By Claire Ferris, ’21

With the new building in progress, announcements of retirement for beloved teachers, and the new schedule that was implemented this year, Cary Academy has entered a period of growth and change. The English department will also be updating its curriculum for the 2019-2020 school year, according to English Department Chair German Urioste. The changes will model the English department after the current PATH History program, with trimester-long classes for juniors and seniors.

“With this system, says Mr. Urioste, “the students will be given more choice in their junior and senior years as their literary interests grow, and the English teachers will be given more creativity when they’re designing their courses. Some current ideas for trimester-long courses include dystopian literature, southern-gothic literature, studying the anti-hero, and the meaning of narration in writing and media.” Although the system is changing for the juniors and seniors, the freshman and sophomore English courses will remain the same, as 9th and 10th grade are dedicated to acquiring and refining skills.

In the current English system, juniors and seniors are split up and take a year-long course that includes a large project near the end of the school year. Eleventh and 12th grade English courses include a large project near the end of the school year: the juniors focus on their Social Issues in America project, and the seniors focus on their Capstones. With this new system, 11th and 12th graders will still be separated for the third trimester, as upperclassmen will work on their projects for the entirety of the third trimester. If the students choose to take AP exams, they will also have time to focus on test material. This new system creates four trimesters in junior and senior year for elective English courses – these classes will mix juniors and seniors, as well as ADV (advanced) and non-ADV students. Students will still be required to have an ADV course recommendation to be considered an ADV student, but because the courses are mixed, they will be required to do more analytical work in each elective course to meet the ADV requirement. According to Mr. Urioste, “this will probably mean that each ADV student will need to complete 3 pieces of analytical writing for each ADV trimester course they enroll in; however, this also means that students could possibly take up to 4 ADV English courses in their junior and senior years.”

We look forward to the English Department changes and more coming to CA in the next couple of years!