In British Literature & Writing, students read texts from throughout British history, including the Anglo-Saxon period, the Medieval and Elizabethan periods, the Jacobean and Puritan age, the Restoration and Eighteenth Century, the Romantic Age, the Victorian Age and the Twentieth Century. According to Senior Kayleigh Hau, students read Frankenstein, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Canterbury Tales and discuss them in a collaborative class environment.
“I think it’s kind of different from HAmLit because I came from HAmLit and there’s a lot of group work instead of individual work, and class discussions instead of fishbowls, which I like a lot,” Hau said. “It’s just a very collaborative atmosphere — HAmLit is like that too but HAmLit was more individual work compared to Brit Lit, [where] we work with our group and do projects and stuff so I thought that was kind of fun.”
Speaking up in class was something Hau struggled with in HAmLit, but collaborating with three other people in her group in Brit Lit made this easier for her. Shifting from rhetorical analysis to literary analysis in essay writing was another transition Hau experienced while taking Brit Lit after taking HAmLit.
Overall, Hau considers the workload reasonable and the class a medium level of difficulty. At the end of the semester, students chose “the biggest monster” out of the texts they studied to work on a final project that included an evidence log, diorama or sculpture and an essay. Hau spent a week outside of class working on the final, often working at a group member’s house.
“Don’t procrastinate, have fun with it and think outside the box,” Hau said. “Don’t go with everyone else’s analysis or opinions.”