Information for parents

Dear Parents,

Here at Dino High School we are making several changes to our traditional approach to teaching English and have developed a new and exciting curriculum. The reason for developing this curriculum is to provide students with a stronger understanding of English as a means of communicating ideas and culture. English has become a global language and it is therefore necessary for students to be able to use the language to express their own ideas about culture and also to understand ideas and cultures from around the world. This program is designed to prepare students to enter and fully participate in the the global community. In an effort to do this, the curriculum endeavors to develop proficiency in all English language skills, allowing the students to fully participate in our global community and all that entails.

The curriculum places a great deal of emphasis on the needs of the individual learners while promoting the role of experience. The focus will be on growing through experience by developing self awareness, self-reflection, critical thinking skills, learning strategies and other qualities important to development. To promote this development our course will be based on topics that are designed to motivate our students and help them develop their fluency in English.

In order to achieve our goals of developing and strengthening our students' abilities in English we have had to take a critical look at our traditional methods of teaching. Therefore, we want to explain our reasoning behind this new curriculum and how your students will be learning English.

Textbooks:

In the past coursebooks have been the main source for organizing the curriculum. For many in foreign language education, coursebooks have been an important aspect of language learning and they provide a sense of comfort for the students and the teacher. However, we have found that in today's educational environment textbooks have severe limitations when it comes to promoting academic fluency in English. Therefore, we will no longer be using coursebooks but will be base our syllabus around a series of topics to promote interest and critical thinking among the students. We would like to take this opportunity to explain why we have moved away from coursebooks in our English language classes.

One major issue with English coursebooks is that they are created to teach a specific level to all students. However, in our classes we often have students who are at varying degrees of development in their language learning and this rigid system does not take their individuality into account. Our courses are designed to provide a strong sense of structure that will allow teachers to differentiate the lesson according to the needs of individual students. In this curriculum we have used our years of experience to create a series of topics and themes that are designed to motivate students by asking relevant and important questions about their lives and society as a whole.

In order for students to learn the language they must be allowed to use the language. This is another major failing of traditional coursebooks. For the most part coursebooks provide students with limited opportunities to actually use their language in real life situations and this leads them to a limited amount of acquisition. Our course will provide the students with a language rich environment that will promote debate and discussion about ideas that are relevant to them as teenagers and young adults. Another major aspect of these courses will be the use of authentic material (e.g. Literature, poetry, news, etc.) and authentic speaking opportunities (E.g. Debate, discussion on relevant issues, expressing opinions, etc.). By providing students with these opportunities we hope they will develop a stronger sense of intrinsic motivation in English and be able to fully participate in a challenging academic environment.

Grammar

In foreign language acquisition grammar will always be an integral part of the process of acquisition. It is necessary to understand grammar in order to fully communicate in the language. However, traditional approaches to teaching grammar often leave students confused and fail to teach students when and how to actually use the proper structures.

By the time most students reach high school they will have had years of English language learning and some familiarity with grammar structures and metalanguage. Often times the problem is that they do not know how to put this knowledge to use in regular communication (i.e., speaking or writing). This program is designed to use this prior knowledge of English as a basis for the development of fluency and acquisition. To do this the students will be learning grammar in context. This will give them a better understanding of how to accurately and effectively use the language. Also, this approach will allow us to create a course that is focused on the individual learner.

By teaching grammar in context we will allow students to creatively explore and experiment with the language and these are key components in acquisition. In the early years of high school we will be focused on promoting fluency and will then continue to teach grammar structures as they are encountered in context. In each unit the students will have a variety of different tasks that will require the use of a variety of different grammatical structures. When the students struggle with a particular grammar point or do not have the language to fully express themselves, the teacher will use this as an opportunity to teach a specific grammar point with a mini-lesson in the lesson. If students continue to struggle we can find more ways to focus on understanding the meaning and form of a particular grammatical structure.

Assessment

At Dino High School we are going to also take a new and different perspective to our assessments. Traditionally assessment has been to give the students a test and give them a grade based on right or wrong answers. However, we feel this is not effective with our students who have such a diverse range of English. With this program we hope to remedy this by creating goals that will clearly show how students are progressing through our program and where they will need extra help. In order to do this we have created a portfolio system with clear and achievable objectives and benchmarks that the students will work towards.

Creating a clear path towards development is one of the key goals of the English program here at Dino High School. Therefore, we have created a series of objectives based on the Central European Framework Reference (CEFR) for learning languages. Each objective is written as a 'Can Do' statement and they will cover all four skill areas (reading, writing, listening and speaking). In each grade level these 'can do' statements cover a wide range of language skills, including grammar and vocabulary, to ensure that students and parents know exactly how well the student is succeeding in their development and which areas they will need to improve on. Within these 'can do' statements we have broken the language down into smaller and more assessable benchmarks. These benchmarks will be used as one aspect of our assessment program. This will allow us to clearly show parents and students what each student's strengths and weaknesses are in English.

Another aspect of our new assessment program will be for each student to create an individual electronic portfolio. By doing this the students will be able to track their progress and development through the year and share their work with parents and classmates. These portfolios will be developed by using Google Drive and this will ensure that students, parents and teachers will have easy access. Through the use of our Ipads, the students will also be able to easily upload, share and collaborate on all assignments in their English classes.

Also, in English classes we will continue to use traditional assessments, such as exams and homework. However, they will be focused more on developing the skills that are necessary for effective communication. When we recognize that a student is having a problem with a particular aspect of grammar, the teacher will be able to provide extra practices for the student to do outside of class. We feel that this will make more productive use of our time in class and give each student the specific, individualized instruction they need.

This is an exciting, modern and innovative approach to teach English and makes many changes to our traditional approaches to teaching English as an additional language. However, we are certain that it will help all of our students develop a strong understanding of the use of English, not only as a foreign language but as a major aspect of our global culture.

Thank you and best regards,

Steve Starkweather

High School English Coordinator