English Language Arts
The Highland Park High School English Department develops students into critical thinkers, effective communicators, and thoughtful readers and writers over four years.
The Literary Studies and Reflective Reading strand aims to graduate students who are enthusiastic, yet critical interpreters of a variety of texts. During their four-year study, students become grounded in literary criticism. The faculty also seeks to instill students with a love and appreciation of literature, inviting them to make personal connections to literary themes as well as to examine and question the values expressed in literature.
The Composition Studies strand aims to graduate students who are versatile writers, ones who can employ elements of language methodically for specific purposes and audiences. Students ultimately will develop versatile skills for writing formal academic papers as well as reflective essays.
The Reflective Viewing and Communication strand, in conjunction with the new TEKS and the new HPISD standards, seeks to develop students' abilities to view and to analyze media products with a skeptical, well-informed, and responsible mind. This strand also develops students' abilities to verbalize complex ideas clearly and effectively.
2026 Summer Reading List
- English 1 Standard, Honors, & TAG: The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
- English 2 Standard, Honors, & TAG: Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
- English 3 Standard, AP, & AP TAG: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
- English 4 Standard: Grendel, John Gardner
- English 4 AP: Dubliners, James Joyce
- English 4 AP TAG: The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien