At Westridge, senior literature courses challenge students to build on the fundamental reading and writing skills they have developed and apply them to complex advanced-level topics and analysis, something they will draw upon as they head to college next year. Since the launch of one such course—Women of the Novel, which is one of the advanced course options replacing AP English Literature & Composition (English IV) this year—our seniors have led dynamic discussions, engaged in peer journaling and thoughtful debates, and examined how major novels written by women have contributed to the development and advancement of the novel as an art form.

“The class allows for a deeper reading experience which has led to an unfolding of the writing process,” said Upper School English Teacher Molly Yurchak, who designed the new course. “Students have the opportunity to spend time with their work and critically reflect on and edit their writing.”

Zooming out of the written word, students have been exploring how women novelists—including Zora Neale Hurston, Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, Edith Wharton, Arundhati Roy, and Barbara Kingsolver—have been instrumental in shaping the human experience and philosophical ideas. In particular, Yurchak wanted her students to examine how women novelists harnessed the power of traditionally domestic concerns—home, family, and romantic relationships—to understand the universal human experience and to influence culture.

Here are the novels and authors the course covers: Beloved by Toni Morrison Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston With additional selected writings by Sally Rooney, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and other scholars.

 

The class focus on the novel is also intentional; Yurchak explained that novels uniquely allow students to develop empathy for the different perspectives and psychologies of characters and their experiences.

“You can really play with multiple points of views, narrators, and interior monologues,” she said. “All of these things are available to a novelist (even in one book!) because of the breadth and the scale of the project. You can't always do that in [shorter] art forms. But the novel, especially as it's evolved over the 20th century, lets you do those things and have an enormous sandbox to play in.”

“When reading Hurston’s work [for example], the students paid a lot of attention to the role of light and illumination, examining who or what was getting seen, and having philosophical conversations about why [certain] characters were being emphasized, and how this translated from written novels to film.”

In class, students lead discussions and engage through journaling. Recently, they worked in small groups to select passages, create handouts, and lead thoughtful discussions to analyze Hurston’s novel. To foster deeper dialogue, Yurchak asked students to journal their reflections on the novel daily—then had them switch journals with one another to write responses and questions in response to their peer’s reflections.

For senior Eliza W., her experience in the course has cemented her desire to pursue English in college after graduation. “Ms. Yurchak has designed the curriculum entirely around student interest and initiative,” Eliza said. “I feel so lucky to be in a class that strikes a perfect balance between honoring students’ individual passions and pushing students to collaborate and think beyond their conceptions of the reading. Our daily discussions never feel like a disjointed collection of analyses but rather a joint effort to understand a facet of the text.”

In addition to novels, students are sometimes tasked with analyzing songs and poems! In their assignment, “The Poetics of Hip Hop,” students were asked to select a song by a female artist from the hip hop or rap genre and study it using formal methods of poetry analysis. Eliza found this project challenged her to identify how rhythm, rhyme, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) enhanced the song’s meaning. “This project was both fun and meaningful as it allowed me an opportunity to explore texts that differ from the traditional texts we deem valuable in the English classroom,” Eliza shared.

 

“I think our Advanced Courses encourage analysis in a really meaningful way,” said Director of Teaching and Learning James Evans.

Evans, who has experience as an English teacher, understands the importance of close reading and being able to break apart a text to understand subtexts—an important skill for students as they prepare to graduate from Westridge. He hopes students walk away from the class with an appreciation for literature, the ability to advocate for their arguments and communicate what they find meaningful and think critically about media at large.