Info

Summer Reading

The summer reading required book essay for all grade levels will be given on the 22nd, 23rd or 24th of Spetember depending on the day you meet your English class with the new rotating drop schedule.  Students' essays will be graded holisitcally.  The department reviews the essays in grade level focus groups to assess how to build the best writing program for students' growth in the mechanics of writing and growth in critical thinking through writing.  We want to teach students how to use writing as a process of discovering and developoing ideas as much as a means to convey information. Moreover, the teachers will use the piece to diagnose each student's strengths and weakness in writing to better create a plan of action for each particular student's needs.

Writing Lab

The English Department has implemented a Writing Center for students to receive support for the various writings they are asked to do in their classes. The center has primarily focused on students’ work in English, but through upcoming conversations with other departments, it will begin to branch out to students’ writing assignments in their Social Studies and Science classes.

In order to have samples and assignments ready to reflect upon and to use in the conference with the teacher in the lab, teachers will use turnitin.com for the students to be able to keep a digital portfolio of their works. This portfolio also allows for feedback and for commentary from the English teacher, from their peers, and from the teachers in the writing lab.

The Writing Center aspires to expand the array of necessary writing tactics and self-reflective editing tools students need to revise their writing. In the lab, students will receive strategies to develop their process, organization, idea development, style, and grammar in writing. The teachers in the lab work to supplement the goals of the classroom and provide one-on-one conferences that will help focus students on the issues and concerns they personally need to address in their writing.

About

The goal of the English Department is to train every student in the use of the English language as a field of study for its own sake and as an aid in all other areas of study. English teachers strive to develop values and attitudes that promote their students’ self-concept, interpersonal relationships, and appreciation of reading and confidence with all modes of communication. Further, the English staff aims to advance students’ performance skills in language, including vocabulary development, grammar and usage, reading, composition, speaking and listening, critical thinking, understanding literature, reference knowledge, and computer literacy.

The department also offers electives in World Religions as Literature, Creative Writing, Journalism, Visual Image, Philosophy, The Graphic Novel: Wham, Smash, Kapow, and Science Fiction/Fantasy.  For the next year 2009-2010, we are looking to reinvigorate the Shakespeare Seminar: Funny Bones and Fools the Comedies and How the Margins Make Meaning: Multicultural Literature that will focus on a particular culture each semester and be a repeatable course for interested students..

Contact

English Department Supervisor
William David Ross
wross@whrhs.org
6849