English

Course mission:

Over the past several years, English teachers in our district have conducted diversity audits of our English curriculum and found that while more than 60% of our students identify as members of our Asian American and Pacific Islander community, these same students have relatively few opportunities to see their racial and ethnic identities and experiences represented in that curriculum.  For the second year in a row, we are excited to be able to offer to any interested English teachers a professional learning opportunity designed to deepen participants’ understanding of the following topics:

• The history of the formation of AAPI identities

• The historical experiences of AAPI communities in the United States

• AAPI literary works and criticism of those works

• AAPI cultures   

Teachers interested in participating in this course will commit to the following:

• Participating in all three of the learning sessions.

• In preparation for each of the learning sessions, completing the assigned pre-reading (usually a few short articles, which will be sent out in advance of each session).

• Applying learnings from this course to their curricula and their instructional practices.

How can interested teachers sign up for this course?

Teachers interested in participating in AAPI Experiences in Literature during the 2023-24 school year are encouraged to sign-up via this link. 

Beyond Literary Analysis

In Beyond Literary Analysis, Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell write, “When we invite students to write analytically about a text, they engage in critical thinking and stretch their analytical muscles—a worthy exercise in and of itself. But if students’ written analysis never extends outside of the realm of literature, we fail to help them see the relevance of English class in their lives and as a result, we fail to develop versatile writers who can write for multiple occasions and purposes. Students need practice making claims about a wide variety of ‘texts,’ finding evidence that isn’t solely quotes from a book, and discovering structures that make analysis crystalize in many different disciplines. They will not be in English class forever; students must practice analytical writing about more than just literature.”

While there will always be a place for literary analysis in our English classrooms, this course seeks to support PLCs interested in designing authentic analytical writing tasks that require students to make choices about what it is they want to analyze; what their purpose is for writing analysis; who it is they want to write to; and the structure, word choice, and use of grammar and conventions that will best communicate their thinking to their audience.

Teams/PLCs interested in signing up for this course will commit to the following:

• Participating in both the fall (full-day) and the spring (half-day) release learning sessions, and scheduling a mid-point check-in meeting with the Curriculum Lead.

• Reading the assigned texts, which will be made available in advance in electronic form, in preparation for Session 1. These texts may include excerpts from Beyond Literary Analysis and Writing with Mentors by Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell, Continuing the Journey 2: Becoming a Better Teacher of Authentic Writing by Ken Lindblom and Leila Christenbury, Project-Based Writing by Liz Prather, and Write Like This by Kelly Gallagher.

• Designing a common analytical writing task that asks students to analyze something other than literature, and teaching/giving this assignment to students.

• Sharing classroom artifacts (assignment sheets or task cards, rubrics, scaffolds or supporting documents, examples of student work, etc.) to demonstrate application of the learning provided by the course.