ENGLISH DEPARTMENT PHILOSOPHY
The English Department endorses the district philosophy of educating the whole child. The goal for each child is that he or she, regardless of ability, will function in a contributory manner in society in a positive and constructive way. More specifically, the English Department emphasizes listening, speaking, critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, as well as an understanding of contemporary technology and media.
The English Department strives to coordinate its curriculum with the district language arts document as well as the Massachusetts State Frameworks in the areas of composition, language, literature, and media. Throughout a student's high school career, he or she will be exposed to a broad range of literature, both classic and contemporary. The department exposes students to multi-cultural literature in various genres, while providing a variety of student-centered learning activities.
Although each member of the English staff functions individually within the confines of the classroom, all work together to support and strengthen the English curriculum and to prepare the students to meet the challenges of the future.
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CURRICULUM GOALS
- Students will identify, describe, and apply the knowledge of the structure of the English language and standard English conventions to sentence structure, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
- Students will understand new words encountered in their reading materials, drawing on a variety of strategies as needed, and then use these words accurately in speaking and writing.
- Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the characteristics of various genres.
- Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of theme in literature and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
- Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure, elements, and meaning of nonfiction or informational material and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
- Students will identify and analyze how an author’s choice of words appeals to the senses, creates imagery, suggests mood, and sets tone.
- Students will compare and contrast similar myths and narratives from different cultures.
- Students will interpret the meaning of literary works, nonfiction, films, and media by using different critical lenses and analytic techniques.
- Students will write with a clear focus, logical development, and adequate supporting detail.
- Students will select and use appropriate genres, modes of reasoning, and speaking styles when writing for different audiences and rhetorical purposes.
- Students will demonstrate improvement in organization, content, paragraph development, level of detail, style, tone, and word choice in their writing via the writing process of prewriting, planning, drafting, evaluating and revising, and proofreading and editing.
- Students will use knowledge of standard English conventions to edit their writing.
- Students will use open-ended research questions, different sources of information, and appropriate research methods to gather information for their research projects.
- Students will obtain information by using a variety of media and evaluate the quality of material they obtain.
- Students will be encouraged to become lifelong learners utilizing their skills in communication to meet the demands of the adult world.