“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest [people] of the past centuries.”

– Descartes

Department Head: 

Lisa Laviolette

Teachers:  

Anne Ashworth        Sarah Barclay      Vincenza DelBuono       Monique Durrant       Thomas Frattaroli          Joanna Kurtz     Lorraine MacDonald Leanne Nardi Maria Sgouros     Christopher Sarracini 

The Learning Experience in the English Classroom

The English Department at St. Robert Catholic High School offers courses and opportunities that focus on using unique, dynamic, and expressive pedagogy to develop our students' literacy, communication, and critical thinking skills necessary for their success in academic and daily life.  In each of our courses we emphasize the development of listening, speaking, viewing, reading and writing skills through our exploration of a wide variety of texts. The texts have been selected to engage and challenge our students, providing them with opportunities to explore issues that affect them as individuals and members of their local and global communities, with the guidance of our teachers. We continue to do all of this, whether we find ourselves working with our students in an online environment, or face-to-face for in-school learning.

Our classroom philosophy follows what Sophocles once said, “One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it you have no certainty, until you try.” Education should be rooted in experience; students must be active participants in learning, and we strive to achieve this, even through our digital classrooms.  Our English teachers foster dynamic learning environments that involve both creativity and critical thinking, where students learn to experience control and responsibility over their own education.  We have adapted our traditional classroom practices to include the use of Google Classroom and D2L to create a Virtual Learning Experience, Online Whiteboards to foster group collaboration and discussion, and even Canva to explore creative ways to present seminar material.

As educators, we want to provide all students with the opportunity for an equal education, and include pedagogy that captures the racial, cultural, and sexual differences in the classroom, so that students can learn in an environment that is comparable to their social reality.  We continue to do this through by accessing texts from different parts of the world.  We have integrated the study of Indigenous texts not only in the grade 11 NBE courses, but in various units of study throughout the regular English curriculum and the I.B. English curriculum.  We want to address the needs and experiences of all of our students. If education is rooted in experience, then learners will root themselves in our classrooms.

Our courses always aim to produce critical thinkers and reflective writers, who may apply their knowledge of language and communications principles across all academic disciplines and professional settings.  Our aim is to create a world of life-long learners who can continue to adapt to whichever way our educational world evolves.

Please visit the English Department Website for more information about our programme.