Starting next school year, all juniors must take an IB-aligned English Language and Literature course.
Juniors can no longer choose between IB and non-IB English courses. Instead, they must choose between IB Language and Literature SL and the IB Literature HL course, known now as 11 Advanced/IB Literature HL.
“SL is going to have elements that are much more rigorous than the current 11 Language and Literature course,” English Department Chairwoman Emily Shrestha said.
The change does not eliminate the two-year IB Literature HL course, which all IB Diploma Program students have been required to complete. Instead, IB Language and Literature SL creates both a course for all non-IB DP juniors and an alternative for those who want the IB diploma but do not want the workload or analytical depth required in IB Literature HL.
“You were stuck in this higher-level English course because there were no other options,” Shrestha said. “This change allows us to keep the HL course, which is the high-level analytical writing that involves big, fat books and metaphors,” she said, “but it also allows now for a standard level course, for the students who are maybe more STEM oriented, that want the diploma, but not necessarily the rigor that goes along with the HL course.”
The IB Language and Literature SL course is designed as a two-year program. However, after completing the 11th-grade year, students may choose not to complete the second year as seniors and instead enroll in non-IB senior English courses, including AP Language and Composition, AP Literature and Composition and 12 Language and Literature.
Dr. John Moore, director of curriculum and instruction, said the district chose not to require students to continue the IB sequence into 12th grade because the high school has “so many great 12th grade English electives.”
“We didn’t feel like imposing 12th grade Language and Literature SL was right,” he said. However, he said the district hopes the option to continue the SL course in 12th grade will encourage more students to complete the full IB course sequence and earn college credit.
To complete the two-year SL course for 5.0 credit, seniors will have to take the IB exam and score sufficiently. “It’s the expectation of all AP and IB classes that the student takes the exam,” Moore said.
IB Diploma Program Coordinator Laura Hartel said students will not be expected to navigate the new course alone because existing structures — including counselors, intervention specialists and English teachers — will remain in place.
The IB Language and Literature SL curriculum emphasizes communication across different types of texts. Students will analyze infographics, screenplays and advertising campaigns to “look at what the theme is and then how that connects to some bigger issue in the world,” Shrestha said. Unlike HL which focuses on traditional literature.
Shrestha said that although the SL course includes “non-literary units,” students should not assume that the course will not require them to read literature. “We’re still going to read novels. We’re still going to read plays. We’re still going to look at poetry. Those are the literary texts,” she said. But students are also going to “look at a photographer’s body of work and how the photographer uses the theme of child soldiers, or innocence in war,” she added.
“It’s going to be different. It’s going to be sort of that artsy angle that is fun to do, but it’s also something that not everybody is comfortable with,” Shrestha said.
HL students will still read plays, poetry, novels and graphic novels.
English teacher Nalin Needham, who currently teaches 11 Language and Literature, said the new course will provide more flexibility for teachers. “It puts emphasis on texts that a lot of kids are going to encounter in the real world — non-literary texts and a lot of things that aren’t pure literature,” he said. Such texts will be more engaging for students, he said. “Some texts are starting to feel a bit stale,” he said, so “this will be a nice change of pace as a teacher.”
A version of this article appears in print on page 3 of Volume 96, Issue 4, published Feb. 28, 2026.
