. This advanced placement literature and composition course begins with the literature of the Enlightenment, including John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost, Moliere’s satiric Tartuffe, and works by the era’s most famous poets:  Swift, Dryden, Johnson, and Pope. Next, students study Romanticism and Realism, reading some of the 19^th century’s greatest novelists:  Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky.  They also read, analyze, and imitate poetic works, including, among others, odes by John Keats, a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning, and devotional sonnets by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The course concludes with a study of 20^th century modernism and post-modernism as seen in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Students also read works by the 20^th century’s great Christian apologists, G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis.   By the conclusion of their eleventh grade year, students who have completed the previous three Coram Deo English courses will have received a comprehensive coverage of the major works and

literary movements of Western Civilization.  Course work includes extensive written analysis, preparing students for the essay portions of the ACT, SAT, and AP exams, as well as SAT vocabulary development and practice. 

Ninth grade English at Coram Deo Academy builds on the Greek mythology introduced in eighth grade with a study of the plays of the three famous Greek tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.  This is followed by an examination of the lives and works of Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and the reading of The Apology of Socrates and Aristotle’s Poetics.  Students not only read and analyze Poetics, the first guide to literary criticism, but apply Aristotle’s principles to contemporary works in individual presentations.  Next, the students begin their study of famous Roman poets by reading Virgil’s The Aeneid and a piece from Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Students study Hellenistic letter writing through Paul’s epistles Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.  They complete the year with the reading of Confessions by Augustine, Beowulf, and Norse mythology. Ninth grade composition covers the steps of the Progymnasmata through written and oral presentation. Students also complete a research paper related to Classical or Early Church history implementing the MLA format and in-text citing used throughout the Upper School and at most universities.  Grammar review is provided throughout the year based on principles covered in A Pocket Style Manual.